OM202C Operations Management

Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain refers to the system of organization, people and information which is involved in the process of moving a product from that of supplier to the customer. The activities pertaining to supply chain helps in the transforming of the raw materials to finished product that can be delivered to the end customer (Christopher, 2016). Supply Chain Management refers to the managing of the flow of goods along with services from the point of origin to point of consumption.

The supply chain of Coca Cola plays an integral part in relation to their business and it helps in ensuring that the environment impact is minimised. Quality is laid stress in the company and they have deployed continuum measurement that can help in moving their food safety culture to the next level (Hugos, 2018).The suppliers of Coke provide it to the state distributors who then circulates it to the super market chains. The supermarket chains then distribute it to the local stores who helps in providing it to the end customer.

The supply chain managers have to face issues in daily basis that can affect their business in various substantial ways. The supply chain managers have to know the number of suppliers and the manner of handling delays. Globalization pertaining to the supply chain has brought concerns pertaining to quality of products which is made in various countries (Fredendall & Hill, 2016). This puts the companies at the risk of recall. The supply chain managers have to ensure that the products maintain quality standard.

The global issues pertaining to supply chain management arises because of the fact that manufacturing process is not perfect. The industry needs to have certain quality pertaining to the products. Complexity forms a part of the production process and the unfamiliar sources not adhering to the defect level can give rise to a problem (Christopher, 2016).The firms have to experience issues in the event of dealing with the companies that are on other side pertaining to the country. The purchasing of the items at that of a delivered price can prove to be easy but the process of shipment being delayed can give rise to problems (Brandenburg et al., 2014).  The companies have to look at the aspect of social compliance when they have to emerge into the field of global sourcing. The companies have to abide by child labour practice, forced labour along with fair compensation practice.

Industry is moving from the traditional system to more automated methodology. The automated systems prove to be efficient and they can help in providing better data capture. There are various kinds of hand held mobile device that can help in the aspect of monitoring real time transportation. It can help the managers in addressing the operational anomalies (Chyr & Huang, 2016).The using of technology pertaining to Customer Relationship Management can help in providing visibility pertaining to the supply chain operator. Technology can help the leaders in identifying inefficiencies along with bottlenecks pertaining to commercial operation.

Just in-time and lean system

The core beliefs pertaining to just-in-time system is that one should get right quantity of the goods at right place and at that of the right time. It is a philosophy pertaining to eliminating waste. Broad view of Just-in-time covers the entire organization and it is also termed as the “lean system”. The philosophy lays focus on serving the customers and it is built on the aspect of simplicity (Hugos, 2018).The philosophy of lean system lays emphasis on the fact that problems that are visible should be identified and it should also be solved.

Just-in-time inventory system helps in aligning raw material order from the suppliers directly with that of the production schedule. This strategy proves to be useful in decreasing waste and the goods are received in production process can reduce the inventory costs. This method can help in reducing cost by the elimination of the warehouse storage need. The companies can spend less amount of money pertaining to raw materials as the purchase the exact amount of resources that is required for the ordered products.

Push system pertaining to inventory control makes use of forecasting inventory need that can help in meeting the demands pertaining to the customers. The companies in this case have to predict regarding the products that will be bought by the consumer and the amount of goods that would be bought by the customer (Davis, Katok & Santamaría, 2014). Pull system starts after the order made by the customer. In this kind of a strategy, the companies manufacture the amount of product that can fulfil orders pertaining to the customers.

The just-in-time model of inventory can help the manufacturers in reducing overhead expenses and it takes care of the fact that different parts are available pertaining to manufacturing of the products. This helps in providing better service to the customers of a company and it can lower the cost in relation to doing business. Warehouse excess inventory can prove to be very expensive (Wanke et al., 2017). Reduction of amount pertaining to the inventory can help in the reduction of the carrying cost. The companies making use of just-in-time system can reduce number pertaining to the warehouses and this inventory system can help them in the elimination of the warehouses.

Total Quality Management can prove to be crucial for JIT as poor quality would hinder the process of delivery of the right products at right time. The poor quality pertaining to the products would pave the way for a lot of time spent on fixing of the product. It can also lead to the scrapping of the mending of the product in the event of it not being able to fix it (Chyr & Huang, 2016).

The key elements in relation to just-in-time manufacturing relates to continuous improvement, elimination of waste and good housekeeping. It helps in attacking of the fundamental problems and the devising of systems can help in the identification of the problems. This inventory system can help in maintaining workplace cleanliness within the organization (Bookbinder & Dilts, 2016). In the event of just-in-time system the workers are responsible for the quality pertaining to the output.

References:

Bookbinder, J. H., & Dilts, D. (2016). Logistics information systems in a Just-In-Time environment.

Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J., & Seuring, S. (2014). Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research, 233(2), 299-312.

Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Chyr, F. C., & Huang, S. Y. (2016). The Maximum Setup Time and Setup Cost of Achieving Just-in-Time System. Journal of Business Theory and Practice, 4(1), 75.

Davis, A. M., Katok, E., & Santamaría, N. (2014). Push, pull, or both? A behavioral study of how the allocation of inventory risk affects channel efficiency. Management Science, 60(11), 2666-2683.

Fredendall, L. D., & Hill, E. (2016). Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.

Hugos, M. H. (2018). Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.

Wanke, P., Alvarenga, H., Correa, H., Hadi-Vencheh, A., & Azad, M. A. K. (2017). Fuzzy inference systems and inventory allocation decisions: Exploring the impact of priority rules on total costs and service levels. Expert Systems with Applications, 85, 182-193.