Strategic Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Supply Chain Management - Essay Example on the other hand, are looking for cheap labour oriented countries when they wanted to produce something and wealthy countries when they wanted to sell something. For example, many companies are currently selecting India and China as their manufacturing destinations and America and Europe as their selling destinations. Under such circumstances, strategic supply chain management is getting prominence in the business world at present. Even though industries and academia are giving huge importance to supply chain management (SCM), strategic supply chain management (SSCM) and its principles are taken lightly by the business world until recent times. The definition of SCM is quite familiar to the business world; however, same thing cannot be said about the definition of SSCM. According to Ming-Hon Hwang (2010), â€Å"SSCM refers to a situation in which its members always realize the whole direction and strategy when a  supply chain  carries out various functional activities to achieve a competitive advantage and long-term profit-making position among  supply  chains  in the same industry†(p.127). Automobile industry, especially car industry is currently facing heavy competition. In order to overcome the competition, car manufacturers have to make strategic long-term decisions regarding the location of their principal assembly plants. Such decisions have to account for many factors including, for example, markets, production sequencing, levels of investment and relationships with suppliers. This paper provides a critical assessment of the facility location decisions car manufacturers have to make regarding assembly plants and the level of importance attributed by the manufacturers to the location of their suppliers. â€Å"Supply chains are value-adding relations of partially discrete, yet inter-reliant, units that cooperatively transform raw materials into ï ¬ nished products through sequential, parallel, and/or network structures† (Hult et al., 2007, p.1035). When it