1. There are various factors that need to be considered before sourcing products overseas. Such factors are aimed at ensuring that the best deal is realized by the sourcing parties. The first factor is the quality of the products. The sourcing agents need to determine if the products that they intend to source meet the quality demanded by the customers (Wojcik 2018). They also need to determine if the supplier in overseas market is reliable. In this case, the suppliers need to be able to deliver the products as and when they are needed, thus meeting the consumers’ demand. Another factor that needs to be considered is the cost of the products and the entire process (Keegan & Green 2015). The costs involved in the sourcing process need to be determined so as to meet the cost limits set by the company. Costs also need to be considered so as to minimize it, to retain the competitiveness of the firm in the market.
There are various advantages and disadvantages that come with sourcing oversee. The pros include the ability to purchase what the domestic market does not produce (Bartlett & Beamish 2018). The oversee market also presents a variety of products and suppliers, thus enhancing the selection of the best products (Kotabe & Helsen 2014). On the other hand, the cons include the strenuous plans involved in the sourcing. The oversees sourcing takes much time to complete, thus eating into the rest of the companies activities. The planning consumes more costs as compared to the domestic shopping, thus increasing the operational costs of the company.
Various factors prevent the forms from sourcing the products domestically. The first factor is the poor quality associated with the domestic products. Also, the domestic products may be quite expensive, thus surpassing the sourcing budget of the company. The domestic market may also be lacking a variety of products, thus limiting the choice of the customers.
2. Based on the information provided, the importing of the lamps may take a period of not less about 70 days. This means that the entire sourcing process will take 3 months. Therefore, each of the processes involved will need to work within the timeline so as to ensure that the lead time is honored. The products ought to be delivered 2 weeks before an advertisement is done. The production process needs to take about 30 days to complete. Shipping would be expected to take about 10 days to reach the destiny of the products. Customs and the port of entry arrangements need to take about 15 days. The distribution center processing needs to take not more than 10 days while domestic transportation needs to take about 10 days as well. Therefore, all the activities will be subjected to the need to have the products delivered in the buyer’s place within the 70 days. This is because the advertisements to attract the customers cannot be commenced before the products are in the storage 2 weeks in advance. This allows the advertisement to be done of products that are well cleared, inspected and confirmed about their status. Therefore, the customers are invited to purchase products that are in place and those whose quality as well as quantity are known. The retailer also does this to ensure that he remains reliable to the customers and thus offers all that he claims to have in the storage.
3. The various product development team members have some expertise. First, they have the costing expertise. Thus, they are able to determine the cost effect involved in the in the manufacture of the lamps (Cavusgil et al, 2014). In addition, they are experts in time management. They are able to determine the time that it might take to have the lamps produced and availed to the customers. They are also experts in determining the offer provided by the rest of the market, and thus matching the taste of the customers. Some of the communication issues that may arise include lack of continuous communication among the team members. It may also arise that there lacks effective coordination from the team leader, thus creating confusion. The team members are several, and therefore there might arise some conflicting ideas and suggestions among them.
4. There are various weak points involved in the sourcing process that may allow the inducement if unethical behaviors. The main area that may create the unethical behavior is having only two people engaging the suppliers (Timmer et al, 2015). In the case under consideration, only two people are entrusted by their organization to ensure that all the products are delivered in time. Therefore, they might collude with the suppliers at the time of making payments so as to increase the amount of the goods to their benefit. Also, there is a risk that the approval of the quotation is done by the same people that send the requests. This creates a challenge in the enhancement of fairness for the people that provide their quotations for consideration (Bregman et al, 2015). The two people that counter check the quotations might be lured into taking bribes to have some of the preferred candidates given the tender to make the supplies. This compromises the aim of providing high-quality products to the retailer. Therefore, there is need to have a better process of sourcing. There needs to be in place a well-segregated network of all the responsibilities (Kadolph & Marcketti 2016). In this case, the job of deciding the successful bidder should be given to more people. Having one person or two looking at the quotations interferes with the level of integrity of the process.
References
Bartlett, C. A., & Beamish, P. W. (2018). Transnational management. Cambridge University Press.
Bregman, R., Peng, D. X., & Chin, W. (2015). The effect of controversial global sourcing practices on the ethical judgments and intentions of US consumers. Journal of Operations Management, 36, 229-243.
Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia.
Kadolph, S. J., & Marcketti, S. B. (2016). Textiles. Pearson.
Keegan, W. J., & Green, M. C. (2015). Global marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K. (2014). Global marketing management.
Timmer, M. P., Dietzenbacher, E., Los, B., Stehrer, R., & Vries, G. J. (2015). An illustrated user guide to the world input–output database: the case of global automotive production. Review of International Economics, 23(3), 575-605.
Wojcik, D. (2018). The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford University Press.
