Analyze The Supply Chain Channels Of Uncle Brian’s Tourism Company

Question: Discuss about the Analyze The Supply Chain Channels Of Uncle Brians Tourism Company. Answer: Introduction The main aim of the following report is to analyze the supply chain channels, global logistics and other different strategic management elements of Uncle Brians tourism company. The researcher has started the project with a brief overview of the company and has proceeded with the discussion of the mentioned strategic elements of the company. Overview Uncle Brians is a tourism company based in Queensland of the country Australia. Headquartered in 40a Hannam Street, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia the company has a wide reputation both nationally and internationally to conduct rainforest tours (unclebrians.com.au). The tourism company operates tours both to Atherton Tablelands and Cape Tribulation. The most spectacular tour being the Fun Falls and Forest which is a spectacular journey along Arthelon Table land situated in North Queensland. The company operates a special bus known as the Gus, the wonder bus. The bus takes the tourists through stunning scenarios, a lush green rainforest and to exquisite and beautiful backgrounds. The rainforest tour is one of the most famous amongst the foreign individuals as well as the national citizens of the country. The mentioned company is one of the most well reputed tourism companies not only in Queensland but also across the island nation. The reputation of the company has been earned thr ough its well established network and its capability to provide the best possible services to the tourists. Their services start once a tourist books them online. The mentioned company of this report updates all the details of the areas that are to be visited by them and increases an appetite within them to visit the site. The tourists are accompanied by the agents of the company from the airport to the hotel and are provided with all the brochures and necessary details regarding the company and the rainforest tour. On the day of the tour the tourists are picked up from the hotel itse4lf and are taken for the tour. As mentioned earlier the tourists are taken in a special bus to the scenic places of Queensland and finally to the Fun Falls where the people are allowed to bath and have fun. Some of the other interesting places in this part of Queensland include the famous Babinda Boulders which is the famous rainforest of this region, Josephine Falls which is one of the most beautiful falls having the most exclusive swimming hole in Australia, A tea house where the guests are served tea and snacks and other food and beverages, Milla Milla Falls and last but not the least in any ways is the magnificent Lake Eacham which is a volcanic crater lake about a depth of 60 meters (Monczka et al. 2015). Supply chain/logistics management from the source to the customer Tourism is one of the major sources of foreign exchange earners and serves as one of the major economic contributors of any country (Slack, 2015). Tourism is said to be a multi layered industry where the products offered to the consumers are consumed in a very short span of time. The following industry can also be said to be very price sensitive and has a high level of intangibility. Like the other supply chains of the industry tourism also operates in business to business relationships and the supply chain management can be easily applied to deliver sustainability performance improvements alongside a clear financial performance by effectively working out to bring a positive change in the business operations of each and every supplier (Ahi Searcy, 2013). Every business organization has a product to offer for the customer. This provides almost every company with a proper supply chain. The supply chain has an impact on almost every other business function. Supply chain management is the management of almost every single element of the business that consists of information, money and time. The mentioned tourism company in Australia has a clear Supply Chain Logistics Management (Hill, Jones Schilling, 2014). The main aim of the supply chain management is to remove any forms of waste that may occur in the chain and improve the customer service provided to the tourists. The management of Uncle Brians ensures that no such wastes disrupt the smooth flow of the resources. The improved customer service is done by means of interlinked processes that are meant for preferred suppliers and to make sure that there is a bigger turnover (Stadtler, 2015). Reduction of product life cycles, increase in the competition, increase in the competitions have been the major forces that prompted the mentioned company to move away from physical logistics management to more technologically advanced supply chain management. Tourism supply chain of the mentioned company includes a number of different components like bars, restaurants, waste disposal, tea house, bus, fuel suppliers, water costume suppliers, water safety instruments and many others as such (journals.elseiver.com). Uncle Brians takes the tourists to bars and restaurants at the evening to refresh them and help them enjoy the tour (Peppard Ward, 2016). As mentioned earlier the company has a dedicated tea house in the core area of the rainforest which provides the tourists with a variety of food in the midst of the natural environment of the forest. The food is supplied by a eatery house which has a strategic tie up with Uncle Brians. Some of the foods are made by the chefs that are employed by the company itself (Pagell Shevchenko, 2014). The disposal of waste is an area of concern as the leftovers of the food and other items cannot be thrown in the forest and adjacent areas. The company has dedicated waste baskets which are cleared every d ay by the local forest department of the company. Next comes the fuel suppliers of the bus that the tourism company operates to ferry the tourists across the forests and the coastal areas of Queensland. The management of the company has a 6 month tie up with Caltex that is the main supplier of crude oil and fuel for the buses of the company. The company arranges special bath sessions for the tourists who can have a refreshing bath. The swimming costumes and the safety instruments are supplied by a local company which is owned by Uncle Brians. Thus the advanced supplier chain helps the company to conduct successful adventure tours in and around Queensland (Wheelen Hunger, 2017). Linkage between the company Activities and Theories Logistics and Supply Chain Management has a number of different definitions. Some researchers considers Supply chain as a much broader concept as because it consists of the concepts that encompasses logistics, while others understand logistics as comprising Supply Chain Management (Morschett, Schramm-Klein Zentes, 2015). There are lots of theories and activities as well as components involved in the conduction of smooth work by the mentioned company in this research. Thus Supply Chain Management is the main process of initiating the process where the buyer works with the suppliers to effectively carry out smooth business operations. This includes a variety of items like the product designing, planning, operations, logistics, delivery and many other related things with tourism. The company activities are directly related to the supply chain as because the chain helps to identify and supply the perfect products to the suppliers of the company (Touboulic Walker, 2015). To promote the supply chain management the company has to make sure that they establish a robust and well structured business case investment in sustainability initiatives from both their sides as well as from the side of the suppliers. A focus on the added values through sustainability measures isn undertaken to overcome the activities of low cost competition. Sourcing Strategy: Sourcing Strategy includes; Making or buying Decisions- The services provided by Uncle Brians are either provided directly or are outsourced. The back office activities of the mentioned company are outsourced to some of the leading IT Companies that carry on their operations in Australia. The company drastically improved its revenue within a short span of 2 years by following this following structure (Christopher, 2016). The main aim of the organization is to be one of the top tourism companies of Australia and provide the best services to the customers. Capacity management- Each and every product offered by tourism companies are subject to instability of demand. The company faces problems in the lean season when there is hardly any people to avail the tourist services. The company on the other hand faces shortage of human resources as well as other necessary resources whiles the annual Queensland festival (Scott et al. 2014). The company leases local guides and additional buses to meet the shortfalls in the demand. Manufacturing Management- In tourism, manufacturing component is limited to sectors like food and craft, mementos and other gift items. The service sector is thus an important consideration for the success of the tourism company (Pagell Shevchenko, 2014). Distribution Strategy Distribution strategy is one of the main considerations in Tourism business and the following company is no exception. The distribution strategy helps to improve the organizational performance of the business. The following structure has four divisions namely; One Stage System- Such a system provides direct sales from the primary suppliers to the consumers. Uncle Brians has its own dedicated website where customers can book their seats as well as hotel services. This helps the customers to directly avail the services without the intervention of any third party (Jacobs Chase, 2013). Two Stage System- The travel agent is involved in such a stage as the travelers takes the help of travel agents to book their tour services with Uncle Brians. Three Stage System- This particular stage involves two middlemen like retail agent traveler and wholesaler who makes all the arrangements regarding the tour programs with Uncle Brians. Four Stage System- The particular system involves a retail travel agent, wholesaler and additional middlemen who helps the mentioned tourism company to develop their brand image and improve the customer experience (emeraldinsight.com). Apart from this other components include accommodation, food and other benefits provided to travelers. Sustainability through the Value Chain To achieve proper value chain sustainability it is important to design and pack the products and services of the company in accordance to the environmental rules and regulations. The design aspect of the network of value chain includes the engineering and the production of the material that are to be supplied to the consumers for their consumption. As mentioned earlier the main products of the tourism companies are invisible as they offer tour services to the tourists. It is the duty of the management of Uncle Brians to present the tour programs of the company to the customers in an organized way so that it attracts the attention of a large number of customers (Jacobs Chase, 2013). The company has a competitive advantage in the marketplace given its ability to attract as large number of tourists, revenue earned and many more as such. The purchasing power of Uncle Brians to establish a proper supplier relationship is a very well established fact. However the company has earlier faced a number of problems with the suppliers because of some differences. The management of the company is thus very much focused on avoiding such mistakes in the future. The following issues are however critical to the understanding of the Supply Chain Management of the company (inderscience.com). The mass market industry is generally characterized by a number of standardized products of the company in which purchasing choice is driven by the features of the accommodation and the types of services that are provided by the company (Mangan Lalwani, 2016). But popular studies related to the customer interest in sustainability have revealed that the particular sector is turning out to be a concern for the company. The issues that arise in sustainability in the travel industry are attracting the eyes of financial concerns and are thus being integrated into different legislative rules and regulations. The management of Uncle Brians ensures that the company has a secured future (Mangan Lalw ani, 2016). The company is developing innovative ideas for the conduction of tours in different ways that can attract a lot more customers from its present strength and help the company to earn a healthy amount of profit in the coming days by sustaining the different market forces. 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