Supply Chain Management - a Basf Case Study

Journal of Supply Chain management and other Business issues

BASF Case Study – Challenges in Supply Chain Management

Thomas Schuster, Daan Cramer, Niek Nigg, Bart van Gorp, Myrthe Jansen, Alla Lashmanova, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Bollen

University College Maastricht Business Press, Universiteit Maastricht
Zwingelput 4, 6220 MD Maastricht

Abstract. This paper primarily discusses and analyzes theories and implications of supply chain management. A case study of the German chemical company BASF is going to illustrate main concerns regarding the topic of logistics and especially outlines the challenges and problems companies face when expanding in other geographical areas. BASF failed to realize the importance of an efficient supply chain management, and the related implications for successful implementations of strategies in all layers of the command chain.

Key Words: BASF, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, South East Asia, Strategy

1 Introduction

The Asian economies, especially its South Eastern regions, recorded extraordinarily high growth rates in the last decades. This development triggered vast changes in these market structures and also had an influence on the local people's consuming behavior. Western corporations immediately realized lucrative business opportunities and started to expand into those regions. On the other hand, running a multinational or international corporation, which is active in multiple geographical regions, requires sophisticated information technology and an efficient supply chain management. However, only the past two decades showed vast advances in information technology.
Similarly to other multinational companies, the German chemical company BASF at first failed to realize increasing impact of an efficient supply chain management on the overall business strategy. These implementations caused new logistical challenges, however. Still, BASF made due to a lack of expertise in this field and other challenges wrong

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