Excellent customer service is a way to set the organization apart from its competitors. Differentiation can be achieved through fast and correct execution of product ordering. To improve on the order process it is important to have the correct information provided in a timely fashion to all divisions. For integration to be successful information must be available throughout the entire supply chain. The main problem is with Woodson Chemical Company is the lack of management and communication across all divisions within the organization creating bottlenecks throughout the operations.
There are several sub problems seen throughout the organization at different levels of management and production. There is poor internal communication between departments and divisions leading to poor data flow back out to the customer causing customer service to constantly suffer blows. Information technology is lacking that all divisions lacking a key system to reference and use to provide detailed information not only to the customer but to all other divisions of Woodson Chemical. Sales across most of the divisions are showing signs of leveling off and becoming stagnant or even in some cases sales are falling off.
Lack of integration is seen due to the lack of information technology. Woodson may be able to serve the common customer if they are able to merge resources and provide better information to its customers. According to the case a competitive advantage in the chemical industry can be gained from a focused market position, good raw materials supply, and a lean efficient organizational structure. Possible answers to achieve integration within Woodson Chemical Company and throughout the supply chain. Combine forces with other divisions and with supply chain partners to achieve alliances and greater efficiency in resource utilization.
Join with raw material suppliers and transportation suppliers to create alliances to allow for the stream of supplies and delivery of goods meet the demands of the customers as well as the manufacturing facilities. Entering into long term relationships with customers will allow Woodson Chemical to plan ahead for future product orders based on customer history and allow for operations to run smoother with the anticipated orders rather than having to mass produce fulfilling one order when they could be preparing for the order over a longer period of time.
As with all plans on improvement there are risks and benefits to each option. The risks with management at Woodson Chemical are losses associated with the potential failure from the implemented improvements. If the improvements are not successful they could see a loss of investment. With the failure to improve Woodson can lose its competitive advantage. With all of these potential losses to management they could also lose the faith employees once had for the corporate management. Benefits to management would be a greater competitive advantage, improved employee faith and morale leading to better productivity.
With these successes from management relationships across the divisions would strengthen and allow for a stronger supply chain. The risks to Woodson Chemical North American product line distribution are, having to correct operations and move them closer to the corporate office. If failure is seen in the American product line distribution the company will have to regain the trust of the employees and with this change they will have to overcome the obstacle that some people are against change.
The benefits to Woodson Chemical the product line distribution in North America improves is that there would be a greater demand in product and increase revenues for the company. Improvement would also strengthen the relationships between customers and their suppliers. Information technology would improve the distribution of the production line in North America. There would also be fewer questions in regards to supply providing that there would be stronger relationships between the raw materials suppliers the transportation suppliers.
The risks associated with improvements in management in relation to better quality of customer service is that valuable information would have to be disclosed to customers that would be very value to their competitors and potentially lead to other failures for Woodson Chemical. The benefits in regards to North American customers is the service through trusting relationships will allow for less product uncertainty and allow Woodson to have higher order fill rates and faster response times to fill orders. If customer services could be improved under perfect conditions the costs would be lower leading to higher profits.
With better customer service there would be higher volumes of sales creating higher profits and improving the revenues across the board for Woodson. All members of management must be able to effectively communicate across all divisions to better serve each other. Management must have a willingness to share information to all of those across the supply chain so that all involved can better predict the materials needed to produce products all the way to shipping the end product to the customer to better serve the customer. According to the case Ms.
Sanders is not the upmost authority of the company and their problems. She has some idea of the current issues facing Woodson but lacks full knowledge of all issues expressed by the customer. Woodson Chemical may face similar issues outside of its North American operations since one third of this business is conducted overseas according to the case. Operations for the company expand the internationally thus making the communication across the divisions and from management must be sound and must be relayed onto suppliers and the customers.
As in all industries when communication internationally the different cultural needs will need to be looked at to ensure communication does not continue to break down and create more problems for Woodson when improvements to customer service are critical to maintain its position in the market. The main solution Woodson should focus on is to combine forces with other divisions and with supply chain partners to achieve alliances and greater efficiency in resource utilization.
They can achieve this by creating a centralized database for all division to use to provide information to the suppliers, customers, corporate management, and internally across the divisions. Customers should have a high amount of access to this information to allow the customers to track order history, order fulfillment, and other logistical issues they may have with their order. Along with implementing the central database Woodson should focus more efforts into just in time ordering and production to cut down on inventory costs to reduce the amount of money they have to spend annually on warehousing.
