Critical evaluate the Outokumpu's practices in supply chain management Assignment

Critical evaluate the Outokumpu's practices in supply chain management and provide the Outokumpu with your recommendation - Assignment Example 20% of it is used to manufacture internal components and industrial products. These features allow the company to develop sustainable competitive advantage and prospective growth in the near future (Outokumpu, 2011). This paper is focused on Outokumpu’s approach to global supply chain, the advantages and disadvantages faced by them, and the detailed study of their supply chain process. The supply chain management is one of the vital parts of the operations management of a company. The operations strategy of Outokumpu looks at a long term prospective of the company. It underpins the organizational vision regarding the operational activities.The operations management in the other hand encompasses the entire production process including procurement of raw materials, processing them into final goods, taking care of logistics, managing the supply chain and meeting the demands of the customers in minimum possible lead time.It is mostly short term in nature and deals with the daily activities that helps the organization to reach its goals. The supply chain management of Outokumpu is overseen by the group level. The company constantly monitors the market to make accurate demand forecasts and it modifies its operational activities based on the market scenario and current demand level in the industry. Every business unit is operated by its own supply chain management system , which is overseen by the group level (Outokumpu, 2011). The supply chain management of Outokumpu ensures that it follows the five business imperatives which are, cost, opportunity, flexibility, quality and speed. The company specializes in producing at lower cost, by resource optimization thereby increasing profitability and offering a lower price. The company also ensures that its supply chain process is efficient enough to be dependable and flexible enough to respond to the sudden changes in the market demand by

Analyse the causes of the Credit Crunch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyse the causes of the Credit Crunch - Essay Example What is also significant to understand that the current crises are not just the result of the subprime mortgage crises but encompass different other reasons which have necessarily increased the overall severity of the crises. Further, banks also started to repossess the homes taken as collateral against the subprime mortgage loans which resulted into the decline in the prices of real estate. Credit Crunch is defined as a sudden decrease in the available funds for the purpose of lending and as such the credit crunch that resulted into US and spread to other countries includes a drastic reduction in the credit extended to private sector as well as consumers. The apparent reason for this credit crunch is subprime mortgage crises however; there are three major reasons that are often cited as the key reasons behind the overall credit crunch experienced by the developed world. Banks are considered as the main actors behind the current credit crunch episode due to their imprudent lending policies. Over the period of time, banks started to lend to those borrowers who had relatively high credit risk however, due to their higher credit risk, they also offered an opportunity to earn higher returns. In order to increase their profitability, banks and other financial institutions therefore started to lend to subprime borrowers in mortgage markets. What is however, important to understand that the banks, in order to recoup their lost liquidity, started to bundle these subprime mortgage loans into mortgage backed securities and sold them in secondary markets. The problems aroused when subprime borrowers started to default on their payments and banks have to take other funds to payback their obligations against mortgage backed securities. The process of securitization therefore further aggravated the situation. This is because of the fact that the funds that were available for the lending were used