Tag Archives: Supply chain

New Supply Chain Trend: Amazon Moving In With Manufacturers

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Moving In With Manufacturers, Amazon Delivers A New Approach

Amazon initiates a new trend in supply chain management by handling 3PL (3rd Party Logistics) for its manufacturers in order to reduce the Time-To-Delivery (TTD) much shorter between manufacturers and consumers.

Today, most 3PLs are already hosting market place by providing logistics service at their distribution centers (DCs). Vendors and manufacturers are sending their goods to those DCs and the 3PLs handle the logistics for the vendors and manufacturers from those DCs. Amazon moves the 3PL services further to the “upstream” of its supply chain by moving the 3PL services from its DCs much closer to its manufacturers. This approach is quite different from Wal-Mart‘s logistics strategy, which is a centralized 3PL.

The benefit of the new distributed 3PL approach is worth watching. If you are interested in how to innovate your logistics operations, feel free to contact us.

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The Beer Game

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The Beer Game

A rite of passage for new Sloan MBA students provides lessons in systems thinking.

Thursday, August 29, 1:00 p.m.
It is a miserably muggy afternoon in Cambridge as the incoming class of the MIT Sloan School of Management—roughly 400 students from 41 countries—files into a second-floor ballroom at the Kendall Square Marriott. They are here to play the Beer Game, a Sloan orientation tradition. Unfortunately given the weather, the Beer Game does not involve drinking cool beverages.

“There is no actual beer in the Beer Game,” says John Sterman, the Sloan professor who is overseeing the proceedings for the 25th consecutive year.

Rather, the Beer Game is a table game, developed in the late 1950s by digital computing pioneer and Sloan professor Jay Forrester, SM ’45. Played with pen, paper, printed plastic tablecloths, and poker chips, it simulates the supply chain of the beer industry. In so doing, it illuminates aspects of system dynamics, a signature mode of MIT thought: it illustrates the nonlinear complexities of supply chains and the way individuals are circumscribed by the systems in which they act.

All that will be explained in a class-wide debriefing Sterman will conduct after the game. For now, it’s game on, and as a writer for MIT News, I’ve been invited by Sterman to play this year. I go to one of the 47 tables where students are randomly seating themselves in teams of eight, introduce myself to my seven teammates (MBA candidates from India, Peru, and the United States), and listen to Sterman explain the rules.

Beer game simulates the reality of supply chain management. If you are interested in knowing more about supply chain management, feel free to contactus.

 

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More iPhone 5c Supply Chain Rumors

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More iPhone 5c Supply Chain Rumors

This article talks about a major challenge to supply chain planning. To have ample supply of iPhone 5s and 5c, how many does Apple need to plan and what is the production mix between the 2 models?

Steve Jobs‘ idea was to take the simple route by planning for one iPhone model only and focused on getting the best product to consumers. Tim Cook takes a different but traditional approach by introducing two models instead of one. He hope a cheaper model of 5c would attract more buyers, at least from the Asia. At least, this what the production plan tells us at the moment. The production plans for more 5c than 5s.

Contrary to what Tim expected, consumers would rather spend money buying the expense model 5s with new technology than buying the cheaper model 5c with previous generation of technology. This is why Apple needs to dramatically decrease 5c production and increase 5s production. This shows a supply chain planning mistake. It totally mis-calculates consumer demand by having a wrong product mix.

Check out this article for the challenges that Apple is facing and how we can help you to manage your supply chain.

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Supply Chain Institute: Welcome

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Supply Chain Institute

Thank you for visiting our new preliminary Internet Site of Supply Chain Institute. As a new resource for BI, operation performance, and risk management, we want to keep you informed of the latest news, advancement in the field, and the offerings of the Institute. To that effect and the opportunity of networking, the site’s content management system has been designed for initial communication. It will enable us to always keep you up to date. With a few simple clicks, you will register on the site and become a member of the mailing list of our institute.

Presently, our web site is still under construction. We are making an effort to present you with our entire spectrum of offers (enhanced by your suggestions and recommendations) as soon as possible. In the near future we will provide you with information regarding BI, risk, and performance analysis in the context of supply chain management. The emphasis of our business is on the new methodology and technology on the core competency and focus of the Institute, Supply Chain Management. This topic is certainly of interest to you. Please register and check this site later. You may email us at info@supplychaininstitute.com or call us at (919)618-0743. Our fax number is (419) 818-8537.

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Risk Management

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Risk Management

For any business, supply and demand chain disruption represent at least, an immediate financial risk, that no business can afford to let it to happen. At worst, any disruption will have long term ramification on the future revenue. The fact of the matter is that disruption doesn’t happen out of a sudden. It is preceded by its precursor signals. These signals either are not detected or are ignored. So a proper proactive risk management program should be designed such that it encompasses and incorporates all active networks of a supply and demand chain. This way, any variance is detected at early stage on the upstream or downstream networks.

In our approach we investigate financial risk, environmental risk, and risk to customers. In a quantitative approach, the bottom line is profit against loss. In methodology we practice, the focus is on identification, evaluation, analysis and optimal management. We believe that any business action or decision generates risk. Consequently we have to learn to live with it. The way that civilizations have rid out the natural disasters exemplifies our recommended approach; risk tolerance. An organization can best survive any interruption or even disaster if risk tolerance is embedded in its infrastructure. This is the basic philosophy of supply chain Institute in dealing with risk.

In near future, we will introduce curriculum of risk management in the form of workshop tailored for industrial applications.

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Supply Chain, Risk, and BI Management

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Supply Chain, Risk, and BI Management

Greetings:

In response to colleagues request and market demand for SCM, BI, and Risk, I am initiating a lecture (posting) series under the title of:

“Risk, and Business Intelligence in the context of Supply and Demand Chain Management.”

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Risk Management Workshop

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Curriculum In Risk

Risk Management Across Global Supply Chain

Application in Procurement

Summary:

In Today’s competitive market, Risk Management represents a new shift in businesses paradigm. As the economies become more service driven and globally oriented, businesses cannot afford to let new, unforeseen areas of risk remain unidentified and unattended. Currency fluctuations, human resources in foreign countries, evaporating distribution channels, corporate governance, unprecedented dependence on technology, flow of raw material to manufacturing sites, manufacturing process and the logistics of delivery of finished goods are just a few of the new risks businesses must assess and manage.

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