Archive for the ‘Business strategy’ Category:
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.
Subscribe to the comments for this postImplement 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.
Green initiatives is top in agenda of supply chain professionals
Aligning with the global concern of supply chain management professional, the professionals from the UK in Supply Chain Management have requested UK government to slow down the industry’s carbon footprint. As 67 percent of total supply chain management professionals in United Kingdom have asked government to subsidized initiatives as taken by them to improve and promote the efforts of green supply chain.
As a result of a research that was conducted in United Kingdom for Supply Chain Professionals, much concern was expressed by supply chain professionals in area of reducing carbon footprints, better supply chain visibility, shrinking margins, introduction of news products and escalating consumer expectations.
As on the environmental issue, it is the cost that checks the companies from implementing any reforms. In comparison to older period, when products were transported through low cost countries as thus keeping labor and shipping cost low now present global concern of environment is increasing cost with a focus on decreasing carbon emissions from land, sea and air transportation.
As a result of this research it was found that green initiative is in top agenda of supply chain management professionals as well they are also focusing more on with the main issues as margin improvement and customer service levels.
In Globalization Outsourcing Companies Turning to Model of Supply Chain Unit
With rapidly increasing sphere of outsourcing that occurs on one to one basis between organizations located at distinct positions in different countries, the outsourcing companies are working on models similar to a typical manufacturing supply chain unit. Companies are using extensively build and complex services supply chains to lower down their costs and address all the possible threats of the competitive globalization in outsourcing as recently reported by Equa Terra’s in survey of top outsourcing service providers.
As in this process of employing supply chain management by outsourcing companies the outsourcing companies generally deal with diverse and more widely distributed large organizations forming hundred types of associations with several service providers, globally. But there equally a problem lies with most of companies that they all are not up to the mark on the two most important factors current performance levels and current direct cost. According to the report, the performance of the developing quality outsourcing business cases is mediocre. Even to manage global services on the back end is proving equally challenging in present competitive period.
Now every company is moving towards with more focus on business process efficiency and effectiveness. It is expected that for outsourcing Industry business process and IT outsourcing will increase in 2008 from previous year 2006 and 2007 levels. The other important change in outsourcing is more focus on short term return on investment that will slower down the speed of upfront investment. And above all the most noticeable change is increased demand and supply for knowledge process outsourcing in area of engineering, research and development, financial modeling and analytics and legal process work.
Achieve Supply Chain Optimization with New Technology Solutions
With ever new coming technology platforms and solutions one such service in the field of supply chain management is provided by New Generation Logistics, Inc the leading supply chain consulting, managed services, and technology company with launching their comprehensive supply chain optimization planning service OptiNet™ Network Optimization which is integrated with FreightMaster TMS®.
This new solution provides an executive with facilities to model an existing business network sitting along with other members of the team. As in today’s competitive and dynamic business environment companies of all ranges looks out for a feasible method to plan their supply chain network more effectively and convulsively.
The OptiNet ™ Network optimization services links the company’s modeling software tool with current transportation lane costs from FreightMaster TMS® along with NGL’s analytical expertise to evaluate current, alternative and “green field” network modeling scenarios.
The system thus consisted this way performs many tasks in overall optimization of the process and techniques and improves in areas like Minimum overall cost calculation, increasing production quantity at each of the manufacturing plant., exact allocation of products to different plants and warehouses. And a customer needed this technology, can use this service on ‘as needed” basis, like as quarter, annually or as a part of their client’s strategic planning process.
How to gain edge in Green Supply Chain management?
A new movement is taking place now days among corporate organizations around the globe that is known to be as Green movement. The popularity of green movement among companies is for a number of reasons. The companies of the current time consider green movement not only a very important segment of their corporate values but also very good receptor of opinion form its customers, employers, partners and the community at large. By following certain guide lines a company can create a better niche market for itself in establishing green supply chains.
1. Develop buy-in process throughout the enterprise.
2. Select out the best procedure for vendor selection.
3. Make processing efficient so their may be complete focus on strategic issues.
4. Design a role model for supplier community.
5. Religiously follow and support strategies once they are made.
The proper implementation of points in strategies as discussed above certainly help your company to have greater control and visibility in the Purchase-to-Pay operations. This will help purchasing and accounts payable professionals to provide important financial information to business units. The green supply chain not only increases your reputation in corporate responsibility but also have great winning combination for the companies of 21st century.
Safety and Security Concern in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
The Pharmaceutical world is not anyway exception to the marketing malpractices, as according to statistics of World Health Organization (WHO), counterfeit medicines of worth $32 billion are in circulation in drug market. On the other hand, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told the number of investigations done by it, has just doubled from the total numbers as it occurred in previous year.
One of the worst cases of counterfeit medical scam was registered in US medical history in 2003 when Pfizer discovered tens of thousand of counterfeit bottles of top selling cholesterol medicine, Lipitor. And this discovery of false medicine soon spread to 15 U.S states.
Apart from the monitoring of production of counterfeit medicines, the drug administration authorities also look after the other area of concern that is product expiration. One of the prominent reasons found for product expiration as its being collated in the supply chain for too long before they can be distributed to the retailers.
The Healthcare Distribution Management Association presented a stat that phrama industry annually incur $ 2 billion a year in returns and product losses and another $ 2 billion annually in the costs related to processing returns, expirations and recalls.
In order to regulate the system, the public as well as Congress are trying their lot to bring about a process where a secure supply chain can be established for prescription drugs and counterfeiting can be minimized. To strengthen the process, the US Congress passed the Prescription Drug Marketing Act in 1988, which requires a detailed record of drug’s movement thorough the supply chain from the manufacturer to the medical store. And supplier to the defense authorities is expected to use active and passive RFID tags on shipments to the military.
For a Pharmaceutical firm while tracking a drug through the supply chain there are many points that are needed to be kept in mind. The issues like detecting which drug, from which batch, has been counterfeited needs to be checked out, however, the process of creating a drug from raw material than its packing and shipping is a complex process.
Presently Pharma Industry handles supply of finished product at the batch or lot level and incase any counterfeit is detected then entire batch is recalled thus increasing cost for the manufacturer and the retailer and lost in consumer confidence as well. Moreover, in system of contract manufacturing there are more chances of counterfeit as product is passed through many hands.
However, use of technology can provide a viable solution to this problem as use of barcoding and RFID tags during every stage of supply chain from receipt into and out of inventory to the picking, packing and shipping processes. Track and trace capability from product recalls and product quality. Bar coding and RFID proves to be very effective method for a greater control over product recalls and product quality, and most importantly, pedigree and serialization capabilities can be used with aligning the standards and norms.
Record production of Grain in India, in 2007-08
Agriculture secretary of India, PK Mishra while inaugurating two day workshop on supply chain management for agricultural commodities in Coimbatore told that India achieved a record food grain production of 227 million tonne in 2007-08, 10 to 12 million tonne from previous years.
He further stated that agriculture sector registered growth of more than of 4% continuously for previous four years if compared with 2% from 1994 to 2004. He stated this growth is not only registered in food grains, however, the production has gone up for cotton and sugarcane as well during last two years.
He was also positive for double production of horticulture sector by the end of the 11th plan period, at the same time; he was concerned for search of suitable markets for the surplus production and strengthening/development of supply chains to avail tangible benefits out of this development.
As in India farmer gets very low share of the final price paid by consumers because of long value chain. Mr Mishra said,
“We need to shorten those long value chains and encourage their vertical integration and consolidation for ensuring a remunerative price to our farmers,”
So agriculture sector in India for proper growth requires well functioning markets to drive growth, generate employment and economic prosperity in rural areas of the country. Therefore for an effective process, the large investment is required for post harvest and cold chain infrastructure near to the farmer’s field. In present scenario India needs competent supply chain management instead of market driven production for effective delivery of food grains in the market.
Business Management Tool from Microsoft
Recently Microsoft has released Microsoft Dynamic AX 2009 as an adaptable business management solution which has inbuilt capabilities and performances for multisite organizations to streamline processes, reduce operational costs, manage compliance, and drive informed decision - making across organizations
This business tool is ascribed as very helpful in tackling complexities of managing business with acute insights and standardizing functionality of operations across multiple locations. According to spokesperson of Microsoft, the Dynamic AX 2009 lets its users to easily manage complex financial and supply chain processes across teams and locations.
This tool is amazing in running multiple legal entities from a central location and at the same times it is capable of providing single snap of the supply chain information from facilities all around the world as platform for simplifying global planning. The solution when integrated with Microsoft Office Performance Point Server can offer advanced planning and reporting scenarios.
In the words of Ray Wang analyst firm Forrester commented,
“Microsoft Dynamics products should be on ERP selection shortlists for a variety of SMBs, especially those using Microsoft’s server-based products.”
‘Future Supply Chain 2016′ foresees the future of Supply Chain
The continuous uptrend in the prices of energy & fuel and rise of internet has limited the distance between boundaries and this world now seems to be quite smaller than what it happened to be a few years back.
Any new development with respect to infrastructural change or any new related activity is examined by consumers, retailers and suppliers alike. A recent report released by Capgemini and Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) naming “Future Supply Chain 2016” looks all the possible area of concern for global Supply Chain from traffic congestion to carbon emissions to Internet sales.
The report was generated as part of the Future Supply Chain project in which 24 companies and industry organizations lead by GCI and Capgemini examined and took note of the various issues related to existence of supply chain in long term. The political drive around issues like resource scarcity, climate change, security and new regulations are the some points as discussed in this report.
At the same time, report has also mentioned key to the existing problem in sharing resources like warehouse, transportation and information to reduce carbon footprints and cut costs.
The role of Internet is discussed with a view in older supply chain models which are based on shelf availability and cost efficiency to map out the effectiveness. With consumers shopping 24 hours a day online, on-shelf availability and delivery model is expected to be upgraded to the changing trends and habits. Meanwhile, consumer awareness about climate change and reduced natural resources has evolved as a new method the way people shop and determine what products to buy.
The other important statistical analysis in the report is about the end user of supply chain which is divided into urban and non-urban. Traffic congestion is the first major problem of urban areas that is addressed to be rectified by shared city replenishment hubs, communal warehouses and shared transportation to reduce vehicles on the road, energy consumption, and carbon emissions.
Whereas in non-urban areas the supply chain can be managed through regional consolidation centers where products from multiple companies can be restored and further distributed.
Companies participating in the report are AIM/ECR Europe, Black & Decker, British American Tobacco, Capgemini. Carrefour, Colgate-Palmolive, Crown Europe, Freudenberg Household Products, GlaxoSmithKline, Groupe Danone, GS1US, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg Europe, Kraft Foods, Loblaw Companies Ltd, L’Oreal, MGL METRO Group Logistics GmbH, Nestlé, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Royal Ahold, Sara Lee International, SCA Packaging, Symrise, Unilever, and Wal-Mart Stores.