Business processes are defined as actions or activities that a firm engages in to realize a business purpose or objective (Ray, Barney & Muhanna 2004, p. 24) and the benefits of their successful implementation can increase a business’s competitive advantage. Competitive advantage as explained by Michael Porter, (cited in Singh 2012, p. 19) is when a business is able to increase earnings despite its competitive pressures. For any business, including Samsung, these processes can be divided into primary or major and secondary or support processes (Singh 2012, p. 19). The primary process includes the acquiring of raw materials, the process of producing products or services and the process of delivering products or services to customers …show more content…
The Samsung Group of companies has large, complex global supply chains for most of its products, therefore they need a state of the art supply chain management system to support and improve its operations. Supply chain management (SCM) in today’s business is seen as a strategic way to innovate a business’s operation. Samsung implemented its supply chain management using six sigma based methodology (Yang et al 2007). Six sigma has enabled Samsung to succeed in its pursuit of quality-oriented management in business operations together with manufacturing since its adoption. From the initial product quality assurance the improvements shifted to include the quality of the entire business process, which is the basis of six sigma. Consequently the results have included high-quality, innovative product developments, increase in customer satisfaction and profits (Yang et al …show more content…
To increase efficiency, Samsung developed sophisticated R&D management processes based on DFSS (defined as the design of new products and services with a Six Sigma capability and performance), although this was criticised because such programs were developed for quality improvement in manufacturing rather than R&D. In spite of this the philosophy and methodology of DFSS were customised into the overall R&D process (Sangmoon & Youngjoon 2006) and the results were evident in the increase in foreign patent applications of 85 percent in 2004, which was about four times that of their 1997 figure of 19 percent (Sangmoon & Youngjoon 2006). The above covered some of the key processes at play and in the next paragraphs we scan which processes Samsung selects to produce in-house and which ones they prefer to