Westbrick Pty Company is a construction brick manufacturer in Gauteng that has been particularly hard hit by the recent recession. Faced with a dramatic fall in orders and two years of losses, shareholder pressure has resulted in the early retirement of the Chief Executive and his replacement by John Hopane, who has a track record of turning companies around. John Hopane has, in the past, led different process design improvement initiatives.

In an initial review, John Hopane finds that Westbrick 's operations require urgent attention. They still have a purchasing department which is viewed as a clerical function related to the day-to-day purchase of goods. High importance is placed on price, quality, and timely delivery.

A benchmarking exercise reveals that Westbrick 's costs of production are much higher than those of its competitors. In addition, innovations in operations theory and techniques such as those in supply chain management and process design have not been seized. Clearly these needs addressing.

An added area of concern is the way that some line managers are reported to have behaved under the previous management regime. The misappropriation of funds by some line managers has come to light, as have a number of unethical practices and John Hopane is concerned that such things should not occur in the future.

Question

Using (Reck and and Long Model) and the Strategic supply wheel by Cousins, how will adoption of developments in strategic supply chain management assist Westbrick to improve its competitive performance? Response must proposed tools to be used in digitalisation linking them to the Reck and Long Model and Cousins Strategic Supply wheel.