|
Over the past 20 plus years, the flow, or movement of material has evolved with simple transportation modes, i.e. trucks, ships, airplanes, etc to a new coordinated control of cost, called logistics, or SCM (Supply Chain Management). During the early 1990's, manufacturing giants like General Motors, Ford, Toyota needed to develop better ways to save money within their transportation/purchasing and manufacturing processes. These companies realized they needed to control the flow of materials, information and funds across the entire supply chain from suppliers, component producers to the final assembly lines. These automotive leaders realized if they oversee the entire flow of all components inbound material parts to their manufacturing sites, they would generate more control over their cost, transportation and also improve their quality within the manufacturing process. Supply chain management (SCM) users now realize that action taken by one member of the chain can influence the profitability of all others in the chain. Manufacturing firms are streamlining their operations (lean manufacturing) by better coordination with their suppliers and as a customer. The cost of poor coordination can result in much higher cost changes in both technology and transportation. SCM supports "just in time" replenishment process. This process will result in lowering cost of transportation and will reduce the inventory of all component parts in the warehouses/distribution centers. In short, Supply chain management can be defined by these key categories: A recent study by AMR Research defines several ways automotive orders can be "imperfect." They can be late, contain poor quality, damaged, or incorrect parts, contain the incorrect quantity, or they can be the correct parts but incorrectly labeled. A perfect order, says Scott Lundstrom, AMR's chief technology officer, "is absolutely exactly what the customer ordered. Right quality, right timing, right delivery. "Anyone in the automotive industry that isn't [an excellent supplier] is already dead." To learn more logistic and SCM stories, please contact me at
|
| ||||||||
Relation Articles:
