operation, and continuous improvement of the
supply
chain systems to efficiently deliver the organization’s
products
and services to its’ customers. OSCM is
now becoming an essential factor
for organizations
to stay competitive.
The optimization of supply chain
management
operations has a huge impact on an organization’s
success,
as good supply chain operations planning
eventually positively impacts
its growth and credibility.
Managing Variations in Supply Chain Operations
Optimization Supply Chain Operations
In
real world scenario, demand for many products
changes frequently from
period to period, often
because of a predictable influence. These
influences
include seasonal factors that affect products
(e.g., lawn
mowers and ski jackets), as well as non-
seasonal factors (e.g.
promotions or product adoption
rates) that may cause large, predictable
increases or
declines in sales.
Predictable variability is a
change in demand that
can be foretasted. Products that undergo this type
of change in demand create numerous problems in
the supply chain
operations, ranging from high levels
of stockouts during peak demand
periods to high
levels of excess inventory during periods of low
demand.
These problems increase the costs and decrease
the responsiveness of
the supply chain.
Supply Chain Operations can be improved
significantly
when strategies are applied to
predictably variable products. Faced with
predictable variability, a company’s goal is to
respond in a manner
that balances supply with
demand to maximize profitability.
Enhancing Profitability through
Effective Supply Chain Operations
The
goal of sales planning and the Operations and
Supply Chain Management
is to appropriately
combine two broad options to handle predictable
variability:
Manage supply using capacity, inventory, subcontracting, and backlogs.
Manage demand using short-term price discounts and promotions.
The use of these tools enables the supply chain
to
increase profitability, because supply and demand
are matched in a
more coordinated fashion.
One way requires a manufacturer to carry
enough
manufacturing capacity to meet demand from
production in any
period.
The advantage of this approach is that the
manufacturer incurs
low inventory costs because
no inventory is carried from period to
period. The
disadvantage, however, is that much of the
expensive
capacity is unused during most months
when demand is lower.
Strategic Inventory Management to
Improve Supply Chain Operations
Another
approach to meeting demand is to build up
inventory during the
off-season to keep production
stable year-round. The advantage of this
approach
lies in the fact that Red Tomato can get by with a
lower
capacity, less expensive factory. High inventory
carrying costs,
however, make this alternative
expensive. A third approach is for the
manufacturer
to work with its retail partners as per the supply chain
strategy to offer a price promotion before the spring
months, during periods of low demand.
This
promotion shifts some of the spring demand
into a slow period,
spreading demand more evenly
throughout the year and reducing the
seasonal surge.
Such a demand pattern is less expensive to supply.
The
manufacturer must decide which alternative
maximizes its profitability
through its supply chain
operations process.
Steps for Supply Chain Operations
Planning
The basic steps to control the Operations and Supply
Chain Management can be summarized as follows.
Demand
history data are gathered and cleansed. A statistical forecast is run
and analyzed for events or outliers that are not expected to repeat in
the future.
The statistical forecast with associated errors is reviewed with the product and brand management, marketing, and sales teams. The teams add information to the demand plan that will improve forecast accuracy.
The demand plan is finalized with the demand-side teams and passed on to supply.
The supply team reviews the demand plan and constrains it based on capacity availability.
Both supply and demand review the constrained plan with the finance team and executive management.
When
the executive meeting is held, the result is
the communication of a
single plan: sales sell to
the plan, and supply produces to the plan.
The
output of supply chain operations planning is the production plan,
which provides the rate of production at the family level.
Resource requirements are evaluated with the resource plan.
The
production plan is the input to master scheduling and its output, the
master production schedule. The MPS is typically a weekly plan at the
item level with an evaluation of capacity through rough-cut capacity
planning.
Then materials requirement planning uses bill of
material data, inventory data, and the master production schedule to
calculate requirements for materials, resulting in planned production
and purchase orders.
Production activity control receives the output of MRP and detail planning, and final assembly scheduling is done.
The strategic activities of business
planning, resource planning, and
S&OP are discussed in more detail
next.
1. Business Planning for Supply Chain Operations Making a Business Plan to Improve Supply Chain Operations
The
business plan is a thorough and disciplined
preview of what the firm
hopes to accomplish with
its products and services over the long term,
with
emphasis on the plan year. The business plan is
typically stated in
dollars and grouped by product
family.
There may be overly optimistic
projections from
marketing at some points, but the numbers are
there for
later review as well as to specify projected
revenues, costs, profits,
and objectives for the
product families all to support the long-range
strategy proposed for entering the marketplace.
Key inputs to the
business plan include the demand
plan and its long-term forecasts.
Budgets and
projected financial statements are key outputs.
A business plan should do the following things:
Clarify strategy by stating an explicit vision for the business – a reason for being.
Provide a point of reference for developing the sales and operations plan.
Describe long-term strategies that will be used to guide shorter-term tactical plans for producing and selling the product.
Strategic Implementation Following
the Business Plan
The
next steps after the business plan are
development of a long-term
resource plan and a
near-medium-term sales and planning the supply
chain
operations, based on the longer term views
of the business plan.
It’s
time to start investing in capacity and then using
that capacity to make
money and provide the
lenders and investors with the return on
investment
(ROI) they anticipated when they signed on as
financial
partners in the enterprise.
2. Resource Planning for Improved
Supply Chain Operations
Long-Term Resource Planning
Strategies
Resource
planning, sometimes called resource
requirements planning, takes the
longest view of the
system’s capacity, typically going out 15 to 18
months
but sometimes requiring much longer planning
horizons for capital
investments. Resource planning
is defined as:
Capacity planning
conducted at the business and
production plan levels. The process of
establishing,
measuring, and adjusting limits or levels of long-range
capacity. Normally based on the production plan but
may be driven by
higher-level plans beyond the time
horizon for the production plan,
e.g., the business plan.
It addresses those resources that take long
periods
of time to acquire.
Relationship Between Resource
Availabilityand Production Planning
The
duration of the planning horizon depends on the
lead time of the needed
resources, which may be a
machine to produce the planned product. The
total
lead time needed would include not only installation
time but also
the lead time needed to conduct
Operations and Supply Chain Management.
Equipment or facility construction with long
development lead times may
be driven primarily by
the business plan, while realigning existing
facilities
and the workforce to change capacity is more likely
to be
based on the production plan generated during