Leagility Defined for the Supply Chain
Two words, lean and agile, combine to make the word leagility. Supply chain managers need lean supply lines to eliminate waste and keep costs low. They also require agile supply chains to get the right amount of the product to the right place in order to satisfy the ever-changing nature of the marketplace. Traditional management recommended a lean supply chain for products with a stable demand, yet low profit margin. Conversely, products with a high profit margin and volatile demand should have an agile supply chain (Van der Vorst). Modern managers may benefit from studying hybrid supply chains that are both lean and agile.
Lean supply chains work best with products that sell in high volume and low variety (Christopher). The reason for this is clear when one considers a type of product meeting this criterion. Toilet paper sells in predictable volume and while there is some variety with this product, it is basically the same from brand to brand. The consumer is more likely to buy this product as a result of price rather than bells and whistles. A manager of a supply chain of toilet paper can use many tools to keep the logistics cost low. Sales of this product are likely to be tied to population size with little of no variation in sales…except in college towns where TP sales may be higher during rush week. This consistency allows managers to ship regular orders of the product. Consistency allows for long-range contracts with shippers, wh...
In today’s marketplace and world of business it is critical that customers receive a quality product in a timely manner from the supplier. It is also critical as a supplier and business that waste is reduce in all categories including inventory, time, facility space, storage, and also transportation. Several methods have been created and adopted over the past 20 years from top companies with successful track records such as Toyota, GE, and Motorola. One method or process that has proving to be successful is none other than Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma evolved as a concept in the early years of the 2000s which combines the Lean manufacturing method and also the concept of Six Sigma. When you blend both processes together, you have in return a better delivery schedule, better quality, outstanding employees, satisfied customers and last but not least profit. Profitability as we all know is the goal for any business, organization, or manufacturing company as well as to increase throughput while reducing inventory and operational expense (Eliyahu M. Goldratt).
Boy Willie’s family piano, engraved with illustrations of his family history, has great sentimental value and his sister, Berniece, believes it is more important and crucial to honor their mother who lost their father after he stole it in an act of defiance against the Sutter family which ultimately led to Papa Boy Charles death. Her mother polished the piano for seventeen years after the death of their father, “seventeen years worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what? For a piano? For a piece of wood? To get even with someone?” (1232). It represents everything that she lost, raising her children on her own, and so much more. She poured her soul into maintaining its impeccable appearance in an attempt to preserve her relationship to Papa Boy Charles. The carvings portray the history of her family, the hardships they went through to get to where they are today, and their resistance to slavery. In “The Dialects of August Wilson’s Piano Lesson”, Harry Justin Elam suggests, “Sutter’s possession of the piano constitutes a form of enslavement… While no longer physically bound to the slave master, Wilson believes that African Americans remain spiritually and physiologically imprisoned by the dominant culture unable to express or discover
For hundreds of years Americans have been growing up with the notion that it is a right to own a gun. Since the creation of the second amendment, people all over the United States have been able to guns for private use. Guns operated by the public are said to have a variety of uses such as, being able to protect oneself if conflict arises, grants the ability to put food on the table, and are used in competitions shooting targets against other people. But for many people guns have been seen as the root of all evil. Anti-gun users think that guns cause a variety of unexpected and innocent deaths. They also think that there are not enough laws in place that allow just about anyone to purchase a gun. The question of should guns be legal to all citizens has plagued our society. Do you think it is morally right for anyone to arm themselves and use it when they deem it to be necessary? Or do you think that the 2rd amendment seem unnecessary and outdated law that needs to be rewritten? These questions are just two of many that have thrown back and forth between pro-gun and anti-gun users.
However, the South painted him as a South-hating abolitionist who vowed to entirely destroy slavery. Even though after Lincoln won the election he assured the South no end to slavery, the Civil War was initiated at the Battle of Fort Sumpter. Lincoln and his staff maintained that the purpose of the war was to save the Union. This reasoning was given to retain the support of the border slave states and prevent Democrats from being alienated. However, pressures of the war prompted Lincoln to change his mind. Many Republicans pressured Lincoln to free the slaves as they no longer had an obligation to respect the Southern peculiar institution. They also pointed out slavery was what caused the war and would have a foreign policy advantage: repelling Britain from recognizing the Confederacy’s sovereignty. Also during this time, the Union was growing weary in response to a number of military failures and the enlistments were down; freeing that slaves would mean the Union recruit free blacks into its armed forces. Finally, it freed millions of innocent blacks from their shackles, which represented the American ideal of opportunity and equality. Despite all the pressure, Lincoln resisted. However developed a compromise: a gradual emancipation plan and colonization program. It was aimed at keeping Britain neutral, freeing the slaves, weakening the
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).
According to Christopher and Towill (2001), there are mainly three ways to combine lean and leagile. The first hybrid approach is the Pareto rule, which means that the dominant 20% of products should use leanness and make to stock. While the remaining 80% products with less share of revenue should use agility. The second hybrid approach is about using lean approach for the base level of demand, while for the peak season or flexible demand, manufacturer can use agility
What is CSR? CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility indicates the actions or conducts that have strategic importance to companies. CSR has been defined as a company’s efforts or obligations in reducing and getting rid of any detrimental effects on the community and maximizing long-term beneficial effects to the company and community in which it operates (Mohr et al, 2001, cited Trendafilova et al, 2013). CSR usually starts with the general emphasis that businesses are not only responsible to generate economic returns for shareholders, but are also responsible to the environment and to other stakeholders. This is usually known as the “triple bottom line” – the company’s returns for investors, the environment and stakeholders (Markley, 2014). In today’s modern business environment, CSR is undoubtedly important because whenever possible, customers would like to purchase goods from companies they trust; suppliers want to develop business partnerships with companies they can entrust; employees want to work for companies they have a high regard for and NGO’s want to work with companies seeking possible solutions in areas of common concern. Pleasing each of these stakeholder groups enable companies to maximize their obligations to their shareholders who gain most when the needs of other stakeholder groups are met (Waldman et al, 2010).
The furniture company Somerset needs to retain its customer service record and remedy any of its global supply chain issues before it has an adverse effect on the brand and start losing customers. With a frequent change in the product catalog, keeping an excessive inventory will cut its profit and some of the product may become obsolete even before the furniture hits the retail outlet stores. In order to achieve profit and success, business employee many strategies and the supply chain strategy are one of the operational management techniques that use analytical decision making process to achieve the company goals and provide tools to effectively compete in the market (Taylor and Russell, 2014).
This report has clearly in detail described the meaning, benefits as well as the need and challenges of the RFID in the supply chain system. While RFID comes with a larger magnitude of benefits than the bar code, it’s an expensive medium and comes at a price that may be prohibitive to many businesses. On the one hand, RFID is advantageous in different areas of the supply chain and does not require line-of-sight scanning; it helps in labor reduction, enhances visibility of products and processes , and helps in inventory management. On the other hand, RFID is an expensive solution, lacking benchmarks or standards, suffers from some adverse deployment issues, and suffers from major privacy concerns. However with the ultimate aim to see the establishment of item-level tracking which should act to revolutionize SCM practices, RFID is here to stay.
Supply chain security refers to efforts to enhance the security of the supply chain, the transport and logistics system for the world's cargo. It combines traditional practices of supply chain management with the security requirements driven by threats such as terrorism, piracy, and theft.
Supply chain management has been defined as that process that involves the management of information, materials, and all the finances that are handled within and across the entire supply chain process (Christopher, 2016). The management is usually done through out the entire supply chain management from that moment when the suppliers are involved through all the manufacturing activities, different distribution activities, and the way that the products are served to the final product consumer (Turban, et al., 2002). The process also includes all the activities that different organizations offers to their customers as after sale services for purposes perfecting their services and products towards their highly valued customers (Christopher,
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a very familiar term in today’s world. Most of the successful companies try to be ethical and socially responsible toward their stakeholders. Because becoming ethical and socially responsible gains a lot in terms of profit or capturing more market share (Aras and Crowther,2009). This socially responsible approach is paved by the CSR activities of the companies which has a great contribution to their corporate strategy of winning the customers’ mind. In this assignment, the pros and corn of CSR activities of a particular organization a...
Eastman Kodak has realized savings in the millions in transportation and inventory costs by implementing lean logistics. Kodak starting developing lean logistics in 2002 by establishing a cross docks to improve the flow of materials moving from its suppliers to its warehouses. Kodak picked three of its closes suppliers to try the lean logistics out. One main truck would go around to the suppliers and pick up supplies every two days and bring it back to the cross dock where it would be moved to the correct department. This one act has led to a $20 million inventory cost reduction because there is nothing being stored, and the shipping costs are low because they use their own trucks.
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.
DHL is present in over 220 countries and territories across the globe, making it the most international company in the world. With a workforce exceeding 285,000 employees, we provide solutions for an almost infinite number of logistics needs.