100+ word response to each student. Response must be positive and not critical of work. A question must be asked to the student on the topic. Main...

100+ word response to each student. Response must be positive and not critical of work. A question must be asked to the student on the topic.

Main question for reference:

What measures would you use in a business like Amazon.com to evaluate the company’s performance in 2017? Could their supply chain be changing due to technology innovations or due to

other political factors coming from Congress, the Federal Government regulations over commerce and transportation or from the White House in the near future?

Student 1:

Amazon.com is the most famous and successful e-tailer. It started in 1995 by selling a huge variety of books and later added music and videos. More recently, Amazon started selling toys, electronics, and other merchandise. Amazon’s fulfillment strategy has evolved over time. Initially, the company did not hold any inventory. When a customer ordered a book, Amazon would transfer the order to Ingram Books. In 1999, however, Amazon established its own seven large warehouses, referred to as fulfillment centers (one warehouse was later closed) and started shipping directly to the customers. Today, Amazon has 16 fulfillment centers in the United States. In 2001, amazon.com shifted its focus to improving its distribution operations in a push towards profit. It has improved its fulfillment costs, which include costs associated with six warehouses, customer service, and credit card fees, to 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001, down from 13.5 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of 2000. Amazon did this by

• Improving sorting order and utilization of sophisticated packing machines, which allowed Amazon to ship 35 percent more units with the same number of workers as the previous year.

• Using software to forecast purchasing patterns, which allowed Amazon to slash inventory levels by 18 percent in the fourth quarter.

• Consolidated shipping of 40 percent of goods into full trucks driven directly into major cities, bypassing regional postal sorting facilities and cutting transportation costs significantly.

• Partnering to sell goods for other companies such as Toys ‘R’ Us and Target, who pay Amazon for handling distribution and customer service. These partnerships brought in $225 million in revenue with gross profit margins double Amazon’s overall 25 percent margins.

• Allowing other sellers to offer used books, which increased sales during the holiday season by 38 percent. For these products, Amazon’s gross margins were about 85 percent”, (SIMCHI-LEVI 2007).

Amazon is a mega-store online, and has been for years now. There are not many companies to compete with them at any level, and their system is ever-changing and evolving. Amazon continues to set the bar high for themselves in order to achieve better results, better products, and overall the best customer satisfaction rate of anyone. Therefore, in order to begin to evaluate their performance, the customers are the ones I would have to reach out to first and most likely it would be a survey format for most, and a call for some to try and get a better picture of how the customers are feeling about the products received from the company as well as their customer service. Secondly, I would visit the corporate facilities, distribution centers, and warehouses to see how the personnel that work there actually see the company, and how the operations are working within each of these departments. I then would have to inspect the current systems in place, such as standards of operations, safety of products, safety for personnel, and the documentation for the reputable sources that they utilize for product, meaning the third party sellers. I would have to see and check out the whole inner workings of the company and its supply chain in order to evaluate the performance of the company overall.

Student2:

What measures would you use in a business like Amazon.com to evaluate the company’s performance in 2017? 

If I were to evaluate Amazon, I would start with supply chain performance measures because the successes or failures in these measures will help provide a framework for customer value measures. In order to properly evaluate Amazon's supply chain performance I would use the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. This model "uses a process reference model that includes analyzing the current state of a company's processes and its goals, quantifying operational performance, and comparing it to benchmark data"(SIMCHI-LEVI, 2007, p. 381). With this model I will be able to measure the following areas within the supply chain: supply chain reliability, flexibility and responsiveness, expenses and the utilization of assets. Once all this information is gathered and studied, I will be able to see where Amazon rates among its competitors. These metrics will also identify any shortcomings within the supply chain so that they can be fixed. 

Could their supply chain be changing due to technology innovations or due to other political factors coming from Congress, the Federal Government regulations over commerce and transportation or from the White House in the near future?

Amazon was able to turn the retail industry on its head through the use of its technological innovations so I see that trend continuing to reshape the company in the future. Amazon has already began testing drones for the use in deliveries. The internet of things (IOT) will reshape every supply chain, especially Amazons. They already use IOT to track deliveries but in the future every aspect of the supply chain will be controlled through this. As IOT evolves it will be able to complete every task in the supply chain, inventory, reordering, sales and much more. Walmart currently uses this on their vehicle fleet in order to get the best fuel consumption. The following link is a good write up on the subject from Business Insider; http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-logistics-supply-chain-management-2016-10.

Running head: RESPONSE 1 ResponseNameInstitutionDate RESPONSE 2 Student 1:Amazon.com is the most famous and successful e-tailer. It started in 1995 by selling ahuge variety of books and later...