Posts Tagged ‘supply chain management’
The eight-tier supply chain strategies from Infor
Thomson, MD of Softworx, an EOH company and distributor of Infor in sub-Saharan Africa, feels that the supply chain is having a tremendous impact on businesses today due to emergence of a whole new set of factors. These factors have been analyzed by Infor which has developed a new way for companies to view their supply chains - they call it the “concept-to-customer” approach. This approach can be defined as taking the broadest possible view of the variables impacting a business, says Thomson.
To foster concept-to-customer thinking, Infor has identified eight supply chain strategies that enable organizations to take the actions necessary to build anticipation and resilience into their supply chains. These strategies can be listed down as:
Dynamic adjustment of the network
Instead of continuing the network in the old fashioned inherited way, the companies should sit down and design and regularly assess their networks which will help mitigate the effects of external pressures for effectiveness in meeting requirements.
Viewing the demand globally
If your company takes a global view of the demand, it can detect changes in trends, customers buying patterns, and also changes at the regional, product, channel, and customer levels. This helps you in integrated business planning so that you can set the parameters for the inventory, production, sourcing, and distribution plans that follow.
Working the supply network
To work your supply network you have to take decisions based on the balance between demand and supply capacity factors. This will help you to choose the best option in terms of customer service and total cost of supply.
Enhancing asset productivity
Advanced planning solutions will help manufacturers, logistics providers, and retailers come out of the confines of traditional planning so that they have greater visibility and control over capacities, materials, labor, and task sequencing which will help them extract the most of their capital investments.
Expansion of visibility
Demand visibility solutions can help manufacturers enhance their business results by taking notice of what retailers are selling so they can adjust their production and help the retailers to get an idea of what products are being produced and what will be delivered to them, if they implement solutions that provide visibility further up the supply chain.
Knowing what is happening around you
Event management technologies can help companies sense what is happening both inside and outside the organization so that they can detect changes in the market as early as possible and take early corrective actions. As companies strive to deploy concept-to-customer supply chains, event management technologies will be an important tool to deliver the responsiveness they need.
Designing products for market delivery
These days product life cycle management is increasingly being incorporated into supply chain to get product designs right the first time so the incidence of failure and time to market can be reduced and to use a third-party logistics provider into the supply chain for a flexible approach and to take cost out of the manufacturing process.
Tracking performance for continuous improvement
The most important step in this concept-to-customer supply chain approach is measuring and tracking the performance of the business through a number of analytics and performance management solutions available that can streamline the way information is collected, analysed, shared with supply chain partners, and reported to government agencies.
“By implementing these strategies, companies can derive tangible business benefits from the concept-to-customer approach. Concept-to-customer thinking leads to improved decision-making because you have more complete, more accurate, and timelier knowledge of all the factors influencing your business. In addition, this type of thinking improves visibility and your ability to anticipate and respond to both risk and opportunity in the management of your supply chain,”
Thomson concludes.
Subscribe to the comments for this postGreen 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.
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.
Smaller Player is the weakest supply chain link - said a Recent Report
The recently released report by European consumer affairs minister’s Meglena Kuneva on 5th June 2008 entitled as Evaluating Business Saftey Measures in the Toy Supply Chain, in Brussels has pointed out that Small European Importers and Chinese manufactures are the most potent safety threat in manufacturing sectors.
This report is presented as European Commission’s follow up to its Stocktaking review, in autumn 2007. This need for the review aroused after the evaluating, the strength and weakness of the existing mechanisms as to ensure product safety in Europe.
This report which is generated after a five-month long analysis of safety measures in the toy supply chain has highlighted many areas which are felt to be considered and pondered over to reach at credible policy and standard for safety cautions. The research and thus appropriated report has finally outlined that it is not the final testing of the product but also a quality culture through out the entire product supply chain is guarantee for good quality assurance. And this report, however, has significant results as for the progress made by Chinese authorities and manufactures.
As mentioned in the report, the small European importers and traders and small Chinese manufacturers have become weak link in the product safety chain due to there inability to cope up with the compliance in regard to applicable legislation and standards. The other weak point that has been noticed is the variation of expertise that is presented at member states enforcement practices and testing laboratories.
The other important reason as for being deviated from the security norm is following US market Standards and failing to comply with the European norms and standards. However, in this report nearly more over 50 recommendations are provided to strengthen the current system for ensuring toy safety.
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.