Thursday, December 4, 2014
TWIF Flattener #7 - Supply-Chaining
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-spring2015.blogspot.com/2014/12/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that supply-chaining was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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BRIEF-Jufei Optoelectronics forms supply chain partnership with Japan's Toyoda Gosei on LED lighting
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/jfled-brief-idUSL3N0UV3BQ20150116
In the book, Friedman compares Supply-Chaining to a river. Friedman mentions Wal-Mart as sn example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping. A recent account of supply chaining is the Jufei Optoelectronic company's partnership with Toyoda Gusei. This agreement is for LED lights and will help make a profit of $27.42 - $30.60 million. This shows that supply chaining is a very good way to go throughout business. It makes the world flat because it is an easy way for companies around the world to make money.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-30595567
ReplyDeleteHark! The discount sales ker-chingg
The seventh flattener discusses how the internet helps companies sell and distribute products. A prime example of this is amazon.com, which sells and distributes products online. It is believed that it is successful because of its easy accessibility, due to the internet. Its average sales in November of 2014 was about sixty-four items per second. It is also exceptionally efficient. Now they are trying to introduce drones to assist the company in delivering the products to people’s homes. Because of this, if one orders an item around midday, they could receive it by the late evening. All in all, supply chaining is a significantly efficient method of distributing products.
"Box Chief Invests in Supply Chain Software Company"
ReplyDeletehttp://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/box-chief-invests-in-supply-chain-software-company/?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A7%22%7D&_r=0
The 7th flattener is supply-chaining. As an example of this, Thomas Friedman uses the big corporation Wal-mart. Friedman descibes supply-chaining as a horizontal integration method. Wal-mart is a chain among distributers, suppliers, and retailers. Wal-mart is incredibly efficient when it comes to shipping out the items to the proper locations. The article discusses Elementrum creating a new cloud software in which can be used by management companies. The software is to improve the efficiency of supply chains. Softwares like this, will help companies such as Wal-mart become even more efficient and successful.
“Amazon.com Soaring”
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/203550.stm
In the seventh flattener, “Supply-Chaining”, Friedman discusses how online websites can sell products from businesses through supply-chaining. He says that supply-chains “draw parts and products from every corner of the world.” Friedman uses the example of Wal-Mart to help explain supply-chaining. Besides Wal-Mart, another large website that does supply-chaining is Amazon.com. There are nearly 140,000 other websites/companies that are associated with Amazon.com that have Amazon ship their products they are selling to buyers that use Amazon for shopping. Amazon came out in 1994 for people to use, and in just one year, Amazon increased their number of customers by nearly 377%.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"Retailers Try Offering Expertise Online Along With Products"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/business/smallbusiness/retailers-try-offering-expertise-online-along-with-products.html
Friedman discusses supply-chaining as the seventh flattener in "The World is Flat". Friendman talks about supply-chaining in terms of websites and when companies construct websites to sell their products. This article tells the story of a small company, Goedecker's, that was having a lot of trouble making money. Mr. Goedecker then decided to create a website and start selling his products online, hoping this would increase his income. Doing this helped overwhelmingly and sales went from six million dollars to forty-eight million dollars in just four years. This is an example of how supply-chaining through the internet helped a company make alot of money.
In the past I have heard many bad things about Apple’s supply chain. I have heard of employees in factories killing themselves because of their work conditions and the wars over Coltan, a necessary element for iPhone’s go almost entirely neglected. Through Al Jazeera America, I found an article exposing problems in Apple’s supply chain. China Labor Watch discovered that one of the factories that Apple uses for the assembly of iPhones was discriminating against women, exotic cultures, and age by not hiring people over 35 years old. They were making many people work about 66-69 hours per week which is 17-20 hours more than is allowed by Chinese labor laws. Not only were they accused of violating labor laws, but they were also disposing toxic chemicals through the sewers. All of these violations help the factory be more productive and have a lower cost by disposing of chemicals illegally rather than through the correct channels. Supply chains are very important for companies and the ultimate goal is to make them efficient, effective, and low-cost. One company discussed in TWIF, Wal-Mart, has perfected supply chains and now reap the benefits, but has also been accused of cutting costs with their employees’ benefits. It is good for companies to develop efficient supply chains, but they should not develop them by harming their employees. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/7/29/group-accuses-applesupplieroflaborabuses.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12858580
ReplyDeleteJapan supply chain break down to hurt global production
Japan is an important provider in parts in many different supply chains. Many industries relayed on japanized base suppliers to manufacture their parts. However, when the earthquake and tsunami hit the north-east coast of , it created global problems in the industriy business. The earthquake causes a lot of damage, running many companies that was important in a supply chain. Recivers of the supply chain, now had to look for alternates for the specific item they need processed, or else they can't sell there goods. A good example of this is the silicon wafer supply, in which Japan supplies about 60% globally and sources many companies too.These devices are very important in the manufacturing of electronic devices. But, once the earthquake hit, this supply of silicon wafers became scarce.
"Supply Chains Changed the Growth Model"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economist.com/economics/by-invitation/guest-contributions/supply-chains-changed-growth-model
Friedman states the the seventh flattener of the world in supply chaining. The supply chain is the steps it takes for a company to get a specific product from the supplier to the customer. Friedman talks about Walmart and how they use the internet to deal with product sales and distribution of the products. In this article, it says that global supply chains allowed for poor countries to join existent supply chains rather than spending time to build their own. It also says in the article that China became so successful in the manufacturing field because they taught low-wage workers to efficiently work in the supply chain. This article supports Friedman's argument that supply chaining is a flattener because it allows for poorer countries to make more money.