Outline the characteristics of future supplier relationships.

Considering the nature of supply chain design, describe outsourcing processes. Also, what is the appropriateness of outsourcing relative to the make-buy decision and vertical integration as these concepts affect managing the overall supply chain.

You have just started work as the Supply Chain Manager for Skateboards company These powered skate boards are a huge marketing success and the company owner now wants someone to look at his supply chain and see what efficiencies/savings can be made. One of your remits is to assess the supplier management strategy of the firm to ensure we are getting the most from our relationships in the supply network. You have asked (as a start) for a copy of this weeks purchases from Accounts and someone has kindly written some comments next to each entry on the payment run, this is printed overleaf. Look at this weeks purchases and think about the following;•Strategic importance of the item to the firm.•Supply risk to the firm (risk of non-exclusivity or even supply failure). The substitutability of the product.•The supplier relationship (b)  Next session you will be shown a matrix for categorising types of purchase and assigning suitable supplier strategies to pursue for each category.

A manufacturing organisation has successfully implemented a supply chain system. However, the organisation has also implemented other systems that contributes to other business process of the organisation. The data and information now needs to be shared across these systems thereby requiring the supply chain systems to be integrated.  From the perspective of data and information sharing explain how the supply chain systems can be integrated from different levels? What are the different types and discuss the pros and cons of the integration levels?