Course Project Sony Corporation 1
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement.........................................................................................................4
Suppliers ........................................................................................................................7
Customers .......................................................................................................................8
Product to be purchased...................................................................................................9
Product to be sold...........................................................................................................10
Supply Chain Network for Sony…................................................................................11
Sony organizational structure.........................................................................................12
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Sequence Diagram .........................................................................................................13
Purchase Workflow (Purchase Supply Chain)...............................................................13
Sales Workflow (Sales Supply Chain)............................................................................15
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................16
Introduction
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In this project, I choose Sony as my company. The type of the
business I chose is Business-to-business (B2B). Sony Corporation
(Sony), incorporated on May 7, 1946, is engaged in the
development, design, manufacture, and sale of various kinds of
electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for consumer,
professional and industrial markets, as well as game consoles and
software. Sony’s primary manufacturing facilities are located in
Japan, Europe, and Asia. Sony also utilizes third-party contract
manufacturers for certain products. Sony Corporation will be
implementing the following personnel and organizational changes,
effective April 1, 2007. Since the announcement of its mid-term
corporate strategy in September 2005, Sony has been striving to
strengthen its product development capability and improve
profitability throughout its electronics business. In order to
reinforce the recovery of its electronics business, Sony has now
decided to carry out the following personnel and organizational
changes, including the establishment of a "B2B Solutions Business
Group" to enhance Sony's B to B business growth. In addition to
consumer electronics, semiconductors and component device
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businesses, B to B will become one of the pillars of Sony's
future growth.
The "B2B Solutions Business Group" will unite and streamline
Sony's existing Broadcasting / Professional equipment businesses,
B to B solution services and FeliCa business. At the same time,
by utilizing Sony's broad-based research and development
achievements in its B2B Solution Business, Sony hopes to develop
new business that can drive sales and profit growth in the B to B
business field. Sony will newly establish the "B2B Solutions
Business Group" consolidating the B&P Business Group, FeliCa
Business Division and part of the Personal Solutions Business
Group. The "TV Business Group" and "Video Business Group" will be
also newly established in line with the reorganization of the TV
& Video Business Group.
Problem Statement
Company:
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Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka, and
Tamon Maeda (Ibuka's father- in -
law) started Tokyo
telecommunications engineering in
1946 with funding from Morita's
father's sake business. The company
produced the first Japanese tape
recorder in 1950. Three years later, Morita paid Western Electric
(US) $25,000 for transistor technology licenses, which sparked a
consumer electronics revolution in Japan. His firm launched one
of the first transistor radios in 1955, followed by the first
Sony - trademarked product, a pocket sized radio, in 1957. Next
year the company changed its name to Sony (from "sonus," Latin
for "sound," and "sonny," meaning little man). It beat the
competition to newly emerging markets for transistor TVs (1959)
and solid- state videotape recorders (1961).
Sony launched the first home video recorder (1964) and solid-
state condenser microphone (1965). Its1968 introduction of the
Trinitron color TV tube began another decade of explosive growth.
Sony bet wrong on its Betamax VCR (1976), which lost to rival 6
Matsushita's VHS as the industry standard. However, 1979 brought
another success, the Walkman personal stereo.
Pressured by adverse currency rates and competition worldwide,
Sony used its technology to diversify beyond consumer electronics
and began to move production to other countries. In the 1980s, it
introduced Japan's first 32- bit workstation and became a major
producer of computer chips and floppy disk drives. The purchases
of CBS Records in 1988 ($2 billion) and Columbia Pictures in 1989
($4.9 billion deal, which included TriStar Pictures) made Sony a
major force in the rapidly growing entertainment industry.
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The firm manufactured Apple's PowerBook, but its portable CD
player, Data Discman, was only successful in Japan (1991). In the
early 1990s, Sony joined Nintendo to create a new kind of game
console, combining Sony's CD - ROM drive with the graphic
capabilities of a workstation. Although Nintendo pulled out in
1992, Sony released PlayStation in Japan (1994) and in the US
(1995) to great success. Two years later, in a joint venture with
Intel, it developed a line of PC desktop systems.
Rather than support an industry - wide standard, in 1997 Sony
teamed up with Philips Electronics to make another recording
media, called Super Audio CD, which could replace videotapes and
CDs. The move could set up a winner - take- all rivalry that
recalls Sony's Betamax vs. VHS gamble. (Sony and Philips created
the CD and continue to receive royalties from it.)
In 1998, Sony shipped its first digital, high - definition TV to
the US; folded TriStar into Columbia Pictures; merged its Loews
Theatres unit with Cineplex Odeon; and launched its Wega flat -
screen TV.
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Philips, Sun Microsystems, and Sony formed a joint venture in
early 1999 to develop networked entertainment products. Then the
company announced two deals to deliver music to customers
digitally: It agreed to merge Columbia House with online music
retailer CDnow (called off in March 2000), and it agreed to allow
Digital On - Demand to sell downloaded music from in - store
kiosks to consumers. Also in 1999 Nobuyuki Idei became CEO, and
the company introduced a Walkman with the capability to download
music from the Internet.
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In 2000 Sony formed PlayStation.com Japan to sell game consoles
and software online; it also introduced its 128- bit
PlayStation2, which can play DVD movies and connects to the
Internet. The company later restructured, placing all of its US
entertainment holdings under a new umbrella company called Sony
Broadband Entertainment. In early 2001 Sony set in motion plans
to set up online banking operations with Japan's Sakura Bank and
JP Morgan Chase. As of March 31, 2000, Sony Corporation claimed
to employ 19187 people, however it is not clear where they draw
the organizational boundaries in providing this figure.
Suppliers
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Conclusion
Sony Corporation, a leading Japanese manufacturer of electronics,
game, and entertainment products has reported losses for four
consecutive years. The B2B & Disc segment is consisted of the
business to business (B2B) business, including broadcast and
professional-use products, as well as Blu-ray Disc, DVD and
compact disc (CD) disc manufacturing. Global operations in the
Pictures segment encompass motion picture production and
distribution; television production and distribution; home
entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel
network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of
studio facilities, and development of new entertainment products,
services and technologies. SPE distributes entertainment in more
than 140 countries. SPE’s motion picture arm, the Columbia
TriStar Motion Picture Group, includes SPE’s principal motion
picture production organizations, Columbia Pictures, TriStar
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