Value Chain Activities

Question: Discuss about the case study of Value Chain Activities. Answer: Introduction to Value Chain Analysis There are different set of activities which any company in any specific industry needs to carry out so as to provide valuable services or products to its customers. It forms a very important part any companys competitive strategy (Fearne, 2012). It contains a set of primary and secondary activities which is presented in the next section. Fig. 1: Value Chain by Michael Porter Primary Activities The Primary activities are the one which the company needs to perform and excel in so as to create the value which will satisfy its customers. As per Michael Porters value chain (Fig. 1), the primary activities include Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Sales and Marketing and Service. These activities define the way the company operates and have direct impact on its reputation in the market. Secondary Activities The secondary activities support the primary activities to be performed by the company in order to create the valuable product or service. These include the activities like Procurement, Technology, Human Resource Management and Firm Infrastructure. These help the company to carry out their primary activities (Hollensen, 2015). Cost Advantages and Value Chain The company performs cost benefit analysis every time it starts its operations. These help in identifying the shortcomings in the value chain process. It also helps in getting to know the exact cost advantages that the company will achieve with the proper implementation of its value chain. Differentiation and Value Chain The value chain comprises of activities like logistics, operations, marketing where companies try to apply unique strategies which will give them a competitive edge over their competitors. This creates a differentiation between products and services provided by them with those of the competitors and help the company to provide valuable product to their customers. Technology and the Value Chain Technology acts as a supporting tool within the value chain. It helps the companies to enhance their primary activities with inclusion of newer technologies in the respective fields (Soosay, 2012). For example, the companies use latest supply chain tool to track their logistics and operations. The technology also helps in bringing all the departments within a company in the same platform. Linkages between Value Chain Activities The value chain activities are tightly linked with each other. All the activities are closely related and cannot provide value with any of the missing activity. All the primary activities are required to complete the supply chain cycle in the best possible manner. To complete the primary activities, supporting activities like human resource, technology, infrastructure and procurement are very much essential. Outsourcing Value Chain Activities Some of the value chain activities are generally outsourced to third party companies so as to allow the firm to focus on their core competency (Simatupang, 2014). Primary activities like Inbound and Outbound logistics are generally outsourced to logistics provider so as to keep the firms focus towards operations which will provide the product which will satisfy the customers. Conclusion In the above sections, we have discussed about the primary and secondary activities of the value chain analysis and its linkages with various other parameters. Companies try to differentiate themselves with other competitors with the help of value chain analysis. References Fearne, A., Garcia Martinez, M. and Dent, B., 2012. Dimensions of sustainable value chains: implications for value chain analysis. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(6), pp.575-581. Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Soosay, C., Fearne, A. and Dent, B., 2012. Sustainable value chain analysis-A case study of Oxford Landing from vine to dine. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(1), pp.68-77. Simatupang, T.M., Piboonrungroj, P. and Williams, S.J., 2014. The Emergence of Value Chain Thinking. Proceedings of T-LOG.