Introduction
Value is created across borders, not inside one firm
- A value chain is every activity that creates value — from raw materials to delivery.
- Apple designs in the USA, sources chips from Taiwan, displays from South Korea, assembles in China and India.
- Today companies compete as entire supply chains, not as single firms.
🌍5 countriesto build one iPhone
Learning objectives
Three outcomes, one connected story
- LO3 — Apply process analysis and evaluation tools to improve value chain performance.
- LO4 — Explain how procurement, production and distribution logistics integrate across the chain.
- LO5 — Analyse the evolution of global supply chains and evaluate the trends reshaping them.
🎯LO 3 · 4 · 5covered in this lecture
Analysing processes · LO3
Draw every step, then attack the delays
- A visual map of inputs, activities, decision points and outputs.
- Emirates passenger journey: booking → check-in → security → boarding → flight → baggage → feedback.
- Dubai International maps passenger flow to cut peak-season waiting; Amazon maps every warehouse step to enable same-day delivery.
🗺️8 stepsin one passenger journey — each one can be improved
Lean thinking · LO3
Separate what adds value from what doesn't
- Every activity is either value-added (assembly, packaging) or waste (waiting, storage).
- In smartphone manufacturing, waiting for a machine adds zero value — Lean removes it.
- Jebel Ali Free Zone companies use Lean to cut warehouse delays.
🔍0 valueis added while a product waits
Analysing processes · LO3
Map the sequence, then compare with the best
- Flowcharts show the operation sequence — supplier → warehouse → factory → distributor → retailer → customer — and expose duplicate work.
- Benchmarking compares your delivery time, inventory turnover and satisfaction with industry leaders.
- A UAE supermarket benchmarks against Carrefour UAE; Toyota benchmarks quality worldwide.
📊2 toolsmap the sequence · compare with the best
Analysing processes · LO3
Six numbers that tell you if the chain is healthy
- Delivery time · inventory turnover · order accuracy · customer satisfaction · cost per unit · defect rate.
- Noon tracks delivery success, order completion and customer ratings daily.
- KPIs turn 'we feel slow' into 'delivery time rose 12% — fix the sorting step'.
📈6 KPIsevery value chain manager should watch
Analysing processes · LO3
Sometimes you improve — sometimes you redesign
- SWOT for a UAE logistics firm: strength = location; weakness = high costs; opportunity = e-commerce; threat = global competition.
- Business Process Reengineering redesigns workflows entirely instead of patching them.
- Banks moved from branches to digital banking; UAE Pass digitized government services and cut the paperwork.
♻️Your turn · LO3
Map the food-delivery value chain
- Draw Talabat's chain from restaurant partner to your door.
- Mark the value-added activities, the waste, and the bottlenecks.
- Propose the improvements you would make first — and defend them.
🛵3 findsvalue · waste · improvement
Part 2 · LO4
Right product, place, time, quantity, cost, condition
- Logistics plans, implements and controls the movement and storage of goods, services and information.
- It connects every stage: supplier → procurement → production → distribution → retailer → customer.
- Without logistics, the entire value chain fails.
🚚6 Rightsthe definition of logistics success
Subsystem A · LO4
Getting materials from suppliers to the factory
- Supplier selection, purchasing, transport, receiving, warehousing, inventory control.
- Emirates Flight Catering imports ingredients from many countries so meals are never missing.
- Tesla sources batteries, lithium and electronics globally — facing supplier delays, currency swings and political risk.
📦Subsystem B · LO4
Moving materials inside the factory
- Material handling, machine scheduling, production planning, quality control.
- A water plant flows: raw material → bottle production → filling → packaging → storage.
- Almarai's UAE operations schedule production to meet supermarket demand with minimum waste.
🏭Subsystem C · LO4
Finished goods out, returns back in
- Distribution: warehousing, transport, order processing, retail delivery — Noon Express runs warehouse → sorting → vehicle → customer.
- Amazon Prime adds automated warehouses, AI routing and drone trials.
- Reverse logistics handles returns, repairs and recycling — Apple collects old iPhones for materials recovery.
🔄2 waysgoods flow out — and back
Discussion · LO4
Location + Jebel Ali + airport + free zones + tech
- DP World integrates ports, warehouses, shipping, customs, road transport and digital tracking into one ecosystem.
- Logistics is cross-functional — it links marketing, finance, procurement, operations, sales and service.
- Coordination creates economies of scale, scope and value (Emirates Flight Catering, Majid Al Futtaim, Amazon Prime).
🏗️3 economiesscale · scope · value
Part 3 · LO5
Coordinating partners across many countries
- Raw materials → components → factory → warehouse → distributor → retailer → customer, spread across the globe.
- Firms globalize for lower costs, skilled labour, new markets, tax advantages and resources.
- Majid Al Futtaim imports, stores in UAE distribution centres, and supplies Carrefour across the Middle East.
🌐7 stagesfrom raw material to customer — across borders
Risk & resilience · LO5
COVID-19 rewrote the rulebook
- Global risks: political instability, trade wars, disasters, pandemics, cyber attacks, climate, exchange rates.
- Factory shutdowns in China during COVID-19 disrupted manufacturing worldwide.
- The answer is resilience: multiple suppliers, safety stock, nearshoring and regional warehouses.
⚠️1 shutdownin China stopped factories worldwide
Current trends · LO5
Digital, green, resilient, automated, instant
- Digital chains (AI, IoT, blockchain — DP World tracks containers with AI) and automation (Amazon Robotics).
- Sustainability: green logistics, EVs and Masdar-backed Net Zero initiatives in the UAE.
- E-commerce growth drives last-mile logistics for Noon, Amazon UAE, Talabat and Careem — while DP World operates in 70+ countries.
🚀70+countries in DP World's network