Being efficient in the global economy environment is an extraordinarily complicated task, mostly because of the difficulties related to the design and development of a global supply chain. Presupposing that the essential transactions should occur within a comparatively short amount of time and at impressive distances from the company’s headquarters, global supply chain management needs the element that could boost the organization’s responsiveness and efficacy. Agility, which is typically defined as a “business-wide capability that allows the firm to use market knowledge to exploit profitable opportunities when volatile conditions exist” (Gligor & Holcomb, 2012, p. 442), is one of such elements, and it is getting increasingly popular with a range of IT companies, particularly, with Dell.
According to the recent news concerning the company’s progress, HP has decided to adopt certain agility principles and incorporate them into its framework. Particularly, the company views “helping enterprise organizations build software in a more agile way” (Taft, 2010, par. 1) as its next major objective. The incorporation of agility into the design of the company’s supply chain management has contributed to a significant increase in Dell’s revenues, as well as its further promotion in the realm of global economy. By integrating the specified concept into its framework, the company has managed to reduce the overall delivery time; therefore, the premises for a significant rise in customer satisfaction rates have been built.
Moreover, it is quite remarkable that Dell views agility as an integral part of the company’s design as well, including the connection between agility and the company’s mission, vision, and goals. As a result, a rather dramatic drop in operating costs along with an increase in the firm’s competitiveness ensued. Therefore, it can be considered that the adoption of agility principles has shaped both Dell’s SCM and its communication with customers by allowing the company to be more responsive and collect feedback faster.
It should be noted, though, that the strategy adopted by HP cannot be deemed as brand new; quite on the contrary, it has been not only used but also perfected by a range of organizations. For instance, Dell also incorporates the principles of agility into the design of its supply chain; however, instead of merely focusing on agility, the company attempts at combining it with a lean and sustainable approach. The resulting leagile supply chain model works especially successfully in the global economy environment due to the characteristics such as flexibility, efficiency and productivity: “Dell’s make-to-order model is the most prominent” (How do lean, agile, and “leagile” supply chain strategies compare?, 2015).
Likewise, corporate giants such as Acer and Asus focus on agility; however, the specified organizations seem to shift the enhancement of agility rates in their framework by putting a stronger emphasis on business processes in general. While HP promotes agility as an integral part of its production process, Acer and Asus try to incorporate agility in every domain of their operations. Although the specified measure is fraught with numerous side effects in case of a failure, it still creates a better premise for corporate success, as it boosts every supply chain management process, including procurement, logistics, planning, etc. As a result, the approach adopted by the organizations in question works in a far more effective manner than the one that Dell uses as the basis for its operations.
Reference List
Gligor, D. M., & Holcomb, M. C. (2012). Understanding the role of logistics capabilities in achieving supply chain agility: A systematic literature review. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(4), 438–453. Web.
How do lean, agile, and “leagile” supply chain strategies compare? (2015). Web.
Taft, D. K. (2010). HP goes agile. Web.