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KULICKE & SOFFA INDUSTRIES, INC.: DESIGNING A SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK

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KULICKE & SOFFA INDUSTRIES, INC.: DESIGNING A SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK
1. What are the underlying forces that led to K&S’s desire to make changes to its current supply chain network? 


The underlying forces that led K&S’s need to make changes to its current supply chain network are because of the cheap labor. The geographical movement in the electronics manufacturing industry to Asia and other Pacific nations has implied that organizations have needed to update their inventory Network. With clients moving to Asia, and new markets opening up, numerous K&S contenders have as of recently put resources into new destinations.
By examining figure 2 (semiconductor equipment spending by geographic region) it is obvious that the Asia-Pacific using on Semiconductor supplies is expanding year on year, and outpaced Europe's use marginally in the year 2000, and is relied upon to keep on developing throughout the following couple of years. With the end goal K&S should keep on holding its overwhelming position in the business it must research conceivable chances and guarantee that their inventory network is dexterous enough to have the ability to meet client prerequisites in this developing business sector.
To support their present business sector fortress, it is vital that K&S look at their present supply chain.
With the geographical shift in the market comes expanded pressure from competitors. Some Semiconductor firms have recently initiated movement and have moved, with new plants being implicit in Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea. This permits them to be closer to their customers and increases the firm’s purchasing power by exploiting cheap labor, decreased working expenses, charge taxes and raw material expenses subsequently gaining competitive advantage. Despite the fact that K&S have a good market position, rivalry inside their essential business sector is intense. Variables, for example, performance, quality, customer support, cost and delivery all impact the way of K&S's multicounty competitive cooperation.
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