Q1. Which business processes are the most important at Summit Electric Supply? Why? The two most important businesses processes at Summit Electric are supply chain management and batch management. Supply chain management is a business process. It is a system that connects customers, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. (Laudon and Laudon, 2014, p. 342-343). Summit Electric Supply is a distributor in the supply chain process. According to Laudon & Laudon (2104), Summit Electrical Supply distributes supplies and industrial electrical equipment, making them one of the top wholesale distributors in the United States. Two categories of products that are popular at Summit’s are cable and wire. The challenge Summit faced is that they purchased reels of wire and cable. The problem was determine how much product they had on hand and how much was sold. The solution was for Summit to implement a batch management. They used SAP’s ERP materials management software to assist them. The software’s solution to the problem was to treat each reel as a batch instead of a single product. This method allowed Summit to track how much of the reel was used each time a customer purchase wire or cable. Each time a customer purchased an amount of wire or cable it was entered into the system. This process aided Summit to track which customers purchased from a reel and trace it back to the supplier ((Laudon and Laudon, 2014, p. 366- 367). The new business processes
Arntzen, B. C., G. G. Brown, T. P. Harrison, L. L. Trafton. 1995. Global supply chain management at Digital Corporation. Interfaces 25(1) 69-93.
The modern day health care system is currently faced with a wide array of challenges, such as the aging of the population and the intensified need for medical care, the rapidly evolving technologies and the increasing costs of the medical act.
In the past, departments within the circuit would order their own supplies and equipment. This practice was not the most efficient or economical way to do business. Now all ordering and billing is processed from one central location. All departments request supplies to my office; then as a circuit we order in bulk and the supplies are then distributed to the various departments. Often times the circuit gets better deals because we are using the same vendor and buying in bulk is more economical.
“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
Riordan Manufacturing has a large problem when it comes to inventory and customer orders. Because Riordan has offices both in the United States and in China, it faces a number of obstacles both in the logistics of inventory control and the need for accurate customer order management.
Within Logistics, there is a “Control Tower” and Distributor Connect” program that were with the intent to monitor all inbound or outbound activities within internal or external resources, it has since been able to effectively reduce deadhead moments. By bringing innovation into their supply chains to deliver better efficiency and lower cost, it is no surprise that P&G was ranked among the Top 5 in the award for Gartner Supply Chain Top 25. With the effective supply chain, it has help to keep hiking costs at bay, where P&G can price their product competitively; which ultimately spells benefit for the consumers.
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.
My second week here consisted of becoming acclimated to the workflow and beginning projects has absorbed 50% of my week. The workflow at Sands Capital maintains a smooth, laid back behavior from start to finish. It took me a few days to realize this wouldn’t be like other jobs where you have a direct manager pressing on you for productivity, efficiency, and deadlines. No instead, for the most part, you are free to work on projects and office work at any speed as long as you progress. My supervisor Matt coordinated two projects of my own to begin working on.
Paperless Charters John Cooper, Bryce Edwards, Joel Kennerknecht Embry-Riddle University Intro to Management Info Systems June – August 2014 Table of Contents 1. Title Page 2. Table of Contents 3. Executive Summary Introduction 3.1.
Two college roommates, Nelson Jones and Dave Verden, started Jones Electrical Distribution (JED) in 1999. JED acts as the middleman, purchasing products from manufacturers and selling to general contractors and electricians. JED purchases products, ranging from controllers to signal devices and fuses, from nearly 100 different suppliers. JED’s customers mostly use the products purchased in the construction and repair of commercial and residential buildings. As a result, JED’s sales follow the seasonality of its customers’ businesses, which are most active in the spring and summer months.
M&L Manufacturing makes various components for printers and copiers. The company supplies these items to a major manufacturer. The company also distributes these and similar items to office supply stores and computer stores as replacement parts for printers and desktop copiers. In all, the company manufactures about 20 different items to distribute. The two markets (the major manufacturer and the replacement market) require somewhat different handling. Product for the major manufacturer can be shipped in bulk. However, the products for the retail segment must be packaged individually which requires additional handling and expense. Instead of using forecasting for production planning the operations manager decides which
This organization developed and sold an inventory tagging technology which permits its customers to streamline their supply chains.
As a supply chain solutions company, C1 provides downstream value-added services for energy and industrial markets through a distribution network of more than 250 locations across North America and Europe (company website). C1 stocks more than 90,000 diverse products for customer markets providing them with maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and has been in the business for almost 100 years (company website). The company’s commitment to quality has ensured that C1’s distribution centers maintain International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification standards and ensure top quality and service to customers.
The class text states that Supply chain management is frequently divided into supply chain planning applications, supply chain execution applications, logistics management, and warehouse management. Often when companies fail at implementing an efficient supply chain because of the planning section, or inaccurate demand forecasts. The text states electronic data interchange is one of the earliest uses of information technology for supply chain management, Electronic data interchange is the use of the Internet for everyday business transactions. “In this era of information a firm’s supply chain should operate at speed of thought and this is possible only by enhanced e-speed communications and information sharing with their critical partners.” (4)
Most supply chain management networks are very basic in it’s make up you have a factory or manufacture, a distributor or distribution center, a wholesaler and a retailer. The factory or the manufacture is responsible for making sure that it has enough inventory on hand at all times to supply the distributors that depend on them to keep them supplied with inventory. It is up to the manufacture to make sure that they have the raw materials that they need to product whatever product the distributors are relying on them to provide them.