Literature Review Of Companies And Supermarkets

Literature Review Of Companies And Supermarkets As companies/supermarkets have race to introduced technology that enables the customers to get service on their own (Bitner, M. Amy, L. Ostrom and Matthew, L. 2002). Growing number of customers interacted with the technology to create service outcomes instead with a service firm employee (Matthew, L. Amy, L. Ostrom, Robert, I. And Bitner, M. July 2000). The overall affect model is based on the consumers feelings toward the use of technology (Pratibha A. and Dabholkar 1996). The Supermarkets which introduce self-service checkout systems wish to gain rapid acceptance and usage of these technologies by potential consumers. (Jungki, L. and Allaway, A. 2002) According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The sales profit is a simple conceptual framework chain to linking with the employee satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction and financial performance. This sales profit chain is the relationships between employee and customer satisfaction (Gary, W. and Loveman, 1998). The benefit of the customer retention and satisfaction has been characterized by using the repurchase intention or a factor score of quite a few measures repurchase goal, and price tolerance. So that the purpose to use the customers management strategy that is the based on managing both satisfaction and benefit of customer retention (Narayandas, D. 1998). Performance expectation and the actual performance have major significance in the Evaluation process, as we need to determine the dimension of product and service performance. Most customers do not switch from satisfied seller to their competitors, but, there are several factors that could affect customer behaviour to switch to different service provider such as mistake in core service failure, service encounter failures, variable prices, inconvenience, responsive to service failures, attraction by competitors, ethical behaviours and involuntary switching etc. (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 2004). Retailers need to analyze what makes a new product from the point of view by the customer if customers facing problems understanding the reason behind the introduction of new self-service checkout systems (SSC) they will not use the system. As we launch new self-service systems, we need to analyse the consumer behaviour as well. The consumer should be involved in some way or another at most stages in the introduction of self-service checkout system. Every retail or sales companies should take care of customer wants and needs (Wright, R. 2006). Consumers feel a sense of pleasure in understanding that they have found a unique store that they can, and do, frequent. This suggestion is suggested on the notion of value as a function of both worth (Oliver, 1999) and scarcity. People feel good when they find something of worth that is not easily available the feel good feeling from the ordinary and the mundane, is different from satisfaction in that it consists qualitative effects such as enjoyment and happiness. In contract, satisfaction is an evaluative judgment (Oliver, 1997) and more cognitive in nature (Howard and Sheth, 1969). Satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive evaluation resulting from the fulfilment expectations. Satisfaction is a judgment based on either a cognitive or emotional appraisal, made by the customer whether his or her expectations were met (Oliver, 1997). Positive affect is a pleasurable emotional response (Bogozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer, 1999). If organizations want to consider total customer experience, satisfaction by itself is a weak measurement (Barlow and Maul, 2000) As a result, when a consumer experiences more differentiation value in the store, consumer will be more likely to feel more positive responses toward the store (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) The literature in retailing and customer behaviour has identified commitment as ones motivation to keep a relationship with the retailer (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997 and Fournier, 1998).The self-service checkout system (SSC) into the service come across necessitates research to improved understand customers attitudes toward overhaul providers and technologies, and their intentions to employ technology-based facility delivery systems. In this research, the authors build up and experiment three structural models that include a pecking instruct of consumer attitudes toward together the psychological and the technological factors of the come across to better appreciate their intentions to utilize Self Service Technologies. The result indicates that intentions to exercise self-service technologies options are ambitious by manifold, hierarchical attitudes. In calculation to the direct belongings of attitudes toward exact self-service technologies and individual employees, the findings corrob orate that higher direct worldwide attitudes toward service technologies pressure intentions to use self-service technologies. fascinatingly, the findings indicate that heavy self-service technologies users rely more on attitudes toward specific self-service technologies than do light self-service technologies users, who rely more heavily on universal attitudes toward self-service technologies when formative intention to utilize an self-service technologies. (James, M. Matthew, L. Meuter and Carol, F. 2003) Kano Model Analysis: The customer satisfaction model from professor Kano is a marketing and quality management approach that can be used for assessing and establishing customer satisfaction and happiness. Kano model has six categories of customer quality characteristics, but, only the first three specially relate to customer satisfaction. (Kano, 2007) These factors are: Basic factors Excitement factors Performance factors Basic factors The prerequisite factors that will cause dissatisfaction if they are not met, but, do not establish customer satisfaction. If they are fulfilled or cross expectations customer regard this as essential and basic factors contribute to market entrance threshold Excitement factors These requirements if they are met can increase customer level satisfaction, but, if they do not meet the requirements, do not cause customer dissatisfaction. These factors come to customers as surprise and create satisfaction. A company can come out from crowd from competitors in a positive way using these factors. Performance factors These factors are concerned with the performance level. So, we can conclude that customer satisfaction is directly related to the performance level, if the performance level is high, then, customer satisfaction will be met, but, if the performance level is low, cause dissatisfaction. These factors are directly related to customer desires, wants and needs etc. So, company should try to be competitive in a market. (Adapted from Prof. Kano, 1994) Customer point of view in relation to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) Researcher forecasting about the adaptation of the self service checkout system have been gone against the past recommendation, instead, customers are using this technology more and embrace this technology with open arms. Reasons for Supermarket to adopt this technology: Customers do prefer to use their bank cards in privacy and anonymity. Queue awaiting time reduction; Need for self-service; Quick payment; Shoppers feel empowered; Retail market is shifting towards radio frequency identification which will replace the bar code. However this might be a foundation for increasing working hours, as supermarkets not depending on a cashier. Due it is not many research have been done in the UK the USA practise might be relevant for this research and will be in future referred as a compare base. Theoretical Framework Porters competitive advantage theory is a classical and one of the foundational in business literature, however lately it was criticized by some authors (Day and Wensley, 1988 and Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Therefore some complementary concepts have been suggested. In order to reinforce research the Porters value-chain theory was complemented with the more current Value-Network model of Stabell and Fjeldstad (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998). Value-chain theory and the value network model are presenting the different activities of a company where value can be configured and added through SSC systems. This model allows the researchers to investigate the different activities of companies on which the implementation of technology-based self-service as an innovation can have an effect. Theoretical Framework Implication In order to fully understand the impact of introducing SSC in ASDA supermarkets it is necessary to look into: role and importance of innovation in a business context, product life cycle connected to SSC; competitive advantage theory and complementary concepts, value chain theory, and finally the importance of customer relationship management in the new self-service economy. Innovation Before we are going to analyze stage it is important to understand what innovation in business context is. The full understanding can be obtained through definition of the term. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new. Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In the following relation, the innovation in a business context is a product, device, service, programme, service provider, or methods of services delivery that are new, unusual, or in other ways different from those previously used and positively reflects in overall output of the organization in form of added value directly to the organization or its customers. In the case of this research, innovation in form of SSC brings changes into service delivery. In order to understand the impact of the innovation it is necessary to understand to which area of service delivery it related. Dabholkar (2003) made a classification of technology in service delivery with three dimensions. By whom the service is delivered and who operates the technology. Where the service is delivered (at the shop or in customers home); and how the service is delivered. Depending on which category the service belongs to different factors will affect the customers evaluation of the service quality. This classification can be useful in guiding companies in the development of their marketing strategies when implementing SSC systems. Table At service site At customers place Direct contact Customer goes to service site and performs service using technology at service site. E.g. ATM, self-service at retail checkouts. Customer uses technology from home/office to perform service. E.g. internet shopping. Indirect contact Customer goes to service site and uses automated telephone system to perform service. E.g. automated wake-up calls at Hotels. Customer calls automated telephone service from home/office to perform service. E.g. automated ticket-ordering over telephone. Source: Dabholkar, 1994 in Anselmsson, 2001, page 13. Shadowed cell is the relevant technology for this research. Using this type of SSC, the customer goes to the service site and performs the service by using the technology provided at the service site. This implies a greater importance and wider range of quality issues in the interactive marketing function of the organisation. Product/service life Cycle In a business context everything is going through different level, stages of performance. It is similar to the any life development. From the cell of life to the maturity and death, the products are repeating same way from idea to implementation and ultimately death. Particularly in our case the service as well as product must be planned and introduce to employees, customers and eventually be accepted by them. It is crucial for the managers to adjust and control its performance while it goes through different stages. The effect respectively will be also different on different stages. Therefore, considering the life cycle of SSC systems is important when investigating the effects on company competitiveness. Figure: Source Cordiant Technologies Limited The product life cycle tend to go through the five stages of products: Service/product development; Market introduction; Growth stage; Mature stage; Stage of decline. Each stage is different in effectiveness of the product, expenses, revenue, etc. The first stage usually money intensive as there is no sales revenue and all expenses are covered by different organizations activities, in our case no effectiveness gain from reducing cost of operation. Stage two is quite expensive in our case as technological cost is very high. The purchase of the machineries and shops infrastructure adjustments to accommodate it are required. Moreover the staff and customers trainings and special promotions materials must be prepared. The third stage is continuous use of SSC by customers and therefore operational cost reduction becomes positive revenue, which might cover the marketing expenses. The fourth stage is characterised by very low costs of operation as number of customers who is using it increased. The final stage might come as soon as more efficient and productive technology will arrive and current become outdated. (Day, 1981) The progression of a product through these stages is not certain however. Some products may stay in the mature stage forever, for example commodities such as milk, others might not even rich stage of maturity. These products go through their life cycle as marketers marketing mix strategies change. For example, advertising is informative stage of the introduction, maturity stages, winning in the growth and in the decline stage reminder-oriented. In the early stages the promotional budget tends to be highest, and as the product gradually taper off matures and decline. Product characteristics, pricing, distribution also tend to change. (Day, 1981) The concept of product life cycle, applied to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) innovations, has also been introduced as an important concept that also contributes to affecting competitiveness. The Value-Chain Porters value chain framework today still is the accepted language for representing and analyzing the logic of firm-level value creation, and is also a framework for analyzing firm-level competitive strengths and weaknesses. In value chain analysis competitive advantage is understood by these discrete activities of the value creation process that contribute to the firms relation cost place and produce a basis for segregation. These activities are the building blocks from which a product or process is created that is valuable to the firms customers. The different activities have different economics and thus contribute differently to the valuable characteristics of the product or process. The value creating activities in Porters model are divided in two levels. Primary activities consist of directly interact to create and bring value to the customer, while support activities facilitate and develop the performance of the primary activities. Figure: Source: (Porter, 1985, 1990) The primary activity level consists of five actions: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, promotion and sales and service. The maintain actions are procurement, technology growth, human supply management, and firm infrastructure. It is important to note that the different activity categories are not the same as organizational functions. Using the value chain for analysis, costs and assets are assigned to the value activities as a first step, and are further analyzed as structural drivers related to the scale and scope of the firm, linkages across activities, and environmental factors. Cost and value drivers are usually analyzed separately. Moreover, drivers are partly related to internal relationships, partly to external factors, and partly to relationships between internal and external factors as well. The main drivers of value are policy decisions made by product and segment choices when the firm is established or repositioned. (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998) According to Porter, the value-creating logic of his value chain with its generic activity categories is valid for firms in all industries. However, he further states that the specific activities that are vital to a firms competitive advantage depend on which industry the firm operates. (Porter, 1985, 1990) Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) however have investigated the application of the value chain model to a variety of industries and have experienced problems in applying the value chain frame work to more than two-dozen firms. They have found that the value chain is suitable for describing and understanding the value creation logic of manufacturing firms, but that it proves problematic when analyzing activities in service industry firms. They argue that problems arise from difficulty to assign and analyze activities in terms of the five generic primary value chain categories proposed by Porter, leading to unclear explanations of value creation. Therefore, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) suggest that the value chain can be considered as one of three generic value configurations to facilitate the understanding and analysis of firm-level value-creation logic for a broad range of industries and firms. The additional two value models besides the value-chain are the value network and the value shop. The importance shop model applies to firms where price is created by mobilizing income and performance to resolve an exacting customer difficulty, for example professional service firms dealing with medicine, law, architecture and engineering. The value network model refers to firms that generate cost by facilitating an organization relationship among their customers using a mediator technology. Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) also propose alternative presentation formats for both models that represent their unique value creation logic. For the purpose of this research both Porters value chain and Stabell and Fjeldstads value network is of importance. Although Stabell and Fjeldstad state that according to their findings the value chain is mostly useful for manufacturing firms, for our investigation of supermarkets traditional operations, the value chain is most fitting, with one small alteration. However, in also considering the introduction of a new type of service offering through technology-based self-service checkouts, it is found necessary to complement the value chain model with the value network model in order to be able to capture the value adding activities of SSC. The combination of the different value-creating logics, as suggested for this research, has also been proposed by Norman and Ramirez (1993). Since the main purpose of the research is to investigate the effects of SSC in supermarkets, the value network is of central importance, which is discussed in further detail below. The Value Network Value networks use a mediating technology to link clients and customers who wish to be interdependent. According to Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998), the firm provides a networking service through the mediating technology and thus facilitates exchange relationships among customers distributed in space and time. For the consideration of SSC, the value network idea is modified to mean that the firm is the network itself, linking its customers not to each other but to the firm itself, facilitating a more interdependent exchange relationship between the firm and its customers. Customer Satisfaction To measure the customer satisfaction of how your organisation`s `total product` performs in relation to a set of customer requirements. (Gower, 1999) If you like to measure the customer satisfaction of the customers and you need direction exactly what you are measuring. Understanding the concept of customer satisfaction is very easy and can be done by assuming yourself as a customer in a supermarket. Satisfaction is simple. If you get what you wanted and your requirements are met, you are satisfied. The starting point of a customer satisfaction management is to set the objectives. There are different customer satisfaction objectives that can be set. Customers` requirements (important ratings) Customer satisfaction (Satisfaction ratings) Comparison with other organizations PFIs (priorities for improvement) Customer satisfaction index A track able measure of satisfaction The internal perspective Firstly, you should identify customers` requirements and there are many things customers want and need but we need to identify most relative of customer requirements. Secondly, you must measure customer satisfaction. Organisational performance is directly related to customer satisfaction and list of customers` requirements. Thirdly, if you could go a bit further to analyse the customers` requirements as compared to other same organisations. (In our example `supermarket`) This will give you the opportunity to get the benchmarking. By using benchmarking, you could analyse the requirements of your supermarket customers` as satisfied or not satisfied. Fourthly, after getting the customers` satisfaction measures, you can use these measures to produce some survey outcomes and the first of that step is to identify the PFIs (Priorities for improvement) Fifth, you will need to measure the overall customers` satisfaction. We call it a satisfaction index and it will indicate us to monitor progress from the one year to the next for the overall customers` satisfaction. Finally, customers` satisfaction survey has to be done inside the supermarket to know about the understanding of employees about their customers` requirements. It will help any supermarket to indentify that if their employees know about their customers` requirements and can indentify gaps. An internal survey can also be used to help the management to make the decision making process and strategic management. (Gower, 1999) Achieving Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is measured frequently. Sampling is extensive. Surveys are quantitative as well as qualitative. The measures are taken very seriously. They are reviewed unfailingly by Top management: the development of such measures is taken very seriously as the development of budgetary measures or product reliability measures. Evaluation of people in all functions at all levels is significantly affected by the satisfaction measures. (Tom Peter, a Passion for Excellence) Customer delight seems very credible people say things like: In today`s competitive markets customer satisfaction is no longer enough; you have to delight the customers, give them something they did not expect to keep their business. In customer satisfaction, the link between customer loyalty, customer retention and profitability can make get better customer satisfaction. It has been shown that customer retention can boost profit of the supermarket as it is very easy to keep the existing customers than getting new customers. After getting the trend data and established the satisfaction- loyalty ratio in your market for your organisation, you make some models. Some companies now have `business performance models` based on their customer satisfaction management survey results that have quantified the exact links between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales and profit. They know that how much one percent improvement in customer satisfaction will improve loyalty how much that contributes to profits. Precisely, this is a very powerful forecasting tool. Customer satisfaction Business success Employee satisfaction Customer Retention Figure: (Ch. BABAR 2010) Customer Satisfaction and the Performance: Customer satisfaction can be defined as more loyal customer and it involves emotional and complicated process. Every customer has certain level of product or service expectation and desire. If customer expectation level increased as a result of using that product or service, then, customer experiences satisfaction. (Simon Homburg 1998, Page 44) However, Satisfaction has also recently been described as the emotional reaction to this cognitively defined process of comparison. (Homburg and Rudolph 1995, page 31) In this context, customer experiences that the outcome of the process of comparison will not always give the correct result about the expected satisfaction outcome and actual level of satisfaction outcome. Instead, direct effect of these outcomes or satisfaction levels also interacts with satisfaction. (Bolton et al. 1991 page 376) The customer satisfaction has been in research for long time, mostly research and investigation has been done on the customer satisfaction, but, not on the customer retention. It is the experience and attitude of the employee in closest contact with customers that customers are satisfied, loyal and customer retention has been achieved. The Satisfaction is an a overall attitude of customer towards the service provider (Levesque and McDougall, 1996) The companies are more successful, later research has showed if they adopt customer retention rather than customer satisfaction. (Knox, 1998) Customer satisfaction brings many benefits. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive; they purchase more items, not go to competitors and stay longer. (Zineldin, 2000) Customer satisfaction is directly related with the customer complaint process management. If customer complains more, then, it increases more customer satisfaction. Customer complains about the product or service he/she receives, then, supermarket can achieve more customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001) The product innovations, staff service, price, convenience and business profile are all determinants of customer satisfaction. (Athanassopoulos, 2000) Later, Bejou et al. (1998) propose that customer satisfaction can be enhanced through relationships, provided they are developed and managed to the customer`s satisfaction Customer retention is not directly related with the customer satisfaction. Sometime customer do not change service provider because of the alternative circumstances, but, customer satisfaction level remain the same. Sometime customers do not have any choice to change their service provider, so, they stick with their existing provider. Hallowell (1996) argues that customer satisfaction cannot produce life time customer loyalty even though customer satisfaction has been increased, but, retention can be related with customer satisfaction. Retention can be understandable as to do business or exchange a commitment to continue with a particular company on an ongoing basis. (Zineldin, 2000) Retaining old customers are easy and cheap to keep as compared to the new customers because they are more loyal and less price sensitive. They keep their loyalty to their existing service provider and do not change their loyalty to the new service provider. It increases customer retention, satisfaction, lower price sensitivity, higher market share, higher productivity and higher efficiencies. (Reichheld, 1995) The authors suggest that in order to retain customers, companies should always change and developing their product and services to meet the ever changing needs of customers. The concept of acquiring, developing and retaining customers from a cognitive and affective perspective, they provide examples of how cognitive and affects are used to increase retention. (Desai and Mahajan, 1998) Customer satisfaction is a direct determining factor in customer loyalty, which, in turn, is a main presentation of customer retention. (Gerpott et al., 2001) Customer satisfaction can be achieved by customer retention. Customer complaint process can increase the level of customer satisfaction that result in customer retention. Employee perspective is also very important with relation of the customers. Individual relationship with the customer can boost the level of customer satisfaction. It is direct related with the mental theories of customer and employee perspectives. Managers should be aware of customer wants and needs as well as employee mental perspective. Different employees keep different level of relationship with the customers that could affect the customer satisfaction and retention level. Therefore, Managers must keep eye into employee/customer relationship and set realistic goals to achieve. (Spreng et al, 1995) Good section Customer Retention Customer retention is directly linked with the customer satisfaction. The framework guide managers to decide which part of customer satisfaction has more collision, which part of customer satisfaction needs to be improve and make strategies to retain existing customers. An individual level model of loyalty and customer retention has been developed, that can be used to predict effects of service level improvement at supermarket. Customer satisfaction has been changed recently from transactional marketing to relationship marketing. (Grà ¶nroos, Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994) To all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) Customer satisfaction has been treated as essential instrument for the customer retention, has gained significant importance in relational marketing approaches. (Rust and Zahorik, 1993) Kotler sums this up when he states: The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction (Ko

Fender’s Supply Chain Management Essay

The world’s manufacturing leader–Fender Guitar Company which was established in 1946, the full name of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In the past 60 years, Fender has become one of the hallmarks of the United States. The contribution of Fender sound’s modern music development has already been spread in global and still continuing. Through the first to introduce the commercialization solid electric guitar, produced the first electric bass and numerous classic speaker. The style of Fender musical instruments includes jazz, pop, rock, country music and so on. Everyone from beginners to enthusiasts and even the world-renowned performers all can find the suitable musical instruments for them. Fender intends to position itself in the company not only a revered music industry name, but also a cultural icon (HREF 1). Fender Squier series of guitar, bass, speakers and other products combined with its full line of Fender acoustic guitar considering the price for f ocusing on musicians endurance offers a wide range of options. Long-term development by the inspired, Fender created a complete product line of professional-grade guitar and bass speakers. Fender has a series of pro audio, including complete portable sound systems, professional-grade audio equipment. Fender also provides a wealth of accessories, including strings, standard replacement parts, Fender logo strap, as well as casual wear. Fender set the assembly plant in Arizona Scottsdale; California Cornona; Tennessee, Nashville; Mexico Ensenada; London; Germany Dusseldorf; Paris, France and Gothenburg, Sweden. In North America distribution centre, Fender is the only distributor of electric instruments in the United States and Canada. They provided music equipment products from the main series to accessories. Fender’s warehouse directly ships to more than 1500 musical instrument dealers who located in the United States and Canada. 2Fender’s supply chain managementFrom 1946 till now, 60 years experience in business management, fender has a very sophisticated supply chain management in its product parts procurement and sales activities. Although the structure of their supply chains gradually updated and changed by the age development. However, from the international status of today of Fender in the guitar industry around of the world, which has already proven the success of supply chain management in Fender and also clearly discover that the importance of doing supply chain management in their business  activities. I plan to analyze the typical aspects case by case of Fender in their supply chain management. It includes the international market supply chain strategy, supplier selection, customer strategies, raw material supply chain management, supply chain partners. 2.1 Fender’s global supply chainFender positioned their products for the highest quality, high-quality, medium quality. The highest quality products manufacturing at corona factory in California. Ensenada factory in Baja California, Mexico is responsible for the production of medium to high-end guitar. Fender also developed their market to Asia. They contracted with the Asian guitar manufacturers to manufacture fender guitar. And also produce the cheap Squier guitar to meet the needs of different consumers. Fender Guitar previously only popular in the United States, but since 1990, Fender guitar expanded the market into Japan and has achieved outstanding results. Fender was in its Ensenada, Mexico plant started to produce the guitar for the Japanese market, although only a small number of production, but is a signal to enter the international market. Squier brand by Fender is a marketing tool to win the business. It also made the introduction of the foundation for Sratocasterr series in international market. Gradually, Stratocaster have become increasing popular in Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia. Fender’s supply chain management made successful in Asian. 2.2 Fender’s typical suppliersIn recent years, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation purchased a number of instrument from his supplier, these suppliers including the Guild Guitar Company, the Sunn Amplifier Company, and other brands such as SWR Sound Corporation (HREF 1). 2003 early, Fender made some adjustment for its family of products Gretsch and started the production and distribution of new Gretsch guitars. 2.3 Fender’s new supply chain strategyFender plans to promote their products can be more clearly conveyed. They announced in Feb. 2007 will be to produce a product guide with illustrations of replace the traditional front-line journal of the year. This change in order to give publicity by its supply chain cost considerations, The traditional cost of printing, as well as the most trend copyright convenient substitute for internet magazine, which can  solve the printing, distribution, copyright issue of cost and time. The guide contains a set of new Fender product introduction and picture. The new Fender Frontline In-Home will be conveyed to customers the latest products of Fender, and the provision of mail to customers if they need and have registered in the Fender website. This shows that the Fender was constantly improving its customer service systems to optimize their supply chain management. 2.4 Fender’s Australia supply chainFender in Australia has a complete supply chain system, but it still has a few aspects need to improve. Fender established more than 92 local authorized dealers in the Australia, 26 in NSW (HREF 2). Fender distributes Recommended Retail Price (RRP) information to all of its authorized Fender Dealers in Australia, but the retailers is no obligation to follow recommended price, so retailers can manage the price flexibility in different regions. Fender in Australia also provides the service of identification of guitars of customer own. Through the phone and internet application, customer can bring their guitar to retailer shop. In the sell model, Fender Australia does not sell directly to consumers. Customers need to find an authorized Fender Dealer to buy the product. It required Fender need to establish more enough dealers to satisfy the customers from different regions. I must give up some potential customer in small regions when Fender want to cut cost for retail establish. In addition, Fender provides the service to customer to help them value their advantages of guitar choice. They are dealing with an established local business and provides warranty for local customer, and also customer can receive excellent advice from a professional from Fender. 2.6 Fender’s American supply chainFender’s commitment to achieve customer satisfaction, all the production lines in the United States must first be assigned to the Fender’s California warehouse. Products must pass stringent inspection and quality control process to allow the shipment. Fender staff inspect all equipment to ensure that the voices of debugging, interoperability, as well as the unloading of containers from retailers. Fender use Barcode system to inventory all products. â€Å"The savings from bar code system will be in the form of the elimination of running the same orders twice due to error† (Joansson, 2008). Barcode system can efficiently locate and retrieve any given product in seconds by computer operating. Bar code also provides an important follow-up of the electronics and data, including price information, model and serial number, transportation and receiving dates. It helpful convinced service to dealers. Before shipment, the products need to be inspected stringently again. Fender distribution center provide their dealers a variety of shipping way. The high quality ship and quickly delivery time by only 3-4 working days from warehouse to United States and Canadian dealers. For Fender’s supply chain management, the quality of product would be put in the heading mission. Fender insists that they can provide the high quality and also valued their network of customers and dealers in order to efficiency distribution systems in the musical instrument industry (HREF 1)3. The value-add from Fender’s supply chain partners3.1 Outsouring and supply chain integrationThird-party logistics is no stranger to Europe, as a business outsourcing industry has been in Europe several hundred years of history. Many well-known companies such as Schenker. They began to use such as the provision of transport, warehousing and other services. However, due to specialization aware of the importance of paying attention to outsourcing and as the rise of an industry was beginning from 80s, 90s during the 20th century in United States (Weng, 2006). According to statistics, in 1992 the United States third-party logistics market turnover of 35 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for the logistics market, the total turnover of 2% -3% in 1996 has reached 50 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of the total logistics market to 5% — 6%, and third-party logistics in the United States in 1997 and 1998, the business growth of 40% and 15% respectively. Third-party logistics began to extend to all parts of the world from the United States, today’s third-party logistics business world as a whole accounted for about one-third and also a 15% annual growth rate.(Li, Yu & Xu, 2006). Third-party logistics companies in the supply chain is a link, it will throughout the supply chain of other companies as its clients and customers. While in reality the demand for customer-oriented environment is bound to drive with the strengthen communication between the logistics enterprise and the each member of the supply chain in order to know each other more than before(Li, Yu & Xu, 2006). To become effective organizers and managers of the supply chain, we must first understand the specific circumstances of the members, along with third-party logistics own familiarity with the logistics are far higher than that of other members, so third-party logistics enterprise supply chain integration is of course an expert. It is for this reason that more enterprises are now seeking cooperation with third-party logistics companies to supply chain integration. For example, Fender collaborated with Global logistics company-UPS to integrate their supply chain and improve the performance. UPS distribution center in United Kingdom helps Fender to complete its process of flow lines and centralized so that the Fender Company in recent years to achieve sales in Europe doubled in the Scheme. UPS management from factories from all over the world on sea and land purchase by a third party logistics companies to manage their inventory EDCs. EDCs inspection by the quality of the employees to view the inventory, distribution and retailers to meet orders, manage the delivery of multi-carrier. Fender can shorten the delivery time and better monitoring of the quality and delivery of orders. More importantly, before UPS ship the guitar to the retails. They will complete each of the guitar tuning to ensure that you can play guitar when retailers remove products from t he box. 3.2Fender also value their partnerFender and BestBuy established a collaboration relationship in 2008. in July 28,2008, BestBuy announced they will open up 2500 square feet of â€Å"Music centers† in its 85 stores for sale include Fender, Gibso and other well-know brands, including more than 1000 kinds of ordinary accessories, music high guitar, bass, DJ equipment, musical instruments of professional products and provide enthusiasts gathering irrigation discs, musical training services(Rudnick,2008). Faces  to about 80 billion a year U.S. musical instrument market, as was the same as BestBuy Mobile implementation, BestBuy and Wal-Mart can share the music game market from now on. However, it has a highly requirement for supply chain management of suppliers. Accordingly, Fender reduced the delivery time for 1 week through outsourcing logistics management company’s entire system of UPS, and also decreased by almost 10% of distribution costs (HREF 3). It not only meets the fast delivery request from BestBuy, but also reduces the total cost ownership of Fender. 4. Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) model in Fender The basic elements of the SCOR model are:4.1 Planning in Fender Supply ChainIn the planning phase, fender first plan resources. They are planning the parts of guitar, the definition of the demand for production and purchase. For special materials, such as the type of wood to a strict screening, different corresponding and various types of woods are produced for different types of guitar series, even take up some wood seasoned for several years, this is a long-term resource planning process. Secondly, Fender’s production team is not only has the professional production skills, but also the production of each staff is professional guitar enthusiasts. In this making planning stage. The need for a clear definition of the design and need to be aware of the guitar development at this stage and clear understand the needs of the consumer. People always say that guitar is a culture, for the designers, the experience of this culture for the guitar production is very important. Thirdly, delivery work in the sales process is particularly important. Fortunately, Fender made strategy with 3PLs which brought a large advantage in the issue of product shipments for them. Faster, reduce costs and ensure security is the best result in the SCOR model implement in Fender. Finally, in the return planning, it can be defined as the return of commodity and return of profit. Fender has developed its product returning of after-sales service system, including maintenance, replacement and the responsibility for risk protection. Fender makes the return of profit have  more capital to develop new sales markets, the design of new products and increase the welfare of employees. Source from Lee Styger, 20094.2 Make to stock & Make to orderWhatever in selling online or retail sales, Fender is trying to maintain adequate stock to meet the needs of customer. Absolutely, in the framework of a reasonable forecast, Push (make to stock) model can help Fender improve sales performance, as well as Fender can rapid response capability. However, over storage, high inventory level will lead to cost increased. In addition, many customer want to buy a special appearance and type guitar from Fender. Therefore, Fender’s Custom Shop was established to meet those needs. They use Pull (make to order) model when customer release the order to them. Design and produce the specifically product to customer. However, it is also has some limited by Pull model, timeless will be a biggest challenge for Fender production line. Thus, keep the necessary raw material by Push model is necessary. This kind of Hybird model still suit for most manufactory companies, such as McDonald’s and vehicle industry. ConclusionsSupply chain is critical for Fender Guitar Company. The manufacturing sector has heavily depends to supply chain management, whatever in its purchase of raw materials, plant location, production planning, warehouse management, transportation, sale of products and customer service. All of these cannot be separated from supply chain management. Obviously, Fender made a good job in its supply chain management. Although there are a few problems still need to optimize by Fender via supply chain development. The recommendation can be included that make risk and cost analysis when Fender want to expand their sale network, because too much retail outlets establishment lead to cost increased. In addition, the accession to join the online shopping business, allowing online orders, online payment, order tracking, such as a series of e-supply chain strategy, so that the fender can be a richer sales model, reduce the cost and time instead of text paper working process, and it also cater the tastes of young people. Absolutely, the new electronic supply chain strategy can also be outsourced to  third-party logistics companies. References Joansson,J2008,http://bsminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=625&Itemid=147, accessed 15/05/2009Li, Y, Yu, J & Xu, L 2006, 3PLs in supply chain management, http://www.globrand.com/2006/18441.shtml, accessed 12/05/2009Rudnick, M 2008, Best Buy, Super-Regional See Major Gains in White Good, http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling-sales/9341175-1.html, accessed 14/05/2009Weng, D 2006, 3PLs-The Breakthrough of Supply Chain Innovation, http://www.globrand.com/2006/40390.shtml, accessed 12/05/2009HREF 1: ww.fender.com, accessed 13/05/2009HREF 2: http://www.fender.com.au/prices.php, accessed 13/05/2009HREF 3: http://www.globrand.com/2009/226020.shtml

Analysis Of Wilfred Owen s Anthem For Doomed Youth ...

I haven’t always loved poetry, but after reading poems that have such moving stories to tell it hasn’t been hard to grow a certain fondness for them. Poetry is the telling of stories from the creative and sometimes hauntingly realistic words of a poet. The world of poetry can be wonderful. It can also be saddening, exhilarating or wonderfully exciting and the most eloquent poems can leave anybody rewinding over the story of the poem for a time afterwards. Wilfred Owen was a poet who became well renowned after World War I where he unfortunately died in battle. Anthem for Doomed Youth (Anthem) and Dulce Et Decorum Est (Dulce) by Wilfred Owen both portray various themes including horrors of war, the futility of war and the pity and sadness of†¦show more content†¦Another soldiers mental pain is experienced through the dreams he had of the â€Å"flound’ring† man who â€Å"plunges at (him), guttering, choking, drowning.† Owen’s use of pre sent tense participles â€Å"ing† in that sentence to show that he is still living that experience, even though it could be some time since that happened. Anthem shows the horrors of war in the beginning of the first stanza. The simile â€Å"die as cattle† represents how the men during war died. Treated as less than human as they are slaughtered like cattle. Personification in â€Å"monstrous anger of the guns†. Monstrous can be associated with evil and monster, and definitely reveals the evil of war and the alliteration of the â€Å"r† sounds in â€Å"rifles’ rapid rattle† is almost an imitation of the sound of machine guns. These first three lines all reveal that war is a malevolent thing that doesn’t treat anybody kindly. Particularly during Owen’s time at war, World War I, many people thought that it was noble and glorious honour to go to war, but Owen’s poetry completely disregards that notion and how futile war really is. The title of Dulce Et Decorum Est is Latin for â€Å"It is sweet and glorious† and is ironic, due to the fact that that is not what the poem is about, especially as the last two lines state that â€Å"The old Lie† is that it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country, although this is written in Latin in the poem. The

Cultural Diversity In Local Politics Essay - 3446 Words

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