Write your personal statement and include your question on each easy and please separate your answer on each essay below.

ESSAY #1

an effort to stick with the principles of keeping things simple, I found that collaboration is a cooperative arrangement in which two or more parties, which may or may have not had a previous relationship, work jointly towards a common goal (BusinessDictionary.com, 2015).  It is well recognized that in the supply chain management field, collaboration is alive and well.  We see or hear of companies joining forces quite often.  One of the largest collaborations that I've known lately has been the joint venture between FEDEX and the United States Postal Service (USPS).  I think this collaborative effort has largely been kept quiet to a certain extent. 

     In this collaboration, USPS agreed to allow FEDEX access to its facilities for the purpose of placing FEDEX collection boxes near existing post office collection boxes.  In exchange for this access, USPS was given space on FEDEX flights around the country.  This effort first occurred around 2007 or so.  This collaboration saves USPS millions of dollars in transportation costs and gives FEDEX free advertisement in an area where a lot of potential customers congregate and have packages that need to be delivered.  A customer can mail their FEDEX mail at the same time that they're sending out other items with USPS.  Fast forward to 2013 and FEDEX has secured a contract with USPS to delivery FEDEX Smart-Post packages to rural areas and some urban areas (Fields, 2013).  These are most of your low weight packages.  The customer prepares and ships the package through FEDEX.  The package is then sent on to USPS for delivery on most of the isolated routes that they serve daily.  This works because USPS is making deliveries on rural routes as part of its normal service whereby FEDEX can stick to mostly heavy packages in urban areas with a few exceptions.  

     Collaboration must be a serious part of any supply chain (Poirier, Quinn, & Swink, 2009).  This collaboration works great for both companies because it is a win-win and the results should be noticed in the year-end profit/loss statements.  What trust factors would you suspect came into play for these two giants to collaborate?

References

BusinessDictionary.com. (2015). Business Dictionary. Fairfax, VA, USA.

Fields, K. (2013, 04 13). U.S. Postal Service. Retrieved from USPS.COM: www.usps.com

Poirier, C. C., Quinn, F., & Swink, M. (2009). Diagnosing Greatness: Ten traits of the Best Supply Chains. J Ross Publishing.

ESSAY #2

Many firms today are choosing to incorporate a Green Supply Chain into their process. The reason for the change for some is to become more environmentally friendly, by reducing the carbon footprint of the company. Others are intending on capitalizing on the "Going Green" concept to entice additional consumers.  The environmental conscious consumers will boycott companies that do not use efforts to preserve the environment. Some companies such as Wal-Mart have found ways to integrate the Green Supply Chain as a way to save money over time; with the added benefits of enticing the environmental friendly customers and complying with state and federal regulations. Forty two percent of the businesses that initiate green supply chain practices are only to comply with government regulations. "Leaders view green and environmental programs as natural extensions of lean and Six Sigma" (Poirier, C., Quinn, F., & Swink, M., 2009, pg. 240).

A great example of a company that has benefited from utilizing a Green Supply Chain is General Motors. According to an article Introduction to The Green Supply Chain, "General Motors reduced disposal costs by $12 million by establishing a reusable container program with their suppliers" (Murray, 2015). There are multiple avenues available to manufactures to incorporate a Green Supply Chain into their business. Wal-Mart stated that their recycling effort of turning discarded cardboard boxes into boxes; This effort has the ability to preserve "8,600 tons of cardboard waste from landfills, while saving 125,000 trees and 40 million gallons of water" (Business Sector Media, LLC, 2009).

References

Business Sector Media, LLC. (2009, November 30). Wal-Mart Turns Corrugated Waste into Pizza Boxes · Environmental Leader · Environmental Management News. Retrieved from http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/11/30/wal-mart-turns-corrugated-waste-into-pizza-boxes/

Murray, M. (2015). Introduction to the Green Supply Chain. Retrieved from http://logistics.about.com/od/greensupplychain/a/green_intro.htm

Poirier, C. C., Quinn, F., & Swink, M. (2009). Diagnosing Greatness : Ten Traits of the Best Supply Chains. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA: J. Ross Publishing Inc.. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com