How To Solve Supply Chain Related Issues

By: David Gass

Businesses whose operations rely on supply chains have to manage inventories of a large variety of assorted items. Traditional systems of inventory management lead to many inefficiencies. Adapting newer technology can largely eliminate these. To this end, many companies are exploring silent commerce or exploiting the benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags combined with wireless communication and sensors.

Advantages of Using RFID Tags
RFID is a technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. An RFID tag or transponder is a microchip attached to an antenna. It stores a serial number that identifies a person or object. The RFID is the size of a grain of sand and sends out an electronic signal when it is near a sensor. Production costs have been significantly lowered and RFID tags are now finding a host of applications in industry. Their use in lowering costs in the supply chain is of particular significance. Typical applications include the following.

• Items with RFID tags reaching a warehouse will not have to be registered manually. The information lodged on the tag is read automatically and entered into the inventory database.
• Physical counting and sorting is eliminated. Damaged items or those nearing expiration will be automatically identified.
• Packing instructions will be displayed automatically on a reader for the warehouse staff to act upon.
• Costs can be cut down substantially as many clerical functions and labor intensive processes are eliminated.
• Greater warehouse efficiencies are possible due to greater accuracy in order fill rates, faster inventory turnover, and increased customer satisfaction.
• It is easy to track lost or misplaced products, thus enhancing security.
• Availability of reliable data makes it possible to do demand forecasting and replenishment applications with greater accuracy.

Data Management Issues
Implementation of silent commerce and associated analytic capabilities raises data management issues that companies must address. Below is a list of the issues

Standards: The Auto-ID Center, an organization comprising more than 90 manufacturers and companies is doing work on Electronic Product Identification Codes (EPC) that will replace the existing Universal Product Code (UPC). This will enable companies to track products on a real-time basis along the entire supply chain globally.

Data Sharing: Organizations are presently in the initial stage of using RFID tags in their supply chain systems. Most implementations exist in closed system environments. As the systems proliferate and companies realize the advantages of cost saving even in closed systems, they will increasingly be convinced about sharing data with trading partners.

Privacy: Having a chip in various products creates unforeseen privacy issues that have to be addressed. Theoretically, anyone with a scanner will be able to locate any product. There are ways to overcome this, but it does highlight the serious nature of the problem.

Modern technology offers many ways to bring about operational efficiencies in a company's processes and systems. Using RFID tags can bring about substantial cost savings in an enterprise's logistics systems. Firms planning to use silent commerce can think of starting a pilot business to business project before implementing the technology on a global scale.

Six Sigma Certification – Benefits for your Business and Supply Chain

No matter what, your business and supply chain will benefit from Six Sigma certification.

Six Sigma Certification - Will It Really Benefit Your Organization?

The success of Six Sigma certification and implementation depends on many factors. It requires nothing less than a relentless effort and dedication to see that it succeeds. Although specific procedures may be in place, an equal responsibility lies on upper management to dedicate 100% of their time and resources to this mammoth task. The top and bottom ends of your business, and all those in between, need to come together with single minded contributions to make Six Sigma certification and implementation successful.

Benefits To Your Business and your Supply Chain

Six Sigma certification benefits are both tangible and intangible. Intangible benefits can be in the form of customer loyalty that will follow the life of your business. Below we examine some of the benefits of Six Sigma certification.

1. Increase In Your Bottom Line: Six Sigma certification results in improved processes, better utilization of resources like finances, time and materials and reduction in the cost of production. On the customer side, there is higher satisfaction with products/services. This improves your bottom line substantially.

2. Six Sigma Certification Increases Shareholder Value: Fundamentally, this results from increased revenues, but in addition to this, there is increased customer loyalty and confidence that raises the stock values as well as the value to shareholders (to whom you are responsible).

3. Total Customer Satisfaction: Customers get more than what they asked for on the product/service side, at a lower price or higher value.

4. Decreased Employee Attrition: Six Sigma training boosts employee morale due to a reduced workload. Six Sigma certified employees realize the positive returns of quality work, which keeps them motivated. This reduces employee turnover and burnout.

5. Six Sigma Certification Creates A Win-Win Situation For The Supply Chain: In converting supplier-customer relationships to long-term partnerships, both parties win. Six Sigma training and certification accelerates this process with its focus on quality; prices come down and both the product quality and life cycle time improve.

XACTIO the feature rich Supply Chain Portal has now been released for demonstration.  

Aimed at managing supply chains it has a number of features to help you including Non Conformance Reports (NCR’s) Supplier performance including user friendly graphs to see at a glance which suppliers are failing to keep.

Supply chains have a wide application into many industries including Aerospace, Food and Automotive just to name a few.

Why should you have a Supply Chain Portal? Without constant monitoring of your suppliers you will not be able to discover where problems are arising.  XACTIO helps you monitor a suppliers QCD & R Performance rating and even allows you the ability to not vendor rate a supplier at all if you choose to do so!