Dell: High Velocity, Focused Supply Chain Management What are the Fundamental Reasons for Dell’s Success?

Dell was founded in the year 1983 by Michael Dell, who was at the time a medical student. Dell has since then become one of the biggest technological companies in America. The company has managed to accomplish this through the development of a strategy that is centered on high velocity, focused supply chain management, full visibility and partnerships with suppliers, focused manufacturing and building to order and lastly direct customer contact.

i. Direct Customer Contact

From the inception of Dell building its own machines in the year 1985, the company is perceived to have retailed its products directly to the consumer. This was attained through the removal of any middlemen in the process and ensuring that the consumers get the products considerably faster. In the same manner, it is deemed that Dell has made significant investments in customer relationship management systems so as to guarantee closeness and familiarity with its key consumers. Furthermore, it is perceived that the company has assessed the cost to serve dissimilar consumer segments by means of designing product offerings in view of that.

ii. Direct Communication with Consumers and Real-time Visibility

Dell’s strategy hinges on the internet, which permits the company to directly communicate with consumers and attain real-time visibility of...

Without a doubt, one of the fundamental qualities of the corporation’s supply chain encompasses fully visibility along the chain having linkage between sales and production systems and suppliers that provide constituents just-in-time more often than not directly to the production lines and through very minimal lead times.
iii. Standardization and Postponed Manufacturing

Dell led the way in the market with respect to implementation of standardization and postponed manufacturing. These aspects take into account the production of minimal common platforms, which are subsequently personalized in accordance to the demands of the consumers. Imperatively, through the approach of standardization, the amount of dissimilar product lines upstream declines significantly and products are organized in the downstream end the minute the orders of the consumers are visible (Sehgal, 2011).

What should Dell do next to maintain its competitive advantage? Is its business model still viable?

There are different actions that Dell needs to undertake in order to maintain its competitive advantage. One of the fundamental actions that the company ought to undertake is to capitalize on its distribution strategy. It is imperative to note that with the increasing capability of cutting out its middlemen implies that the company will ensure that its products get to the consumers considerably faster. Secondly, the company should make use…