Supply Chain Innovations - Essay Example

Logistics: Supply chain innovations Supply chains or logistics play a key role in efficient management. In regard to inventory management, two terms are mostly used, these include; Just in time (JIT) and Materials Requirements Planning (MRP).Just-in-time (JIT) is a notion that supports the lowest achievable inventory levels.JIT advocates that organizations need only maintain inventory in the quantity that is correct at the correct time and with the correct quality. The idyllic lot size is one for JIT, even if an individual may often hear the phrase “zero inventory” being used.

Thus JIT can also be deemed to be a pull’ (demand) determined inventory system where sub-assemblies, support items, parts and materials are conveyed just when required and neither later or sooner. Its main goal is to eradicate product inventories from chain of supply. As much as an inventory system as a managerial system, JIT covers all activities needed to produce a final product beginning from engineering design onwards to the final manufacturing operation (Radhakrishnan, 2001).Materials requirement planning (MRP) on the other hand is a system of planning and control of inventory that is mostly utilized in the management of the manufacturing processes.

Several MRP systems are usually soft-ware based even though MRP can also be performed by use of hand as well. The main aim of MRP system is; ensuring that materials are accessible for production and that products are accessible for transmission to customers, maintenance of lowest possible product and material level in store, planning manufacturing activities, purchasing activities and delivery schedules(Wisner,2012).Both MRP and JIT facilitate firms to make long term plans, which allow a manufacturer to make plans for facility and labor use more efficiently.

Both systems assist in reduction of orders that are past-due and lead times (Rao, Krishna, 2003).References Radhakrishnan,P. (2001). Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Mumbai: Allied Publishers Ltd.Rao P.S.V, Krishna. H. (2003). Strategic Management. New Delhi: Amurag(Excel Books).Wisner, L. (2012). Principles of Supply Chain Mnagement:A Balanced Approach. New York: South-Western Cengage Learning.