Supply chain
management is process which when done in international terms is termed a global
supply chain management and it is defined as a process of transfer of goods and
materials in form of raw materials of production, capital resources and stock
of inventories from one point of origin to another point of origin mainly from
the production source to the consumption source respectively. Moreover, the
ultimate output of production or finished commodities are also managed or come
under the category of supply chain process management conducted globally
And this happens in
terms of respect towards the terms and conditions of business in terms of
international causes and criterions. The modus operandi of global supply chain
management as being depicted in this model in terms of a selected MNC
organisation like that of Unilever is that the consumer receives its product
demanded and purchases by them in right period in right time and also at the
earliest point of time or period respectively. Not only this Global supply
chain management also envisages the ideas of planning, sourcing, making,
delivering and return respectively which are carried out in different respects
in different periods of time as per the requirements and needs and necessities
our chosen large MNC company if Unilever respectively.
Unilever is the
large scale business organisation dependent on consumer goods market-based
trade framework with its headquarters in Rotterdam, Netherlands and London
respectively. It mainly produces and sells consumer goods like food items
mainly beverages and desserts including ice creams, cleaning agents and
healthcare and betray based personal care products respectively. Its current
Chief Executive Officer(C.E.O) is Paul Polman.Its operating revenue is € 52.7132 billion in the year
2016a nd a net annual income of € 5.579 billion in the year 2016 and around 170
000 number of employees operating internationally throughout important
metropolis located in and around the world as pure the terms and conditions of
business of Unilever respectively.
Corporate Social Responsibility is one the most
important and a very common strategy adopted by many organisations to enhance
the communication with their customers (Clapp et al.2014, p.42).CSR moulds the
mentality of an organisation and the company looks beyond the mentality of
earning profit only. It makes the organisation aware of the impact of their
business on society and even on the environment. The Unilever have also adopted
this strategy. Today the customers tend to do business with those organisations
which do not only think of pure profit but also concerned about the well being
for them. It didn't take long for the Unilever to realise the potential of the
CSR and quickly injected this strategy in their system. Unilever policy of
using CSR covers following topic:
I.
Customers: the biggest
priority was given to this topic. The stakeholders who had a tremendous impact
on their quality of the product price even on the environment were pinpointed
and they earned their full attention. It was very natural because when the
customers were satisfied doing business with Unilever has the potential to
bring new customers to the organisation. Unilever extended their CSR strategy
to satisfy the demand of their stakeholder which would bring sustainability for
the organisation (Carroll, 2015,
p.90).
II.
Employees: Unilever realised
that their biggest asset of the organisation is their well-trained employees.
Without enthusiastic employees, it is never possible to make a good name in the
market. The employee like the customers tends to share their experience with
others. It is very important for any organisation to create a healthy working
environment and cultural within the office. This greatly impacts the
productivity of the organisation. Not only this reduces employee turnover to a
great extension and the satisfied employees bring new potential employees for
the organisation. Unilever with its superior CSR policy created a better HR
policy to help the employees to balance their professional and personal life.
The flexible working culture has helped the employees to increase their quality
of their work.
III.
Investors: the next topic on
the CSR policy is investors. Now, this is a very salient topic in this list. It
is known fact that the capital is a lifeline for any organisation. Without a
proper flow of capital, an organisation is eventually is doomed. Thus the role
of investors is quite clear. Unilever understood very quickly that to attract
more and more investors for their organisation it is important to increase
their revenue and profit. No investor will be interested to put their money on
any company if it is unable to do justice to the amount of money invested in
them by the investors (Okpara et al. 2014,
p.19).
IV.
Suppliers: the suppliers are
placed next on this list. Next, to free flow of capital, the suppliers formed
the second life line for any organisation. This supplier provided Unilever with
much awaited raw material which was to be turned into the finished material.
The CSR policy of the Unilever helped to influence the business activity of
their suppliers which helped to maximize the benefit of the organisation.
In order to create more sustainability for
their business, Unilever didn't stop just by obtaining CSR policy. They
acquired two more important policies. One was Supply chain and other was triple
bottom model or policy.
I.
Supply Chain
policy: No other factors have impacted the modern organisation like
globalisation. It has helped the organisation expand their business overseas.
It has given a new definition of demand and how to satisfy it. The
organisations have set their branches all around the globe. This greatly
impacts the cost of production. To keep this situation under control the
companies are setting their branches as near as possible to the source of raw
material. They are in constant search of cheap labour. This helps the
organisations to supply the consumers their need in a very short time. The
entire given situation helps the organisation build a solid reputation in the
market and among the consumers. So there was an urgent need for a new policy to
be adopted to manage given factors. Thus came the concept of supply chain
policy (Christopher and M., 2016, p.14). Just like the CSR policy, Unilever
injected this policy as soon they realised the importance and benefit of this
Supply Chain Policy. This policy covered the topics like:
Figure 1: Supply chain management
(Source: Fawcett et al.2014, p.48)
a)
Effective market coverage; to get a firm
base in the market it is very important for an organisation is to cover as much
market as possible. This will widen the chance of doing better business and
will enhance the reputation of the organisation.
b)
This policy boosts up the service given to
the customers. The customers always expect to get the best from the
organisation with which they are doing business with, at right time and at the
right location. Satisfying these two important needs of the customers have
given a tremendous boost to the profit of the Unilever.
c)
A good supply chain policy has the ability
to reduce operating costs. By operating costs, we mean cost of labour used to
turn the raw material into the final product, the cost of availability of raw
material and cost of transportation of the raw material.
d)
When the Unilever used supply chain policy
it gave them a tremendous boost to their financial condition. Profit leverage
and flow of cash also increased dramatically. Not only had this supply chain
policy helped the Unilever to decrease the dependency on the fixed assets.
Supply chain policy
is very closely related to CSR as well. Like CSR affects the environment Supply
chain policy also affects the environment as well although this aspect of the
Supply Chain management was not clearly known for a long time. The Unilever
found out that SCP( supply chain policy) helped to sustain human life. It
helped to improve the health care and guarded the humans against extreme
climate change. Apart from these a good and balanced SCP helped the economy
grow by giving the people better job opportunity and with better job opportunity
the people were able to improve the quality of their life. So by adopting the
CSR and SCP the Unilever were not only able to increase their margin of profit
but were able to contribute to society as well (Wisner et al. 2014,
p.20).
II. Triple Bottom Line Model: this model
was adopted by the authorities of the Unilever because it helped them to
identify the impact of a business deal effects on the behavior of the people
and the environment. The best way to define this model is to call it a
communication between the organisation and its stakeholders which describe the
various dimensions of the activities undertaken by the organisation. It is
sometimes referred as the corporate social sustainability. Unlike CSR which
helps to balance the relation between the company and its stakeholders, it is
used to enhance the development of the company itself which increases the
option for future generations. The concept of this model states that just mere
measuring the profit and performance which happens to be the traditional bottom
line which decides the success of the company is not enough. The real success
of the organisation is in the analysis of the impact of the organisation on
society economy and the environment. So it is clearly seen that how closely the
triple bottom method is related to the CSR policy.
Figure 1: triple bottom line model
(Source: Lindstrom et al. 2016, p.190)
By following a
triple bottom method the Unilever has seen benefits like;
a)
As stated before TBL is a communication
tool. By enhancing the communication with its stakeholders the Unilever has
able to enhance the reputation of both their reputation and the image of their
brand. TBL has also helped the Unilever to manage their stakeholders more
effectively (Milne et al. 2013, p.20)
b)
When the stakeholder supports the
organisation and its various activity it is bound that the organisation will
have an upper hand over its rivals in the industry. This support not only
improves the reputation but gives the organisation a big moral boost.
c)
TBL model helps to enhance the reputation
of the organisation. These reputations not only increase their worth among the
customers but also within the employees. With lower employee turnover rate and
increased retention of employees, the productivity of Unilever has increased
dramatically.
d)
With the help of Tbl Unilever has able to
show its commitment lowering the risks involved. When the company going under
any prosecution trial, if it can still retain its stakeholders the confidence
of the people increases (Sitnikov, 2013,p. 2560).
e)
TBL pinpoints all the strategy which will
help to cut off all the necessary means of a process which affects the budget
of the Unilever. This helps further to invest more creative and innovative
ideas which might prove fruitful for the organisation.
Supply chain management of Unilever
The main idea of
Unilever based supply chain management is the greening or nutrition of its
supply chain management processes which can be done via two important
criterions:
(1)
The first job to maintain its supply chain process is by
creating an idea or intuition of upstarting or kicking up of the prima facie or
preliminary processes of the supply chain to boost up the initiative of supply
chain business to be incorporated into the business curriculum of Unilever in
an appropriate manner.
(2)
As per Mena
et al. (2013, p.67), the
second process should be to try with maximum efforts to bring sustainability in
the business process of Unilever in deferential terms and conditions just for
the sake of bringing consistency and discipline in the global supply chain
based management process of Unilever company respectively to complete the
execution process of supply chain management in global terms in a well
appropriated and well proportioned manner respectively.
Filling of gaps and
loopholes in supply chain management process is an important procedure to
imbibe the concept of sustainability in the business functioning of Unilever
based MNC which is mainly witnessed in terms of knowledge gap and performance
gap and they can be covered up by viable sustainability process which helps to
strengthen and intensify the business based on MNC in appropriate terms and
conditions respectively. Sustainability is so far being tested and detected the
only process which helps to cure the distortions witnessed in the supply chain
management process of Unilever in the United Kingdom.
Sustainability of
various patterns can be used or implemented for bringing life in the supply
chain based processes of Unilever based on which the intensities of the working
of supply chain process can be effectively monitored or supervised. To be more
precise the cost effectiveness of sustainability process determines it solution
finding strategy of supply chain based processes of management in the institute
of Unilever respectively. This is because lower costs and higher durability
sustainability procedure is more preferred than lower durable and high costs
based sustainability processes and programs respectively. Patience and return
on sustainable patterns of investment can be effectively monitored and
controlled via essential processes of business development processes of
generation of sustainability in all facets of global supply chain management
process respectively.
As per Musa et al. (2014c, p.187), one of the most important processes
of generation of sustainability process in supply chain management is judging
or analysis of the return on investments in actual monetary amount in terms of
dollar values invested in sustainability methods to support the process of
supply chain management in terms of utilization of sustainable business procedures
and architectural base or building block of sustainability procedure respectively.
This judgement of the returns from supply chain managed sustainability
procedure can be done in terms of customer evaluation process of business in
terms of their needs and necessity based consumer demand pattern for consumer
goods being produced in Unilever.
Another important
process of supply chain management based process of Unilever is that if the customers are not satisfied with the gods
prices in terms of supply chain management process of Unilever then the price
regulators in terms of the authoritarian business bodies of Unilever may make
the prices fixed or constant and also to keep it same as that of its competitor
firms or rival firms to maintain the ethics of sustainability procedure
respectively. As per Özer et al. (2014, p.2440), cost
minimization is thus the very important process of sustainability generated
supply chain management procedure cum process of supply chain management being
analysed globally in the global trade market.
Sustainability
procedure can affect the supply chain management in terms of four processes of
planning, decision making, execution of performance and performance appraisal
based tools and techniques of the business development processes respectively.
Unilever is a large cobweb of business infrastructure firm which operates via
sudden functioning and capabilities of stakeholders in Unilever based MNC
organisation respectively. The role played by sustainability base development
process in Unilever in affecting the supply chain management with positive
externality can be defined in terms of
SSRT(Sustainability Stakeholder Rating Tool) respectively and it is very
important tool for judging the impact of sustainability on various processes of
supply chain processes practised in the large scale MMC of Unilever
respectively.
Supply chain-based
SSRT procedure includes the following:
1. Sustainability
based stakeholders’ norms at the elementary business farm level of business.
2. Related
properties can criterions of Sustainability procedure respectively.
3. The relative
importance of each of the categories of sustainability to more than million
stakeholders of SSRT based businesses.
4. As per Park et al. (2013, p.73), the manner in which
the sustainability parameter distinguishes across different criterions cum
categories of business.
Stakeholders
included in the sustainability processes are:
Consumers: They are
entities of supply chain management who only concentrate on the magnitude cum
prices of consumer goods being produced in Unilever respectively.
Environmental
entity: The surroundings of MNC which aids in providing natural nourishment to
the Unilever's working processes.
Shareholders:
Shareholders who buy the company's shares and gets a dividend earning for the
same in terms of the motive of profit maximisation policy of the business.
Suppliers: They mainly
constitute the first and second level of business of the Unilever company.
Farmers: They are
the entities in supply chain management who are mainly engaged in producing the
raw materials of production for the Unilever firm for processing and refinement
respectively.
Merits and demerits of the supply chain process of Unilever
on the operation of Unilever
Unilever in spite
of its main focus on sustainable management linked global infrastructure of
supply chain management is designed to manoeuvre and manipulate its large scale
business process and activities in terms of being a leading MNC based
organisation of the world. The inability of Unilever to increase its strength
and stubbornness to establish as a more
stronger business organisation with international standard of business can be
formulated in terms of its performance based on certain terms and conditions of
business to meet its basic expectations of establishing itself as a globally
oriented MNC with strong global supply chain based process management as its
most desired goal or objective of business. According to Snyder, et al. (2016, p.99), the radical role of Unilever in faced
with different sets of limits and constraints. Due to this methodology, the
underperformance based features cannot be solved in proper way or manner
because of underrated business ideology and business based concepts and ideas
of businesses. As per Roh et al. (2014, p.203), the
agreement of the company with National Starch's management help does not
necessarily solve the problem of Unilever in the drastic amount which is a major
disadvantage in the path of Unilever based company.
But despite these
risks and challenges, Unilever achieved higher business recognition in emerging
business markets due to its tactical policies and strategies of business
respectively which helped it to lower the impact of challenges and risks
associated with the Unilever business respectively.
Besides this the
organisational legacy practised by Unilever was not too strong to counterface
the challenges being witnessed in business process outsourcing based management
techniques but it somehow managed to do so because of hard work of its
stakeholders keeping into consideration each and every term of the business
associated with Unilever which is judged the most notable achievement of the
organisation so far.
With the arrival of
second recession process in European nations, the business infrastructure of
Unilever in terms of supply chain management suffered from economic and
political injuries which did not permit the Unilever based supply chain process
to permit or perform effectively
in the arena of the
international business market in true intensity or manner. As per Kim et al. (2015, p.55),supply Due to this disadvantage and the
resulting collapse of Unilever's supply
chain process , it took time and too much capital accumulation to again
integrate itself in the consumer goods based business and progress itself in
terms of the sound intensity of supply chain in marginal amounts or manner
respectively. The trial and error process of business growth and decline
respectively encountered by Unilever has led to the weakening of its supply
chain based management business to a certain amount which can be cited as major
disadvantage of Unilever apart from the fact that it does perform efficiently
on average terms in the consumer goods based business sector with optimism and
acuteness respectively.
Supply chain management
is does influenced by the change in technology as in the case of Unilever based
company processes and procedures of businesses. In today's globalised world
technology does play a key role in improving the various segments or
departments of production-based businesses conducted via efficient supply chain
processes respectively. We can create much better efficiency and much better
transparency in terms of adoption of newly designed modern ideas of technology
based on an effective implementation of the same, the supply chain process is
quickened or intensified in a quid pro quo manner respectively. As per Guin et al. (2014, p.1225), this creates modifications and
sophistications in the supply chain based management processes of Unilever
limited respectively.
Through a more
technologically oriented supply chain, costs of operation of business in
Unilever MNC can be minimised or optimised and hence efficiency is generated in
the business process through a wide variety of tools and techniques of business
policy orientation mechanism respectively. Hence integration of technology in
the supply chain management process IS helpful in terms of performance
appraisal based profit maximisation and business development management and
market augmentation for instance in terms of Unilever company. The production
of consumer goods will hasten and will be produced with more soundness and
intensity because of the newly made technological innovation adopted by
Unilever.
As per Tian et al. (2014, p.97), in terms of newly available
computerized or digitally based applications tracking , shipping and execution
of supply chain processes can be monitored and data based on the same can be
compiled and recorded or processed with maximum intensity and efficiency but
with minimum flaws or errors respectively. For instance with the advent of
newly created business namely Flash View app the data and information regarding
tracking of shipment of goods to respective customers from the production units
of Unilever to the respective consumers can be harnessed in a rapid manner with
cent percent genuineness and comfort. It helps to create efficiency in the
multinational oriented business of Unilever. It also helps to AID the process of optimality of budget in terms
of money management and time management in terms of supply chain based
management process effectively. Flash view also helps to improve the
operational efficiency of our supply chain in terms of use of advanced
digitised tracking and shipment based monetary measures of management
respectively based on the rules and protocols of supply chain management.
Shipping anomalies are reduced and business becomes more consumer friendly in
case of Unilever by the increased use of Flash View application or tool based
technology.
As per Wang et al. (2015, p.693), next, we come to another technological
innovation such as that of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which also
functions to improve the business efficiency in Unilever by smoothing up of
business operations based on supply chain management processes. It benefits the
business owner to adopt varieties of techniques to modify its business without
the least possible worry of errors because it helps to improve the business
processes based on trade and commerce via suitable tracking of inventory
movement connected with the same in terms of necessary equipment of modern
variety to do the same. Production of business activities at all levels and
processes can be controlled in terms of various methods based on RFID to aid in
the process of supply chain based businesses of Unilever with increased speed
and intensity. RFID helps to makes the process or architecture of supply chain
less complex or makes it simple for business policy based modifications and
incorporations of the new idea in business to promote all round efficiency in
the business and ancillary processes of Unilever organisation respectively.
As per Wang et al (2013, p. 268), then
comes the importance of social media a
digitised software based technological tool of business which helps the
business entrepreneur cum managers and other officials to gain maximum
visibility over the business processes through maximum observational based
message sharing in terms of e-technology or e-messages and blog writing
respectively. With the increased advent of Twitter and Facebook users, a new
world of informational exchange in form of messages and profile based blogging
the communications between the managers and customers has become more
randomised and sophisticated in bona fide terms of businesses. More than
thousands of supergiant based MNCs and other elite multinationals use the
social media in increased amount to improve the functioning and capabilities of
its business in necessary terms and intensities respectively. Social media
helps in the process of interaction between producers and consumers in the
variety of communications and conversations taking place among them through the
social media like Facebook, Twitter and Quicker based blogging methodologies
respectively. As per Grant,
Trautrims et al. (2015, p. 57), communications
are done through the internet is dependent on the variety of methods done via e
technique through the use of lots of tools in the available medias.This
technique has gained so much popularity that almost all of the reputed Fortune
500 companies located in and around the world uses this media exclusive for
discussions sharing of information between them and the consumers for rapid
understanding of the consumer preferences and hence rapid execution of
marketing strategies based on the consumer feedbacks provided via social
interaction through medias of internet that is facebook , Twitter ,quicker and
others.
In short, the use
of IT-based tools and techniques and other methodologies of e-marketing have
gained popularity for the sake of its capabilities and functioning to reduce
the costs and increase the benefits to the operational activities of business
adopting the same in terms of supply chain management procedures and programs
based protocols respectively. In terms of operational management and bottom
line incremental methodologies procedure too, the technically upgraded business
activities of Unilever has gained immense popularity and success because of
technically effective norms and procedures of business respectively.
Two examples to
describe how the competitors of Unilever has used the same to get international
standard success and popularity in terms of valuable global supply chain
management are a follows:
Procter $ Gamble: As per Azadi et al. (2015,
p.278),in terms of superior
research techniques based labs invented
and discovered by Edison based on modern electrical power based technology and
modern motion picture based engineering tools and equipment , Procter &
gamble has achieved a lot of success in terms of business development criterion
of business based on exercising of lot of patent based authority of businesses
.It has helped Procter and gambles to use or to utilise a lot of modern
technologies based on Edison's lab to streamline its business production and
multiply its business performance in more than much of a tripled amount
respectively and is sure to succeed more as the major business rival or
competitor of Unilever in the modern world of business.
Nokia: Nokia has adopted patent technology based business by
investment in patent technology-based research tools and technologies via
R&D (Research and Development) based business conduction method based on
dollar investment of EURO 50 billion to improve its productive capacity and
functioning of business. As per Aung and Chang,(2014, p.177), this being practised and
implemented for the last two decades has led to the immense growth of
technological productivity in terms of production of millions of
technologically upgraded and technologically superior mobiles which has gained
immense popularity and success for the same.
In the conclusion
part, it can be mentioned that the Global supply chain management is a
sophisticated process for business based stratification and strategy oriented implementation
procedure of business which has been illustrated in terms of a large-scale MNC
in the UK namely Unilever firm's functional implementation procedure and
progress. This can be adjudged in terms of specific supply chain oriented
mechanism of business in global standards based on value orientation regarding
the same in terms of use of superior technologically based modifications in
supply chain based process of business respectively. IT is seen that
technologically superior infrastructure management in terms of increased use of
IT-based tools and techniques do help in business policy formulation and
business policy execution respectively in certain terms and conditions of
business based on supply management chain based ethics and conduct respectively
in varied terms.
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