Supply Chain Strategies

Businesses are confronted with a variety of leading edge supply chain strategies ,such as :

VMI (Vendor-Managed Inventory) lets the vendor manage replenishment for a company

BTO (Build-to-order) or ATO (Assemble-to-order) present ways to organize production and order fulfillment process from Push to Pull. These 'demand-pull' supply chains anticipate and respond to changes in real time. The internet enables new velocities of execution, helping firms to be instantly responsive to the changing demands of their customers.

Mass customization aims at building products and

services tailored for the unique needs of the customers

Information Integration covers three dimensions – sharing information and knowledge, coordinating roles and establishing organizational linkages across a supply chain

Postponement is a concept about delaying the point of product differentiation at a later point in a supply chain

4PL (Fourth Party Logistics) extends the traditional third-party logistics concepts to include the planning and management functions provided by a third party

Electronic Procurement, APO (Advanced Planning Optimization) and Demand Chain Optimization introduce scientific optimization techniques to plan production and distribution

CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) advocates collaborative efforts between a supplier and a customer to plan replenishment

Electronic supply chain or E-business supply chain, a more recent concept, leverages the Internet to collaborate, exchange critical information and execute key functions like procurement, order fulfillment, logistics and invoicing. There are three types of Nets that are used to support e-supply chain. There are various types of information highways used to connect different parts of the supply chain, which support the processes within the chain.

An INTRANET is the internal net used within the boundaries of the company and many companies are linking their ERP systems; however, much of the data is considered sensitive and as such Intranets are protected from outside access by a 'firewall' The second system is the EXTRANET connecting participating companies – either customers or suppliers. Here a customer could have access to the ERP system on his order status, while the supplier could access the inventory data to support automatic replenishment process.  The third system is the INTERNET, which is the open to the general public where the company could give publicity of their products/services offered and accept orders from customers, on line. However, in this case there is no security of the data or

information provided on the net. As such, intranet is a private net; extranet is a shared net, while internet is public. RFID Technology: A common method of identifying objects using Radio Frequency Identification or RFID, is to store a serial number that identifies a product and perhaps other information, on a microchip, which is attached to an antenna. The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a reader. The reader converts the radio waves returned from the RFID tag into a form that is computer-readable. Tags can typically store a unique 64-bit identifier, which are about 300 words of description. The reader sends out electromagnetic waves that form a magnetic field when they 'couple' within the antenna on the RFID tag. The agile Manager will embrace all the concepts to arrive at the optimal strategic mix. Successful companies understand that the ideal supply chain strategy is dependent on not one but a variety of factors.