Global Supply Chain Design Considerations

Introduction

As Meixell and Gargeya (2005) point out, supply chains expanded significantly into international locations in the latter part of the 20th century. This was true especially in industries like automobiles, computers, and clothing. The result of this globalization was the onset of new supply chain management challenges. Part of the main challenge of global supply chain design is understanding all the factors that impact it and navigating them successfully. This paper examines these factors so as to provide a better understanding and analysis of the global network design that todays supply chain managers must know.

The Ideal Supply Chain Design

What should the ideal supply chain look like? This is not actually a question with a one-size-fits-all answer. The fact is that every supply chain is going to be different because every organization has different needs. The foundation of a supply chain lies in a company's mission (Helmold & Terry, 2021). This mission is the core purpose of the company. For example, if a company focuses on delivering eco-friendly products, its supply chain should prioritize sources that are sustainable. It should also consider green methods of transportation and delivery.

Objectives are the specific goals a company wants to achieve. These goals guide the design of the supply chain. If a company aims to reduce the time it takes to deliver products, the supply chain should focus on faster operations. This might involve optimizing inventory or choosing faster transportation routes.

Strategy is the broader plan to achieve the company's goals. If a company plans to sell products in new regions or countries, the supply chain should be designed to meet that region's needs. This might involve working with local suppliers or understanding regional regulations. It all depends on the image the company wants to promote, its goals and objectives, its costs, and how it wants to manage risk.

Obviously, these are all challenges in the global supply chain that companies must consider. Some are new, but some challenges have been around for a long time. For example, organizations might need to manage long distances between where products are made and where they are sold. They might also need to understand different cultures or languages. That is nothing new to the field of supply chain management. However, other challenges are new and have arisen due to changes in the world. An example of a new challenge would be the increasing trend of companies outsourcing work to other countries. This was simply not possible before, and there are ramifications even today of this decision. The Brexit vote in England recently could be called a direct result of offshoring; in other words, every decision companies make does affect stakeholders and stakeholders will react in one way or another. This is something that has to be considered.

Moreover, research studies have provided insights and shown that organizations can learn much by implementing tried and true best practices to help them in making the best possible decisions (Alzoubi et al., 2022). They can also look at real-world examples from other companies to understand what works and what fails. New technologies like blockchain have helped companies monitor and oversee supply chains, and managers can today use computer models to simulate different supply chain scenarios. These models can help predict...…outsourcing certain functions to other countries to save costs. This can be cost-effective in one way, but there can also be hidden indirect costs in other ways. For instance, companies may find it more difficult to ensure quality control when they outsource. They may also become dependent on third-party providers, which can introduce risks (Arrigo, 2020).

In the future, integration across supply chain tiers will likely be more crucial. Todays supply chains have multiple levels and include everything from obtaining raw material suppliers to finding end retailers. All these levels need to work together smoothly, which requires communication and coordination among all stakeholders. This will be difficult because, in the past, the focus for stakeholders was mainly on reducing costs. Now, stakeholders are looking at other factors too. They are looking at the environmental impact of their operations. They also look at how ethically they source materials. In the future, this may be just as important as looking at costs.

Conclusion

Traditional challenges like managing geographical space, navigating cultural and political and regulatory differences, and addressing infrastructural inconsistencies, remain at the forefront of supply chain management today. These challenges are, however, made more difficult by issues like currency fluctuation and tariffs and outsourcing problems. Indeed, the rise in outsourcing has brought up quality and dependency issues. The future is likely to see a need for greater and more seamless integration across the many tiers of the supply chain. For that reason, the metrics and models for evaluating and predicting supply chain performance will also have to change, based on these new inputs. Environmental sustainability, ethical sourcing, customer satisfaction, and agility are all inputs that…