Professional Documents
Culture Documents
An Assignment On
“SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT”
Course name: Supply Chain Management
Course Code: MGT-524
Submitted To:
M.M. NASIMUZZAMAN
Associate Professor,
Department of Management,
Islamic University, Kushtia.
Submitted by:
MD. SEAM KHAN
Roll: 200521
Session: 2020-2021(MBA)
Department of Management,
Islamic University, Kushtia.
Date of submission:
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Chapter 1
Understanding the Supply Chain
1. WHAT IS A SUPPLY CHAIN?
A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer request. The
supply chain includes not only the manufacturer and suppliers, but also transporters, warehouses,
retailers, and even customers themselves.
A typical supply chain may involve a variety of stages, including the following:
• Customers
• Retailers
• Wholesalers/distributors
• Manufacturers
• Component/raw material suppliers
depend on it and the three supply chain decision phases. In supply chain management, all parties are
directly or indirectly involved with each other to fulfill the demand of consumers. It does not include
only the manufacturers and suppliers but also agents, brokers, retailers, wholesalers, and customers
themselves. In organizations, the supply chain involves receiving and fulfilling customer demand. It may
be new product development, marketing .operations, distribution, finance, and customer service. In
contrast, the failure of many businesses must depend on effective supply chain decisions. Weak supply
chain decisions can’t bring success to organizations. Sometimes, we can see that, some companies’
supply chains can’t adapt to the changing nature of the supply chain. Moreover, they also fail to meet
customer expectations.
For example, Dell Computer Company has great supply chain decisions.
That’s why they become more successful than any other company. Their suppliers are much more
attentive to adapting them to the changing nature of the supply chain. Because they are technologically
advantaged and connected with each other. Besides, they have the capacity to meet the customers’
expectations.
In this supply chain decision phase, a company decides how to design the supply chain over the next
several years. The company decision includes – what the chain configuration will be.
Time is considered in a quarter to a year. Therefore, the previous phase determined the phase is
fixed. This phase establishes constraints within the organization. Supply chain planning is used for
solving the constraints. Therefore, This decision phase has a goal. This is to maximize the supply chain
surplus.
After completing the previous two phases, supply chain operations are needed to do. Here, The time
horizon is weekly or daily. In this phase, companies make decisions on managing individual customer
orders. Here, the supply chain configuration is considered fixed. And planning policies are already
defined.
The goal of a supply chain should be to maximize overall supply chain surplus. Supply chain surplus
is the difference between the value generated for the customer and the total cost incurred across all
stages of the supply chain. A focus on the supply chain surplus grows the size of the overall pie for
all members of the supply chain. Supply chain decisions have a large impact on the success or failure
of each firm because they significantly influence both the revenue generated and the cost incurred.
Successful supply chains manage flows of product, information, and funds to provide a high level of
product availability to the customer while keeping costs low.
Chapter 2
Supply Chain Performance: Achieving
Strategic Fit and Scope
1. DEFINE COMPETITIVE AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES?
A company’s competitive strategy defines, relative to its competitors, the set of customer needs that it
seeks to satisfy through its products and services. A company’s competitive strategy defines, relative to
its competitors, the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services.
There are three basic steps to achieving this strategic fit, which we outline here and then discuss in more
detail:
1. Understanding the Customer and Supply Chain Uncertainty: First, a company must understand the
customer needs for each targeted segment and the uncertainty these needs impose on the supply chain.
These needs help the company define the desired cost and service requirements. The supply chain
uncertainty helps the company identify the extent of the unpredictability of demand, disruption, and
delay that the supply chain must be prepared for.
2. Understanding the Supply Chain Capabilities: Each of the many types of supply chains is designed to
perform different tasks well. A company must understand what its supply chain is designed to do well.
3. Achieving Strategic Fit: If a mismatch exists between what the supply chain does particularly well and
the desired customer needs, the company will either need to restructure the supply chain to support the
competitive strategy or alter its competitive strategy.
4. How you can find the zone of strategic fit? Explain with the help of a
figure.
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A key issue relating to strategic fit is the scope, in terms of supply chain stages, across which the
strategic fit applies. Scope of strategic fit refers to the functions within the firm and stages across the
supply chain that devise an integrated strategy with an aligned objective. At one extreme, every
operation within each functional area devises its own independent strategy with the objective of
optimizing its individual performance. In this case, the scope of strategic fit is restricted to an operation
in a functional area within a stage of the supply chain. At the opposite extreme, all functional areas
across all stages of the supply chain devise aligned strategies that maximize supply chain surplus. In this
case, the scope of strategic fit extends to the entire supply chain.
Perceptions of benefits
Customer value = ––––––––––––––––––––––
Total cost of ownership
The impact of both a strong consumer franchise and a customer franchise can be enhanced or
diminished by the efficiency of the supplier’s logistics system. It is only when all three components are
working optimally that marketing effectiveness is maximized. To stress the interdependence of these
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Better Inventory Control: A key advantage of a push strategy in a supply chain is better inventory
control. Using the push strategy, manufacturers can produce products in advance, stock them, and then
sell them with rising demand. This reduces the risk of stock-outs.
Forecasting Accuracy: A push strategy in the supply chain helps manufacturers have a better
understanding of demand patterns. Using the push strategy, manufacturers can have a more accurate
view of the market.
Reduced Lead Time: Another advantage of a push strategy in the supply chain is that it can reduce lead
times. In this strategy, customers receive the products faster as products are produced and stocked
even before the customer places an order.
Alignment of Supply and Demand: A push strategy can help align supply and demand in a better way.
This reduces the risk of obsolescence. Using a push strategy in the supply chain, manufacturers can
respond quickly to changes in demand and make necessary adjustments to production and inventory
levels.
Focus on Standard Products: A push strategy in the supply chain can allow manufacturers to focus on
producing standard products in high volume. This will help in reducing costs and improve efficiency.
Customer Demand Variability: In a push strategy, products are manufactured based on forecasts and
pushed into the market. However, unpredictable changes in customer demand can lead to inventory
imbalances and excess stock.
Inventory Management: Push strategy relies on maintaining high inventory levels to meet anticipated
demand. However, this approach can result in carrying costs, product obsolescence, and the risk of stock
outs.
Production Planning: Aligning production capacity with anticipated demand is a crucial aspect of push
strategy. Insufficient production capacity can lead to delays and missed delivery deadlines.
Information Sharing in the Supply Chain: In a push strategy, effective communication and information
sharing among supply chain partners become critical. Lack of real-time data exchange and collaboration
can lead to inaccurate forecasts, delayed responses, and inefficient operations.
Order Fulfillment: In pull strategy, products are manufactured based on actual customer demand.
However, managing order fulfillment efficiently poses challenges such as lead time reduction, ensuring
product availability, and minimizing stock outs.
Bullwhip Effect: The bullwhip effect refers to the amplification of demand fluctuations as they
propagate upstream in the supply chain. This phenomenon can result in excessive inventory, inefficient
resource allocation, and increased costs.
Technology and Automation:
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Leveraging technology in a pull strategy can enhance visibility, enable accurate demand sensing, and
automate various supply chain processes. Integration of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence
(AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and predictive analytics can enable real-time demand monitoring, efficient
order processing, and proactive inventory management.
1. DEFINE SYNCHRONIZATION.
The fact of happening at the same time or moving at the same speed as something else; the act of
making something do this.
In the same way that the conventional wisdom in production and manufacturing was to maximize batch
quantities, similar thinking could be found in the rest of the supply chain. Thus we used to seek to ship
by the container or truck load, customers were discouraged from ordering in smaller quantities by price
penalties and delivery schedules were typically based on optimizing the efficiency of routes and the
consolidation of deliveries. Clearly such an approach runs counter to the requirements of a synchronous
supply chain. Under the synchronization philosophy the requirement is for small shipments to be made
more frequently and to meet the precise time requirements of the customer. The challenge to logistics
management is to find ways in which these changed requirements can be achieved without an
uneconomic escalation of costs. There may have to be trade-offs but the goal must be to improve total
supply chain cost effectiveness.
As the demand by all partners in the supply chain for a quick response increases, the more will be the
pressure placed upon manufacturing to meet the customer’s needs for variety in shorter and shorter
time-frames. The answer has to lie in flexibility. As we have already observed, if it were possible to
reduce manufacturing and logistics lead times to zero then total flexibility could be achieved. In other
words the organization could respond to any request that was technologically feasible in any quantity.
Whilst zero lead times are obviously not achievable, the new focus on flexible manufacturing systems
(FMS) has highlighted the possibility of substantial progress in this direction. The key to flexibility in
manufacturing is not just new technology, e.g. robotics, although this can contribute dramatically to its
achievement. The main barrier to flexibility is the time taken to change; to change from one level of
volume to another and to change from making one variant to another. Typically we call this ‘set-up
time’. It will be apparent that if set-up times can be driven as close as possible to zero then flexible
response to customer requirements presents no problem.
1. Supply risk
How vulnerable is the business to disruptions in supply? Risk may be higher due to global sourcing,
reliance on key suppliers, poor supply management, etc.
2. Demand risk
How volatile is demand? Does the ‘bullwhip’ effect cause demand amplification? Are there parallel
interactions where the demand for another product affects the demand for ours?
3. Process risk
How resilient are our processes? Do we understand the sources of variability in those process, e.g.
manufacturing? Where are the bottlenecks? How much additional capacity is available if required?
4. Control risk
How likely are disturbances and distortions to be caused by our own internal control systems? For
example, order opportunities, batch sizes and safety stock policies can distant real demand. Our own
decision rules and policies can cause ‘chaos’ type effects.
5. Environmental risk
Where across the supply chain as a whole are we vulnerable to external forces? Whilst the type and
timings of extreme external events may not be forecastable their impact needs to be assessed.
●Long lead time, e.g. the time taken to replenish components from order to delivery.
●A single source of supply with no short-term alternative.
●Dependence on specific infrastructure, e.g. ports, transport modes or information systems.
●A high degree of concentration amongst suppliers and customers.
● Bottlenecks or ‘pinch points’ through which material or product must flow.
●High levels of identifiable risk (i.e. supply, demand, process, control and environmental risk).
Because even the best managed supply chains will hit unexpected turbulence or be impacted by events
that are impossible to forecast, it is critical that resilience be built into them. Resilience implies the
ability of a system to return to its original or desired state after being disturbed. Resilient processes are
flexible and agile and are able to change quickly. In this latter respect it is important to realize that
velocity alone is not enough – it is acceleration or the ability to ramp up or down quickly that matters so
far as resilience is concerned. Supply chain resilience also requires ‘slack’ at those critical points that
constitute the limiting factors to changes in the rate of flow. Access to information as rapidly as possible
is also a prerequisite for resilience as we observed in the Nokia/Ericsson case study. Through
collaborative working this information can be converted into supply chain intelligence. Because
networks have become more complex they will rapidly descent into chaos unless they can be connected
through shared information and knowledge. The aim is to create a supply chain community whereby
there is a greater visibility of upstream and downstream risk profiles (and change in those profiles) and a
shared commitment to mitigate and manage those risks.
●The strategic structuring and overall control of logistics flows must be centralized to achieve worldwide
optimization of costs.
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●The control and management of customer service must be localized against the requirements of
specific markets to ensure competitive advantage is gained and maintained.
●As the trend towards outsourcing everything except core competencies increases then so does the
need for global co-ordination.
●A global logistics information system is the prerequisite for enabling the achievement of local service
needs whilst seeking global cost optimization.
Because local markets have their own specific characteristics and needs there is considerable advantage
to be achieved by shaping marketing strategies locally – albeit within overall global guidelines. This is
particularly true of customer service management where the opportunities for tailoring service against
individual customer requirements are great. The management of customer service involves the
monitoring of service needs as well as performance and extends to the management of the entire order
fulfilment process – from order through to delivery. Whilst order fulfilment systems are increasingly
global and centrally managed there will always remain the need to have strong local customer service
management.
Making service happen is the ultimate challenge. Whilst it is by no means easy to develop strategies for
service that will lead to improved competitive performance, the hardest task is to put that strategy into
action. How do we develop an organization that is capable of delivering high quality service on a
consistent, ongoing basis? These days most companies are familiar with the idea of ‘mission statements’
as an articulation of the vision of the business. The mission statement seeks to define the purpose of the
business, its boundaries and its aspirations.
the marketplace for enhanced service provision combined with dramatically heightened competition call
for a paradigm shift in the way in which we think about our organizations.
The process of satisfying customer demand begins with in-bound supply and continues through
manufacturing or assembly operations and onwards by way of distribution to the customer. Logically the
ideal way to manage this process is as a complete system, not by fragmenting it into watertight sections.
Yet that is more or less what happens in the conventional business as we have seen. Not only is this
inefficient, it actually leads to a loss of effectiveness in competitive terms.
●It enables the best practices from any industry to be creatively incorporated into the processes of the
benchmarked function.
●It can provide stimulation and motivation to the professionals whose relativity is required to perform and
implement benchmark findings.
●Benchmarking breaks down ingrained reluctance of operations to change. It has been found that people are
more receptive to new ideas and their creative adoption when those ideas did not necessarily originate in their
own industry.
●Benchmarking may also identify a technological breakthrough that would not have been recognized, and
thus not applied, in one’s own industry for some time to come.