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Arab Open University Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)

Academic Year Branch: Course Title:Business functions in context I Student Name: Fahad Mohammad Alnemer Section Number: 2013 2014 Semester: First Program:Business Studies Course Code:B203A Student ID: 101124475 Tutor Name:

1201

Allocated Marks

Questions Weight Marks Criteria Marks

Q1 30

Mark details 2Q 2Q 40 30

Total (100)

Deduction 100

Presentation (0-4)

Referencing (0-4)

Word Count (0-4)

E-Library (0-4)

Total deduction (0-16)

Students Total Mark (total marks total deductions)

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Sustainable chain

Supply chain management could be complex or simple, andall chains which involve equal elements can be handledby the same way. Asimple supply chain consist of many elements, are linked to handle products along it. a process of supply chain could be started and ended with a customer.supply chain frequently changes and that will affect any organization future strategy . company should adapt flexibility to develop and implement logistics strategy .You will know the define a company's supply chain, and you will realize the three management levels.
Supply chain:

Information,materials and services, are the main consistence of supply chain at many differentorganizations, which shapethe producing and deliveringservice or product to the consumer. management of supply chain is essentiallymanaging the flow of,information,materials and services from -input- raw material through-process- factories and storages to the -output- end consumer. Actually, several scholars argue that survival of any firm in therecent business will not competition between firms itself as far as competition of supplies chain in the firms.

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Sustainable activities

A sustainable business mean, organization is able to maintain and apply green-environment friendly-processes, during all manufacturing activities as much as maintaining a profits. Sustainable is not only sustain the essential environmental resources, but also maintain all others resources, including social ,human, customers, resources. Sustainable businesses is ability to eliminatethe harm of products or keep it at a safe level. reaching customer needs should be work, at the same time, with treating the environment as well. Sustainable development can care all of investors,customers, and the environment.Sustainable corporate adapt practices which focuses on ability of company to change its production towards reducethe waste of production and sustainable best performs and continue process surveying and improving that activities.
Conclusion:

Either your business recommend the simple or complex supply chain ,it is the main factor of success or fail any business. complexity of supply chain come from the business size and the multitude of numbers of items that are produced.supply chain in simple form is having products you have purchased them from suppliers, and sale them to customers.

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IKEA practices

Industry is the production of good or service and sale them. Industries can be classified in various ways. So, industry is oftendivided into three sectors: primary, secondary and tertiary.Primary or extractive industries is taking out things which formed by nature, like farming cropsor take outminerals and fuel from ground ,Secondaryis manufacturing and constructing industries; making, build or assemble products. manufactures usually use the raw materials .Examples of manufactures are furniture, cars, books, chocolate and soon. Tertiary or service industries in other meaning ,services are not physical goods for examples of treatment in hospitals, banks and transport. my can divide services to two types , direct services to the people like police, hospitals ,hairdressing, so on. and commercial services to the organization -business- like. business post , business insurance, etc.
How different sectors of industry are linked together:

Therere many serials procedures that can link thatindustries stages in the chain of production. and make at as a part of the total supply chain. through each of thesesupply chainorganizations can work in multi stages - processes- hard in order to be typical and make

value. These sectors of industry can be clarify as:

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1- Primary- extractive- industries is taking out things which formed by nature, like farming crops or take outminerals and fuel from ground. 2- Secondary- manufacturing and constructing - industries; making, building or assembling products. manufactures usually use the raw materials in the productions .Examples for manufacturing: furniture, cars, books, chocolate and etc. 3- Tertiaryor service industries in other meaning ,services are not physical goods for examples of treatment in hospitals, banks and transport. my can divide services to two types , direct services to the people like police, hospitals ,hairdressing, so on. and commercial services to the organization -business- like. business post , business insurance and etc. All these sectors can be linked with many value that is added to the production to make it worth.
IKEA influences these sectors to adopt sustainable practices:

Primary sector: in IKEA they designtheir products. in design stage, IKEA checks products if its meet quality standers for efficient function. one of mainaimin IKEA is low price is considered beside producing well designed, functional home furniture available foreveryone. IKEA works closely with primary sector suppliers toensure a sustainable impact. (An IKEA case study (2006) Reference 4

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ikea/building-a-sustainable-supply-chain/the-primarysector.html#axzz2n9zpacW9

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Secondary sector: inIKEA they designmost oftheir products so they can get benefitfromminimum amount of resources to make the best products. For examples, theyset resources aside by using hollow legs in furniture. IKEA also has a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). the project between IKEA and WWF have is promoting the sustainable use of natural resources. Thats toextend and keep forests from extinction which might be used in the future. Tertiary sector: Also inIKEA , they add value to their productsby retail stores ,they cut down middle stage and buy direct to the customers without mediation. IKEA owns more than 260 stores in over the world. Although IKEA cannot simply achieve the developing profitability and market share but, I think if they change their strategy and go to be franchising company, theseattitude will push IKEA to achieve better on industrial field over the long term ambition and to be the leader in their field.
Conclusion:

Nowadays supply chain become more complex than ever, companies have a wide range of selection inactivities. because the customer demand raised and competition become very high. Consumers are the IKEA'scommitment to be sustainableby adapting partnership strategy with a lot oforganizations like, UNICEFandWWF.

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IKEA now, is considered fortheir consumers and suppliers to be the best responsible organization in their filedwhich can depend on.

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Competition

Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is elegance degree that any organization achieved with competitors to enable it to every time outperform them. A sustainable competitive advantage (SCA),also known as when a company hold value creation processes and situation that only cannot be easily imitated by other company which lead to the creation of above normal charter.
The effect of an organizations sustainable practices in gaining competitive advantage

Organizations can affect on gaining competitive advantage by using these attributes:

It should be an exceptionaladvantage between a current and potential competition of organization. It must be costly, in the logic that it extract opportunities anddefuse threats in a company environment It cannot be equal substitutes for the resource that are valuable. It must be incorrectly imitable. This because of three causes:

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1. Company ability to obtain a resources which are dependent upon exceptional past history situation. 2. The resources which have been possessed by the company and sustained competitive of company is causally unclear. 3. Generating resources makes company`s advantage to be public complicated, such as factors related to culture which enable exclusive amongst managers.

Examples: Companies that havefounded these sustainabilitytypes of s initiatives contain: 1. Nestl Waters,maker of Deer Park, Arrowhead and Poland Spring water brands, which has reduced the mass of its production of plastic bottles by 15% that reducing the amount of waste that the product landfills while also reducingits manufacturing and transportation costs. 2. Wal-Mart, whose has360 of sustainability program hasreduced annual shipping container by 500 units, preventing the uses of 1,000 barrels of oil and 3,800 trees while netting the trade giant cost savings of $2.4 million. 3. Toyota and Motorola, is one of other companies that benefited from the quality revolution, such as luxury quality as achance to process improvements instead of a cost.

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Conclusion:

Finally, A sustainable competitive advantage can be described as one of the most procedure to be continued for a major amount of time, even in the existence of the competition. advantage of sustainability in computation will recover the maintenance and the improvement of the company's position in the market. It allows business also to stand facing its competitors longer time.

References:
BUSINESS LOGISTIC &SCM. 2007. An Introduction to Supply Chain Management . [ONLINE] Available at: http://logisticsmanagementandsupplychainmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/a n-introduction-to-supply-chain-management/. [Accessed 04 December 13]. United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Supply Chains. 2010. Sustainable Supply Chains Resources &Pracices. [ONLINE] Available at: http://supplychain.unglobalcompact.org/. [Accessed 01 December 13]. INFORMS. 2010. Sustainable Supply Chain Basics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.informs.org/content/download/262960/2472281/file/OverviewSustainable-SCs.pdf. [Accessed 01 December 13]. THE TIMES 100 BUSINESS CASE STUDIES. 2006. Building a sustainable supply chain An IKEA case study Read more. [ONLINE] Available at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ikea/building-a-sustainable-supplychain/introduction.html#axzz2nAwxmVeY. [Accessed 01 December 13].