Catering The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain
Catering The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain
Master the recipe and you achieve efficiencies and savings. Becoming a better global competitor is just the icing on the cake.
In order to “wring the fat out of the supply chain process,” a company needs to understand that it is part of an extended enterprise. You and your company officers need to look beyond the physical and political boundaries that are currently constraining and restraining you—whether you realize it or not—and break down the walls separating you and the other members of your supply chain, in a rational, easily modifiable way.
The Tri-Level View is that code.
In the short space we have here, let us summarize the Tri-Level View, and then turn immediately to opportunities for achieving our global objectives with the Tri-Level View.
Essentially, you need to break down your supply chain into three levels or layers. Layer one comprises your physical assets, layer two comprises processes; layer three comprises measurements. By looking at your company’s supply chain from this perspective, you can go on to break down the walls that prevent you from optimizing your supply chain.
The Top Layer: Company Assets
First, let us zoom in on the top level of the Tri-Level View and look at your company’s assets. Your assets are, well, your assets, the physical portion of your supply chain—that is, all the physical things that have anything to do with distribution or delivery. That means, principally, your distribution centers and your means of transport: your trucks, planes, boats, and dirigibles, whatever. These are your assets.
Well, maybe not dirigibles. But you get the picture.
At the same time, let us see how we can relate these assets to your global objectives. In a nutshell, what you and your logistical optimization team are aiming to do is minimize your assets, and optimize their location while maximizing the efficiency of your operations by introducing economies of scale.
EQUIPMENT
Do you have the handling equipment you need?
Oftentimes when the number of facilities and transports is reduced, so is the equipment that normally goes along with them. Be sure that your equipment is not carrying much smaller loads than it is capable of carrying, or traveling greater distances that it was designed to travel.
The Bottom Layer: Measuring SC Effectiveness
What are the promised and actual lead times on your average order? If you find a lot of delays or partially filled orders, find out why.T here could be any number of culprits, including a supplier, a distribution center or an assembly line.
We hope you find our Catering The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain helpful!
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