Efficient production and logistics methods can improve competitive position and enhance customer service. What to buy, where to produce, and how to manage a global manufacturing system, are all key factors. ECCO's management team seeks to maximize value while lowering costs—a difficult balance to maintain. Examine the extent to which they do this effectively.
Turn your attention to the production and logistics methods used by ECCO. In analyzing the company's global supply chain, consider how well the supply chain configuration matches with the company's products in order to determine where efficiencies could be introduced.
First, describe the strategy used by the company to produce and deliver its shoes. Then, list the unique factors of both the product and the market demand and determine whether they are satisfied by this strategy. In what ways could the strategy be modified in order to increase the corporate profit or reduce the price to the consumer? Also, given what you know about the trends in global supply chains, consider the reasons why ECCO may have chosen to locate its production and distribution facilities in their current locations, and then make a recommendation on how and why their strategy should change over the next three to five years.
Paper should be 6–8 pages in APA format.
S w 908M14 ECCO A/S — GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN MANAGEMENT Professor Bo Bernhard Nielsen, Professor Torben Pedersen and Management Consultant Jacob Pyndt wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone XXXXXXXXXX; fax XXXXXXXXXX; e-mail XXXXXXXXXX. Copyright © 2008, Ivey Management Services Version: (A XXXXXXXXXX Despite the summer, the weather was hazy on that day in May 2004 as the airplane took off from Hongqiao International Airport, Shanghai. The plane was likely to encounter some turbulence on its way to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. The chief operations officer (COO) of the Danish shoe manufacturer ECCO A/S (ECCO), Mikael Thinghuus, did not particularly enjoy bumpy flights, but the rough flight could not overshadow the confidence and optimism he felt after his visit to Xiamen in southeast China. This was his third visit in three months. During 2003/2004, ECCO spent substantial resources on analyzing where to establish production facilities in China. On this trip, together with Flemming Brønd, the production director in China, Thinghuus had finalized negotiations with Novo Nordisk Engineering (NNE). NNE possessed valuable experience in building factories in China, experience gained through their work for Novozymes and Novo Nordisk....
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