Archive for the ‘Forecasting’ Category:
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.
Subscribe to the comments for this postSupply Chain Risks and Measures
In a recent time, supply chain companies have suffered 58% financial losses due to the disruption over a period of time. The disruptions that led to financial losses for the supply chain companies are accounted as failing to meet demand, rise in prices of raw materials and shortages, change in customer demand, shipment delay, and damage, misdirected.
However, companies to some extent have changed their strategies to counter losses; they have gone global in sourcing as well as selling to the new regions and are adding new carriers, forwarders logistics and distribution partners to their network. This new trend has led to the new security concern developing into a new level of regulation on global shippers. This tendency has turned attention of the companies toward supply chain risk management and adopts new processes and technologies to make supply chain risk resistant.
The best way as to get over current scenario of Supply Chain Risks is to manage and assess logistics congestion and capacity, profile of suppliers, profile of countries, and non environmental catastrophic events.
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.
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.
Response Management Solutions - Solution To Tame The Volatile Nature Of The Market
Nothing is sure in the market, and especially, in terms of the Sales & Operations Planning as it pays a very vital role for executives in meeting corporate objectives like forecasting, planning and alignment of supply and demand. The S&OP planning sometimes can play reversal role when met with ground realties of the modern market.
With the expansion of time and ever-increasing unpredictable behavior of consumer preference supply chains have become rather complex and business environments more risky. And sometimes it happens to the extent that a plan boomerangs as soon as it is forced upon for implementation. The companies are constantly seen as struggling to deliver metrics and plans as discussed in S&OP to meet the best accomplishment in the market. But contrary, the staff in supply and demand chain faces the unplanned events on the daily basis in the market, finally making a reversal impact over company’s performance.
In order to sideline risks of daily businesses and unpredictable marketing scenario, companies are found to use many types of S&OP software to develop a better plan. So in order to check market volatile forces, the company employs response management as a strategy to meet out good response from the market. Response Management software’s helps in such a way that they provide daily decision makers with tools to sideline the volatile nature of the unpredictable market.
Need For Market Responsiveness: As for the successful implementation of the S&OP strategy, the complex modern day market scenario led a staff to capture and consolidate disparate forecasts from different systems for an accurate and complete view of the market demand. And as in a reverse process, the companies S&OP have started projecting weekly forecasts instead of monthly one and it is sooner becoming a practice among companies.
The traditional S&OP models cater to demand and supply scenario separately, thus makes the process rather slow. All the traditional solutions like ERP, demand planning or supply chain systems have failed to provide desired results matching the need of the modern market.
Thus in such a situation, it is the Response Management Services, which are playing an important role and evolved as a problem solver for the companies. Response Management services offer broad, real-time visibility as based on collaborative analysis among stakeholders. Response Management Solutions can be customized within S&OP process to provide more accurate and comprehensive data with adjustments to daily changes in supply, demand and product.
Latest Trend in Global Supply Chain Management
With the shift and change in International scenario of business infrastructure and strategy, the Global Supply Chain Management does also requires change in its basic tenants and procedural application to accommodate itself with running trend and regularly with international standards and norms.
There are many policies which adopted, radically, can bring about big changes in international scenario of Supply Chain Management. In the series, the first one is:
Implementation of Time Bound Strategies Based on Collaboration: Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) is a new standard as employed by suppliers and retailers to improve forecasting and bring out the best while through the replacement of products. This is thus more focused on to integrate and reduce uncertainty and increases products supply. Quick response is a strategy adapted to give instant results in just-in-time strategies to the retail sector. This is quite different to traditional supply chain with an advanced design cycle and a lengthy manufacturing and shipping cycle.
Zara is enlightenment to the supply chain manufacturers as in Spain, they, merely take 10 to 14 days to design; produce and deliver produce garments to retail store, instead of 3 to 4 months for its competition.
Change in Pattern for Customer’s Demand: With the span of time, the customer’s priority is also changing with span of time they have started asking for on time delivery with variety of products and packaging with increased level of quality as well.
Influence of Global Sourcing: Lower Production or purchasing cost as due to under impact of Global Sourcing has certain increased costs is supply chain like transportation, warehousing and inventory costs. You will get gateways congested as well that will complicate the matter even more and for worse. According to a survey, only 42% of Canadian companies earned profit while outsourcing to production to China.
Role of Third Party Logistics: With changed International Scenario the Value-added distribution centers have become talk of the time. They can do all pick and pack, labeling, kitting, special packaging or co-manufacturing. The market share of Third Party Logistics has risen over to $ 10 billion in 1990 to around $ 120 billion in 2007.
DHL Express plans to restructuring its operations in United States
In a very crucial move in international logistics and supply chain management, the Deutsche Post World Net, the parent body of the DHL express announced in a press conference on 28th May at its headquarter in Bonn, Germany that the significant reduction in DHL Express’ US operations is in its plans. This announcement at the press conference put an end around all the speculation as about the future of DHL in United States. However, DPWN denied that it is not in mood, completely, closing down operations in US market.
In a series of initiative announced at DWPN press conference for improving infrastructure of DHL one is to jointly work with UPS ( United States Parcel Service) on $10 billion contract to airlift capacity and reduce costs in its ground infrastructure operations, though contract is still undergoing through progress.
DPWN informed that under this contract UPS will provide airlift for DHL Express U.S. domestic and international shipments from airport-to-airport within North America. Presently, DHL is using ABX Air and Astar Air Cargo for these services. This change will help DPWN in a way that it would have from now onward s single airline partner in the United States.
As about the far reaching impact of this restructuring DPWN told that this will reduce aviation costs through outsourcing to UPS thus help to streamline infrastructure by reducing and closing down U.S stations in low density and remote areas and reducing pick up and linehaul delivery routes and ground linehaul sectors by 17 and 18 percent, respectively.
The other benefit of this partnership as expected by DPWN is its deliverance of services to more rural part of the United States with the Help of United States Postal Service. As for its operations and expansion the DHL has invested more than $ 3 billion into the America since 2003 including $ 1.2 billion in infrastructure and distribution, however, according to a Dow Jones report the total loss for previous four years for DHL was $ 3 billion.