Strategic Management of Global Manufacturing Networks. Production Plan

Question: Strategic Management of Global Manufacturing Networks for Production Planning Control? Answer: Company Profile: Sainsbury Sainsbury is one of the largest retail supermarket in UK aftere Tesco is been considered. It is the longest standing food chain that was operated in the year 1869. Sainsbury is proposed to serve more than 16 million customers and have more than 800 retail stores across the country. Recently Sainsbury have resulted in high growth and development because of competitive [prices of its food products. Currently the company holds 16% market share in the UK market. Some of its major competitors are: ASDA, Tesco, Aldie, Morrison , etc. Role of external factors affecting Sainsbury: Political factors: In UK, the consumer as well as the government debts is quite high. The political factors for Sainsbury are not favorable because in UK the business conditions have a huge pressure and this also leads to impact the attitudes of the customers. Economic factors: two most important elements of economic factors are inflation in the food prices and unemployment. This will lead to demand as a result the food products will decrease. Social factors: This can be beneficial if Sainsbury could develop non food products in its value chain. This will enhance the customers because they prefer one stop shopping. There are other social factors also which have resulted to increase the female workforce and thus help in terminating the population. There was a marketing theme launched being Cook and Save that promoted the message of easy cooking (Angelis, 2014). Technological factors: technology has a positive impact on the business operations. In Sainsbury there is growth that is based on online or web based operations of the business. Sainsbury should more focus on online operational work so that it can help in expanding their overall business. Also it is estimated that Sainsburys online food delivery service is expanding. Environmental factors: It is the sole responsibility for every organization that it maintains its internal environment. Sainsbury adopted reduce, reuse, recycle approach to minimize waste and recycle whatever the team could do. Legal factors: there was a law imposed that a new tax will be imposed on highly fatty and processed foods. Sainsbury adapted to this new tax and also took initiatives to modify its products (Steiner, 2014). To review existing business plans and strategies of Sainsbury: An analysis is to be made regarding the current business plans of Sainsbury in the current market of UK. The most important goal of the company is to mainly focus in meeting customers needs. The existing business plans of Sainsbury mainly focused on contributing to customers passion more effectively so that the company is able to maximize more profit out of its customers and also Sainsbury can provide excellent results at lower prices. The company had strategized on increasing the growth of complementary non food services so that it can give the customers a one shop shopping availability and this can act as a strategy to be implemented to accelerate the growth and quality of the food products as well for its customers. The company must also review on its existing business channels and develop a strategy so that more number of stores could be opened up resulting in growth and economy of Sainsbury. In UK there were many other fresh stores that were developing in the food chain and retail market therefore it was necessary to ensure that Sainsbury could bring in some unique product differentiation so that the new stores cannot gain maximum productivity in terms of Sainsburys annual profits are being considered (Buluma, Keror Bonuke, 2013). To develop options for strategic planning of Sainsbury Sainsbury had laid upon a strong focus on its strategic planning aspect so that the management team could enhance its business effectively. Sainsbury had the strategy to increase the prices and make it under one particular pricing strategy. Asda and Tesco are the two main competitors of Sainsbury in UK. So the company can compare the prices of its food products with those two retail chains and then accordingly fix the prices of the products. The company should also focus on the ads and other promotional campaigns so that the company is able to make the message finally reach to its customers and it is speeded widely in the market (Chan Park, 2014). SWOT analysis of Sainsbury should be conducted so that it helps to differentiate it from other companies and also act as a strategic management tool. Strengths: Sainsbury is considered to be one of the largest retail food chain in UK. The company maintains an excellent staff and workforce that helps to achieve business objectives easily. Also Sainsbury as a brand provides marvelous service to its customers. The company have more than 800 supermarkets and stores in UK. Weakness: It has been found out that the prices of some food products are higher than that of its competitors in the UK market. Opportunities: Sainsbury has the opportunity to expand its business in all parts of the world with more number of retail stores running successfully and its business and growth is also expanding as a result. Threat: the biggest challenge that Sainsbury was facing was the fear of achievement from its competitors like Tesco, ASDA and Morrison. Constructing a Strategy plan for Sainsbury: Sainsbury must construct a strategic plan in the next five years so that the company is able to maximize its efficiency. Sainsbury must focus towards developing a Sustainability plan so that the company can create an environmental campaign that would act as a revolutionary step welcomed in UK and this can answer all the criticisms that Sainsbury is facing currently in the market. This plan is mainly created so that Sainsbury is able to fulfill all its obligations and the challenges faced by the company could be minimized. It can be suggested to Sainsbury to develop ways so that it can reduce the emissions of the company as well as of its brand suppliers at least by 50% (Ebner, 2014). If this is the target the company promises to build upon then by next five years the company will be able to reach sustainability towards its environment. Also the company should focus on bringing upon packaging designs that could be recycled. The products one bought from Sainsbury, after its use, the pa ckages can be recycled back so that it aids to maintain the environmental sustainability as well. Another strategic plan for Sainsbury was that the company could develop its range of products in a different quadrant altogether to bring the company towards strategic focus. The company could focus more in selling non food products such as clothing and electronics so that the company could penetrate into more diversification of its range of products. To examine factors that affect organizational strategy plan of Sainsbury: One of the most important factor that adversely affects the strategic plans of Sainsbury was its brand name and brand image that the company is been able to create over the years along with the corporate and organizational culture that was maintained at Sainsbury. All the employees of Sainsbury were very much presentable. For any big company a customer is termed as one of the key determinant that is responsible for the companys growth and sales in the future. Customers will not only see the availability of the products but will also ensure that how the product is been provided or the service been offered to the customers. For this the body language towards the customer is an important aspect that is been noticed by the customers. Good customer service will always ensure that feedback is generated to check the products satisfaction level in the minds of the consumers. There are employees that are coming from different cultural backgrounds but it is the hierarchy of Sainsbury to treat all the employees equally without any discrimination (Ercan Koksal, 2013). Plans to implement the strategy: Sainsbury being one of the largest food chain retailers mainly focuses to deliver high quality food products at competitive prices. But due to enormous competition that the company is facing the company must plan to gain an added competitive advantage through introducing loyalty benefits for the customers, using more promotional offers to tap the market potential and increase its growth (Olsen, 2012). The company should do the following to implement the plans and strategies: To receive reports regularly on the status of the fuel that is been disposed off from the main branch store. To make a daily report of current situation of the business and provide creative ideas to improve the overall business position. To receive reports on the food products, its quality been checked regularly and reports should also been made on having additional stocks of products. To make some short term plans on next months targets. To keep a review of the planning data. References: Angelis, J. (2014). Strategic management of global manufacturing networks.Production Planning Control, pp.1-2. Buluma, P., Keror, I. and Bonuke, J. (2013). 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