supply chain management

supply chain management
The primary purpose of this assessment is to facilitate students learning about supply chain management concepts, principles, theories, tools and models used in the analysis and development of a supply chain.

Context

Your expertise in operations and supply chain management has landed you a job at Apple Inc. Your manager is vice president of operations and has recruited you based on your knowledge, skills and extensive experience in management of concurrent product and supply chain development at TechCo.

Your manager is the sponsor of an executive training program for future senior program managers and he/she guides the development of the training program. Senior program managers are responsible for leading large cross-functional teams managing concurrent product and supply chain development programs for products such as iPads and iPhones.

Your manager has requested that you help him/her create a full day training session about the fundamental supply chain management aspects you applied in your previous role as manager for a special project at TechCo aimed at overcoming the supply chain management challenges at TechCo. The challenges are described in the case study: ‘Why Supply Chains Should be Involved in Product Design’. The case study is found on the course website.

The objective of the training is to ensure that these future senior program managers obtain a common knowledge base that enables them to lead Apple Inc’s supply chain operations towards an agile/responsive yet efficient supply chain operating at minimum cost. Assume that the company has selected an Assemble-To-Order (ATO) supply chain strategy and that your manager wants to drive that strategy to successful implementation.

Your manager has requested that you write a report to be used as part of the training material. The report must respond to the questions listed below.

Your task is to write a 3000 word report responding to your manager’s request.

The report must answer the following questions:

Identify and discuss the fundamental issues that the case highlights.
What are the challenges in concurrent product and supply chain design in regards to characteristics of the supply chain? What are the challenges in concurrent product and supply chain design in regards to key characteristics of the development chain?
What actions will you take at Apple to address the issues experienced at TechCo? Consider the configuration of the product design and supply processes.
How can design for logistics concepts be applied to control logistics costs and make the supply chain more agile/responsive and more efficient?
How can the postponement concept and repositioning of the push-pull boundary assist in developing the optimal Assemble-To-Order (ATO) strategy for each region of the world? In this context world regions refer to: North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Guidance and format details for report writing will be provided on the course website. Support your arguments with relevant citations from academic journals and practical examples. Feel free to discuss your ideas in the course discussion forum, before you complete and submit this assessment.
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Important: This is not the assessment 4 task description. This is advice only.

Please create a post about challenges you may have or suggestions for a response to an assessment question you want to discuss. I can then help you out with some guidance and advice. I can then add advice to this page as well.

Concurrent product and supply chain design

Major electronics manufacturers like Apple Inc. does apply concurrent product and supply chain design teams. These are teams or programs that are responsible for both development of one or more new products from idea to commercialisation and making sure that the supply chain operations from supplier to customer runs smoothly. Not all manufacturers see it that way or act accordingly. Chapter 11 in the course textbook and p. 338 to 339 describes this.

Basically there are three main course topics that the case relates to;

– Procurement and outsourcing strategies addressed in chapter 9.

– Coordinated product and supply chain design in chapter 11.

– Managing quality and risk in procurement and supply in chapter 9 and 10.

Assessment 4 – Question 1.

1. Identify and discuss the fundamental issues that the case highlights.

Check out the forum posts about this question or create a post yourself.

Assessment 4 – Question 2.

2. What are the challenges in concurrent product and supply chain design in regards to characteristics of the supply chain? What are the challenges in concurrent product and supply chain design in regards to key characteristics of the development chain?

Read section 11.1 in the course textbook. Be sure you notice the different characteristics of a supply chain and a development chain on p.3 to 4 and p.338-339 in your course textbook. The challenges in the development chain and supply chain are different and often come into conflict. Resolving this conflict is key to success.

Assessment 4 – Question 3

3. What actions will you take at Apple to address the issues experienced at TechCo? Consider the configuration of the product design and supply processes.

– Global Logistics and Risk Management is a good module/chapter to check out. They are really two topics, but executing global supply chains require good supply chain risk management. Your identification of chapter 10.2.4 is good regarding global supply chains smile but risk management is a good topic too.

– According to practitioners, academics and my personal experience ‘concurrent product and supply chain design’ is key. I.e. create products that fulfill customer needs as well as the supply chain operations. A company will fail if it does not address both. Check out the following short video discussing some of these issues – in particular the later part of it….

Assessment 4 – Question 5

5. How can the postponement concept and repositioning of the push-pull boundary assist in developing the optimal Assemble-To-Order (ATO) strategy for each region of the world? In this context world regions refer to: North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

There are really 2 parts to this question. First you will need to understand what the ‘push-pull boundary’ and ATO is.

a) The postponement concept described on p. 190-191 in section 6.2.3. and section 11.2.4 p.346 and can be utilised as part of an Assembly to Order (ATO) strategy.

Assemble-to-Order (ATO) refers to a supply chain strategy in which products are not assembled until customer orders arrive. It is based on the postponement concept: hold components at a generic form and to delay the point of product differentiation.

b) If you are working for Apple Inc. the products will have to be sold worldwide. So how can postponement and ATO strategies help?
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