There are a lot of different ways of moving a product from a supplier to the customer. The process of organization of different elements involved in the delivery of the product from the supplier to the customer is called a supply chain.
Grieger (2004) in his dissertation defines supply chain management as “the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders” (p. 105). Reading Whiteley (2000), he has the same approach to supply chain in e-commerce.
E-commerce was relatively new trend in 2000, the year of the book publishing. During that time E-Commerce: Strategies, Technologies and application by Whiteley (2000) was an innovative and reasonable source devoted to supply chain in e-commerce. Nowadays, reading that source, most of the strategies, approaches and specific peculiarities remain up to date.
E-commerce has changes in the rate of use, mechanism of functioning, etc. However, the approach to the process of the delivery of the product from the producer to the customer has remained unchanged.
One of the most powerful aspects in the use of the source under consideration is time. Being written more than ten years ago, it remain up to date and it is easy to understand why it is if to consider the information properly. The second chapter is devoted to the supply chain and value chain. The author of the book refers to the popular and world known model offered by Porter.
Proposing the simplest manufacturing value chain which consists of the components of supply which are shifted to the to the sub assembly supply and further appear at the manufacturing stage after which go to wholesale and appear in hands of retails which deliver the product to the customer.
Basing on this manufacturing value chain, Whiteley (2000) offers Porter’s value chain model as the most effective and it is easy to explain why. Porter offers five primary activities necessary for successful process, these are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service.
Additionally to these primary processes, Whiteley (2000) points at procurement, technology development, human resources and firm infrastructure.
The model mentioned above is just the model, the skeleton which may be used as the basis for applying to the company’s needs. Each company referring to this model should understand that depending on its peculiarities, the chain may have another view, however, the central elements are to be included.
Following the pieces of advice offered by the book, the company which refers to this specific strategy should identify the components applicable to its organizational process, then define the linkages and analyze each of the elements from the point of view of cost and value added.
This will help to add efficiency to the model. Therefore, having read this source up to the end, it may be concluded that the date of publication does not play any role as the models used there as the models are referred to by the modern companies and the explanation to those models and the pieces of advice given for better understanding of the process are also efficient.
This source if obligatory for reading by all students who deal with management, marketing, e-commerce and other related spheres as being easy in understanding, it presents a lot of effective and comments which help apply a theoretic model into real life.
Reference List
Grieger, M. (2004). Internet-based electronic marketplaces and supply chain management: a systems approach towards a holistic concept of utilizing internet-based electronic marketplaces to support supply chain management. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School, Ph.D. School of Technologies of Managing.
Whiteley, D. (2000). E-Commerce: Strategies, Technologies and application. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill.