Global Business Perspectives

After reading a few books and meeting a few people who participate in the global supply chain process, I quickly realized this is the assembly line of today.  While Ford made the assembly line work for automobile manufacturing that spit out the same car, the same color for a relatively quick and cost effective vehicle – today things are different.  Making a product in one place is no longer viable.  Certain products can be made cheaper in certain countries around the world. 

The new way of creating a product is to find which countries and companies create each individual product the best at a fair cost and to have them in your supply chain.  One of the examples I heard about was JcPenny.  When they produce clothing for their stores they buy the cotton in one country, have it yarned in another, died in another and then made in another.  This allows them to get the best and most cost effective labor to sell to the American market at very reasonable costs.  This is important because Americans are used to access to all sorts of products and they always want a good deal or a sale.  This type of business is feeding the American appetite for more imports. 

So…instead of lining up your production in one facility – today there is a series of folks all over the world that are creating our products.  The cycle is very much the same for computers.  Globalization and the supply chain management are creating innovative ways to produce products and save us money, while also increasing the livelihoods of people all over the world.  I wonder what Ford would think about all of this?  I think it must take a lot of logistical management to get the production line to move very smoothly and on time.  I am a firm believer in buying local products when it makes sense but having access to many options and saving a few bucks is important too.