Samsung Galaxy Supply Chain Suggested Improvements

Problem:

Samsung has admitted to using tin sourced from a controversial mining

operation on the Indonesian island of Bangka, where unregulated mining kills
150 miners a year and causes substantial environmental damage. The
admission follows intense pressure from FoE(Friends of Environment) and
15,000 concerned consumers who had contacted Samsung, demanding the
company investigate the human and environmental costs of its tin sourcing.
Solution:
Samsung has a corporate social responsibility of ensuring they are not directly
or indirectly involved in any activity that leads to the death of people or causes
harm to the environment. The unregulated Tin mining in Bangka Island,
Indonesia has been proven to cause deaths as well as do harm to the
environment.
Samsung can shift its Tin mining operations to China, which is the 2nd largest
producer of Tin after Indonesia with the help of changing its 2nd Tier supplier to
the leading tin soldering company is China, Ningo Xihan Tin Solder Co. Ltd. This
company sources its Tin from China itself instead of the controversial Bangka
Island and making this move would strengthen the image of the brand
Samsung in the eyes of the consumer.
Problem:
Samsung reported a dip in their quarterly profit after the launch of the
Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Series despite the rise in demand of the
product. This was due to Samsungs inability to cope up with the demand and
not being able to produce enough handsets to supply to its distributors. It is
understood that the reason behind the shortage was the complexity of making
a curved edge screen for the S6 Edge models.
Solution:
Samsung currently manufactures its displays in-house through a wholly owned
subsidiary of Samsung called Samsung Displays. To meet with the rise in
demand, Samsung could outsource the production of the displays for Markets
like US where large volumes are required. Samsung already outsources the
manufacturing of the baseband chips for US market through Qualcomm to
meet with the large volume required.

Opportunity:
In 2013, Samsung opened a Factory in Beni Suefa, Egypt. Currently the factory
manufactures TVs and Computer monitors. As Egypt is in the Middle East, A
central location on the world map, It would be beneficial for Samsung to
Expand the operations of this factory to other products such as the Samsung
Galaxy smartphones. This would help in reducing the transportation costs and
time especially to markets such as Europe and the entire Middle East due to
the close proximity to Egypt.
In the Middle East, Samsung has an edge over its primary competitor in the
smartphone Market, Apple due to the law of banning a key Apple iPhone
feature - FaceTime. In 2015, UAEs sole distributor, Eros Group ran out of
Samsung Galaxy S6 phones 2 days after the launch of the phone which led to
the loss of potential customers. Such things can be prevented if the
manufacturing of galaxy phones is added to the Egypt Factory. It is essential
Samsung capitalises its edge on the Apple iPhone in order to to become the
worlds leading smartphone manufacturer.
Hence, expanding the operations of the Factory in Beni Suefa, Egypt would be
beneficial to Samsung.