Articles on understanding supply chain management:
Here we introduce the concept of logistics with a brief review of its origin in military strategy and its subsequent adoption by industry Highlights the principles of competitive strategy and the pursuit of differentiation through the development of productivity and value advantage. Explains the concept of the value chain and the integrative role of logistics within the organization. Describes the emerging discipline of supply chain management, defining it and explaining how and why it takes the principles of logistics forward. Explains the rise of the virtual organization and the factors which have precipitated the emergence of supply chain management. Here we highlight the importance of managing the marketing and logistics interface on an integrated basis. Emphasizes the need to understand the multiple elements of service from the customer's perspective. Explains the importance of customer retention and the lifetime value of a customer. Outlines the idea of service driven logistics system based upon identified service priorities and a customer base segmented according to service requirements. Introduces the idea of the perfect order as a basis for measuring performance.
- Measuring logistics cost and performance
Explains the rationale behind total cost analysis a systematic logistical cost oriented cost accounting system and the principal requirements for an effective logistics cost system. Outlines the many ways in which logistics management can impact an overall return on investment and ultimately shareholder value. Emphasizes the importance of customer profitability analysis based upon the understanding of the cost to serve. Introduces the concept of the Direct Product Profitability and underlines the need to understand the customer logistics costs. Highlights the need to understand cost drivers in the logistics pipeline and to replace traditional forms of cost allocation with more appropriate methods.
- Benchmarking the supply chain
Introduces the concept of competitive benchmarking, outlining its objectives and some of the associated benefits. Explore the concept of value adding and non-value adding time and techniques for mapping supply chain processes. Highlights the importance of supplier and distributor benchmarking relationships as well as performance up and down the supply chain. Criteria for setting benchmarking priorities. Identified logistics performance indicators and outlines the principles behind the balanced scorecard.
- Managing the global pipeline
Discusses the globalization of industry, the emergence of global companies, and the trend toward global production, distribution and marketing strategies. Explores some of the most significant aspects of globalization: focused factories, centralization of inventories and postponement and localization. Identifies the most pressing challenges for logistics managers arising from the globalization of supply chains. Considers how managers might structure and manage a global logistics network. Raises issues of outsourcing and co-ordination of network partners and the critical role of logistics information in managing a global logistics pipeline.
- Strategic lead time management
Explores the cost of time and the drivers of time based competition. Examines the concept of lead time, order to delivery cycle, its components and needs to consider wider context of order to cash cycle. Looks at how the reduction of lead times can impact on the goals of logistics pipeline management. Outlines some of the ways in which inadequate system design can lengthen lead times can impact on the goals of logistics pipeline management. Introduces the concept of the lead-time gap, offering a number of suggestions for lead times.
Compares the philosophy of Just-in-time and logistics and its practices to the statistical based reasoning for inventory management. Considers the logistics implications of JIT and how developments in IT have been used to leverage its power. Introduces vendor managed inventory and co-managed inventory. Outlines the Forrester Effect and Acceleration Effect as key concepts from the field of industrial dynamics. Presents production strategies for quick response, emphasizing the need for firms to develop flexible manufacturing systems with the capabilities for mass-customization.
Considers some organizational impediments to implementation of logistical strategies. Identifies logistics as planning and co-ordination activity, a force for organizational change, and a core process. Stresses the need to extend logistics integration upstream to suppliers and downstream to distributors and customers. Highlights the need for network competition and the development of mutually beneficial collective strategies between co-operative players within a supply chain. Introduces efficient consumer response - an industry wide initiative to lift the competitiveness of the grocery sector.
Identifies the characteristics of companies now in the forefront of logistics development. New organizational paradigms. Focuses on some of the most far-reaching changes currently underway in the field of supply chain management. Discusses the role and impact of development in information networks.
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