Question

The Melcom Group of Companies consists of six separate entities: Melcom Limited, Century
Industries Limited, Crownstar Electronic Industries Limited, Melcom Hospitality, Melcom Travel
& Tours Limited, and Melcom Care. Melcom Group is best known for its retail chain, Melcom
Limited. As Ghana’s largest chain of retail department stores, Melcom is home to thousands of
products and hundreds of well-known brands all under one roof.
From our humble beginnings in 1989, there has been no stopping our growth of retail stores.
Melcom now has a network of 44 Melcom retail outlets in all sixteen regions of Ghana and 1 online
store. Melcom is proud to have opened what is the single largest shop in the nation (Melcom Plus
in Kaneshie covering an area of over 130,000 square feet). The Group is continuing to grow at an
ever increasing rate to meet the changing needs of the country’s customers. We have conveniently
located outlets in all regions, bringing shopping to the doorsteps of Ghanaians nationwide.
Our aim is to be the preferred shopping destination for all our customers, by offering quality
products at affordable pricing. Known for offering the largest variety of goods under one roof (at
last count over 25,000 items procured locally as well as from around the globe), Melcom has
indeed become a household name in Ghana, where anything and everything required to furnish
and run a home, school or business is readily available. By sourcing products from all over the
world, we are able to offer shoppers a huge range of extremely affordable goods, leaving
customers spoilt for choice.
Melcom has continuously endeavoured to expand its customer base. The increasing number of
branches, growing product range and rising market share are proof that the market strategies put
into practice by the Melcom Group have been successful in reaching out to the Ghanaian people.
Melcom goes the extra mile in giving additional benefits to its esteemed clientele with its various
promotion schemes and loyalty super saver card.
With affordability, variety, uniform pricing and a shop in every major city in Ghana, we have
captured the hearts of Ghanaians to become the place “Where Ghana Shops”. The Chartered
institute of Marketing of Ghana (CIMG) has also recognised the zeal of the company’s employees
and management by awarding Melcom “Best Retail Outlet of the Year” for 5 consecutive years
and eventually inducting the Group into the CIMG’s “Hall of Fame” for a further 10 consecutive
years.
a. Melcom has an online store in addition to the 44 retail outlet in all sixteen regions of Ghana.
Illustrating with relevant examples, critically discuss how the online sales affect Melcom’s
supply chain’s ability to meet customer needs.
b. Using specific examples, describe how you think Melcom is utilizing all the drivers of
supply chain to influence their performance?
c. Propose a suitable transportation network design option for the company.
d. Describe a potential challenge that Melcom is likely to face with the advent of the corona
virus pandemic and suggest how it may deal with this challenge

Answer 1

A. Online store is critical for a company's surge to the top. Having one online store is like having more than all outlets because people can order or purchase it from anywhere. They supply all the products that they posses at the door steps for free. For this the company needs a responsive supply chain, which means it need to have ready delivery boys and also pick up vans for picking the material from suppliers and also a wide variety of suppliers who can supply them all the goods at a reasonable price. The vendor list must be huge enough to check on their inventory if they have the product and then to go collect and pack in their name to deliver it to the customer. While in case of retail , the company usually stocks the product their store while in online business it always depends on how fast you respond to the order and fulfill the order without holiding the inventory .The supply chain must be ready and efficient and also needs to be sourced properly. Sourcing is the system of finding , developing ,maintaining contnously improving providers and Provider Relationships . The supply chain must be reliable to fullfill the demand on time without damage. The supply chain shoudl be agile in order to achieve the sudden surge in demand. Like for ex if you take the current case in their website during this Covid-19 , they are not accepting orders due to surge in demand which shows they are not agile. The supply chain is responsible for the that product throughout the life cycle.

B. The Four Major Dimensions of Supply Chain PerformanceDrivers are based on :
• Time
• Space
• Money
• Inventory
a.Time :
The IT Revolution has largely bridged the gap between the time an event takes place at a place of reference where
information is generated to transmission and possible usage to the point of relevance. Melcom must be using apps and customised softwares like sap which will help suppliers and also procurment team to check on the inventory of each and orer accordingly.
b.Space :
Geographical Dispersion and Spatial Arrangements are inversely proportional to proximity to the Customer and
Sources of Materials. Melcom group should take up only few warehouse where they can maintain inventory according to the proximity of suppliers. If the supplier is close then they dont have to stock the products.
c.Money (Price and Flow)
Flow of money has become a function of the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT systems of an Organisation . Until the money flows back to the suppliers the cycle wont complete , so its important to have an IT department to sort out to see the flow of money.

Inventory :
This remains the only Dimension of the Supply Chain thatneeds to be managed at every state of realisation
Managing the flow of Inventory at different stages includes :
• Sourcing : melcom should identify sources ro get goods
• Stocking : whether melcom should stock or the supplier will stock for them
• Delivering : Whether the delivery needs to be done by supplier or melcom itself is the descion to be made.

C.
Carloads or truckloads of products are shipped from multiple origins to Mixing Warehouses.Upon arrival at the mixing warehouse , the shipments are unloaded and sorted into the combinations desired by each customer.This could involve adding an already existing Product in the Warehouse to the products arriving from different sources.The material does not ‘dwell’ much in the Warehouse. This the best method that they can obtain so that the product does not stay and they can use the VAM method.

D. During Covid-19 there will be various challenges like :

a.Demand Uncertainty

These arise due to ignorance / insufficient / incorrect information of Actual Customer Needs and Delayed response Times. During covid no one can predict the demand , the online sales will go up while the retail will go down and they have to be ready with online suppy chain at this situation.

B.Supply Uncertainty

These arise due to ignorance / insufficient / incorrect information of supplier delivery performances , actual lead times , supplier quality reports and raw material stock as a time series. Supplier who will open during covid-19 is very less, they may need to identify new sources like small shops which are allowed to open and do the business.

C. Process Uncertainty

These arise due to ignorance / insufficient / incorrect information of Lead Times , Yields , Resource Utilisation and Interactions related to all processes inside an organisation .