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MANAGEMENT
AN INTRODUCTION TO SUPPLY CHAIN
A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the
functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into
intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to
customers. Supply chains exist in both service and manufacturing organizations,
although the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry and
firm to firm.
Below is an example of a very simple supply chain for a single product, where
raw material is procured from vendors, transformed into finished goods in a single
step, and then transported to distribution centers, and ultimately, customers.
Realistic supply chains have multiple end products with shared components, facilities
and capacities. The flow of materials is not always along an arborescent network,
various modes of transportation may be considered, and the bill of materials for the
end items may be both deep and large.
This is a little change from the 1997 definition, Logistics Management offered,
describing SCM as, "The delivery of enhanced customer and economic value
through synchronized management of the flow of physical goods and
associated information from sourcing to consumption."
The time has come when companies can no longer afford to look at their
operations in a vacuum. What they now need is the ability to collect comprehensive,
accurate, and timely information over the entire supply chain. By analyzing this
information, they can better understand how changing conditions affect their
businesses. Making informed business decisions this way helps organizations
accomplish their business goals while also helping them use information for
competitive advantage.
The Internet changed all that. It has transformed this archaic in to some thing
closer to an exact science when we think of the internet enabled supply chain__ wit
its just-in-time delivery, precise the inventory visibility and to-the-minute distribution-
tracking capabilities__ as strategic weapon that can:
Slice the cost of holding too much or struggling with too little inventory
When evaluating SCM initiatives it will pay to keep the following basics in mind.
Visibility
• All the players in the supply chain should be able to react to the order.
All the players in the chain simultaneously manage inventory, control manufacturing
schedules and deliver an order on time to a customer.
Architecture
• Supply chain application must link to existing enterprise resource
planning application.
Ideally, there should be single point of visibility for inventory and order
taking. Customer could place and track order with the web interface and
customer service representative would have access to same information
customer see. A database would store and manage orders, and customer would
be able to check inventory and order status in real time any time.
Total Involvement
• Customers and others links in the chain have to be ready to handle
web-based technology.
When rolling out s project, company must decide which customer and supplier
use it first. That decision can be based on several factors.
Simplicity is the key: application that are easy to use and connect to will
be most popular with the members of supply chain. Extensible markup language
used in application can provide a lingua franca for all the members of the chain
Location Decisions
The geographic placement of production facilities, stocking points, and
sourcing points is the natural first step in creating a supply chain. The location of
facilities involves a commitment of resources to a long-term plan. Once the size,
number, and location of these are determined, so are the possible paths by which
the product flows through to the final customer. These decisions are of great
significance to a firm since they represent the basic strategy for accessing customer
markets, and will have a considerable impact on revenue, cost, and level of service.
These decisions should be determined by an optimization routine that considers
production costs, taxes, duties and duty drawback, tariffs, local content, distribution
costs, production limitations, etc. Although location decisions are primarily strategic,
they also have implications on an operational level.
Production Decisions
The strategic decisions include what products to produce, and which plants to
produce them in, allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to DC's, and DC's to
customer markets. As before, these decisions have a big impact on the revenues,
costs and customer service levels of the firm. These decisions assume the existence
of the facilities, but determine the exact path(s) through which a product flows to and
from these facilities. Another critical issue is the capacity of the manufacturing
facilities--and this largely depends the degree of vertical integration within the firm.
Operational decisions focus on detailed production scheduling. These decisions
include the construction of the master production schedules, scheduling production
on machines, and equipment maintenance. Other considerations include workload
balancing, and quality control measures at a production facility.
Inventory Decisions
These refer to means by which inventories are managed. Inventories exist at
every stage of the supply chain as either raw materials, semi-finished or finished
goods. They can also be in-process between locations. Their primary purpose to
buffer against any uncertainty that might exist in the supply chain. Since holding of
inventories can cost anywhere between 20 to 40 percent of their value, their efficient
management is critical in supply chain operations. It is strategic in the sense that top
management sets goals. However, most researchers have approached the
management of inventory from an operational perspective. These include
deployment strategies (push versus pull), control policies --- the determination of the
optimal levels of order quantities and reorder points, and setting safety stock levels,
at each stocking location. These levels are critical, since they are primary
determinants of customer service levels.
Transportation Decisions
The mode choice aspect of these decisions are the more strategic ones.
These are closely linked to the inventory decisions, since the best choice of mode is
often found by trading-off the cost of using the particular mode of transport with the
indirect cost of inventory associated with that mode. While air shipments may be
fast, reliable, and warrant lesser safety stocks, they are expensive. Meanwhile
shipping by sea or rail may be much cheaper, but they necessitate holding relatively
large amounts of inventory to buffer against the inherent uncertainty associated with
them. Therefore customer service levels, and geographic location play vital roles in
such decisions. Since transportation is more than 30 percent of the logistics costs,
operating efficiently makes good economic sense. Shipment sizes (consolidated bulk
shipments versus Lot-for-Lot), routing and scheduling of equipment are key in
effective management of the firm's transport strategy.
we divide the modeling approaches into three areas --- Network Design,
``Rough Cut" methods, and simulation based methods. The network design
methods, for the most part, provide normative models for the more strategic
decisions. These models typically cover the four major decision areas 1) location, 2)
production, 3) inventory, and 4) transportation (distribution), and focus more on the
design aspect of the supply chain.. These models typically assume a "single site"
(i.e., ignore the network) and add supply chain characteristics to it, such as explicitly
considering the site's relation to the others in the network.
Clearly, these network-design based methods add value to the firm in that
they lay down the manufacturing and distribution strategies far into the future. It is
imperative that firms at one time or another make such integrated decisions,
encompassing production, location, inventory, and transportation, and such models
are therefore indispensable.
Simulation Methods
Simulation method is a method by which a comprehensive supply chain
model can be analyzed, considering both strategic and operational elements.
However, as with all simulation models, one can only evaluate the effectiveness of a
pre-specified policy rather than develop new ones. It is the traditional question of
"What If?" versus "What's Best?".
But in many cases, we find that the organization has already acquired IT
solution, and is now considering how to reengineer the current business model for
supply chain management.
The solutions range from ignoring the reengineering and just installing IT
application to resetting the "go-live" date. But delay in "go-live" will be offset by the
earlier achievement of higher levels of benefits. The (relative) simplicity of the pure
technology implementation keeps beckoning, and the goal of implementing a
superior new business model is easily forgotten.
How to Change
The solution is to partition and prioritize. Think big, but implement in small
steps. Achieve early victories to sustain momentum. Use early delivery of benefits to
help fund additional costs. Even this is still a challenge, because the company will
have to live with some business units working in business model while others are still
in the old. The incongruities are troublesome at times, but still offer less risk than
doing it all at once.
What To Reengineer?
As the company looks for ways to partition and prioritize, the tendency is to
approach it from an organizational perspective. Because most companies operate,
manage and reward from an organizational perspective, it feels natural to develop a
plan sequencing the reengineering of various organizations (e.g. customer service,
logistics, purchasing). It is easy to identify the responsible managers, as well as point
the finger at the change targets.
A huge challenge exists the integration of the customers and suppliers into
the reengineering project. Issues include:
The goal is to get the right people together to address these issues early and
develop a strong project charter so that the project team can be effective. Failure
may doom from the beginning, and this failure won't be discovered until considerable
time and money have been wasted.
There are no easy answers here, but there is an approach that works. We can take
the business model (from above), and identify the external and internal customers
and suppliers for the business processes being reengineered. Within those
segments, we can identify those who are most important to us both today and in the
future. Using the desired project outcomes, we can usually get a coordinated
meeting of the external representatives (probably one company at a time). Here is
where many lose the opportunity usually by having a fairly fixed desired outcome
and even to the point of having identified some potential changes. The difficulty is
that all the ownership is on one side, and there is frequently neither partnership nor
agreement. Further progress is seriously impaired.
But if the agenda is approached without preconception, and with a clear goal,
then we have a pretty good first cut at a team-based project charter. The details can
be worked out, and the partnership created to get off to the right start. The key point
is to develop a charter that all key stakeholders have ownership of, and provide
clarification as to what is being addressed, for what objectives, in what way, with
what resources, and to what schedule. Consider the charter to be a contract
between management and the project team, and remember a weak, vague contract
inevitably results in a weak or failed project.
Building Momentum
A critical success factor will become creating and sustaining momentum for
the project. It will be months before it is complete, and many of the participants still
have their normal job to do. The easiest and fastest place to start is the "as-is"
assessment. The techniques are easy to use; the data relatively fast to acquire; and
within two months we should have a pretty good picture of how the process works
today and what its performance measures are. It's likely that most of the process
measures did not exist and the data for them probably had to be created.
Sustaining Momentum
Sustaining Momentum
We have reached the point where we generate the major redesign ideas. There are
many techniques here they generally revolve around structured workshops with
team members and employees from the process areas. A key tactic is to increase
the number of people involved, by having many participate in workshops of short
duration (8-24 hours). By having more people involved, we ultimately have more
people committed to its implementation. At this stage treat all ideas as good ideas
(most are), with the emphasis on getting hundreds of ideas out on the table. Some of
the workshops can create different external scenarios such as globalization,
economic downturn and new competition so that the team can be building change
idea scenarios for economic conditions different from today. Special techniques need
to be used to get the participants to think outside of the current process and job.
When the workshops are over, the team returns to assessing each idea,
adopting the good ones, and then creating a conceptual view of how process works,
and subsequently defining jobs, organization, management systems, business
polices and technology requirements.
For example, ERP systems within a single company use a database as the
basis of communications within the organization; individual applications access data
via any of a number of standard networking protocols.
In addition to a standard means of communications, businesses must agree
on what the shared data represents and on rules governing its access, including
authorization procedures. The only way to reach this common ground is by adopting
a common set of standards.
Integrated Decision
The demand for high-performance supply chain solutions to manage and
integrate data from a wide variety of systems is just the beginning. These solutions
also must combine powerful decision-making capabilities with the ability to enact
change within an organization's business processes. Just as ERP systems integrate
data within the organization, supply chain solutions must integrate decisions within
the extended enterprise.
In the coming months, you will see comprehensive supply chain functionality
built into new R/3 releases and made available as add-ons to existing R/3 versions.
These solutions will feature powerful new computing techniques and will represent a
dramatic improvement over supply chain solutions currently available in the market
today.
In its most basic form, supply chain management is all about taking costs out
of the channel. And that’s something distributors of all sizes can get involved in.
Supply Chain Management can be broken down into four primary tenets:
inventory management, supplier management, customer management, and financial
management.
Inventory Management
One of the first steps to taking costs out of the channel — for any size
distributor — is getting a handle on inventory costs. And that’s where technology can
help. Inventory management software systems can help distributors track demand
history and forecast future demand on an item-by-item basis. This will help optimize
inventory levels, reduce stock-outs and identify slow movers.
Warehouse management systems are also effective. Even the most basic
warehouse management software packages can give distributors the information
they need to slim down inventory levels and identify slow-moving and obsolete stock.
Bar coding systems can also help distributors better manage inventory and
run their warehouses more profitably. Such technologies are more affordable than
some small distributors may realize.
Supplier Management
Inventory and warehouse management programs can help with supplier
management, but distributors can take other steps in that direction, as well.
Distributors should use activity based costing techniques to “quantify the total
cost of doing business with each of their suppliers and with their supply base
on the whole.” Distributors can do that by tracking costs by product line and
supplier to identify where they are making and losing money. That information
should be used to “fire” the worst suppliers and re-negotiate prices with good,
but unprofitable suppliers, he says.
To achieve customer goals, the distributor must first control his own costs.
Suppliers can help in that objective by providing the distributor with “solutions” —
which could be as basic as offering EDI or electronic funds transfer to streamline
administrative operations.
“That allows to cut out those inefficient business transactions in business, so we can
lower costs. “Anything you’re doing to actively manage the relationships, both with
your suppliers and your end-user customers, is supply chain management.”
Customer Management
There are a number of ways to manage customer relationships. For one,
activity based costing techniques can help identify profitable and unprofitable
customers. A relatively new concept called “Customer Relationship Management”
can also help. Distributors can use CRM to track customers’ purchasing needs and
buying patterns in an effort to “develop and refine marketing and sales approaches
to targeted customer groups,” says Skinner. In its most basic form, CRM can be
achieved by using historical sales order data to analyze how individual and groups of
customers buy. Order management software packages allow access to sales history
and are available from many software providers.
Financial Management
Cash flow is the life and death of distribution
While outsourcing is catching on, many small distributors still feel like they
have to do everything themselves. They equate outsourcing with giving up control
over certain parts of their business. Those fears can be alleviated by finding the right
outsource partner — a specialist the distributor can trust. Another way to tackle the
outsourcing issue is to hire intermittent help-consultants who can help achieve short-
term business goals. For example, distributors can hire someone to do a business
analysis and recommend areas for improvement
Technology is just a tool, “Use technology to make things efficient, but never forget
people to make things effective,”
The vast majority (93%) of distributors told, that they now view the Internet as
more of an opportunity for them rather than a threat to their businesses.
Here are just some of the reasons industrial distributors now view the Internet
as an opportunity.
“We can get instant information over the Internet that helps us forecast
demand from our customers through the chain and on to our vendors”...
“The Internet gives us more exposure and our customers’ easier access”...
“This is allowing us to reach new markets and customers and give them
more information about our products and services.”
Thirdly, while the volume of goods being distributed has increased and the
organizations themselves have grown in size, there has been a net decline in the
number of wholesale firms and the number of retail outlets. With more goods being
distributed by fewer shops, inevitably there has been a significant increase in the
size of the average retail outlet.
Fourthly, there have been significant changes in the method of selling. Self-
service as a selling technique has grown rapidly.
With the increase in the number of different products and the continual
appearance of new lines and replacement products for obsolescent ones, the
distributor, if he is avoid either over-stocking or serious gaps in his product mix,
needs to have access to a continuous flow of up-to-date information to help his
decision making. He needs stock information on what is moving and what is not; by
supplier and by product group.
Equally, with the growth in size of distributive firms, more and more decisions
have to be taken automatically rather than on the basis of a series of individual
judgments coupled with entrepreneurial flair. Analytic techniques are now available
to allow those automatic decisions to be made but this implies that the flow of
information is already there.
Secondly, it is also vital that the next level of line management acquires an
appreciation of the computer in its day-to-day operational role. They will be heavily
involved either as a provider for data input or as a user of output or both.
Fourthly, the firm must take the decision on whether to buy, rent or lease its
own computer or use the services of a computer bureau. The use of a computer
bureau is often an attractive proposition for the medium or small-sized firm which
does not have the financial resources or technical expertise required for the
purchase and efficient use of its own machine.
Fifthly, if the company decides to obtain its own computer, a decision must be
taken as to what hardware facilities to use. There are developing in range and
capability at an increasing rate and any decision taken must be made with a careful
eye on any possible future developments in the computer field.
Computer Application Packages and Supply
Chain Techniques
Applications packages are computer programs that have been designed and
written in standardized way for applications, which are common to many users. They
are ‘ready-made’ programs that often involve the use of sophisticated analytical
models. Any computer user can therefore exploit this simply by thinking carefully
about the nature of his own, say, distribution problem and then by reading the
accompanying manual to see how the package can help him to solve it.
Packages are often obtained from the manufacturer of the computer being
used as they form part of the computer’s program support services. Packages are
also available from computer bureaux and software houses and the source to select
will depend upon the availability of the type of package required, how effectively
each package produces the desired results and the relative costs.
Close work can result into highly competitive supply chain while failing to
collaborate results in the distortion of information as it moves through a supply chain,
which, in turn, can lead to costly inefficiencies? Which is called “Bullwhip Effect”
which results in excess inventories, slow response, and lost profits? Through the
more open, frequent and accurate exchange of information typical of a long-term
supply-chain partnership, companies can eliminate many of these problems and
ensure ongoing improvement.
For Partnership
More partnerships that are modest lead to rapid improvements in
logistics facillated by candid information exchange and better
coordination. Given the effort involved in crating and sustaining
partnerships, clearly a firm must focus on the trading partners it
considers most important in the long run. This type of partnership
differs from a strategic alliance or project-based partnership in which
two firms may work toward a common goal but later dissolve the
association after achieving the goal.
Exit & Voice relationship; firms and suppliers co-operate to resolve problem rather
than abandoning their partnership and over come obstacles.
Logistics Success is defined as the degree to which the overall supply chain
is improved, regardless of how costs and benefits are allocated. Commercial
Success depends on the degree to which trading with the partner in question
becomes more profitable, whether by getting a share of the logistics improvements
or by obtaining better trading terms. A supplier investing substantial effort in a joint
supply-chain improvement project with a customer will almost certainly be aiming for
more than potential logistics improvements; the suppliers wants to solidify its
relationship with the customer to gain a larger market share or reduce price
pressure. We can say that sacrificing some short-term logistics success may be
worth achieving commercial benefits later.