CASE WRITE-UP

There are a number of key problems facing the Ford Company supply chain. With the increasing development in information technology, Ford risked falling behind in the business world as compared to more modern companies such as Dell. The company faced competition from automobile companies from Japan such as Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. One of the issues that faced the Ford Company was that they did not give specific recommendations and the proposed set of action at various levels of the company and the precise ways of integrating the developing technologies into its supply chain.

In order to determine whether integrating a new supply chain system in the company needs to be determined by the pros and cons of the new system against those of the old system. One of its pros is the fact that the system can be adapted to the older supply chain of Ford which was vertical integration. Furthermore, with the exponential growth of information technology Ford’s old system would become obsolete. The greatest issue with adopting this new supply chain is the fact that it would be extremely costly and take up a lot of time. Furthermore, Dell deals with computers which are closer to the Internet than an automobile company. This is due to the fact that the elimination of dealerships would cause a great drift between the company and its clientele causing a great disadvantage.

Another major issue with the new model is the implication of information sharing. This is vital part of the model and it has its advantages but the stream of information can be controlled. The coordinated model allows suppliers to gain access to central design data and ensure a smooth flow of materials and reduced bottlenecks and increase the proficiency of the supply chain. Furthermore, the dealers can provide information to the company on the forecasted demands and desires of the customers and this can be solved by outsourcing this to a different firm that specializes in forecasting demand and can work with a number of dealers. There could also be a problem of connecting with the suppliers and the dealers who do not have access to advanced information technology.

There are a number of problems that the Ford Company also faces in a