Sales Decisions Process Through The Fresh Connection Game

1.The sales and supply chain management of the company can be modified through proper management of the inventory consisting of the finished products. Strategic supply chain management of an organization should focuses on mostly developing the policies and objectives required for the supply chain (Stadtler, 2015). It is vital for the Fresh Connection to implement strategic supply that is to be developed in alignment with the organization corporate strategy so that it can contribute an optimal contribution for the success of the business.

The Fresh Connection involves a logical sequence for the decision making for sale through efficient operational activities then making the supply chain management decisions and ultimately purchasing done by the customers (Brandenburg et al., 2014). The area under sales that should be focused includes:

• Inventory policy related to raw materials that are safety stocks and batch size is also a crucial element for the business operations of the company.
• Production capacity plan which involves the projects and shifts required for the sale of the product efficiently. Increasing the gross margins for prioritizing the biggest customers (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014).
• Production policy it estimates the duration or the time period required for the product that is the fixed or interval period.
• Supplier selection- for a strategic supply chain management the supplier involved in the sale of product should be reliable for maximizing productivity.
• Forecasting demand- ascertaining the forecasting pattern of the demand beforehand is beneficial as it would help in determining the efficiency of the products.
• Capacity plan- the capacity plan related to both outbound and inbound warehouses would help in making a proper decision plan for the organization (Beske, Land & Seuring, 2014). Aligning the capacity of both supply chain and operations to suit the shelf life level and negotiated skills. 

The Sales Decisions process through the Fresh Connection game-

Round 1 – understanding the process how the game works and using real life experiences for making the decisions and finding correlations with the other departments for making decisions.

Round 2- getting rid of high % of obsoletes by decreasing the shelf life through initiating FIFS shortage rules.

Round 3- settings goals to increase obsoletes to 1.2% from 0.2 % (Govindan et al., 2014).

Round 4- help in calculating the service level and the juice company’s shelf life that is based on the various changes made in the operational activities.

Round 5- facilitates trade units for all the customer and further installing vendor managing inventory for 1 customer.

Round 6- help in ascertaining service level that is to be aligned with the service level achieved from round 5 of the game.

Through strategic supply chain management the company can improve their both financial and non-financial performance of their supply chain processes. The key elements involved in the supply chain strategy of the organization includes low cost, which consists of the inventory, logistics cost and infrastructure (Hazen et al., 2014). Flexibility for managing uncertainties and changes is another major criteria required for the business growth. Quality helps in expecting higher customer’s needs and thus delivering higher reliability rate. 

Adopting demand driven plan and business operational model that is based on real-time demand insights-  the adequate contingency and prediction planning tools would able to provide an overall view and effective response for risks  involving political upheaval, suppliers moving out of the business, natural calamities that affects the manufacturing (Fahimnia, Sarkis & Davarzani, 2015). He companies then could help in adjusting promotions and pricing strategies to increase demand, extend the margin for high demand through limited market supply and thus increase the revenue growth. Moreover through advance and innovative technologies the demand driven required for supply chain meets the overall visibility of the business along the market from the buyers to the suppliers.

Key Elements of Supply Chain Strategy

Building an agile and adaptive supply chain with integrated execution and rapid planning- the executives of the supply chain management understand it more efficiently that shape the risk and demand of the organization (Maloni et al., 2015). The Fresh Connection Company should adapt their management techniques for supply chains strategy to the rapidly changing market events and opportunities. Through efficient strategic management of supply chain would further helps in better visibility through reliable supply and sourcing that could further enhance the collaboration required across the value chain.

Optimizing product management and designs for manufacturing, supply and providing sustainability to increase profitable innovation- The Fresh Connection designs should be optimized for enhancing the manufacturability and the company’s supply chain operations. This helps in providing real time approach for all the basic dimensions of success that includes product, supply, success, performance and risks in the company and all the extended supply chain.

Embedding sustainability in the operational activities of supply chain-the triple bottom line that consists of people, planet and profit is given more emphasis currently to achieve competitive advantage related to supplier management skills and increase in production efficiency (Fredendall & Hill, 2016). Better practices, compliance audits and benchmarks helps in facilitating governing frameworks required for sustainable operations in the supply chain management and moreover, ensuring clarity for the environmental impact involving the specific actions of the business.

2.The Fresh Connection is a juice producing organization with a short product shelf cycle. The decision for supply chain strategy constitutes the choice between efficiency and responsiveness. The appropriate choice mostly depends on the mostly depends on the changes in product value due to the interval of time existing between production of goods and customer delivery (Mathiyazhagan, Govindan & Noorul Haq, 2014). The rational decision making process includes identifying the key problem areas and furthermore developing and evaluating the best alternatives to be selected for maximizing benefits. 

The supply chain management does not only constitute acquiring the products and services of an organization at the best or effective price but also identifying the possible risks or disruption present in the supply chain management and further to mitigate them. The Fresh Connection should ensure to predict the financial risk beforehand that could be caused due to the supply disruption. There are various supply chain risk which can be divided into two forms internal risks and external risks. The external risks constitutes of the demand risks, supply risks, business and environmental risks (Turker & Altuntas, 2014). Whereas, the internal risks of the organization includes risks like manufacturing, planning, contingency and mitigation.

Adopting Demand Driven Plan and Business Operational Model

The risks related to the food supply chain of the Fresh Connection include the risks that take place due to the disruption in normal activities caused due to loss of access of protestors and terrorisms. Risks arising due to coordinating the demand and supply of the organization also affect the supply chain management of the company (Govindan et al., 2014). The main factor that affects the transparency and traceability involving the food supply chain of Fresh Connection includes:

• Consolidation
• Globalization, and

The fresh connection game helps in understanding the ultimate drivers of Inventory Management and moreover their impact on the Return on Investment (ROI) of the company. This helps in managing the tradeoffs in supply chain to show the level of inventory required in supply chain (Ellram & Cooper, 2014). The cross-functional simulation game helps the fresh connection though the risk management in the following ways:

• Increasing cross- functional awareness and knowledge about the product.
• Developing advance skills for decision- making in the business.
• Gaining knowledge to put the strategy in action through integrated approach to avoid the risk issues present in the management.
• The fresh connection game helps in identifying the root cause of the problems by using the problem solving techniques.
• The game help in developing advanced skills for decision making and furthermore, managing the trade-offs efficiently.

The Fresh connection games reduce the risk in supply management risks by making tactical and strategic decisions to save the company from various financial risks. The game is a different technique of learning the value chain management. The participants are generally in team of four representing the functional areas that includes purchasing, sales operations and supply chain (Schoenherr & Speier?Pero, 2015). To consider the business objectives and corporate strategy structure decisions, planning for sales and sustainability is made. The fresh correction strategies areas can be described as follows:

Sales- the strategies involved to reduce the risk of supply chain management includes the quality of shelf life, service level provided, promotions trade units, shortage rule and order deadlines. 

Supply chain- the strategies and actions included in reducing the risk of supply chain management includes the safety stock level, production interval, frozen production period and the lot sizes of the companies.

Operations- this showcase the inbound and outbound pallet places and staffing, production shifts, intake time and the improvements in projects (Martínez-Jurado & Moyano-Fuentes, 2014)

Purchases- the strategies or actions required for purchase includes the price level, quality, lead time, certification and trade units.

 The simulation reflects the real world situations that include risks of declining profits, demanding customers and limited shelf life. Through team experience, the participants further can measure their performance with other team. Moreover the professional leader leading the game also provides constant feedback so that they can avoid the risk related to supply chain management.  The team can gain knowledge and put into practice in the next round, hence this magic circle helps in making French Connection game so powerful. This technique besides being effective also helps in delivering high benefits. The game helps in putting the strategy of supply chain management into action. Moreover it helps in analyzing the performance of supply chain. 

References:

Beske, P., Land, A., & Seuring, S. (2014). Sustainable supply chain management practices and dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 152, 131-143.

Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J., & Seuring, S. (2014). Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research, 233(2), 299-312.

Ellram, L. M., & Cooper, M. C. (2014). Supply chain management: It’s all about the journey, not the destination. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 50(1), 8-20.

Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., & Davarzani, H. (2015). Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 162, 101-114.

Fredendall, L. D., & Hill, E. (2016). Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.

Govindan, K., Azevedo, S. G., Carvalho, H., & Cruz-Machado, V. (2014). Impact of supply chain management practices on sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 212-225.

Govindan, K., Kaliyan, M., Kannan, D., & Haq, A. N. (2014). Barriers analysis for green supply chain management implementation in Indian industries using analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 555-568.

Hazen, B. T., Boone, C. A., Ezell, J. D., & Jones-Farmer, L. A. (2014). Data quality for data science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: An introduction to the problem and suggestions for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 154, 72-80.

Maloni, M., Carter, C., Kaufmann, L., & Rogers, Z. (2015). Publication Productivity in the Supply Chain Management Discipline: 2011–13. Transportation Journal, 54(3), 291-311.

Martínez-Jurado, P. J., & Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2014). Lean management, supply chain management and sustainability: a literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 134-150.

Mathiyazhagan, K., Govindan, K., & Noorul Haq, A. (2014). Pressure analysis for green supply chain management implementation in Indian industries using analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Production Research, 52(1), 188-202.

Pagell, M., & Shevchenko, A. (2014). Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future. Journal of supply chain management, 50(1), 44-55.

Schoenherr, T., & Speier?Pero, C. (2015). Data science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: Current state and future potential. Journal of Business Logistics, 36(1), 120-132.

Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Turker, D., & Altuntas, C. (2014). Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports. European Management Journal, 32(5), 837-849.