Handling Systems, Packaging, and Global Supply Chain - Essay Example

Assignment: A mechanical handling system is a combination of several mechanical units working together to handle and process solid or liquid material. The mechanical system is involved in the movement and relocation of materials from one place to another. Mechanized systems include mechanical conveyor systems used in airport terminals, moving equipment for warehousing, or pneumatic conveying systems for unloading loads and transporting them to their respective storage areas. Industrial trucks, forklifts, and stackers are also good examples of mechanical handling systems (Bowersox, Closs & Cooper, 2002). Semi-automated handling systems involves the utilization of typical equipment such as automated guided vehicles, computerizes sortation, robotics, and live tracks. Semi-automated systems are often used to supplement the mechanized handling systems. The general working principle of the system is that it contains a mechanical system, whose operations are automated by either programming or applying other formats (Codourey, Zesch, Buchi & Siegwart, 1995). Automated handling systems are integrated system involving such activities as handling, and controlling of materials by use of fully computerized equipment, in which, their entire operation is fully dependent on the computer instructions directed to them. The system includes digital conveyors; Automated guided vehicle and automated storage and retrieval systems. In these systems, computers direct automatic loaders to pick and place items where they are required. Automatic guided vehicles are driverless vehicles, in which their control unit is connected to a computer interface to manage their function. Automated material handling systems improve efficiency of transportation, storage and retrieval of materials (Viswanadham & Narahari, 1992). Information directed systems combines the control typical of automated handling with the flexibility of mechanized systems. Informational directed systems use mechanized processing controlled by information technology. The most common examples of information directed systems are the RF controlled equipment and the light detected operations. Consumer packaging is a package that is customarily produced or distributed for sale through retail sales agencies for consumption or use by individuals for the purposes of personal care. Industrial packaging is particularly a package intended solely for industrial or institutional use or wholesale distribution (Chandra & Kamrani, 2003). Consumer packaging is an essential in the contemporary society. The various types of packaging play a critical role in the production, preservation, distribution and marketing of manufactured consumer goods and other products. Consumer packaging is also an essential component of the modern lifestyle. It is a key element in the move to convenience foods, allowing single or small-scale packages to cater for family units of different sizes. Consumer Packaging plays an important role in allowing products to respond to the demands and needs of customers. Packaging has realized a reduction in the time taken in the everyday preparation of meals due to the availability of convenient, time-saving packaged foods. It has also contributed to the change in shopping habits allowing fewer major shopping visits. Industrial packaging plays a significant role in Improving supply chain management. It simplifies logistics and inventory and transportation systems and provides improved response to major distributors and wholesaler’s demands. Industrial focused packaging plays a great role in emphasizing the market trends. Packaging helps sell products by providing product differentiation and presentation and conveniences. The continuously changing demands of suppliers and wholesalers will require higher quality graphics and promotional links between graphics and advertising to support brand identities, plus the ability to reflect current consumer trends and images (Verghese & Lewis, 2007). In the post 9/11 world, a secure supply chain has become a mandatory requirement for retailers and importers. Some of the initiatives towards this are having certified factory, seal tracking and Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (CTPT).Improved security in the transportation sector has seen many companies relentless focus on using global suppliers to reduce labor costs. The benefits of these include improvements in supply chain performance and quality, supplier cycle time, delivery performance, and inventory management. Improvement in transportation security has overseen the flows of materials, information, and labor, which are the essential elements of fulfilling customers’ orders. At greater distances, currencies and cultures separate markets, suppliers, and manufacturers. Improved transport security plays a critical role here in the success of the supply chains. As a result, total logistics cost has reduced making global outsourcing one of the most important economic indicators of supply chain efficiency. Secure transport has seen globalization spreads from industry to industry. Enhanced security in the transport sector of global outsourcing has seen the realization of good communication between the raw material providers and the individual processing factories. Shifting this public policy and the subsequent regulatory attitudes are creating more open markets throughout the world. Improved security has seen greater access to raw materials. Most corporations utilize raw materials that are scarce in their country. A supply risk is hence lowered in these companies by sourcing these raw materials internationally effectively from the countries where they are in plenty. This in turns Increase in productivity and economies of scale, therefore, realize cheap prices of commodities even with the additional cost of productions and taxes factored. Several logistics considerations must be understood and taken into consideration for companies to expand globally to lower production cost, reduced material costs or service to international customers. Infrastructures are a primary concern. Transportation infrastructure includes the capability and breath of the airport, port and road infrastructure. There is need to understand the risks and costs of the appropriate infrastructure to use and enquire if there are issues with, weather or security procedures that might impact the flow of goods and in return increasing transit times and inventory safety stocks. The information technology capabilities are among the considerations to be made when operating a global supply chain. The Technology Capability assists with minimizing risk, improving accuracy, security and cost reduction. Local customs should provide grounds to use the electronic information rather than reliance on paper copies and duplicate entries. The practice will help reduce extra cost, time and opportunity for errors. Regulations and policies of the associate countries are critical considerations when venturing into global chain supply. Every country has laws and policies governing them which might have an impact on logistics costs and operations. Some of the rules to consider are Safety regulations and environmental compliance, security, Tax structure within a country and between fuel and payment terms As companies design appropriate logistics networks, it is important to understand the trade agreements between the associate countries. Free Trade Agreements are treaties between countries or to remove trade barriers including customs duties and quotas to stimulate trade. Companies should find opportunities to utilize and maximize the benefits of free trade agreements. Such opportunities will help the business firm incur minimum costs when outsourcing materials from those countries or when acquiring other services from them. An aviation industry’s supply chain and global sourcing are different from other industries. First, a regulated procurement process for raw materials is required for the aircraft producers, which makes the entire supply chain mixed. Given the nature of aircraft engines, the quality of raw materials must meet the requirements of the Global Aviation Association. As a result, there are very few number of raw material suppliers in the world that satisfy the globally required standards, and these providers are limited are located only in few distinct countries. To overcome these difficulties, an aviation company has to establish other methods to acquire raw materials, for instance, subassemblies and consumable raw materials - materials that are destroyed in the manufacturing process (Loh & Venkatraman, 1992). The second factor of the global sourcing process of an aviation firm lies in its nature of the materials and products. In the airline company, the goods are classified into two: The spares group and the assembly group. An aviation company has an intermittent consumption rate due to the erratic nature of the overhaul and repair business that is as a result of increased reliance on just-in-time procurement processes. The fact that required repairs are not fully realized until the engine has been removed f and partially disassembled is also a contributing factor. An aviation firm is also likely to experience more financial constraints due to the high cost of having aircrafts out of service. Another controllable factor of global sourcing in an aviation enterprise is revealed by the high standard of quality and the great value of the finished engine parts unlike other cheap valued consumer goods and commercial machinery that are commonly procured from the available wide market all over. Engine parts are normally of high value and require complicated manufacturing facilities and techniques. The aviation firm thus has the obligation of identifying market grounds possible for producing the high valued engine parts that meet the required standards. Several strategies must be applied to manage an aviation global supply chain. One of the strategies is to identify and use Chain partners in their outsourcing chain. Raw materials supply involves long-term agreements with suppliers and have to pass a series of quality assurance tests. Chain partners will facilitate the speeding up the whole process. Chain partners would also see the realization of international product center at the aviation company. The center would be comprised of a number of people involved in technical assistance, quality support d materials management. The center is a representative of the central point of the supply chain, starting, monitoring and controlling various chain activities. An aviation firm should consider involving an export management agency in their global supply chain. An export management agency is a firm that would help the airline company to become involved in foreign sales and locates foreign companies that can be licensed to manufacture the product in the foreign country and takes care of the entire exporting process. Evaluating criteria and procedures in the aviation company would also help measure the ability of processes to produce bear and quality products and services and deliver them efficiently (Loh & Venkatraman, 1992). Rules of dealing with logistic costs should be applied. The initial step in dealing with logistics cost is identified the cost of items. The cost should be classified as a category system including transportation; inventory holding; administration; customs charges; risk; and material handling and packaging where each class consists of a number of cost items. The follow-up the step of dealing with the cost is to calculate the total for every transportation mode on an annual basis, therefore, seeking a balance between reliability, speed, and cost. References Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., & Cooper, M. B. (2002). Supply chain logistics management (Vol. 2). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Codourey, A., Zesch, W., Buchi, R., & Siegwart, R. (1995, August). A robot system for automated handling in micro-world. In Intelligent Robots and Systems 95.Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots, Proceedings. 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on (Vol. 3, pp. 185-190). IEEE. Viswanadham, N., & Narahari, Y. (1992). Performance modeling of automated manufacturing systems (p. 3). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Chandra, C., & Kamrani, A. K. (2003). Knowledge management for consumer-focused product design. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 14(6), 557-580. Verghese, K., & Lewis, H. (2007). Environmental innovation in industrial packaging: a supply chain approach. International Journal of Production Research, 45(18-19), 4381-4401. Loh, L., & Venkatraman, N. (1992). Diffusion of information technology outsourcing: influence sources and the Kodak effect. Information Systems Research, 3(4), 334-358. Read More