Case study: Manufacturing
Supply Chain Logistics & Inventory Control A specialty chemical company with worldwide operations serving the electronics, surface finishing, and decorative industries engaged Daniel Penn Associates to improve its supply chain logistics and inventory control systems. At the time, the company had 14 manufacturing site, six R&D facilities, sales, and distribution centers worldwide and employs 1,300 people. In their efforts to reduce finished goods inventories and expenses while improving customer service, the company wanted to determine how they could reduce the number of warehouse facilities and service their customers based from fewer locations in North America. At the time, products were manufactured from
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If customers were unhappy with their existing supplier, they had to suffer some inconvenience to find an alternate source because of the monopolies that existed. This made it easier for businesses to market their products and allowed them to maintain large stocks if they had the capital to do so. Inventory management was a concern then, as it is now. Inventories had to be monitored for accuracy and quality. They had to be protected from the elements, from theft, from spoiling, and from changes in the local economy. Tax laws could have an enormous impact on inventory levels. The Early Twenty-First Century Today's business world shares few similarities with yesterday's. Communication is quick, easy, reliable, and available through a host of media. Supply is certain and regular in most environments of merchandising and manufacturing. Tax laws are generally consistent and reliable. However, market changes can be abrupt and difficult to forecast. Global competition exists everywhere for almost everything. Products are available from anywhere in the world, with delivery possible within in one day in many cases. Competition is driving the price of most products down to minimum profit levels. Inventories are managed for minimum stocking levels and maximum turnover. In the twenty-first century, high inventory is a sign of either mismanagement or a troubled economy. It is
Research two (2) manufacturing or two (2) service companies that manage inventory and complete this assignment.
In addition increases the costs due to out of date and damage lots of inventory, which are also leading to high shrinkage level for the retailer. It is possible to overcome these barriers and enhance the company’s reputation, increase customer satisfactions including high level of profitability by practising good inventory management system in place (Warren, Reeve, & Duchac, 2013).
During the game, I realized that wide gaps in orders of every role in the supply chain such as factory, distributor and retailer create inventory management challenges. For example, distributor records 0units between week1-week 4 compared to retailer within the same period. The retailer records 3units, 5units, 2units and 2units between weeks 1- week 4. The same applies to factory with 0units from weeks 2-4. Addressing inventory management problems requires developing an average unit level to avoid disappointing customers when demand
Company is facing a challenge of potentially higher inventory costs. Rising prices may further result in changes in customer behavior and preferences.
“In an age of increasing specialization, it is rare for one person to be knowledgeable in all aspects of a complex task” (Thompson, 2015, p. 88). In this case, the first step was to understand our incoming demand. For this, I relied on information technology to generate numerous reports as well as the expertise of our sales team. It was at that point that the data was analyzed in conjunction with an inventory specialist. After we had the knowledge of what current product to inventory, we then needed to establish a set of guidelines of how to qualify products in the future. Inventory control management processes were instituted as well as a supply an auditing system. These steps included information from organizational members from our manufacturing group, planning department, and procurement department. Finally, we needed to understand and facilitate the storage and shipping of the product. We enlisted the help of our warehouse employees as well as our transportation department. This type of project included various levels of the organization and required a tremendous amount of communication. The project workload was enormous and also had a substantial financial investment associated with it. Instrumental in the project’s success was the team’s cohesion, diversity, and strategies deployed
Kudler Fine FoodsUniversity of PhoenixSmith Systems Consulting (SSC) has been contracted by Kudler Fine Foods to develop a frequent shopper program. Kudler Fine Food's goal with the frequent shopper program is to develop customer loyalty and penetrate new market shoppers while tracking their behavior. Smith Systems Consulting has been able to design, host, develop, maintain, support and program systems development for their clients since 1984. Smith Systems Consulting employs over 350 employees and has generated over $45 million in revenue. Smith Systems Consulting was contracted to develop a frequent shopper program by developing a hardware platform, network connections, software development tools, database information, user interfaces,
ISOL + Group produces and sells a variety of products within France, Spain, and Italy. The general manager Mr. Dupont has initiated a thorough rethinking of logistics matter for the group. Based on his recommendations, the management team must identify, analyzed, discuss, and recommend the most appropriated solutions for the recommendations made by Mr. Dupont.
The high inventory levels are a concern because it increases carrying costs to their company. The higher carrying costs reduce profit, which negatively affect the company and stockholders. A couple recommendations to Barb is to set up an inventory identification system to keep track of inventory, offer discounts and promotions to move inventory, and use the ABC analysis approach to manage the inventory.
When offers of reduced pricing are accepted for equipment, meeting delivery expectations becomes an important part of enhancing the customer experience to maintain satisfied loyal customers. An inventory specialist in the current distribution center would be given the additional task of segregating and maintaining inventory levels to meet the needs of the customer loyalty department.
Successfully integrated sales, manufacturing and logistics, previously operating under a centralised structure, resulting in a significant improvement in the business culture and team orientation.
From the flow chart above, the Production Planning and Inventory Control Processes covers manufacturing, storage, and related areas. Specifically, the production planning controls the designing and management of the entire airplane manufacturing processes input material scheduling and acquisition, manufacturing, design, and material handling. The inventory control is on the design and management of storage procedures for the raw materials inputs in the airplane manufacturing processes, work-in-progress inventories, and final products.
Although Lynair’s current inventory management practices prove functionality over the last 20 years, there are five feasible options that will drastically improve parts accountability, and the amount of time spent on producing requisitions and purchase orders. The findings revealed a significant amount of time spent locating parts, and creating a requisition request for parts needed to complete an order even though there are many viable ways to improve operations. The five recommendations include; utilizing current software capabilities that are currently not being used; having noteworthy vendors implement their designed reordering systems; further review outside software systems to support inventory
According to the author, inventory management is neglected or treated as less important area for strategic advantage. Inventory managers tend to keep
The data can easily loss because they only use a logbook to record their inventory data. With the system, it will help more on the security of the data. Inventory loss hard to detect because admin need to review one by one page in the logbook, but with the system developed, it may help the admin to detect the inventory in and out from the
A common way of decreasing the amount of inventory a business holds on a daily basis is implementing a just-in-time inventory process. A Just-In-Time inventory system means that the business gets the materials for a product, as they are demanded. “The electronic data