1 Introduction
Since the internet revolution, organizations and individuals have increased their reliance on technology in the completion of daily activities. Most people will use devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops for the completion of their daily activities at home and at work. Similarly, the industries have picked up the use of technology to make work easier, affordable and to increase efficiency. The range of technologies being applied is broad and they offer different functionality (Vella, 2012). Supply Chain Management (SCM) is one area of business that highly applies technology to improve the efficiency of work being done.
Especially, SCM as it applies manufacturing has adopted different technologies such as Cloud Computing, GPS technology, mobile computing among other technologies to increase efficiency and reduce the costs of these departments (Ken & Rohit, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of disruptive technologies within manufacturing sector SCM. We shall therefore look at the different technologies that are being used, their benefits and features that are offered by these disruptive technologies.
2 Disruptive Technologies in Manufacturing SCM
Within the manufacturing sector, supply chain management is important since it involves many movements of goods, raw materials and finished goods. It is therefore important to maintain this free flow of goods with in the manufacturing industries to ensure that all goods are delivered on a timely manner (Ross, 2010). In manufacturing, there is need for inward movement & storage of raw materials, inventory for the work-in-progress, and finished goods movements. Further, finished goods that have been supplied can also be returned to ...
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...ement of raw materials, finished goods and returned products, technologies should be applied to ensure efficiency and reduce the related costs of running the supply chain. Mobile computing is one technology that is being used. When mobile devices and applications are integrated with the core systems, they can complete tasks more efficiently.
Location based services that combine technologies such as GPS, GIS, internet and wireless technology can also locate and target customers to increase the efficiency of the supply chain. RFID technology can also be used to track the movement of goods across the supply chain to curb theft and loss of consignments. Finally, in a world where most decisions are made ‘on-the-go’, mobile BI is an important technology that can deliver real-time reports, insights and dashboards for manufacturing employees who are mobile most of the time.
A supply chain is a system through which organizations deliver their products and services to their customers. The network begins with the basic ingredients to start the chain of supply, which are the suppliers that supply raw materials, ingredients, and so on. From there, it will transfer the supplies to the manufacturer who builds, assembles, converts, or furnishes a product. The chain now needs to get the product to the consumer by transporting the finished product from the manufacturer through a warehouse or distribution center. An example is that Wal-Mart has a nearby distribution center where products are delivered there and then split up to be delivered to a retail Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart will take responsibility for breaking down larger loads and delivering the product to other Wal-Mart stores” (Ehring 1).
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).
As you can see today, in factories, production of goods takes place at a large scale; besides this, all over the world a large number of retail chains have been opening. Management of all the logistics was done manually initially but later on this started to become increasingly difficult to handle. It was due...
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.
It is undeniable that Inventory Management is an important key to success at Walmart this paper will discuss the two main methods of Inventory Management used by Wal-Mart: Material Requirements Planning and Just-in Time. Next we write about the technical means of keeping track of inventories like RFID tags. We conclude with discussing how
Must understand the full scope of a manufacturing supply chain – not just be an “Operations” person with a focus on the Plant, or for that matter, a “Logistics” person who does not ...
When an organization finds they are lacking in technology, they may decide to upgrade their technology to give them the market advantage. Obtain different capitol resources may prompt the organization to adjust the supply chain functions and increase the amount of production being done within the organization (Cole-Ingait, 2014). The brick-and-mortar strategies might be affected by the online strategies of distribution due to the increase of information systems (Cole-Ingait, 2014). As the technology is upgraded, the employees within the organization need to be trained to understand the advanced technology standards (Joseph, 2014). Technology has been shown to help increase the customer service and help with efficiency within the organization (Joseph, 2014).
John Hicks (2004) suggests that there are three main methods to help deliver the systems within budget and for them to perform smoothly, these are called ‘runners, repeaters and strangers’. These methods require different strategies in relation to stock, storage and production to maximise turnover. ‘Runners’ are used where the manufactured core goods are continuous and form the bulk of the production volume in any given period. This supply chain will be focused on component cost, quality and the supplier’s delivery performance. The ‘Strangers’ supply chain is different as it needs to be ready for irregular customer orders and the focus will be more on supplier lead time and the ability to meet these hard to forecast demands. ‘Repeaters’ is a supply chain that requires a mix of both regular manufactured goods but with the customer flexibility aspect still involved. This system uses storage of goods and materials which enables maximum efficiency.
The report highlights in detail the role and the importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in an organization with respect to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its growing impact in the industry and talks about the changing SCM trends keeping RFID as the focal point.
The Internet has played a major role in transforming industry value systems through globalisation and supply chain integration. Factories all over the world each produce a key component necessary for the production of a particular good/item and thanks to the internet it is now easier than ever to manage these supply chains and get the product from production to shelf as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
My second interest in Supply Chain Management arose from my assessment that it is a ‘rational’ specialty. I understood that its simplistic applications could find solutions for essential needs of humanity. I realized that Mechanical Engineering has an enormous reach from automobiles and manufacturing to medical equipment and nanotechnology. I studied an extremely stimulating curriculum diligently focusing on Basic Mechanical Engineering and Operations research which gave me a holistic overview of the engineering field. Hence, my penchant for the range and extent of science with Mechanical engineering as the cynosure grew.
Supply chain management (SCM) can best be described as link or connection between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers. Supply chain doesn't only apply to materials being moved but also applies to information being moved. In practice, it's moving items from supplier to manufacture to distributer to retailer and finally reaching the customers. The Supply chain method of shipment or way of business hasn't all ways been around in fact it rose to prominence during the late stage of the 20th century. The introduction of trucks, airplanes, computers and the internet has changed everything. The Supply chain's goals are too reduce cost, save money and make forecast by determining the demand so that supply is matched. If the supply doesn't match the demand then there is waste and waste is synonymous with money lost. The importance of reducing cost through well planned strategies shouldn't be glossed over because lower costs and saved money leads to lower prices.
This is the activity carried out by organizations that own production sites, and their performance has a major impact on product cost, quality, speed of delivery and delivery reliability, and flexibility [8]. As it is quite an important part of the supply chain, production needs to be measured and continuously improved. Suitable metrics for the production level are as follows. Order lead-time, the total order cycle time, called order to delivery cycle time, refers to the time elapsed in between the receipt of customer order until the delivery of finished goods to the customer. The reduction in order cycle time leads to reduction in supply chain response time, and as such is an important performance measure and source of competitive advantage [9]. It directly interacts with customer service in determining competitiveness. Range of product and services: According to [8] a plant that manufactures a broad product range is likely to introduce new products more slowly than plants with a narrow product range. Plants that can manufacture a wide range of products are likely to perform less well in the areas of value added per employee, speed and delivery reliability. This clearly suggests that product range affects supply chain performance. Effectiveness of scheduling techniques is another important measure of supply chain effectiveness. Scheduling refers to the time or date on or by which
To achieve the goal of efficiently managing the process of forecasting demand, controlling inventory, enhancing business relationships with its stakeholders and receiving feedback, many companies are turning to Internet technologies to Web-enable their supply chain processes (O' Brien, 2005, p.223). A supply chain is the collection of people, tasks, equipment, data and other resources required to produce and move products from a vendor to a customer. A supply chain management system coordinates the tasks involved in the supply chain process. The factors in the supply chain process consist of the product manufacturer, the wholesaler, the distributor and the retailer. The objectives of a supply chain management system are to increase customer value and to establish a solid advantage over the competition (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017). An upstream supply chain includes firms’ suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers who are involved in the search and extraction of raw materials. A downstream supply chain has direct contact with customers and includes organizations and processes responsible for delivering products to customers.
As discussed, business processes can be simplified with the implementation of mobile applications. Mobile phones no longer function solely as a communication device. They now can be used to do a virtually limitless number of activities. The implications that this has for the retail clothing industry are very pertinent. Mobile applications help fashion brands in a number of ways, including the abilities to send latest tips to customers and to indirectly sell products. Companies like Forever 21 and H&M use photography apps such as Instagram to help with the promotion of current sales and the latest trends. The apparel industry progresses with technological advancements to expedite the work process at every possible stage. Companies are starting to develop applications as tools to monitor and speed-up the different parts of the apparel making process in order to minimize losses and maximize revenues.