Supply Chain Management. Webinar summaries - Essay Example

?ABC XYZ Supply Chain Management April 23, Webinar summaries Summary for webinar The Von Maur family entered into the business arenaby opening a store in Davenport, Iowa way back in 1872. Now, the family business has prospered and has its presence in around 25 locations in the United States of America. Von Maur stores provides customers certain benefits like free shipping and gift wrapping, interest free charge card having a flexible schedule for payment and the Von Maur Gift Card. The session will include a set of video case study segments which have been filmed at the fulfilment centre in Von Maur. Challenges with order fulfilment The current challenges faced by Von Maur with order fulfilment are those to do with accuracy, productivity, speed, and flexibility in seasonality, services and products. Out of these primary hurdles in order fulfilment experienced by Von Maur are those related to providing services with respect to free shipping, free returns, free gift wrap and acknowledging offers and store coupons, speed wherein products have to be shipped the same day, selecting online inventory to the offerings in the store and offering more than brick-and-mortar stores and lastly its growth is unpredictable. Reasons for selecting mobile robotic warehouse automation (KIVA) Traditional automation ties operation to a fixed SKU set, location, workflow and order profile. On the other hand, mobile-robotic fulfilment provides picking, packing and shipping orders by robots, pickers stay in ergonomic work stations, delivery of inventory to stations are carried out by robots and above all robots and shelves are mobile. Also the parts of mobile robotic warehouse automation contain human operators, bots, stations, pods and software. The advantage of this system is that all activities like picking, packing, shipping, replenishment, inventory control and return are simultaneously conducted. As of now, orders received before 11 A.M. are shipped the same day, Von Maur online stocks and sells 95 per cent of items available in Von Maur stores, personnel enjoy working in the eCommerce business, this online shop will provide more items than those available in Von Maur stores starting the end of summer. Solution items The system was designed prior to the decision to erect a building by Von Maur for the eCommerce Division. Integration of Kiva Software with Von Maur’s home grown eCommerce order management software, deploying solutions took around 30 days, during the peak seasons temporary workers are hired for the back/wrap areas. Bots are automatically recharged at charging stations. Recap of the outcomes The operation is 4 times productive than when the store did not adapt the mobile-robotic automation system. During average volumes, at least 15 pickers are placed by Kiva. Inaccurate orders hardly exist and the store chain can add solution capacity in future. The eCommerce Division is rapidly growing and is keeping pace with its retail outlets. Kiva – Mobile robotic warehouse automation Kiva automated warehouse operations software help in productively, accurately, flexibly and portably picking, packing and shipping orders. Van Maur is a traditional company having a progressive thinking system. The eCommerce division contains only 35 personnel but despite this they effectively handle operations and this has led to growth in online sales of Van Maur products. Webinar 2: Global Mission Strategies - Webinar by World Trade Group Plant Location International (PLI) is the international Center of Excellence for IBM and focuses on economic development and international location strategies. It contains a team of 25 consultants, above 50 years of experience for advising governments and multinationals, having around 3000 projects globally, developed robust analytical and methodological tools and closely operates with IBM’s international network of operations and business strategy consultants and subject and industry matter experts. Global location trends It has been observed that recent crisis impacted foreign investment activity, but the activities regained momentum in 2010. Most industrial sectors experienced strong growth. But the automotive industry is one of the key contributors to global job creation. USA is still the dominant outward investing economy but China and India are gaining significance. Also 5 out of 10 top nations are from Asia in outward investing economy. It has been observed that growth markets like China and India has registered strong acceleration in creating new jobs. It has been further observed that domestic issues not necessarily impacts structural attractiveness. This has led to other nations also attaining global positions in excellent economic performance and garnering new jobs with Singapore and Ireland as the forerunners in this respect. Mature and competitive economies like Ireland, South Korea, Taiwan attract more values for projects. At the same time, there are some emerging economies which are rapidly moving up the value chain. Production investment has experienced a growth in many emerging nations with China topping the list. Current market dynamics The corporate investment behaviour has witnessed a change from expansionary activities from 2003 – 2007 to cost take-out activities from 2008 – 2009 to finally striving for optimizing international footprint in 2009 – 2010. Current market dynamics are affecting location strategies as previously low cost regions are witnessing sharp rise in cost. Talent pools display overheating impacts in some select labour markets, awareness from risks of natural disasters have increased in nations like Thailand, Japan and the like, attention for safety and stability especially during the Eurozone crisis, commencing a new era of local growth and finally the economic recession is likely to slow international growth levels. There are growing macroeconomic uncertainty in North America and Europe and this has led to reluctance for consumers to invest. Some key drivers for local investment are efficiency driven investment, market driven investment and talent driven investment. Location selection Choosing a location is a multidimensional process and depends on certain factors which may change by industry function, business, company and the like. The location strategy may be developed by first defining the project assumptions and location options, analyzing and short listing candidate locations, evaluate the short listed locations (a financial and quantitative analysis should be conducted), negotiate and search sites and finally go on to implement the process. Prior to starting the implementation, it is imperative to allocate ideal time required to complete the processes and care should be taken that interim decision making does not further delay processes. Learning lessons Selecting a business location is strategic decision and needs to spend quality time. One should not concentrate on a single factor, be blinded by real estate considerations and follow a structural approach to justify location decision. Webinar 3: Innovation Previously customers were informed when firms attained excellence in class and breed. Now, information is spread by optimizing business solutions by acquiring and enhancing proven software testified by several domain experts. Innovating supply chain Showing areas in which a firm has gained expertise by turning complex issues into simplified models by means of technology and innovation with respect to transport and warehouse management and warehouse billing. Some significant differentiators are provided which helps customers in recognizing a product from its competitors’ product. These are complete SCE solution, core industry features, barrier free integration and consumer grade experience. Infor Supply chain innovations enhance customer’s businesses by industry specialization, adapting to changes in processes and systems and providing speedy business solutions. Infor SC 10 is a true global service provider, with more than 550 customers, operating over 40 countries and having over 1500 sites. Its dominant presence is in America although it also has its footprints in APAC and EMEA regions. SCE 10 provides solutions in micro verticals, integrations, technology, core module and languages. Its core industry features are high tech, food and beverage, 3PL, grocery, fashion and manufacturing. The Infor SC 10 solutions helps in making out-of-the-box integrations in Infor LN, Infor Distribution SX.e, Infor LX, Infor Adage, Infor System 21, Infor Lawson SCM Suite, SAP Adaptor and EDI mappings. An analyst has forecasted that around 80 per cent workforce will switch over to using smartphones by 2013. Such mobile devises provide business intelligence, right panel notification and facility revenue. Webinar 4: Infor Supply Chain Execution: Warehouse Director This tool helps in viewing expected volume of work, task and inventory monitors, location queries and inventory management. New features of Infor SCE 10.2 The Infor SCE 10.2 provides new functions like task management, voice enablement, authentication and user management, Fashion Pack, 2D barcodes, Enhancing production orders/Simplified kitting, Dock door management/Stage location, serial number enhancement, optimised chart cluster picking, allocation and put away trace, two step RF transactions, short pick enhancement based on reason codes, mark out report and pick task by shop sequence and load. Infor SCE 10.2 – TM features The Infor SCE 10.2 – TM features provides track and trace, new graphical map route, pallet based rating for global markets, inbound receipts/shipments, creating shipments in TM. Infor SCE 10.3 – launching July 2013 This product concentrates on UI improvability and usability, provides prioritised development on core features, provide added features to Warehouse Director and new business analytics. The roadmap beyond 2014 focuses on light order management system and portals for 3PLs and 4Pls, yard management system, complete grocery enhancements, other core tier 1 WM needs, separate TM for ERP and grow Warehouse Director. Webinar 4: Kinaxis Certain trends like global outsourcing, higher expectations from customers, leaner supply chains, interdependency of supply base, augmented border control and regulations and higher material costs and tighter capacities have resulted in providing enhanced operational volatility and complexity. Introducing Kinaxis Companies have already planned and then executed. But now the emphasis is to provide integrated execution and quick response. Kinaxis provides rapid growing SCM cloud vendor solutions, strong balance sheet and has global presence and international clients. Kinaxis is providing a new paradigm in international control tower for operations by catering to outsourced manufacturers, channel partners, enterprise history, brand owner, suppliers and customers. This solution provides consequence evaluation and alerting, what if simulation, dashboards on the go, high speed analytics, scenario comparison and responsibility based collaboration. Kinaxis provides solutions in multi supply chain management areas including sales and operations planning, order promise management, integrated project management, engineering change management, capacity and constraint management, supplier collaboration, master planning and scheduling, demand management and inventory and supply management. Kinaxis helps in providing quick response to suppliers, manufacturing, logistics, ERP, and customers. This thereby balances demand and supply. GT Nexus – providing 80 per cent solutions to problems The GT Nexus is different as it provides inter-enterprise collaboration, extra-enterprise information model by allowing complex multi-party collaboration and integrates financial and physical aspects of supply chain. It has a huge network of trading partners and firms. This solution provides an international trade platform by enabling risks, economic gains, flexibility and agility. It helps in increasing visibility in orders, shipments, inventory, documents and costs and controls impact of delays, velocity costs, realised lead times, execution choices and at-risk exceptions. It has a manufacturing control tower, hi-tech control tower and life science control tower. A combined solution of GE Nexus and Kinaxis helps in providing multi-enterprise response management solutions. GE Nexus provides real time data and multi enterprise while Kinaxis provides scenario analysis and rapid re-planning. This combines sense with evaluation. GE Nexus offers distributed plan to partners and execution plan changes whereas Kinaxis provides multi-party collaboration and financial impact analysis. In other words, GE Nexus provides action plans and Kinaxis provides the decision plan. Webinar 5: Worldwide Chain Stores (WCS) This webinar is presented by Mark Huxtable, CEO of WCS and Richard Sherman, a globally recognized author, consultant, speaker and researcher on Supply Chain Management. WCS is one of the forerunners in Supply Chain Expertise Products and Technology and has over 40 years in providing WMS Services and Software. It is necessary for firms to transform their operations to become more responsive to demand and collaborative in order to remain in competition. Supply Chain Management has two sides – laggards and leaders. In order to close the gap between the two one needs to transform the supply chain management process. Performance management aligned to strategy In order to navigate the journey to transformation it is needed to conduct an Integrated Process Improvement Program. Functional strategies like value, demand and supply chains are driven by demand strategies like demand performance, demand fulfilment and demand creation. The enterprise network or demand management structure comprises of vertically managed functional nodes. The demand management processes flows horizontally across functions. The enterprise network is both process and function oriented. Hence it is necessary to simultaneously map the demand management structure vertically and horizontally. Process oriented matrix There are five significant supply chain attributes – reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, cost and assets. The supply chain segmentation matrix helps in defining supply chains within an organization. The matrix aids in defining number, size and type of supply chains. Product lists are added as row headings and similar supply chains may be teamed to supply chain segments. The Supply Chain Prioritization Matrix is a mechanism which aids to order supply chains according to relevance. Each supply chain is ranked according to features and in specific categories. The gross total of values provides the gross overall ranking. Balanced scorecard matrix Managers in supply chain align their performance and strategies to enhance initiatives to attain shareholder value. The balanced scorecard measure of supply chain uses the process guideline as a guide to recognize performance features of supply chains. Every scorecard is derived from a subset of performance matrices based on strategic priorities. The CSCMP Benchmarking helps in diagnosing the areas which needs to be enhanced. The BEST practices tool consists of a current, structured, proven and repeatable mechanism for making favourable impact on aspiring operational outcomes. The BEST practices tool may be implemented depending on specific businesses, industry or processes. Process improvement culture This includes a paradigm aiding to define and establish boundaries and to be successful one has to behave inside the desired boundaries. According to the innovation adaption theory, the degree to which innovation is seemed to be better than the idea it supersedes has a direct impact on the likelihood of adoption. It is important to embrace change in order to grow and be successful and to attain this it is important to manage performance. Read More