Business Strategy Case Study: Tartan Corporation

The difficulties I had in obtaining my best results when comparing it to the solution we calculated in class had to do with my strategy. My beginning strategy was really no strategy, I just played around with the idling and purchasing. That strategy allowed me to achieve throughput, but did not allow for me to meet the fixed cost. After continually watching the habits of idling and parts that assisted me in finding a better strategy. I noticed that the left A1 machine can only contribute parts to C7. That means I should only buy parts for it when C7 is running. I start by purchasing 50 units in G1. Then double digit numbers in E1 and C1. E1 should always have units running through it because it contributes to both the 100 and 50 products demanded. I always

Before we can talk about the Strategy Hudson Bay uses we must first answer the the question of what a Corporate and Business Strategy is and how The Bay inaugurates this into their company;

In order for a firm to create competitive advantage, it needs to create a set of activites that can deliver value to the specific product and services it offers to its customers. To start talking about my life as a “value chain”, I may need to compare it to a specific product”. This is going to take precedence both in my personal life and professional life.

The value chain, made by Michael Porter, is really important to see how a company structure is created. The value chain is constituted by two parts: support activities (firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, procurement) and primary activities (inbound logistic, operations, outbound logistic, marketing and sales, service). (Johnson et al. 2011, p.97-99)

One of Porter’s main contributions was Porter’s value chain. The value chain is all the activities an organization undertakes to create value for a customer. According to Porter, there are two ways to gain an edge over competitors. A firm must provide comparable but value but perform the activities on the chain at a lower cost, or; Perform services in a unique way

“Competitive Advantage introduces the concept of the value chain, a general Framework for thinking strategically about the activities involved in any business and assessing their relative cost and role in differentiation”. Michael Porter, (1985).

Value chain analysis looks at every step a business goes through, from raw materials to the eventual end-user. The goal is to deliver maximum value for the least possible total cost. It is a systematic approach to examining the development of competitive advantage. The most basic breakdown of primary functions includes inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and service. People should use the other models and frameworks within this software to further differentiate between, and add to, these domains. Product Innovation is one area that is not normally included in the de jure model but is often included in the de facto model. Value Chain Analysis describes the activities that take place in

Using Porter’s value chain and referring back to previous case answers, describe how value can be increased for both customers and the Tilba Cheese Factory. Consider both primary and secondary activities. (10 points)

A value chain is a chain of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the market. The concept comes from business management and was first described and popularized by Michael Porter (Porter, 2013)

Technology is constantly renewing itself in today’s markets. The growth and changes in technology are so rapid that most systems and software programs are out of date or archaic by the time they are purchased. These changes have challenged The Dim Lighting Company in the realization of their target operating goals in the last two years. This has also resulted in a decline in profit margins for the company.

Value chain is an approach to know how an item or activities create value for consumers. The most of value provides to consumers, the most of competitive advantage an organization build. In this analysis, value chain model has separated into primary and support activities. Primary activities are included in the physical creation of the item and service. On the other hand, support activities give the inputs and infrastructure that enable the primary activities to happen. This value chain model can be refer to below figure 5.

Q1. How did Sony become a diversified company? What was the rational for entering the entertainment sector? Was it a good choice?

The value chain analysis (shown in appendix) was also generated by Michael Porter. This model is referred to “identifying ways to increase the efficiency of the chain” (Investopedia, n.d.). Furthermore, the overall objective is to produce maximum value with minimum total cost and establish a competitive advantage.

The idea of a value chain was first suggested by Michael Porter (1985) to depict how customer value accumulates along a chain of activities that lead to an end product or service. Porter describes the value chain as the internal processes or activities a company performs “to design, produce, market, deliver and support its product.” He further states that “a firm’s value chain and the way it performs individual activities are a reflection of its history, its strategy, its approach to implementing its strategy, and the underlying economics of the activities themselves.” Porter describes two major categories of business activities: primary activities and support activities. Primary activities are directly involved in transforming inputs into outputs and in delivery and after-sales support. These are generally also the line activities of the organization. They include:

Porter´s value chain model shaped our way of understanding and analyzing industries for the past 30 years. It explores the links between the activities to be undertaken in order to commercialize a product in the market and how these activities add value to the final delivery (Peppard and Rylander, 2006). It focus on the value creation processes within the firms, not on the inter firms links in the value chain (Kothandaraman and Wilson, 2001) and how the different links influence the competitiveness of the industries (Peppard and Rylander, 2006).