Saturday, 19 of May of 2012

Tag » SCV

Visibility Year in Review 2009

More and more companies are becoming aware of the need for detailed metrics to track supply chain performance, according to a recent study done by the Georgia Southern University and the University of Tennessee on issues in transportation and logistics.

“What we’re starting to see,” says [Karl Manrodt, Associate Professor at Georgia Southern], “is senior management … trying to understand what those metrics are and should be.” The desire to monitor one’s own performance, so prevalent in school, never really goes away. At the same time, “it’s important for us to communicate what’s critical … to customers and suppliers. Let’s manage to that.”

Unfortunately many supply chain teams struggle to access data in multiple sources and formats and do not have access to the latest business intelligence tools. Implementing a Performance Management solution that integrates with your supply chain visibility and trade compliance processes can give companies the insight to make better-informed strategic decisions and improve supply chain performance.

Look for a Performance Management solution that offers several important capabilities:

  • A portal to schedule reports, alert users when new reports are available and to distribute polished deliverable documents.
  • A dashboard to provide a consolidated view of key performance indicators and reports along with extensive personalization options.
  • A complete set of  standard reports to manage key metrics such as cycle time, trading partner performance, landed cost, and data quality.
  • An ability for users also have the ability to create their own customized reports.
  • A web-based reporting tool to perform ad-hoc queries and multi-dimensional analyses with the ability to drill to operational details.
  • Easily customize reports by dragging and dropping data, inserting calculations, and adding graphs.

For more details on the study, please read this article on SupplyChainBrain (includes a link to a video interview).

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Applying Business Process Management to the Global Supply Chain

Today’s supply chain is much more complex than it was ten years ago given the monumental shift from domestic to global sourcing. Also with new regulations like Customs 10+2 that place accountability on the importer, there is a big push to control (or at least have visibility) to operations at origin. So , business process mapping today plays a key role to understand product flows, process hand-offs and informational triggers.

Some of the hot areas that I see with a specific application of BPM include:

* The order management process with contract manufacturers. BPM can be used to confirm POs with suppliers and automate the approve to ship process.

* The origin planning process with logistics providers to plan the inbound supply chain. BPM can coordinate factory loads and consolidation services as well as automating the routing guide and booking approval process.

* The Importer Security Filing process that can requires coordinated input from the Importer, Forwarder, Broker and Carrier.

* The shipment process where in-transit inventory is monitored. BPM can be used to alert on shipment status, escalate hot issues and coordinate hand-offs

* The entry process where a filing error has occurred. BPM can coordinate the resolution of an entry issue among the broker and import compliance team.

These processes can be tackled individually or linked to form an integrated inbound supply chain. Also, many companies have such a broad product portfolio that they effectively need to manage multiple supply chains, so the supply chain technology needs to be highly configurable

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