Question

Using Microsoft® PowerPoint®, Microsoft® Word, or a drawing program of your choice, draw a diagram/model of a business process with which you are familiar. Write a 1- to 3-page paper that describes the business process. Describe the diagram/model. Propose improvements to the business process. Draw a revised process diagram/model that reflects the improved business process. Format your paper according to APA guidelines. Submit your paper and the two diagrams/models as one Microsoft® Word document to the Assignment

Answer 1

Retail Supply Chain Model

In this document, supply chain management process diagram is considered for retail business sector. In general, supply chain management process is provided in a diagram and some areas of improvements are identified and the modified process model is depicted in later diagram as well. General Retail Supply Chain model is designed as following:

Figure 1: General Supply Chain Management Process Model for Retailing Business

Description of the Supply Chain Model

Above diagram (figure 1) depicts a general Retail Supply Chain Model; where, major actors include order placement, service desk, vendor, and production. Supply Chain Model includes three general functionalities as material control, warehouse management, and shipping department. The functionalities are:

Material Control: The material control unit in the Supply Chain Management process has responsibility of managing the material details. The unit is solely responsible for collecting customer service request as per placed order, checking material presence, providing a delivery schedule, checking inventory details, and confirming purchase order with vendor. Material control board in this diagram controls the primary part of sales order from service desk to vendor purchase request. After getting the sales order, material control checks inventory to find whether the material is in stock or not; based on the report, the board provides a schedule in which the order will be delivered to the customer. In the meantime, material control manages the purchase order confirmation from the vendor whether the product can be delivered to the inventory (warehouse) or not.

Warehouse: The warehouse management is entirely dependent on vendor and production. As per details generated from material control board, the production department or vendor department will be notified to dispatch the product to warehouse. If the organization manufactures the product, then production department will dispatch the product based on pre-defined schedule from material control or if the organization needs to purchase the ordered product, then vendor department will be notified. In all cases, pre-defined schedule should be followed in the inventory (warehouse) management process.

Shipping Department: The shipping department will be notified, once; the product is stored in the warehouse/inventory. The shipping department is responsible for delivery of the product based on customer provided address details. The shipping delivery will be responsible for forwarding the product to its regional delivery services and the regional delivery service should dispatch the product to the customer’s doorstep based on pre-defined schedule. Entire shipping cost management is part of shipping department responsibility; shipped product and its security is also their part of activity.

Areas of Improvements

However, based on the above-mentioned Retail Supply Chain Management process, some improvements can be identified. The areas of improvement are;

1. Material control should have a sub-unit for dealing with purchase orders; the sales order should be directly maintained by this purchase control. Moreover, purchasing control unit should be handling the schedule report and the report should be relayed from the material control after it confirms the purchase order from vendor.
2. Shipping department should have a sub-unit named as dispatch unit. The dispatch department will be handling regional delivery companies those are under the customer address region. The shipping department will be providing the product and customer address. The dispatch department will be handling the product delivery through their regional delivery personnel according to customer location.

Improvements Made in Retail Supply Chain Model

Figure 2: Improved Supply Chain Management Process Model for Retailing Business