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Kellogg’s Case Study
Question One:
There are three key sectors of the supply chain, namely; primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. The former encompasses all processes and activities geared towards transforming natural resources into primary products which are then to be used in manufacturing finished products (Choi, 2011). For instance, the forestry industry falls under the primary sector bearing in mind the fact that it focuses on transforming a natural resource, i.e. trees, into a primary product (timber).
On the other hand, the secondary sector is concerned with transforming the primary products generated from the primary sector into finished products. For instance, Kellogg’s is a secondary sector entity considering that it relies on raw materials, such as cocoa, sugar and wheat, which it obtains from its primary suppliers to manufacture different consumer goods like snacks and porridge flour (Kellogg, 2013).
The tertiary sector is normally regarded as the final stage of a given supply chain exercises, whose major emphasis is on facilitating the efficient provision of services to customers. Among the numerous firms which are part of this supply chain sector include those operating within the banking, transportation and insurance industries, among others.
There are two main occasions under which certain sections of the primary sector may end up operating as retailers, one of these being when there is a lot of concern about the nature of the products being offered to customers (Lawrence et al, 2011). For instance, a fisherman may decide to sell fish directly to customers at the shores of the lake where he had gone fishing if he is convinced that there is no way he is going to preserve the fish well for a few days before he decides to sell them in the market. Secondly, players within the primary sector may be compelled to deal directly with customers in situation when there is increased demand for their
Bibliography: Choi, T., 2011, Supply Chain Coordination under Uncertainty, New York: Springer. Kellogg, 2013, who we are, retrieved from http://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/marketplace-commitment.html Lawrence, K., Klimberg, R. & Miori, V., 2011, the Supply Chain in Manufacturing, Distribution, and Transportation: Modeling, Optimization, and Applications, London: CRC Press. Leeman, J., 2010, Supply Chain Management: Fast, Flexible Supply Chains in Manufacturing and Retailing, Norderstedt: BOD – Books on Demand.