Business
Improving the Supply Chain
Improving the supply chain involves optimizing the flow of goods and services from the point of origin to the point of consumption. This can be achieved through streamlining processes, enhancing communication and collaboration with suppliers, and leveraging technology to increase efficiency and visibility. By improving the supply chain, businesses can reduce costs, minimize waste, and enhance customer satisfaction.
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12 Key excerpts on "Improving the Supply Chain"
eBook - PDFFix Your Supply Chain
How to Create a Sustainable Lean Improvement Roadmap
- Paul Husby, Dan Swartwood(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
1 1 The Seven Components of Sustainable Supply Chain Improvement The Supply Chain Council (SCC) defines a supply chain as “the integrated processes of Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return spanning from the suppliers’ supplier to the customers’ customer.” The key word in this defi-nition is integrated . A supply chain is not defined by only the product or the customer; it needs to consider both to ensure integration of the exter-nal customer’s view with the internal product view. The supply chain of a company controls many aspects of the customer’s experience and is the critical execution component of a company’s strategy. If your products are better than your competitors’ but your service is worse, an innovative product strategy is not likely to produce the expected results. The supply chain spans the entire scope of a company’s operations, and therefore every function in the company affects it. Marketing may run promotions, set merchandising plans, or create special products or pack-ages for customers, all of which have an impact on the company’s supply chain. Product development designs new products, specifies raw materials, and determines product specifications, decisions that have a direct impact on the supply chain. Optimization of supply chain performance requires seamless integration of the core process: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return. The metrics throughout your company’s organization must also be aligned to deliver customer value. Supply chain is a team sport, and the CEO is the only position that spans the company’s supply chain. The bot-tom line is: Supply chain execution determines the operational competi-tive advantage or disadvantage of a company. As introduced earlier, there are seven components necessary for sustain-able supply chain improvement. 2 • Fix Your Supply Chain TOP LEADERSHIP CHAMPION Yes, we know, every improvement program says top leadership must champion the process.
- Naima Rahmaoui(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
1.6.5. Stay on Top of Demand The presence of good global supply chain strategies along with integrated logistics and several product innovation strategies are known to play an effective role in improving the business of any organization. The supply chain of the present times must be able to adapt to the product life cycles, IT use in Supply Chain and Business Processes 22 fluctuating economies, and emerging markets. The important way to flourish in any market is by adapting to the changes, predicting risks and managing risks efficiently which is generally achieved by the presence of an effective global supply chain (Figure 1.7). Figure 1.7: Representation of stay on top of demand. Source: https://c.pxhere.com/photos/b5/43/adventure_altitude_background_ cliff_climb_climber_clouds_cold-1560249.jpg!d The important aspect of any SCM is having improved flexibility. According to Chirantan Basu, who is member who contributes to the Houston Chronicle said that, “Tight supply chain integration gives management operational flexibility to respond rapidly to external events, such as the actions of competitors and changes in customer demand.” Chirantan Basu stated that “Companies can gather intelligence through their supply chains, which allows them to be generally aware of what their competitors are planning months in advance.” 1.6.6. Eliminate Waste There are a number of businesses which produce a lot of waste in the process of manufacturing, and a number of business processes are known to generate enormous amounts of waste in the process of manufacturing. The primary concern of the owners of these businesses is to design a strategy that Supply Chain and Business Process: A Global Perspective 23 effectively utilizes the waste that is being produced or eliminate the waste that is being produced in the process of manufacturing. These manufacturers are actively looking for ways and strategies to reduce the waste that is being produced or remove the waste that is being generated.
- Gerhard J. Plenert(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
29 The Supply Chain system, manufacturing, and customer service of total SCM. It focuses on the following key issues: The Strategic Framework Cycle Time and Response Time as the Key Strategic Issues The Global Supply Chain Information Integration Risk Management Logistics Management The strategic structure that provides the foundation for SCM is critical in defining corporate performance, as is witnessed by the increasing number of CEOs that are coming from the ranks of operations. Running a company strictly by the financial num-bers has proven to be short sighted. Operational measures of performance are being used more frequently. Strategically, managing the Supply Chain requires looking at management from a broader perspective. Traditionally we were only concerned with the environment immediately around us. Later, we broadened that perspective. We felt that managing the source would allow us to run a leaner production environ-ment with lower inventory levels. More recently, we have recog-nized the need to look even more broadly to the management of the entire source supply (the suppliers’ supplier) through the entire demand/customer network (the customer’s customer). Managers do not take over the responsibility of everyone in the Supply Chain. Rather, they integrate the information network so that all elements of the Supply Chain can uniformly inter-act and extract information from the same supply network. The Internet has become a tool for the interchange of SCM activity. It moves us away from a traditional point-to-point informa-tion exchange to a more connected, interactive information exchange where all elements of the Supply Chain can continu-ously monitor the performance of the overall supply network. Traditionally we would take a slightly different approach to the supplier to customer relationship. The line for vendor to customer was more linear and direct. The process was more simplistic and more controlled.
eBook - PDF- Daniel Stanton(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- For Dummies(Publisher)
Think beyond just lowering costs, and consider ways in which your supply chain can help you grow revenue, innovate, and even create new markets. » Implementing collaborative relationships: Consider how you can get teams to work together toward a goal rather than compete for conflicting objectives. If your sales team is trying to improve customer service by making sure that plenty of inventory is available, and your logistics team is trying to reduce inventory to lower costs, both teams are probably going to waste a lot of energy. Supply chain management can help them align their objectives. 16 PART 1 Getting Started with Supply Chain Management » Forging supply chain partnerships: Consider how you can build and sustain strong relationships with customers and suppliers. When companies under- stand that they depend on one another for success — and perhaps survival — working well together becomes a priority. Companies that don’t do a good job of forming and sustaining supply chain partnerships end up at a competitive disadvantage. » Managing supply chain information: Consider how you can make sure that information is shared with others in the supply chain in ways that create value for everyone. When retailers share sales data with their upstream partners, the manufacturers and distributors do a better job of scheduling production and managing inventory. When manufacturers share data about commodity prices and capacity constraints with their downstream supply chain partners, the retailers do a better job of managing pricing and promotions. Sharing the right information up and down the supply chain helps everyone create more value. » Making money from the supply chain: Consider how you can use your supply chain design, relationships, partnerships, and information to capture value for your company. At the end of the day, businesses are sustainable only if they’re able to generate a profit.
eBook - PDF- Avraham Shtub, Yuval Cohen(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Becoming part of a sup-ply chain enables companies to create a competitive edge for themselves by being a part of a victorious team with a successful product. The day-to-day management of the supply chain enables companies to minimize uncer-tainty and risk, to reduce costs, to increase flexibility, and to improve service and availability for the end consumer. In recent decades, many organizations have understood that taking the entire chain into consideration ultimately contributes to each link/organi-zation in the chain. Many industries focus on optimal SCM because they understand that better management can contribute to significant cost reduc-tion and performance improvement, and profits increase accordingly. SCM entails management of the risks and uncertainty that exist in the sup-ply process. These risks and uncertainty stem from the fact that demand is usually not deterministic, and is frequently dynamic and dependent on future data (which are unknown at the time of production and acquisition planning). The production capacity of the links in the chain is also affected by the uncertainty stemming from machine malfunctions, transportation hitches, and so forth. Managing the supply chain requires knowledge of many factors such as demand forecasting, actual demand, actual inventory, production capacity, uncertainty factors, and logistic system data such as transport times. Proper use of as much information as possible improves system performance and contributes to better outcomes. The discussion in this chapter focuses on the integration of the various organizations that constitute the supply chain. The discussion is based on the material studied in preceding chapters of this book, which focuses on the individual organization—the single link in the chain.
eBook - PDFThe Intimate Supply Chain
Leveraging the Supply Chain to Manage the Customer Experience
- David Frederick Ross(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Auerbach Publications(Publisher)
In fact, the need to leverage SCM concepts to both improve logistics functions as well as to increase the collaboration and synchronization of supply chain members has never been greater. Today’s supply chains are besieged by immense challenges that range from strategic issues, such as effectively responding to the continuous changes occurring in the marketplace, increased need for asset agility, product proliferation, and globalization, to operational assaults on logistics capabilities brought about by constraints on transportation capacity, crumbling or nonexistent infrastructures, spiraling energy costs, and security. What is needed are practical approaches to utilizing the basic tenets of SCM to fashion new strategies and best practices that will provide fresh insights into today’s supply chain issues and enable a seaway into realizing tomorrow’s opportunities. Such an understanding illuminates the very nature of SCM, which is always evolv-ing to respond to the changes incessantly occurring in the marketplace. Today, SCM has the following six challenges before it: 1. Creating new avenues for supply chains to be more intimate with the cus-tomer by understanding what constitutes individual customer value and providing an unsurpassed buying experience. 2. Ensuring the long-term profitability of the supply chain and each network partner by removing barriers to higher levels of supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. 3. Increasing the level of collaboration and access to channel partner competen-cies by sharing data, intelligence, and more closely aligning organizations. 4. Architecting supply chains consisting of productive assets that are agile and flexible enough to respond to any marketplace challenge. 5. Increasing the velocity of inventory and delivery network processes while continually reducing costs. 6. Enabling greater levels of connectivity to more closely interweave the knowledge and skills of cross-channel teams.
eBook - PDF- Daniel Stanton(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- For Dummies(Publisher)
Once a sprint is complete, the process starts over. Agile is a global movement that was started by group of programmers who felt that bureaucracy was preventing them from doing their jobs well. You can learn more about these rebellious pioneers and read their Agile Manifesto at https:// agilemanifesto.org. CHAPTER 17 Optimizing Your Supply Chain 265 Chapter 17 Optimizing Your Supply Chain S upply chain management becomes most valuable when you are able to improve service levels to your customers and increase the profitability of your company. By making strategic choices about how to optimize your sup- ply chain, you can drive significant improvements such as increasing product availability for your customers, reducing working capital requirements, and increasing the flexibility of your business. But you probably can’t do all of them, and you certainly can’t do them all at the same time. In this chapter, you look at several strategies that can help you provide significant benefits for your business by using supply chain management tools and techniques. Improving Transparency and Visibility Effective supply chain managers catch problems when they’re small, before they affect the company or its customers. Because supply chains cross so many func- tions and so many companies, it can be hard to get complete and accurate data. Even if you can get the data, you may not be able to analyze it fast enough to make accurate decisions. A good example is the challenge that companies face when a IN THIS CHAPTER » Minimizing inventory by improving information flow » Reducing complexity by eliminating unprofitable products » Trimming costs and working capital requirements » Paying for innovation and improvement with quick wins 266 PART 4 Driving Value with Supply Chain Management natural disaster occurs, such as a hurricane. To understand how their supply chain might be affected, they need information from customers, suppliers, and logistics providers.
eBook - PDF- James B. Ayers(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
287 15 Chapter Improving Supply Chain Processes and Systems Ultimately, all supply chain project efforts either develop or improve pro-cesses. Traditionally, these efforts target performance metrics; cost, inventory, and defects are common targets. Many of these efforts will fall short. The most effective projects will support strategy, involve partners, take a process-centered approach, and address root causes, not symptoms. Many, if not most, companies pursuing supply chain improvement make a huge mistake. That is, they start their efforts at this point in the overall process, omit-ting processes described in Chapters 12 through 14. These efforts call to mind the “whack a mole” game. In this game, the furry animal appears at one of several holes. The player must whack it on the head before it disappears to reappear at another hole. Projects like this ignore, explicitly or out of sheer ignorance, several important questions: What is our strategy? Does what we do in the supply chain affect our ability to compete? Is our organization aligned across its departments to make changes? Can “vendors” help the effort? Why involve customers (they want to beat us up)? Without executing processes from earlier chapters, disappointment should be expected. That said, a quick payback—even a local one—could spark and sustain interest in a longer project. To move the process forward quickly, conceptual design in Chapter 12, internal alignment in Chapter 13, and enlistment of partners in Chapter 14 can proceed on a fast track for high priority or obviously broken processes. Figure 15.1 is a flowchart of the six processes covered in this chapter. The processes cover two of our five supply chain management (SCM) tasks: Task 4 288 Supply Chain Project Management, Second Edition Managing Supply Chain Information and Task 5 Removing Cost from the Supply Chain.
eBook - PDF- Adedeji B. Badiru, Marlin U. Thomas, Adedeji B. Badiru, Marlin U. Thomas(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
At the strategic level, for example, it is necessary to determine which countries should be used to service the needs of various customers considering service requirements, tax rates and where profits should be earned as well as import and export regulations. While much of the actual work will be performed by the logistics function, it needs to be implemented cross-functionally and with the coordination of key suppliers and customers. The objective is to develop a seamless process from the various customer seg-ments to the organization and then on to its suppliers. Supply Chain Management 23 -9 23.6.6 Manufacturing Flow Management Manufacturing flow management is the SCM process that includes all activities necessary to obtain, implement and manage manufacturing flexibility in the supply chain and to move products into, through and out of the plants. Manufacturing flexibility reflects the ability to make a wide variety of products in a timely manner at the lowest possible cost. To achieve the desired level of manufacturing flexibility, planning and execution must extend beyond the four walls of the manufacturer to other members of the supply chain. 23.6.7 Product Development and Commercialization Product development and commercialization is the SCM process that provides the structure for devel-oping and bringing to market products jointly with customers and suppliers. Effective implementation of the process not only enables management to coordinate the efficient flow of new products across the supply chain, but also assists other members of the supply chain with the ramp-up of manufacturing, logistics, marketing and other activities necessary to support the commercialization of the product.
eBook - PDFSupply Chain Management
New Perspectives
- Sanda Renko(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- IntechOpen(Publisher)
Supply Chain Management - New Perspectives 40 pull the entire chain towards projects of improvement and innovation. These capabilities will then put the firm in a crucial role within the supply network, feeding a situation in which the leading role of the firm allows it to control the critical phases of the value chain without the need for internalization. In contrast, a firm that for various reasons suffers the bargaining power of suppliers for critical components and parts, will be more oriented to choose the path of integration even with a cost disadvantage. B. Medium/long term, strategy-based perspective . Supply decisions involve the assessment of the medium or long-term strategic perspective. Without neglecting the economic assessments, supply policies also take into account opportunities typical of a medium to long term perspective (eg.: innovation, learning economies, flexibility), then adopting choices that may also have sub-optimal effect in the immediate future, but against a upcoming better result or a strategic necessity. The key-principle of assuring the long-term profitability is not neglected. Rather it is declined on several dimensions, including evaluations that are not directly translatable into monetary or financial terms, such as quality, competitiveness, technology leadership, customer satisfaction, and so on. C. Win-win oriented relationship . Supply chain relationships are managed with the perspective of seeking a win-win outcome or according to an overall optimization. Firms aim to increase their share of added value by increasing the value generated by the whole chain rather than through its division. The competition in the research for individual optimum is seen as leading to a systemic sub-optimal outcome. Usually, the coordination promoted by one or a few actors in the chain, typically downstream firms or those with the largest potential market and technology.
eBook - PDFOperations Management
An Integrated Approach
- R. Dan Reid, Nada R. Sanders(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
An organization’s supply chain is facilitated by an information system that allows relevant information such as sales data, sales forecasts, and promotions to be shared among mem- bers of the supply chain. Figure 4.1 shows a basic supply chain structure for a manufacturer. FIN MKT At the beginning of the chain are the external suppliers who supply and transport raw materials and components to the manufacturers. Manufacturers transform these materials into finished products that are shipped either to the manufacturer’s distribution centers or to wholesalers. Next, the product is shipped to retailers who sell the product to the customer. Goods flow from the beginning of the chain through the manufacturing process to the customer. Relevant information is exchanged among members of the supply chain. Also, there is financial flow of funds as items are purchased, sold, and moved, as well as when items are returned by customers. Supply chain management (SCM) is the vital business function that coordinates and manages all the activities of the supply chain linking suppliers, manufacturers, transporters, internal departments, third-party companies, and information systems. Supply chain man- agement for manufacturers entails: • Coordinating the movement of goods through the supply chain from suppliers to manu- facturers to distributors to the final customers • Sharing relevant information such as sales forecasts, sales data, and promotional cam- paigns among members of the chain supply chain A network of all the activities involved in delivering a finished product or service to the customer. supply chain management (SCM) Management of the flow of materials from suppliers to customers in order to reduce overall cost and increase responsiveness to customers.
eBook - PDF- John Mangan, Chandra Lalwani, Agustina Calatayud(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
A particular focus in this regard was on choosing strategies appropriate to various demand and lead-time characteristics. We noted how many experts agree that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will not work and that companies need to continually assess their product range and market characteristics so that changing scenarios may be identified and appropriate supply chain designs configured. The supply chain, properly configured, can be a tremendous source of competitive advantage. It too can allow value to be created that heretofore didn’t previously exist (e.g. new ways of manufacturing and delivering products thus opening up new market opportunities). We have described a variety of different strategies and practices throughout the book (don’t forget that brief explanations of each are also given in the glossary). Many of the common strategies and practices that logistics and supply chain managers engage in are listed below. The extensive list illustrates the diverse and multifaceted areas of activity that logistics and supply chain managers are involved in. This in turn requires a particular skills mix, a topic we will discuss further below. Initially the focus has been on Lean … And that has led to Cost Reduction Now the emphasis is moving to Responsiveness Figure 17.1 Lean and responsive
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