Analysis Of China Supply Chain Capabilities

Supply chain management has become for the ever-growing number of companies sourcing from China a competitive advantage by allowing to further reduce costs and be more responsive to market change. The coordination of operations amongst the participants in a supply chain (all the companies and organization involved in the making and delivering of a product) gives companies a competitive advantage in a fast paced economy.This research is intended to identify the difficulties in establishing and managing an efficient supply chain in China. This study focuses on China's logistics and supply chain capabilities; particularly supply chain operations capabilities, supply chain risks and the Chinese companies'capabilities to implement supply chain principles.China being a major supplier of finished and semi-finished goods for the world, it is important for companies sourcing from China to be well aware of China's strength and weaknesses in terms of logistics and supply chain management, so that they can reduce logistics costs, which are extremely high in china, select the right suppliers and develop an efficient supply chain system.A mixture of qualitative and quantitative method was used to conduct this research. Most of the facts come from literature reviews, surveys and data collected by various supply chain specialists in and outside china. The Supply-Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR model) was used as a reference to determine how competitive china is in terms of supply chain management. However, most of the material and surveys used are based on research made by foreign companies or foreign supply chain specialists.In conclusion, despite the unparalleled progress of the Chinese economy and tremendous efforts by the Chinese government in terms of infrastructure development, logistics and supply chain costs are still very high in China. It is still very difficult to implement supply chain principles due to regulatory barrier and infrastructureOn the other hand, manufacturing is still china's strongest asset and Chinese logistics providers are more and more aware of the challenges and are improving their service at a fast rate.This research even though it is not comprehensive provides an outline of China's current supply chain capabilities.