Thursday, October 1, 2020

Germany’s supply chain strategy to invade Smolensk

Welcome to my blog, This is Aswath A C of Amrita School of Business.

World War 2 happened between Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and Allied powers (Britain, France, and USSR) for a period of 6 years i.e. 1939 – 1945.

To the surprise of the world, Germany emerged as a super power under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, and invaded Poland, which officially started World War 2. Their motto is to advance to Moscow in 1941. This move was done because of the reason that Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow were the hubs with regionally connected transportation network. So to advance to Moscow, they are required to capture Minsk and Smolensk. Minsk was captured without much trouble and within the planned period. The germans, then marched towards Smolensk and the battle happened over a period of 2 months, with German army already advanced approximately 500kms into the USSR. Their strategy depended on the continuous movement of troops, and continuous delivery of supplies. It began with two main supply depots in Prussia and Poland and was forwarded to Minsk. They have also captured a Russian oil refinery, which served gasoline to the army.

1. Prussia 2. Poland 3. Minsk 4. Oil refinery 5. Smolensk



The supply chain of Germany was modelled by four entities 1. Products – ammunition container’s size and weight, 2. Facilities –Storage capacity, demand for the product and on-hand facility at the forward depot, 3. Transportation – volume and weight of shipment, speed of the vehicle, 4. Route- round trip time

This case is a good example for the importance of supply chain that can help you to win battles. 

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