Value Chains In American Airlines And Southwest Airlines

Great Essays
Question 1: What is the value chain?
It is beneficial for organizations to strategically analyze costs to determine whether or not its costs are competitive with other companies in the same market. This comparison is done through what is known as a value chain, which analyzes the cost of internal activities and how they compare with competitors to determine which are sources of cost advantage or disadvantage.
A value chain serves the purpose of examining the operating activities that businesses perform during the process of adding value to raw materials to convert into finished products sold to customers. “The goal is to deliver maximum value for the least possible total cost [thereby achieving a cost advantage] (Investopedia).” The more value
…show more content…
As operations or the scale of the business expands, the cost of operations per unit is reduced. It has been found that the larger airline companies such as American Airlines and Southwest airlines have taken advantage of economies of scale resulting from their ability to use their size to negotiate better/cheaper deals spread out over a large sales base. For example, the number of airplanes and flight schedules, purchasing fuel in bulk etc. As the number of airplanes (units) owned by an airline company increases, the per airplane costs decreases (Quora). It is important to note that economies of scale benefit an airline up to an extent, after which it becomes …show more content…
(n.d.). What does one mean by if he says "economies of scale exist in airline industry"? Quora. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/What-does-one-mean-by-if-he-says-economies-of-scale-exist-in-airline-industry
Porter's Value Chain. Understanding How Value is Created Within Organizations. MindTools. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_66.htm
Saha, A. (March 15, 2011). Mapping of Porter’s Value Chain Activities into Business Functional Units. Management Innovation Exchange. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/mapping-porter%E2%80%99s-value-chain-activities-business-functional-units
Strategic Cost Analysis Definition. The Business Dictionary. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategic-cost-analysis.html#ixzz42MAszfiB
The Industry Handbook: The Airline Industry. Investopedia. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/features/industryhandbook/airline.asp#ixzz42NRxJIdI

Value Chain Definition. Investopedia. First accessed on March 8, 2016. Retrieved from

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The Airline industry is characterized by strategic management and competitiveness. The paper seeks to provide information concerning the impacts of the changes in technology and globalization on the airline industry. Furthermore, the paper would also integrate the resource based model and the industrial organization model to try and determine the above average returns witnessed in the Airline industry. The paper seeks to analyze a case involving the Southwest Airlines.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Value networks, also known as supplier partnerships, have become a trend in many Business-to-Business organizations. The alliance of two or more organizations to add more value or simply improve a product is a technique that many businesses have been using nowadays. One of these organizations is Sysco. Sysco is considered one of the largest foodservice distributor in North America.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Csc Catalyst Structure

    • 9713 Words
    • 39 Pages

    Deliver Early Business Benefits Through Frequent Successes Creation of business value is brought about by the delivery of solutions, including the effective use of services. For large, complex service contracts and engagements, value shoul d be demonstrated by early and consistent delivery of results. Deferring the realization of value until the final delivery of the solution imposes risk that customer expectations may not match the outcome and that the result may not be workable. In addition, opportunities are lost to add momentum to the development of the final product through customer feedback and reinforcement. Catalyst divides big, high-risk service contracts and engagements into smaller, more manageable pieces in order to more frequentl y and consistently deliver measurable, added value.…

    • 9713 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Value Chain Case Study

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This is not always the case but sometimes e-books are released earlier than a hard-copy. E-books also do not need room for inventory which makes it easier to produce more of them. 4. What is the role of operations in each of these value chain designs and…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Costco Capital Structure

    • 1954 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Value Chain Activities Tata Motors: Inbound Logistics: Long term contracts with service providers, daily transport logistics and monitoring through IT deployment- all transaction going through SAP and efficient storage facilities. Operations: Automated manufacturing processes, distributed manufacturing – assembly units in South Africa, Thailand, Brazil etc , capacity utilization ,Kaizen and TPM(Total Productive Management) to improve efficiencies. Outbound Logistics: Regional sales offices, long term contracts with transporters and distributors and stockyards across the country.…

    • 1954 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By Friday at 11:55 p.m. PT, make one post in the Business Strategy Discussion Forum that addresses the following questions. By Sunday at 11:55 p.m. PT, respond to at least two of your peers. A. Generic Business Strategy 1. What is the generic business strategy of your organization/business unit?…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Kerr Mcgee Case Study

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Business world is more competitive today and every organisation is doing their best to be in the league. In these days for a company choosing a corporate objective is really essential as failure or success of organisation is linked to it. Companies looking for more innovative technique and methods by which they can reduce their cost and increase profitability. Keeping Marginal Revenue (MR) = Marginal Cost (MC) is the basic tactics followed by the organisation.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In general, the purpose of analytics in basketball is for a positive result. The highest positive result is the NBA title championship. This is the only measurement of a good business in the NBA. Using analytics in basketball can help lead a team to that championship game. Using a value chain, adding activities to pass through a chain and gaining value at each stage along with analytics can further the likelihood of not only going to the championship game, but winning it.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A business model reflects management’s hypothesis about what customers want, how hey want it and what they will pay, and how an enterprise can organize to best meet customers needs, and get paid well for doing so.” Do you agree with this statement? Why? Be specific. Feel free to use examples.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Case Study: United Airline

    • 1362 Words
    • 5 Pages

    by providing adequate services to the passengers. In addition, based on the days flown, one can find cheap flights and discounts such as military and student discounts. United Airline has utilized social media to its advantage and has created a good presence in the platform. On twitter, United Airlines has 644,000 followers, has over 64,000 instagram followers and has 779,746 likes on Facebook. The company uses these platforms to advertise and promote its brand to maximize its revenue.…

    • 1362 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this paper, I am going to talk about what should a value chain look like in a healthcare organization, and then I will explain how it works. After I will provide an example of an organization with its value chain. Later I will provide step-by-step how it could fix a problem it has. In summary, I will provide evidence of how it would successes and recommendations how to prevent the same problem in future.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Novartis Case Study

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Novartis is a global healthcare company that is a world leader in offering medicine and vaccines to a global marketplace. Novartis was founded in 1996 out of a merger between Ciba Geigy and Sandoz. Following a corporate transformation Novartis now focuses on three divisions with global scale and innovation power – pharmaceuticals, eye care and generic medicines. Global headquarters are located in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis Ringaskiddy Ltd (NRL) is operational since 1994.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Given that the services an airline provides isn’t a something that can be imported or exported, it makes taking a look at the global strategy within this industry a little more complex than most. In most cases, airlines rely on alliances, mergers or acquisitions as a way of expanding into new markets or for global penetration. Southwest Airlines is one the largest domestic operations in the United States, and recently the company acquired AirTran in a bid to boost its global…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    HBR CASE STUDY Excel-Pls supply chain management at Haus Mart 1. How is value added in supply chain management through better planning versus better execution? Ans. Supply chain management as we have learnt in this course is managing the movement of goods and services. It involves the storage and flow raw materials, inventory of work in process as well as finished goods from their point of origin to their point of consumption or use.…

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the project plan of Boeing company about light weight aircraft with high technology. The project of this aircraft has facing several problems such as software problem that led to engine shutting down automatically, lithium ion battery that causes fire inside the aircraft and others problem that led delay in the production. The Boeing 787 has 3 different categories which are 787-3 that has been designed to fit in 250 passengers, 2 class, short range body and with range of 2,500 to 3,050 nautical miles (4,650 to 5,650 km) because the aircraft have les market therefore it only popular in Japanese market because it adapts to local customer’s demand, 787-8 with 242 passengers seat and can fly for 13,621 km.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays