1、Unit 9 Supply Chain Management,学习指导：本章将介绍：什么是供应链管理供应链中的价值创造提高供应链的效率物料跟踪技术、EDI和电子商务在供应链中实现最终消费者导向,9.1 What is the Supply Chain Management,Many companies use strategic alliances, partnerships, and long-term contracts to create relationships with other companies in the supply chains for the products th
2、at they manufacture or sell.,In many cases, companies are able to reduce costs by developing close relationships with a few suppliers rather than negotiating with a large number of suppliers each time they need to buy materials or supplies.,When companies integrate their supply management and logist
3、ics activities across multiple participants in a particular products supply chain, the job of managing that integration is called supply chain management.,The ultimate goal of supply chain management is to achieve a higher-quality or lower-cost product at the end of the chain.,Supply chain managemen
4、t is about opting business processes and business value in every corner of the extended enterprise - from your suppliers supplier to your customers customer. Supply chain management can use e-business concepts and web technologies to manage beyond the organization, upstream and downstream.,It is the
5、 strategic approach that unites all steps in the business cycle from initial product design and the procurement of raw materials, through production, shipping distribution, and warehousing until a finished product is delivered to a customer.,9.2 Value Creation in the Supply Chain,In recent years, bu
6、sinesses have realized that they can save money and increase product quality by taking a more active role in negotiations with suppliers.,By engaging suppliers in cooperative, long-term relationships, companies have found that they can work together with these suppliers to identify new ways to provi
7、de their own customers with faster, cheaper, and better service.,By coordinating the efforts of supply chain participants, firms that engage in supply chain management are reaching beyond the limits of their own organizations hierarchical structure and creating a new network form of organization amo
8、ng the members of the supply chain.,Supply chain management was originally developed as a way to reduce costs. It focused on very specific elements in the supply chain and tried to identify opportunities for process efficiency.,Today, supply chain management is used to add value in the form of benef
9、its to the ultimate consumer at the end of the supply chain. This requires a more holistic view of the entire supply chain than had been common in the early days of supply chain management.,Businesses that engage in supply chain management work to establish long-term relationships with a small numbe
10、r of very capable suppliers. These suppliers, called tier one suppliers, in turn develop long-term relationships with a larger number of suppliers that provide components and raw materials to them.,These tier two suppliers manage relationships with the next level of suppliers, called tier three supp
11、liers, that provide them with components and raw materials. A key element of these relationships is trust between the parties.,The long-term relationships created among participants in the supply chain are called supply alliances.,The level of information sharing that must take place among the suppl
12、y chain participants can be a major barrier to entering into these alliances. Firms are not accustomed to disclosing detailed operating information and often perceive that information disclosure might hurt the firm by placing it at a competitive disadvantage.,For example, Dell Computer is one compan
13、y that has been able to reduce supply chain costs by sharing information with its suppliers. The moment Dell receives an order from a customer, it makes that information available to its tier one suppliers, who can then better plan their production based on Dells exact demand trends.,For example, a
14、supplier of disk drives can change its production plans immediately when it sees a shift in Dells customer orders from computers with one size disk drive to another, usually larger, size disk drive.,This prevents the supplier from overproducing the smaller drive, which reduces the suppliers costs (f
15、or unsold drives) and costs in the supply chain overall (the supplier does not need to charge more for the disk drives it does sell to Dell to recover the cost of the unsold drives).,To have the stability of the closer, long-term relationships, buyers expect annual price reductions and quality impro
16、vements from suppliers at each stage of the supply chain.,However, all supply chain participants should share information and work together to create value.,Ideally, the supply chain coordination creates enough value that each level of supplier can share the benefits of reduced cost and more efficie
17、nt operations. Supply chain management has been gaining momentum during the past decade and is supported by major purchasing groups such as the Supply Chain Council.,By working together, supply chain members can reduce costs and increase the value of the product or service to the ultimate consumer.,
18、Marshall Fisher says that firms often organize themselves to achieve either efficient process goals or market-responsive flexibility goals. Some companies structure themselves to be efficient producers, whereas others structure themselves to be flexible producers.,The kinds of things that allow a fi
19、rm to be an efficient, low-cost producer are exactly the things that prevent a firm from being flexible enough to respond to market changes. For example, the efficient producer invests in expensive machines that can stamp out large numbers of low-cost items.,This investment drives down the cost of p
20、roduction, but makes it difficult for the producer to be flexible.,A large investment in specialized machinery prevents that producer from reconfiguring the plant layout. If even one member of the supply chain for a product that requires flexible production operates as an efficient producer (instead
21、 of as a flexible producer), every other firm in the supply chain suffers.,The efficient producer creates bottlenecks that hamper the best efforts of all other supply chain members. Clear communication up and down the supply chain can keep each participant informed of what the ultimate consumer dema
22、nds. The participants can then plot a strategy to meet those demands.,Clear communications, and quick responses to those communications, are key elements of successful supply chain management. Technologies, and especially the technologies of the Internet and the Web, can be very effective communicat
23、ions enhancers.,For the first time, firms can effectively manage the details of their own internal processes and the processes of other members of their supply chains.,Software that uses the Internet can help all members of the supply chain review past performance, monitor current performance, and p
24、redict when and how much of certain products need to be produced.,Figure 11-1 lists the advantages of using Internet technologies in supply chain management. The only major disadvantage of using Internet technologies in supply chain management is the cost of the technologies. In most cases, however,
25、 the advantages provide value that greatly exceeds the cost of implementing and maintaining the technologies.,9.3 Increasing Supply Chain Efficiencies,Many companies are using Internet and Web technologies to manage supply chains in ways that yield increases in efficiency throughout the chain.,These
26、 companies have found ways to increase process speed, reduce costs, and increase manufacturing flexibility so that they can respond to changes in the quantity and nature of ultimate consumers,For example, Boeing, the largest producer of commercial aircraft in the world, faces a huge task in keeping
27、its production on schedule. Each airplane requires more than 1 million individual parts and assemblies, and each airplane is custom configured to meet the purchasing airlines exact specifications.,These parts and assemblies must be completed and delivered on schedule or the production process comes
28、to a halt.,In 1997, production and scheduling errors required Boeing to shut down two entire assembly operations for several weeks, costing the company over $1.5 billion. To prevent this from ever happening again, Boeing invested in a number of new information systems that increase production effici
29、ency by providing planning and control over logistics in every element of its supply chain.,Using EDI and Internet links, Boeing is working with suppliers so that they can provide exactly the right part or assembly at exactly the right time. Even before starting an airplane into production, Boeing m
30、akes the engineering specifications and drawings available to its suppliers through secure Internet connections.,As work on the airplane progresses, Boeing keeps every member of the supply chain,continually informed of completion milestones achieved and necessary schedule changes.,By its second year
31、 of using these new systems, Boeing had cut in half the time needed to complete individual assembly processes. It has realized similar reductions in part defect costs.,The combined effects of these increased efficiencies are helping Boeing do a much better job of meeting its customers needs. Instead
32、 of waiting 36 months for delivery, customers can now have their new airplanes in 10 to 12 months.,To further benefit its customers, Boeing launched a spare parts Web site, Boeing PART (part analysis and requirements tracking).,Over 500 airlines that are Boeing customers do not use EDI to order repl
33、acement parts. Boeing PART lets these customers register and then order parts using their Web browsers.,The site is processing over 5000 transactions per day at a significantly lower cost to Boeing than if it were handling faxes, telephone calls, and mailed purchase orders. Boeing can deliver most p
34、arts ordered through Boeing PART on the same or next day.,Although Dell Computer has become famous for its use of the Web to sell custom-configured computers to individuals and businesses, it has also used technology-enabled supply chain management to give customers exactly what they want.,Dell redu
35、ced the amount of inventory it keeps on hand from three weeks sales to six days sales.,Ultimately, Dell wants to see inventory levels measured in minutes. By increasing the amount of information it has about its customers, Dell has been able to dramatically reduce the amount of inventory it must hol
36、d. Dell has also shared this information with members of its supply chain.,Dells top suppliers have access to a secure Web site that shows them Dells latest sales forecasts, along with other information about planned product changes, defect rates, and warranty claims. In addition, the Web site tells
37、 suppliers who Dells customers are and what they are buying.,All of this information helps these tier one suppliers plan their production much better than they could otherwise. The information sharing goes in both directions in Dells supply chain: Tier one suppliers are required to provide Dell with
38、 current information on their defect rates and production problems.,As a result, all members of the supply chain work together to reduce inventories, increase quality, and provide high value to the ultimate consumer.,Much of this cooperative work requires a high level of trust. To enhance this trust
39、 and develop a sense of community, Dell maintains bulletin boards as an open forum in which its supply chain members can share their experiences in dealing with Dell and with each other.,For Boeing, Dell, and other firms, the use of Internet and Web technologies in managing supply chains has yielded
40、 significantly increased process speed, reduced costs, and increased flexibility.,All of these attributes combine to allow a coordinated supply chain to produce products and services that better meet the needs of the ultimate consumer.,9.4 Materials-Tracking Technologies，EDI and Electronic Commerce,
41、Tracking materials as they move from one company to another and as they move within the company has always been a troublesome task.,Companies have been using optical scanners and bar codes for,many years to help track the movement of materials. In many industries, the integration of bar coding and E
42、DI has become prevalent.,These bar codes allow companies to scan materials as they are received and to track them as they move from the materials warehouse into production. Companies can use this bar-coded information along with information from their EDI systems to manage inventory flows and foreca
43、st materials needs across their supply chains.,In the second wave of electronic commerce, companies are integrating new types of tracking into their Internet-based materials-tracking systems. The most promising technology now being used is radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs), which are sm
44、all chips that use radio transmissions to track inventory.,RFID technology has existed for many years, but until recently, it required each RFID to have its own power supply (usually a battery).,The new development in RFID technology is the passive RFID tag, which can be made cheaply and in very sma
45、ll sizes. A passive RFID tag does not need a power source. It receives a radio signal from a nearby transmitter and extracts a tiny amount of power from that signal.,It uses the power it extracts to send a signal back to the transmitter. That signal includes information about the inventory item to w
46、hich the RFID tag has been affixed. RFID tags are small enough to be installed on the face of credit cards or sewn into clothing items.,In 2003, Wal-Mart began testing the use of RFID tags on its merchandise for inventory tracking and control. You can learn more about current developments in this te
47、chnology by visiting the RFID Journal online.,Because Internet technologies are tools that improve communications at a very low cost, they are ideal aids for enhancing the creation of a highly coordinated and effective supply chain.,A number of polls and studies confirm that most information technol
48、ogy and purchasing managers believe that information technology is helping to improve their firms relationships with suppliers and supply chain management initiatives.,Vocabulary,alliance / lains / n.结盟,联盟,联姻negotiate / niguieit / v.商议,谈判,交涉logistic / ludistik / n.物流;a. 后勤(学)的, upstream / pstri:m / ad 向上游,逆流地downstream / danstri:m / ad. 向下游地； a. 下游的Procurement / prkjumnt / n. 取得(征购,斡旋,促成),raw / r: / a. 生的warehousing / whauzi / n. 仓储role / rul / n. 角色Cooperative / kuprtiv / a. 合作的; n. 合作社coordinate / ku:dinit / n. 同等的人物, 同位格,计算机 坐标 a. 同等的,等位的 vt. 协调,整合,综合hierarchical / hair:kikl / a. 分层的,体系的,
