Aymane HYAYA

Finance et Economie Appliquée

Some supply chains are simple, while others are complicated. The complexity of the
supply chain will vary with the size of the business and the intricacy and numbers of items
that are manufactured, which leads us to think about the following problematic:
How Supply chain influence the performance of the company?

Supply chain is a global network used to deliver the different products and services from
supplier to customer. It includes not only the manufacturer and suppliers, but also
transporters, warehouses, retailers, and even customers themselves.
Raw materials => Producer => Distributor => Retailer => Customer
To ensure that the supply chain is operating as efficient as possible and generating the
highest level of customer satisfaction at the lowest cost, Supply Chain Management has three
levels of activities that different parts of the company will focus:
- Strategic: company management will be looking to high level strategic decisions
concerning the whole organization
- Tactical: focus on adopting measures that will produce cost benefits
- Operational: Decisions at this level are made each day in businesses

A supply chain is a complex process because we can have more than one supplier,
distributor and different customer needs

The model can become quite complex falling into a Systems of Systems paradigm and
eventually map out an entire economy or at least a major segment of the economy.

Hence, supply chains can become very important in managing costs and revenues as well
as the legal and contractual relationships among all the actors.
The objective of every supply chain should be to maximize the overall value generated.
The value (also known as supply chain surplus) a supply chain generates is the difference
between Customer Value and Supply Chain Cost.
Supply Chain Surplus = Customer Value - Supply Chain Cost
 A company's performance revolves around everything that contributes to improving the
value-cost relationship and thus tends towards maximizing net value creation.
The performance of firm is a relevant construct, in strategic management research, across
the globe and frequently it is used as a dependent variable. In spite of its relevance, there is
hardly any consensus about its definition, dimensionality and measurement,
Effective supply chain management has become a potentially valuable way of securing
competitive advantage and improving organizational performance.
A good decision and system of metrics needs to provide information on effectiveness,
efficiency and adaptability.
Supply Chain Performance crosses company boundaries since it includes basic materials,
components, subassemblies and finished products, and distribution through various channels
to the end customer. To win in the new environment, supply chains need continuous
improvement. To achieve this we need performance measures, or “metrics,” which support
global Supply Chain Performance improvements rather than narrow company-specific or
function-specific metrics which inhibit chain-wide improvements.
For a company to be successful it must:
- Each functional strategy must support other functional strategies and help a firm reach
its competitive strategy goal.
- The different functions in a company must appropriately structure their processes and
resources.
- The design of the overall supply chain and the role of each stage must be aligned to
support the supply chain strategy.

Supply chain and robots

With Amazon Robotics, the company has taken a step forward in automating its supply
chain. In warehouses, robots work in symbiosis with employees to achieve record
productivity levels. The place of storage consists of standardized cabinets containing the
goods; robots are able to automatically move these cabinets to bring them to their human
collaborators, who are then responsible for picking. The system reduced warehouse operating
costs by 20%, parcel processing time from 60 to 15 minutes, and storage capacity per square
meter increased by 50%. The ultimate goal is the implementation of a fully robotic model that
will be able to choose, package and sort shipments, all without any human intervention. In
2017, Amazon has a fleet of 45,000 robots spread over 20 warehouses.

Bibliography:
- https://www.isatech.fr/automatisation-supply-chain-amazon/
- https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-industrielle-2016-3
- 155 revues d'économie industrielle
- http://www2.southeastern.edu
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZPO5RclZEo
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303873913_Determinants_of_Firm_Perform
ance_A_Subjective_Model