Assignment: Understanding Supply Chain Management in Your Business Strategy

The purpose of this assignment is to consider supply chain management (SCM) and SCM systems within the context of business strategy. Choose any organization and prepare a summary with 2 to 3 pages. Include the following in the summary: organization name, primary customer base, and how they differentiate themselves in the market. You are free to choose any organization that provides products to its customers. Avoid organizations that primarily provide services, such as financial service firms, insurance firms, and the like. Good candidate organizations may include Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Nordstrom, or Wal-Mart. You can search for Companies via the Lexis Nexis search widget on the library's homepage. Please note that you may not find all the answer to the questions from the literature, but rather should take a stance based on what you have learned about supply chain management and value chains from our course.

Use the following questions to guide your paper:

1. Above-the-line versus below-the-line: In what ways could your organization use its supply chain management system to support above-the-line initiatives? In what ways could your organization use its supply chain management system to support below-the-line initiatives?

2. Porter's Five Forces Model: In what ways could your organization use its supply chain management system to: (1) reduce buyer power as a supplier, (2) reduce supplier power as a buyer, (3) reduce the threat of substitute products or services, and (4) reduce the threat of new entrants?

3. Value Chain: Within your organization, is supply chain management a support value process or a primary value process? Please justify your answer.

Research and cite at least three credible outside sources besides the textbook for the content of your paper.