Operations and Supply Management Target Corporation

Question: Explaine the types of materials that the company uses and their sourcing and delivery. Critically analyz the overall supply chain operations of the company. Answer: Introduction For making this report, the researcher has made the choice of the Target Corporation. The corporation is regarded as the second-largest retailer relating to discount in the United States. The Company is just behind Walmart. George Dayton founded the Target Corporation. The head quarters of the Company is situated at Minnesota. The CEO of the Company is Brian Cornell. The slogan of the Company is Expect more. Pay Less. Procurement In the process of the supply chain, the term procurement means and refers to the art of buying and acquiring any goods or products or services from any source that is external using the process of the bid or tendering. The primary thing that is taken into consideration while making procurement by the Target Company is that the goods, the products, or the services that are acquired are appropriate. The other thing that is taken into consideration while performing procurement by the Target Company is that the goods are acquired at the lowest cost that is available. Such goods that are acquired must have the capacity to meet the requirements of the party who is the acquirer both regarding quantity and quality and regarding location and time (Monczka et al., 2015). The Target Company gives a clear definition of the processes that are intended for the promotion of the open and fair competition in their business by minimizing the risk of exposure to collision and fraud. All the decisions of procurement make the inclusion of the factors of handling and delivery, fluctuation of price and marginal benefit in the Target Company. The Target Company also involves the decisions of buying under those conditions that are related to scarcity. The Company takes into account the good data that is available and makes the use of the methods of economic analysis. Such methods include the cost utility method of analysis or the cost-benefit method of analysis. The primary differences that are made between the methods of analysis are by including the factors of risk involved and by excluding the factors of the risk involved. The Target Company makes the use of expected value in those cases where any factors of risk are involved. Such risk may be in either benefit or cost (Tayur et al., 2012). The services or the products that are acquired are split into different categories based on the purpose of consumption of those products. The Target Company indulges the process of direct procurement only to their manufacture settings. Materials The material management is an important component of the supply chain. The term management of material covers specifically the acquisition of the replacements and the spare parts. The management of materials of the Target Company includes the control of the quality of the products that are purchased and includes the standards that are involved in the process of shipping, ordering and warehousing such products (Barney, 2012). The target Company bears in mind certain goals while performing the management of materials. The primary goal of the management of materials by the Target Company is to provide the chain of materials or components that is unbroken. The basic motive of the Company is to provide a continuous chain of materials for products to meet the needs of the customers. In the Target Company, the department of materials is in the charge of making the release of the materials to the base of supply by ensuring the fact that the materials are delivered on the right time by making the use of the right carrier (Seuring, 2013). The Target Company normally measures the materials by their ability to make the delivery in the right time to the consumers after their attainment of inventory shrink, freight budget, and inventory accuracy. In the Target Company, the department of materials is charged with having the responsibility of the management of the new product launches of the Company. In the Target Company, the management of the materials is also charged with the procurement of the goods and services by managing and establishing the base of supply. In other branches of the Target Company, the responsibility of the management of the base of supply and the materials procurement is granted to another purchasing department. Hence, the purchasing department of the Target Company is responsible for the differences in the prices from the base of supply. The products that the Target Company indulges in selling are the goods that are related to health and beauty, goods related to accessories, clothing, and electronics goods (Wisner et al., 2015). Supply Chain Operations The supply chain operations are generally regarded as the process and the reference that can be made to the management of supply chain. The said reference helps the users of this process to improve, address and making the communication with the practices of the management of the supply chain between and within all the parties in any enterprise that is extended (Dekker et al., 2013). The Company Target makes the use of the supply chain operations as an instrument or tool of the management that spans from the supplier to the customer. The model of the supply chain management in the Target Company has been developed based on the volunteer system (Fawcett et al., 2014). It is because the sole motive of the Target Company was to describe the activities of the business that are associated with every phase related to the satisfaction of the demands of the customers. The model of supply chain operations in the Target Company primarily involves three pillars. Those are process modeling, measurement of performances and the best practices (Ross, 2013). Conclusion The process of the supply chain in the Target Company involves six distinguished processes of management. Those processes are planning, sourcing, making, delivering, returning and enabling. The Target Company through the process of supply chain operation does not attempt to give the description of all the process of business or activities. In addition, other key elements are judged such as quality, training, administration and information technology. Reference List Barney, J. B. (2012). Purchasing, supply chain management and sustained competitive advantage: The relevance of resource based theory.Journal of Supply Chain Management,48(2), 3-6. Dekker, R., Fleischmann, M., Inderfurth, K., van Wassenhove, L. N. (Eds.). (2013).Reverse logistics: quantitative models for closed-loop supply chains. Springer Science Business Media. Fawcett, S. E., Ellram, L. M., Ogden, J. A. (2014).Supply chain management: from vision to implementation. London: Pearson. Monczka, R., Handfield, R., Giunipero, L., Patterson, J. (2015).Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning. Ross, D. F. (2013).Competing through supply chain management: creating market-winning strategies through supply chain partnerships. Springer Science Business Media. Seuring, S. (2013). A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management.Decision support systems,54(4), 1513-1520. Tayur, S., Ganeshan, R., Magazine, M. (Eds.). (2012).Quantitative models for supply chain management(Vol. 17). Springer Science Business Media. Wisner, J., Tan, K. C., Leong, G. (2015).Principles of supply chain management: a balanced approach. Cengage Learning.