Strategic Initiatives for Implementing Competitive Advantage, Assessment Example

The supply chain could dramatically impact a company’s base performance. In this situation, the small farmers had little to no control over the quality of their product. In the milk industry, the product is seen as a whole independently of the quality of the milk from individual farms. The supply chain creates an ability for contamination of the product to occur multiple times throughout this process; once the product is removed from the hands of the farmer, there is little they can do to control this.

In the United States, there are many products that could be impacted by a contaminated U.S. milk supply chain. This ranges from chocolate, to baby formula, to ice cream, to cheese, butter, cream cheese, coffee, and yogurt.

A Customer relationship management (CRM) system could be used to pinpoint problems within the supply chain and make sure that they are removed before heading to the next level. If the product reaches the next level and is still contaminated, there is an opportunity to send it back or tend to the issue.

BPR could help uncover issues in a supply chain because decreasing the amount of goods purchased increases quality. Reengineering will help optimize the process, allowing for mistakes to be more easily recognized after making the relevant changes.

A benefit of Starbucks’ outsourcing is that Chinese farmers will be able to start rebuilding their farms and gaining profit that creates sustainability. On the other hand, these beans will be potentially subject to the same large scale supply chain contamination that had been encountered with the milk situation, so these practices must be conducted with care.