Supply Chain Integration

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   Amazon’s Progression of Supply Chain Integration

   Supply chain integration is an extensive corporate strategy that attracts various links of the chain into a very close work-related mutual relationship with the objective of refining production time, and mitigating costs and surplus (Huo, 2012).

   Sales and operations planning allow the company to design its arrangements of products, clients, and advertising strategies with the view of achieving the requirements of its demand (Wells, Weinstock, Ellsworth & Danskin, 2015). They strike a great balance between what the company demands and what is supplied, while reducing the costs of operation and influencing the employees in a positive manner. Furthermore, sales and operation planning boosts both the company’s flexibility in responding to the customers’ needs and performance in all departmental fields of its supply chain. It puts more emphasis on the capability of the organization to set goals and develop plans on how to realize them. Additionally, they boost visionary governance in the organization as it cuts across corporates’ frontiers.

   The middle and long-standing projections of the company would update the administration section on the accurate resolution made by the company and evaluation of drawbacks (Kennedy & Dowling, 2013). The company is stable with its strategy on investment without losing its focus on the clients. In the same breath, it has exploited the value of investors by emphasizing on the enduring realizations, which in return, have interfered with short-range objectives and economic performance. The corporate’s operation borders are inconsistent, and as such, the company has to strike a balance between long-term and short-term goals when developing strategies.

   Logistics, means of transport, and warehouse locations impact Amazon’s competitiveness through ensuring that clients get their goods in a short time and more proficiently without any charges. The company’s e-commerce logistics model ensures timely delivery of products, and transportation modes have enhanced client gratification (Kennedy & Dowling, 2013). Worldwide recruitment and acquisition of goods influences the universal usefulness of the supply chain by decreasing expenses and threats as well as by considering each stage of the course of production and distribution. Furthermore, global sourcing boosts the initiation of fresh markets, permits businesses to embrace principles (that define the signs of the time) into their corporate models, providing quality assurance through satisfying the client’s needs, and by eliminating threats to the business (Golini & Kalchschmidt, 2011). 

   The benefits of outsourcing logistics are that they facilitate ease usage of new innovation and extraordinary goods; guarantee sharing of risk; brings on board employees with the right experience, skills, abilities, knowledge; and reduce operational expenses. However, outsourcing logistics come with concealed expenses and could breed disclosure of confidential data (Cao & Zhang, 2012). Amazon has successfully leveraged e-commerce strategies to promote supply chain integration, and boost sales and growth for the organization through the exposition of information about customers’ reviews of products on online platforms (without any charges) (Filson, 2004). The e-commerce strategies make information easily accessible without going to the stores. This has helped customers make a comparison of products’ charges more resourcefully. E-commerce has also exploited the origination of unique products that target a particular section of customers in order to fulfill their specific professional demand (Filson, 2004). This is to the great advantage of the company because most of its consumers are online; the company has simply acknowledged its target customers and offered services in line with their needs. Furthermore, the company has maneuvered ways to differentiate its pricing for the same product for customers to decide the appropriate value for them.  

   One of the strategies that have been particularly effective is that of offering information about goods online (Filson, 2004). This is because it reduces the need for customers to go all the way to the stores to verify or confirm the goods they need. This implies that apart from being convenient, the strategy is also costless for customers when studying the goods, and offers easy accessibility of data about the goods requested by customers. Price discrimination is another strategy that enables customers to verify the pricing, and thereafter buy goods they feel are within their means (Filson, 2004). 

   Going by this study, I believe that Amazon is a role model as far as supply chain integration is concerned. The company has progressively been constructing delivery midpoints (in the United States of America) to improve the distribution of its goods within an hour’s time or even in minutes (Scott, 2015). This is an extra achievement above and beyond the introduction of four further education college bookstalls (Wells, Weinstock, Ellsworth & Danskin, 2015). Furthermore, the company has constructed a project called Universal Supply Chain by Amazon (Kennedy, & Dowling, 2013). Here, the company has invented procedures to implement its cargo services while shifting away from intermediate traders. In comparison with other companies, Amazon has reduced the global problem of the time-consuming process of coordination and management. Notably, the company has heightened the e-commerce strategy which has boosted its progress and development (Filson, 2004). On the same note, Amazon concentrates more on meeting customers and market needs through the developed strategies. Finally, the company has been reputable in mitigating its supply chain expenses while refining the threshold of goods. In this manner, Amazon has successfully integrated the supply chain. 

   Conscious capitalism and a Christian worldview would impact Amazon in terms of its aspirations. Capitalism exhorts on the exploration and pursuit of more achievements in business, and this is in line with what Amazon is pursuing (Cao, & Zhang, 2012). The company dreams to make more advancement in its operations. The potential impact of the Christian worldview on Amazon is marginal with gap. The Christian worldview is rooted under the maxim that human beings are people with dignity and should not be treated as means. Amazon, being a performance-based organization that focuses on profit, does not resonate with this kind of ethical teaching. The company does value its employees as people with dignity per se. For example, it pushes its employees to excel by all means; they are encouraged to report their fellow employees via the company’s software called Big Brother-Esque (Scott, 2015). In case of eventualities such as cancer and other serios illnesses an employee is put on notice of job termination (Scott, 2015).

    

    

    

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