INTRODUCTION

Integral to the success of any commercial venture depends on the efficiency of the supply chain management system in use. It is against this background that this report will fundamentally conduct an exhaustive look into the supply management chain model adopted and used by the Thomas Built Buses company based in North Carolina, a leading manufacturer of commercial school buses for the American and Canadian markets. The essay will particularly be limited to the operations of Thomas Built Buses over the last fiver years alongside how the company has used its current supply management system to make significant gains in significant markets in the United States which was hitherto considered inconceivable.

Critical to the operations of Thomas Built Buses lies the fact that exactness, efficiency, continuity and punctuality are right in the height of all that the company is about—within the context of the supply chain management process in use. This has being translated into the timely delivery of the required raw materials and supplies that are used to produce its finished goods. But most importantly, the scale of doing so is in many ways making the cost of production fall whilst facilitating the maximization of profits not to even mention the overall contribution this has on the brand name of Thomas Built Buses.

Typically, it is not farfetched to look at supply chain management case study from the perspective of the significant successes chucked by some of the pioneering rapid response corporations within specific segments on the market. Indeed, the process of growth achieved by most of these model corporations such as some of the electronic and hi tech giants in Silicon Valley can best be gauged by understanding the transition phases that characterized their historical existence. It becomes evident from their growth trend that much of what has been achieved came on the heels of viably active supply chain management policies. Put together, the fundamental lesson that can be obtained here is that the sweeping dynamism in supply chain management augmented by hi tech innovations provides answers to deep seated questions regarding how to achieve strategic potency in the overall quest to remain competitive. Consequently, replicating some of the best practices in industry is certainly the best way to go even when it comes to questions of supply chain management.

Environmental Background

Spanning a period of over seven decades, Thomas Built Buses has gained the reputation for the efficient manufacture of large public buses of every diverse types and uses for its clients. As of 2010 the five hundred million dollars worth company, located in North Carolina has provided buses on a regular basis to its customers with adequate precision, with this success has come an increasing level of sophistication in the process of its supply chain. Among other things, the company has to make ready to access responses to a host of vendors across several locations thus making it imperative for the company to be able to be at par with the demands of the timely delivery of its products at every given stage of its production process.

It is with this in mind that this report will fundamentally, seek to conduct an exhaustive analysis into the contending internal dynamics of both the micro and macro factors that work together to ensure the efficient production of its goods and services within the milieu of contemporary dictates. Critical to the process in use at Thomas Built Buses is a planning procedure that is electronically coordinated to ensure that its operations are sensitively integrated within a comprehensive supply chain planning, manufacturing insights, visibility solutions among other things to ensure that the bulk of the sophistication that comes with the production process whilst within the same breadth increasing the individual parts of the operational processes.