Business Finance Homework Help

A. SupplyChain247: “Supporting Supply Chain Resiliency by Embracing the Principles of Continuous Design,” Link: https://www.supplychain247.com/article/supporting_supply_chain_resiliency_by_embracing_continuous_design/supply_chain (Links to an external site.)

B. SupplyChain247: “Top Challenges and Solutions for Optimizing Procurement & Inbound Supply Processes,” Link: https://www.supplychain247.com/article/top_challenges_and_solutions_for_optimizing_procurement_inbound_supply/one_network_enterprises (Links to an external site.)

C. Overview of Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/about (Links to an external site.

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1. Please see Exhibit 4.7  and discuss the benefits of on-site supplier representatives for Tesla (Link: https://www.tesla.com/about (Links to an external site.)  ).
2. Please discuss how principles of continuous design can be used to develop supply chain resiliency for Tesla as the company brings new products to market (Article A).
3. Describe how purchasing policies and procedures can be used to develop supply chain resiliency at Tesla in the future.
4. Please describe how the challenges and solutions for optimizing supply chain integration in the SupplyChain247 article could be used by Tesla to gain a competitive advantage (Article B).

The first discussion:

Please see Exhibit 4.7 on page 150 in the textbook (Monczka et al., 2020) and discuss the benefits of on-site supplier representatives for Tesla (About Tesla | Tesla, 2021).

Tesla constantly thinks affordability and to make products accessible while combining renewable energy generation and storage with their electrical cars and manufacturing batteries at the volumes to meet their production goals. This provides stabilized production which increases their efficiency, and improvements are made quickly because their job performance is tracked daily. The increased insight of the supplier assures fewer schedule changes and surprises, as well as access to new designs and this integration in customer order fulfillment processes increases since the supplier would know the needs of the customer.

Please discuss how principles of continuous design can be used to develop supply chain resiliency for Tesla as the company brings new products to market (Coupa Supply Chain Design & Planning, 2021).

Tesla’s continuous design plan allows for end-to-end tradeoffs with their suppliers. As they grow their guide planning and execution becomes more dynamic working with their connections. They must adapt as they improve their technology and manufacturing policies aligned with their business model to get more out of investments allowing for a way for them to be more economically stable in their efforts to bring new products to market.

Describe how purchasing policies and procedures can be used to develop supply chain resiliency at Tesla in the future.

A procedure manual for new employees who require training provides clarification for experienced personnel and reinforces their knowledge about the different activities or assignments of each employee (Monczka et al., 2020, page 109). Tesla has several moving parts, and each procedure should be streamlined to encourage timeliness and responsiveness. Also, simplifying procedures should be a goal for Tesla to develop supply chain resiliency in the future.

Please describe how the challenges and solutions for optimizing supply chain integration in the SupplyChain247 article could be used by Tesla to gain a competitive advantage (24/7 Staff, 2020).

One of the challenges Tesla would need to overcome for optimizing supply chain integration is resolving the early detection alerts for material and logistics issues. It would be important for them to automate a workflow that identifies and resolves all the issues of the inbound supply platform (raw materials, parts, assembly, manufacturing, and delivery, etc.). One action Tesla has already done is simply tracking job performance daily which ensures production goals are being met and improvements are made quickly. Therefore, high precision matching of deliveries with requirements, and greater accountability could be the solution.

Classmates Discussions:

1)

Tesla can benefit from on-site suppliers representatives because it improves their customer needs. They can have access to new designs which meet new customers needs aka brings in new business. As you can see on page 150. Tesla is still bringing in new technology that not alot of people are used to. I have never really seen a tesla. I may have seen one for like two seconds at most. So I consider it still new and with it being new means a lot of new designs to meet customers needs they may not have realized until after the model X, Y and 3 being produced. Also transport cost as said in lecture video and in the book shows less selling expense. Therefore this could help in lowering the price to be more accessible to more people even if it lowers by a little bit. I understand it will be years until more average people have teslas.

2)

Having principles of continuous design can be used to develop supply chain resiliency for tesla, because like I said before things change. No one expected the pandemic and here we are. Floods happen, the economy changes, trends in what people like and don’t like happen. So having the ability to adapt to change, especially trends, will be very helpful for tesla. Tesla’s goal is to have clean energy use all around, that is why they made a truck and SUV so that people who don’t just want a car can get an electric vehicle. Some people live in the winter so need 4Wd or have a family and need more seats so changing fast to keep up with all types of unexpected change is very good and helpful to bring out new products.

3) Policy at tesla can also be used to develop supply chain resiliency due to keeping all procedures and tasks delegated to the right person. For starters policy are created to help solve problems as written in the text and the lecture notes. With them constantly trying to accelerate getting an affordable, clean emission car to be available to most households there are a lot of innovations. That being said, things probably change a lot. Tesla needs policy so that it is clear that everyone is on the same page when making these cars. Model x and model y or even model 3 have to have something different. How is employee A and employee B supposed to know all the differences without having set in policies to ensure the procedures are changed from model x to model y then consistent when making model y. Also to help solve problems when it comes to bringing in these new innovations. Don’t know much when it comes to making electric cars but things happen. Recalls probably need to happen here and there, if not some issue had to have occur. Most of these issues can be predicted then making a policy on how to fix will allow tesla to help out fast. For example, if a recall is happening they can get one out fast and minimize the damage.

4)

Tesla can gain a competitive advantage by optimizing the supply chain integration by reducing one of the biggest challenges faced in the supply chain : Bullwhip effect. The lag in communication between the companies needs and the suppliers need can def vary from little of a few days to months of time. Depending on your communication paths and systems that are in place. I like the orchestrate all inbound supply. I think having a system in which you can see what you have and what you need will be very handy. Being able to tell your supplier the moment you noticed you will need more before that moment happens can be tremendous. Thinking of shipping costs, having it delivered faster will cost more for tesla. Also the whole argument of ordering too much or ordering too little, knowing what you have will most definitely help. To add onto this Propagate Demand to Upstream Tiers will help predict what you need in the future. Looking at what you have used in the past will be a good starting number to what you will need in the future. Let’s say sales are increasing at the same rate in the past 4 months and it seems to stay that way. We can look at the past few months and see we sold 30, 40 , and then 50 in the past quarters so this quarter we ordered 60 units of let’s say headlights for the tesla. By using our past numbers we can predict the future so we don’t have to worry about ordering way too much or way too little when it comes to ordering as usual.