Discussion—Commoditizing the Enterprise

The ability to accurately predict customer demand is at the heart of every company’s effort to achieve superior supply chain performance. Forecasting is the name of the game.

Management bears the fiduciary responsibility of not only correctly forecasting and planning the supply chain but also optimizing it based on industry best practices. Those best practices may include outsourcing strategies and technology solutions that streamline operations. These efforts may trend organizations toward commonality and make their supply chain resemble those of their competitors.

Using the module readings, University online library resources, and the Internet, respond to the following:

• If you were in charge of making key operational decisions, would you use the approach of using industry best practices or not?
  • Provide reasons in support of your answer.
  • Give a specific example to justify your position, and then give an example that counters your argument.
• In your opinion, what happens to a company’s core competencies when it divests itself of its noncore functions and outsources them?

Write your initial response in approximately 300–500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Do the following when responding to your peers:

• Read all your peers’ postings.
• Comment on the following points:
  • Discuss your peers’ opinions on the impact on a company’s core competencies when it outsources its noncore functions.
  • Explain how these efforts can differentiate these firms.
  • Provide your point of view on your peers’ posts regarding the commoditizing of the supply chain.