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Strategic Supply Chain Management for US Dept of Defense

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See attached case file.

Review "The U.S. Department of Defense Profile: Making the Tail Smaller and the Tooth Stronger" on pages 169-184 (Refer to this link http://lvk.cs.msu.su/~antiw/McGraw-Hill.Strategic.Supply.Chain.Management.The.Five.Disciplines.For.Top.Performance.ISBN0071432175.pdf). Respond to the following questions:

1. What happens when push comes to pull?
2. Describe how the U.S. DoD implemented technology to support their collaborative relationships. Did they follow the best practices described in your textbook? Why or why not?
3. How were IT principles applied at the Defense Logistics Agency? How did the IT principles help improve supply chain performance?
4. How could virtue ethics, as discussed in the Drake and Schlachter article (See attached file), be applied to the collaborative relationships the DoD engages in?

Estevez discusses the importance of performance-based agreements in the case study. With that in mind, respond to the following questions:

5. What types of preparation skills and strategies would be essential to support positive negotiation outcomes?
6. Would they be similar to skills and strategies used in ongoing collaboration with partners? You may want to do a quick search to find supporting material for this portion of the questions.

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Solution Summary

The strategic supply chain management for the United States department of defense is examined. The importance of performance-based agreements is determined.

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Strategic Supply Chain Management:

1. What Happens When Push comes to Pull?

When push comes to pull it is often the actual consumptions on the ground and the need of the customers or the U.S. army war fighters on the ground rather than forecasts of what supplies will be required for a period of time that often determines and drives the system of replenishment. The needs of the "war fighters" have been brought closer to the distributors and supplies of the various supplies that they may need (Cohen & Roussel, 2005). In essence therefore, when push comes to pull, the replenishment system becomes more consumption driven than one which tries to predict the overall demand for a period of time and then supply it in advance. This implies therefore that pull based supply is synchronized with the consumption in real which in turn, reduces the stock outs, increases performance of on time delivery of supplies and reduces the costs incurred in any last minute orders that need to be changed (Drake, & Schlachter, 2008). As supplies are getting depleted by the "war fighters" supplies are pulled in from the end of the chain supply through instant sent orders which work fast to assemble and replenish the depleted supply.

When push comes to pull therefore, what is experienced is speed in meeting needs and enabling the army to advance at lightening speed, flexibility in strategies where the army does not have to held back by a back log of supplies, but only have what they need at the moment, precision weaponry where the exact and precise weapons that are required for a mission according to changing situation and needs are quickly and easily sourced, increased reliance due to material readiness and increased collaborations and joint operations based on data sharing. In addition there will be increased partnerships and collaboration between suppliers, customers and partners with more horizontal processes than vertical taking root in the value chain making the supply chain more agile, lean, flexible and transparent system that is based on preparedness and readiness (Cohen & Roussel, 2005).

2. How the US DoD implemented technology to support their collaborative relationships

The US DoD implemented technology in a bid to achieve a much more leaner and collaborative supply chain. The US DoD used enterprise integration to bring closely all the processes and information systems within the supply chain of the national defense together in such a manner that the information system in the DoD are interoperable and delivers logistical situational analysis across the supply to various suppliers, partners and customers and also allows delivery of a much more comprehensive aggregated information and operational data that enhance collaboration between different significant stakeholders. The DoD has integrated information systems from the suppliers base and the distribution agents which enable faster assembling and moment of materials required and through tools such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags place on various assets and supplies to ...

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