Last week, the university hosted a campus-day event called REDay. The event is a day devoted towards presentations of research projects from everybody on campus – freshman to senior, undergraduate to graduate students, faculty members, and even guest speakers. I decided to start my REDay at 8:30am to listen in on Global Supply Chain Research. The presentation was conducted by current students in Global Supply Chain Management Class 310. Each student was put into a group that was assigned a regional organization at the beginning of the semester, and the goal of the project was to save the assigned organization money on their current supply chain. The REDay presentation was an inside look of where their current project is, and it was an opportunity …show more content…
The interesting part about this presentation was that Banneker is a Supply Chain Management Solution Organization. So before the presentation began, it was a Supply Chain Management group trying to improve a Supply Chain Management Solution Organization. As the group first started to learn about Banneker, they did not know much about warehouse set-up. Therefore, they had to research it and get a better understanding in order to be professional when meeting with the company. The biggest experience that this group could to take away from working with Banneker was shadowing the company for the day and get a better understanding of their current warehouse situation. This gave the group the opportunity to figure out how they could improve Banneker. While keeping in mind that Banneker’s target Return on Investment was around 15% - 30%, the group made the recommendation that Banneker’s Inbound and Outbound Process and Conveyor Belt Processing needed to be rearranged and condensed. They also believed that Banneker needed to improve their Section D of the warehouse, or also called “Jurassic Park.” They came to the conclusion by following their recommendation would lead to more space equals more opportunity. Also in their presentation they prepared a blueprint of the new warehouse under their recommendation, as well as a Cost Benefit Analysis, and a pitch towards improving their Inventory Management computer …show more content…
CVS recently partnered and acquired Courier, which also includes Omnicare. The acquisition was basically to improve CVS’s delivery of products to its customers. The group began to analyze this relationship, and very early noticed some details that did not make sense and could easily be improved. For example, even though there was a contract in place, it was meaningless. The two biggest causes for concern this group found in the contact that were not being enforced was that drivers were showing up late for their deliveries and the amount of money that was being spent on fuel for the deliveries. Even though this group spent more of their time on contact evaluation, they were able to provide recommendations on how they could improve this part of CVS’s supply chain. If they enforce fines with late deliveries, that would make the drivers more aware of the importance. If they also used cheaper fuel, it could save CVS $20.4 million. The group also had an impressive SWOT analysis based off their contract evaluation as
On the same note, it is well acknowledged that the competitiveness of any organization fundamentally depends on the workforce. Indeed, the workforce is recognized as the heart or living organism of any organization including hotels. It goes without saying that there is minimum likelihood that a restaurant where workers operate in unsafe conditions or are mistreated will offer services and products of the highest quality. Scholars note that employees always desire to work in institutions or restaurants that have high standards of integrity and strive to do the appropriate thing (Fox & Vorley, 2004 pp. 33). This is especially so for the new generation workforce, as well as in attracting the best talent in the industry. A reputation for responsibility and integrity has been recognized as crucial in motivating, as well as recruiting staff especially considering that individuals care about the principles and values that their employers wish to uphold. Scholars note that operating voluntarily to high ethical standards pertaining to environment and social responsibility can result in competitive advantage (Schlegelmilch et al, 2004, pp. pp 254). Customers and civil society groups have been increasingly vigilant in determining whether there is an ethical lapse in the manner in which employees are treated within the supply chain of any organization (Fox & Vorley, 2004 pp. 33). In fact, they have been pressurizing restaurants and other business entities to cut ties with any organization in their supply chain that is not ethical in its treatment of employees. Scholars note that the impression that a restaurant or business entity would create in terms of public relations both on the stakeholders and the customers is highly dependent on the ac...
Now referring to Blue Bell Company, the shift in supply occurs when they decide to recall all their products and re-evaluate it. Blue bell will more than likely increase the price of the remaining items in the market. This is the result of consumers still providing a high amount of demand for ice cream even though there is less to supply. This theory can be accurately applied to this situation because there is no other solution that they can do to combat the consumers’ need of ice cream. For example, if they do continue to sell at the same price, soon they will not be able to produce as much as consumers want thus eliminating the good from the market.
The main problem that Excel is confronted with is should the company try to expand into supply chain planning. The main question on the table is does Excel have the ability to complete the entire task in a supply chain from planning to execution? As is, Excel is the largest provider of freight management and contract logistics, and has four teams to accomplish everything they provide. Their four teams include: business development, solutions design, implementation, and operations. With Excel’s great success and achievements in all their past contracts, the company would like to expand into supply chain planning with the help of Haus Mart since they have be in a long standing relationship and already know Haus Mart’s supply chain.
Ava Beane has considered, within the case study, two possible alternatives that would help enforce the four objectives given from the Scientific Glass executives. These four objectives are: improve order fulfillment time for both old and new customers, reduce customer backorders; reduce sales team involvement in tracking and expediting delayed product orders; and increase inventory turnover which would reduce overage and underage costs. Beane hypothesize that to achieve these objectives, the company would either have to centralize all warehouse functions or to completely outsource the warehouse process (Schmidt and Wheelhouse, pg. 6-7).
In order to succeed, managers have to realize that they cannot do it alone and they must work together on a daily basis with the whole organizations in their supply chains. Because supply chain management involves all functions within an organization, managers need to know what a supply chain is, why it is important, and the impact of supply chain management on the success and profitability of their organization. Today, Wal-Mart topped the list of the America’s biggest companies on the Fortune 500 list, “with sales of almost $345 billion — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars” (Forbs). Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is becoming recognized as a core competitive strategy.
Lastly, the stores and warehouses are not communicating well which is resulting in confusion for both parties. Store managers waste time by having to spend store hours on the phone with the DC to expedite demanded stock. This time waste can be avoided by properly organizing the warehouse and having informed workers who can get the job done right and on time. Also worth mentioning is the current condition of the warehouse; there is inventory underneath conveyors and scattered across aisles, making it harder to track down stock. Analysis &
Happy Chips, Inc. is faced with a serious problem, with only having one mass merchandise customer called “Buy 4 Less” being unhappy with the company’s operating performance. Buy 4 Less had several problems cited including frequent stock outs, poor customer service responsiveness, and high prices for the products being supplied. Buy 4 Less came up with solutions they think seem fit to fix the problems they found with Happy Chips, Inc. and if Happy Chips, Inc. wishes to remain a supplier to their company they will have to incorporate these changes. The problem however with this scenario, is that employees of Happy Chip, Inc. are not happy with the demands Buy 4 Less has bestowed upon them which include providing direct store delivery four times a week instead of three, installing an automated order inquiry system to increase customer service responsiveness, and decreasing product prices by 5%. Even though the easiest thing for Happy Chips, Inc. to do is to agree to the changes Buy 4 Less wants them to do, Wendell Worthmann, the manager of logistics cost analysis doesn’t agree to the changes right away. The main problem with this case is that Buy 4 Less is Happy Chips, Inc. one and only mass merchandise customer that accounts for 400,000 annual unit sales and 12% of annual revenue. With the mass merchandise segment having such a high profit potential, Happy Chips, Inc.
Supply chain management is basically refers to the fundamental supply chain analysis of the organization which predominantly describes functionalities from source to the delivery point. In this process of delivery, supply chain management framework divides in four categories: In Planning the products and suppliers evaluated and selected, Sourcing pull the information process including contracting, ordering and expediting, Moving is a physical process from suppliers to end user and Paying is the financial process including payment and performance measurement.
This report has clearly in detail described the meaning, benefits as well as the need and challenges of the RFID in the supply chain system. While RFID comes with a larger magnitude of benefits than the bar code, it’s an expensive medium and comes at a price that may be prohibitive to many businesses. On the one hand, RFID is advantageous in different areas of the supply chain and does not require line-of-sight scanning; it helps in labor reduction, enhances visibility of products and processes , and helps in inventory management. On the other hand, RFID is an expensive solution, lacking benchmarks or standards, suffers from some adverse deployment issues, and suffers from major privacy concerns. However with the ultimate aim to see the establishment of item-level tracking which should act to revolutionize SCM practices, RFID is here to stay.
Supply chain management has been defined as that process that involves the management of information, materials, and all the finances that are handled within and across the entire supply chain process (Christopher, 2016). The management is usually done through out the entire supply chain management from that moment when the suppliers are involved through all the manufacturing activities, different distribution activities, and the way that the products are served to the final product consumer (Turban, et al., 2002). The process also includes all the activities that different organizations offers to their customers as after sale services for purposes perfecting their services and products towards their highly valued customers (Christopher,
Quickly becoming apparent after only a few rounds of play was in the absence of coordinating direction the individual supply chain links immediately focused upon acting in their own best interests much more so than the organization as a whole. Whether the end use customer was satisfied became secondary to avoiding stock outages for the next link in the chain, or their specific “upstream customer”. The real world application of this example is that focus on the end use customer must be consistent and maintained throughout the process up to and including delivery. Undoubtedly internal customers, such as retailers to wholesalers and distributors to production, must be serviced along the way for the transaction to ultimately occur. However, unless an end use customer is involved no profit can be realized by anyone.
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.
By the SWOT analysis it could be concluded that XXX Company have an opportunity to expand in by strengthening the promotion strategy to gain more customers and expand the place because there will be more competitors in the future. Starts using a contract for the new customers would be a great improvement for the company to get more constant sales revenue.
My job at TCS has exposed to the various nuances of Supply Chain Management and therefore, I feel I can add value to my profession through a pursuit of this course.