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IT with Changing Supply Chain Scenario
Legacy supply chain programs that were formed with an aim towards improving efficiency, after investing million of dollars resulted only into a deployment cycles only to be used by a few highly trained and skilled people.
These legacy programs that were framed from using complex mathematical models for heavy manufacturing sector became useless in a present heavily outsourced and extremely dynamic world, where assumptions and concepts keep changing all the time. These plans based on assumption are detrimental on the basis of data preserved in spreadsheets are less practical thus results in lesser customer satisfaction, operating costs and margins, etc.
So IT departments of the companies need to be extra cautious when planning strategies and especially with an attention on changing business environment with integrated and collaborative demand-supply planning, monitoring and response system so a man could make right decision and judgment when executing a business idea or during routine business operation. Despite of variety of budgetary constraint an IT department of a company can bring forth a good number of positive results.
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With the expanding nature of International businesses, it has become quite imperative for business managers and especially for the people in supply chain to assess the damage and risk to the business.
As, the present International Business scenario has changed, outlook, towards the supply chain risk management, as the risk exposure has generally delved into the all operational functions of the business. Therefore, on the part of senior management a comprehensive risk management program is thus needed for an overall performance of the business to effectively manage risk proposition in the business.
As a number of processes like offshore manufacturing, global outsourcing and lean sourcing are some of the processes which impact supply chain process and supply chain risk management that has become an integral and important part of vital risk management priority. In the counting for a prioritize risks as faced during supply chain, the main type of risks as faced are brand and reputation issues, regulatory compliance, product safety and catastrophe exposure at the risk problems.
Hence, due to the changing nature of the business, the risk managers are now involved into the task of risk management in a variety of manufacturing operations thus developing a more complex communication pathways and greater demand for identification, measurement and financing of risk mitigation related to possible business losses.
So to develop a healthy and successful manufacturing chain is primary task of the risk mangers. And a risk manager needs to take care of all the essential tasks and get himself familiarized with all the components for a successful business entrepreneurship. He should be a person to take care of certain supply chain decisions as to its fullest exposure and access.
A risk manager should follow certain procedures as to make it an effective decision with perspective to supply chain management. He should identifying and prioritizing critical business elements, map the entire supply chain to show interdependencies, to judge the potential failure points along the supply chain. This way a supply chain manager can bring about a very radical change in managing risks in supply chains.
Best Practice is the Best Implementation of Idea
Whenever starting Supply Chain Management or some other major project there an initial debate gets started with incorporation of best practices on the performance of project in breeding period or commencing production. As recently a debate undergone between SCM leaders about starting a global company project that may get started in 2009.
This conception by the SCM leaders is woven around defining a company that may deal into everything from consumer electronics to building materials to health care products. As defining the best practices into the business project they are actually merely not meant for as practice in software or a power point presentation.
As for the term of best practice, it is wide norm with the companies, that they keep there some innovative practices as a secret and hardly divulge it out and around. But rather well deserved best practices are the result of regular experimentation and should be used widely as “Best Acceptable Practices” instead of merely Best Practices. So idea for any practice or solution is that can be best implemented within the practice of organization. It can be defined in the term like as a mediocre idea implemented brilliantly is far good than brilliant idea implemented in mediocre way.
Other strategy with Supply chain management companies is that they are sometimes over depends on the opinion of Program Management they are more believed to concern with theoretical part of practice instead of practical implementation. These examples and practices say any practice in actual way is not worth while and best unless it is acceptable and implantable.
So it is best for the business do not believe anything to be the best that is told you to be best instead and bring out something best after implementing it in the best manner.
Financial Crisis Hitting Supply Chain and Solution to the Problem
As economy is getting into the recessionary phase and the credit problems in financial markets, it is also assumed for supply chain sector that the new money will reach to them only from the end customer. However, this is not possible in view of need for capital investment as without investment in new plant, equipment, materials, research & development, suppliers, education, etc.
So this financial crunch, definitely, would pose a serious problem for suppliers to get resources to compete for business, development of new products and investment in news projects and assurance against negative cash flow in the starting phase of new product insemination.
So crux of whole thing is that in new economy, the creation of wealth is of more importance than horse trading of wealth and the problem can be solved only after with financial institutions ability to pay loan to get some better results. That is also equally true in this situation that economy may not grow with as expected higher rate and a person may sustain with reasonably minimum profits.
RFID Technology for Global Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Security
As according to the points of caution from the US government on the integrity of health care system in America, the United States pharmaceutical industry is conducting trails of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag technology to devise a protected prescription drug supply chain through an electronic medium.
Thus RFID track and trace mechanism promises for an effective commercial viability as by reducing counterfeit drugs and to boost supply chain efficiency. It is expected that pharmaceutical company owners would use ITEM- Level Tagging (ILT) for secure distribution of Drugs.
Thus focus under these steps is to make process decentralized whereas centralized, online authentication process is more costly then the decentralized one. A decentralized move toward item-level authentication and privacy in real-time with time based access to centralized provide more flexible and cost effectiveness. A decentralized concept weaved around Elliptic Curve Pintsov-Vanstone Signatures (ECPVS), approaches with benefits of ILT whereas online access is next to impossible of being excessively expensive.
Wal-Mart the leading global retailer was the first who adopted RFID tagging technology and improved supply chain management. EPC global, an international non-profit carrying away objective and technologies related to RFID globally by getting worldwide standardization and adoption of electronic product codes (EPCs) as an integral part of the secured supply chain management.
Clients From Across the Supply Chain Go Live With Visual Management Systems
VMS (Visual Management System) software as launched by VMSY a leading digital surveillance company as located in Toms River N.J have equipped more than 2,000 VMS clients benefiting from Visual Management Systems from different areas of industry including manufacturing, distribution, retailing, educational institution, etc.
The VMSY system’s has tremendously improved different sector and areas in these industries including improved safety, security, worker productivity and customer service. The VMSY provide video surveillance solutions to small and mid sized business entrepreneur companies. The video surveillance solution thus helps a company in many ways to prevent crime, ensure safety, enhance productivity and improve service.
VMSY is leading industry company in manufacturing and implementing video security technology on a very affordable price.
Solving Global Supply Chain Complexity
The Global scenario of Supply chain is complex attributed to many factors. Locally, supply chain is considered to be very helpful and conducive but it becomes bit compounded when it comes in term with technical complexities like non-linearity, multiple entities, non-aligned systems and ambiguous data standards, cultural difference across at different locations in the Globe.
This is one facet; the other complexity of global behavior is competition customer segments, congested channels and a vast array of products combining it to be a typical global supply chain. This already complex situation further get aggravated with many a number of added elements like competition, industry dynamics, the disruptive technologies and behavior that hinders the overall operating environment. The other common business issues of concern are use of latest technology and to remain best during the process.
Thus good management can be path and solution to the problem of global complexities of supply chain as handling with perfection of the underlying basics, visibility, integration and risk management. Whereas execution, cost, quality and service all are equally important as part of good management.
In order to achieve better management goals it is the visibility and integration that plays very important role in controlling flow of information in a global supply chain at different global locations and situations among suppliers, partners, providers, channels and customers. Real time visibility and its response to the situation as interpreting changes in the supply chain for better gain maximize profits and help system to run smoothly. It also drives minimized inventory risk, effective utilization and optimization of fixed assets. Risk can be managed tightly matching demand with supply while contacting for key material supply.
At the same time processes of supply chain management too should not be ignored as they let operations to work, effectively. There should be a holistic view and approach to hard work, network, financing, facilities and above all the people those are working. The aim of all the operations should be quick response from the operations, lower total cost and maximum liquidity.
Thus all these necessary steps if worked out properly can heavily aid a company in complex supply scenario.
Chinese Supply Chain to the Task of Olympic
As far as for the mega event like Beijing Olympics, the logistics had to work very hard and total logistic services cost estimated to US$ 5.8 billion. As estimated 3 million athletes, journalists and spectators gathered in the Beijing for 29th Olympic Games.
As more than 200 countries participated in the Games, nearly 12 million pieces of apparatus were handled by logistics companies providing support to the event. This created huge business opportunities for domestic and overseas logistics companies. During the entire period of Olympic Games more than 75,000 tonnes of equipment and facilities were transported. And the need for 2000 transport vehicles were also carried out by trans-national logistics companies like as UPS, DH and, TNT and local carriers as well.
There has been quite a wider gap between in terms of co-operation between Chinese manufacturing and logistics companies which hampered the growth of Chinese logistics companies. However with the development for Olympic Games, the Chinese logistics provider learnt advanced technologies. The Olympic Games that lasted for two and a half weeks involved incredible level of logistics and planning. The logistics expenses $6.18 billion 15.5% of total games budget were estimated in the planning stage when in 2001 China successfully bid for the Games in 2001.
As from the start, the Beijing government was cautious about dealing with environment issues as Beijing was notorious for air pollution since 1998. For the task Chinese government moved factories to other provinces, used cleaner motor fuel, planted new trees and imposed strict traffic rules encouraging people towards public transport. A dedicated Olympics Logistics Centre (OLC) was made in Beijing to set up place for a vast number of materials and equipment required. The centre was responsible for the 37 main Olympic venues, 15 non-competition venues and 72 independent training venues. The OLC was operated and managed by US-based United Parcel Service.
This extensive exercise done by Chinese logistic companies have open quite wide open horizon for logistics companies to work in future and coming time for mega activities like Olympic and other activities.
3 Phases Implementation of ERP for Small And Medium Sized Businesses
While on the steps of introducing ERP (Entrepreneur Resource Planning) into a Supply Chain Management system starts from the implementing Basic ERP that took about nine to twelve months to complete and bring about desired results. The steps of Basic ERP include Sales & Operations Planning, Demand Management, Rough Cut Capacity Planning, and Material Requirements Planning. The other steps which are included in the implementation of Basic ERP are the support functions of inventory accuracy, bill of material accuracy and structure, feedback system from the plant floor and purchasing.
After the initial introduction of ERP its integration with supply chain management includes with both backward and forward direction. In the backward direction its implementation towards suppliers include techniques like supplier scheduling and Internet-based business-to-business e-commerce whereas forward processes goes towards customers as by the distribution requirements planning and vendor managed inventories (VMI). This integration of ERP with supply chain management took nearly three to six months depending upon complexity of applications.
Now in the final phase of integrating ERP with supply chain this stage include extensions and enhancements to Support Corporate Strategy. Here ERP software capabilities thus are extended to the total organization with link to other business units within the global organization, HR applications, maintenance, product development and other related areas.
Implement Supply Chain Management Software with Caution
Supply Chain is one of the five important steps for any manufacturing companies including planning out needs, selecting sources of raw materials, making of finished products, delivery to retailers and shoppers and return. The most crucial part of supply chain management is to create resource for product and services according to customer need, and develop a set of pricing, delivery and payment process with suppliers.
The delivery part after production, testing and packing in more precise terms is known as logistics. The logistics is the network of to develop and coordinates the receipt of orders from customers, etc. To get back defective pieces back from customers who are not satisfied with the product is known as return.
The supply chain management software’s are considered as one of the most robust sets of software applications. Software can do a number of tasks in its supply chain management tasks. However, due to a multiple number of tasks there a complete package for all supply chain management tasks is yet too being developed.
There are many other problems in proper implementation of supply management software and it is only possible for big organizations to handle complexity of supply chain management software as according to changes in market and supply chain management scenario as according to the up downs of the global market. Other sensitive issue with supply chain management is proper training of staff to handle supply chain management software.