Discussion 17 Essay

3. How can supply chain design and integration help John Wolf reduce investment and space requirements while maintaining adequate service levels?

Retail super-giant Wal-Mart has fought its way to becoming the world's largest company. Wal-Mart’s legendary supply chain technology has allowed them to break the three-day barrier that some economists in the eighties felt that it was unbreakable. In other words, Wal-Mart is often able to replenish items on the Wal-Mart shelf in less than three days – not from the central warehouse to the shelf, but from the manufacturer to the shelf. With quick and reliable 2-day turn around, Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower levels of inventory and still meet customer demand. These lower inventory levels result in either a reduced floor plan with lower carrying costs and lower interest expense – or a greater diversity of products on the store shelves.

Changes within the supply chain can disrupt the normal flow of goods and services because each change hasn’t been fully scrutinized. A firm can plan and speculate that a change with have a certain effect on the supply chain, but until those processes have been measured it is impossible to know the true cause and effect of any disruption.

Reduced need for higher capacity at the supplier. This would be reduced because suppliers would not need to size their operations to deliver on the “one shot large volume order” and would be able to space these in time with orders at

A supply chain is a net work of firms. Thus, each firm in the chain should build its own supply chains to support the competitive priorities of its services or products. Two distinct designs used to competitive advantage are efficient supply chains and responsive supply chains. Efficient supply chains work best in environments where demand is highly predictable. The focus of the supply chain is on efficient flows of services and materials keeping inventories to a minimum. The firm’s competitive priorities are low-cost operations, consistent quality, and on-time delivery. Responsive supply chains designed to react quickly in order to hedge against uncertainties in demand. Work best when firms offer a great variety of services or products and demand predictability is low. Typical competitive priorities are development speed, fast delivery times, customization, variety, volume flexibility, and top quality. Tables below show the environments and design features that best suit each design.

Additionally, forward buying activities from distributors due to frequent trade promotions and volume dis-counts enforce the effect of demand fluctuations. During promotions, distributors buy huge amounts of pasta at a lower price. This forward buying leads to lower demand in future periods and contributes to high peaks in or-der quantity and low levels of orders in the following periods. Connected to this problem is the incentive system of the sales force, which relies heavily on trade promotions in order to achieve quarterly targets. Another factor related to these aspects is batch ordering and

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

List and explain all aspects of supply chain management. pg 416; week5 lecture, pg 4;

Company is facing a challenge of potentially higher inventory costs. Rising prices may further result in changes in customer behavior and preferences.

The customers, wholesalers and retailers may order in large quantities with the expectation that they will receive a greater allocation of products that are in short supply. The impact on the supply chain is significant as the forecasted demand is greatly, and unrealistically, increased with these inflated orders. Eventually orders disappear and cancellations pour in, making it impossible for the manufacturer to determine the real demand for its products

How can Harley Davidson marketing and sales, personnel interact with its purchasing personnel to further strengthen the supply chain and improve customer loyalty?

Along with better communication, improved forecasting can help a supply chain run better. If you are able to forecast customer demand, you have a better chance on not being “tricked” by signals throughout the chain. A company can improve forecasting by looking at their past history, the history within their industry, or simply by asking their customers; predominantly through surveys or focus groups. Another way to improve you supply chain is to see if there is an opportunity to reduce the number of parties or complexity within the supply chain. The more stations there are the better chance for errors and delays. It is also easier to find and solve issues if your process is less complex. A smaller group also allows for better relationships between

1. What parts of the supply chain are most closely involved with the situation in this case? What is the responsibility of each part in order to maintain a smooth flow of material?

3. Most managers of Wings & Legs see the exchange of tactical information about (price)

DIMCO may gain many advantages by implementing supply management chain. Implementing SCM can reduce problems within the company’s internal functions, external suppliers, and external distributors. Some advantages DIMCO can gain from implementing SCM are as follows; the supply chain would improve the quality of service to the end user; reduce channel cost; and create a competitive advantage. (Reid & Sanders, 2010) The implementations of SCM will strengthen DIMCO partnership with suppliers and distributors. Supply chain management can also prevent such challenges such as the bullwhip effect, caused by erratic replenishment of orders placed on different levels in the supply chain that have no apparent link to final product demand. (Reid & Sanders, 2010) An effective and efficient SCM will allow partners to share information concerning health, safety, government regulations and environmental issues. SCM will provide a common network for communications, suggestions, and feedback. This will assist DIMCO in meeting the need of customers quickly and in an efficient manner. Overall, SCM would assist in