Operations Management Supply Chain Management at Dell Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 1201 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

Page 1 of 4

Operations Management

Supply Chain Management at Dell Computer Corporation

Supply chain management systems have historically been designed to bring increasingly higher levels of automation and standardization of processes throughout supplier relationships, fulfillment, quality management and services. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century the concentration on lean supply chain performance sought to drill out every errand and unnecessary step and costs from supply chain collaboration, planning and execution (Foreman, Gallien, Alspaugh, Lopez, Bhatnagar, Teo, Dubois, 2010). This was especially the case in high technology industries including personal computers where the greater the level of standardization, the higher the level profits and lower the costs. Lean supply chain management and manufacturing was the approach Compaq took to establishing an early market share lead, yet was quickly challenged by Dell with its innovative uses of build-to-order supply chain management and rapid mass customization selling techniques (Gunasekaran, Ngai, 2005). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how Dell was able to completely change the supply chain management practices of an industry by simplifying highly complex build-to-order product strategies in a fraction fo the time of its competitors (Papadakis, 2003).

Build-To-Order Supply Chain Management at Dell

The impetus for the build-to-order supply chain management strategy at Dell concentrated on how to better align each specific product line's production expertise to common customer requests (Gunasekaran, Ngai, 2009).

Stuck Writing Your "Operations Management Supply Chain Management at Dell" Essay?

View All Our Example Operations Management Supply Chain Management at Dell Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

Dell realized early on that the lean supply chain and manufacturing processes of its competitors Compaq, DEC, IBM, HP and many others was forcing each of these companies to miss a very large, profitable segment of the market. Using a more agile, demand-driven-based supply chain process that modeling and simulated a variety of build-to-order scenarios, Dell's supply chain planners reasoned they would be able to expand into untapped markets their myopically-driven competitors could not touch (Gunasekaran, Ngai, 2009).

Dell went the opposite direction of its competitors and embraced the heterogeneity and diversity of customer requirements. Further, it divided up customer requirements by the level of product customization required to meet or exceed their objectives. The outcome if this analysis fo customers needs was a segmented and highly effective supply chain strategy that grouped product by assemble-to-order, build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order (Papadakis, 2003). Figure 1, Dell's Build-to-Order Supply Chain Management Strategies Compared Shows how Dell aligned these supply chain and manufacturing strategies to their online sales channels (Guided Selling, Quote-to-Order, Product Configuration.

Figure 1: Dell's Build-to-Order Supply Chain Management Strategies Compared.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Operations Management Supply Chain Management At Dell" (2012, February 07) Retrieved May 16, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/operations-management-supply-chain-management-77820

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Operations Management Supply Chain Management At Dell" 07 February 2012. Web.16 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/operations-management-supply-chain-management-77820>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Operations Management Supply Chain Management At Dell", 07 February 2012, Accessed.16 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/operations-management-supply-chain-management-77820
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example