Discussion

433 discussion 1

prior to working on this discussion, read Chapter 8 in your textbook and all of this week’s assigned articles.

Chapter 8 introduces lean philosophies that focus on elimination of waste and the increase of logistics speed and flow, and the assigned articles (Beard & Butler, 2000; and Wiese, Luke, Heyns & Pisa, 2015) examine adaptation of the JIT inventory management system by different manufacturers and the relationship among green, lean, and global supply chain strategies. One noteworthy example is Apple Inc., which utilizes a JIT approach locally while still sourcing globally, saving millions in inventory expense. In your initial post, provide a specific example of a company that implemented the JIT approach as one of their lean inventory practices. You can select a company from your own research (using credible resources) or choose one from the assigned readings.

Select from the following list two specific ways the JIT approach helped your chosen company improve their global competitiveness and supply chain efficiency:

· Reduced inventory levels

· Shortened production runs or lead times

· Minimized waiting lines

· Improved quality of inbound materials

· Improved supplier relationships

· Any other consequences of JIT adaptation

Explain your two selections by analyzing the changes the company implemented and how (or how not) the lean philosophy was beneficial for the company in those specific areas. As indicated, you can use an example of a company where the lean philosophy did not work for them and analyze what went wrong, which assumptions they made that were faulty, and what they can do to correct the situation. Your initial post must be a minimum of 200 to 250 words.

Interactive Assignement

Prior to beginning work on this interactive assignment, read the assigned chapters in your textbook and all assigned articles for this week.

Research shows that in the year 2015 alone, 40% of supply chain managers have experienced some sort of supply chain disruption due to operational, industrial, technological, and inventory management issues. Using your own experience in the workplace and/or information presented in the assigned readings, select a company that experienced a supply chain disruption that negatively affected the company’s operations in recent years.

In your post, identify the company you chose, explain what they do, and describe the disruption they experienced in their supply chain and the negative effects it had on the company’s overall business performance. Your post must be a minimum of 250 words.

Now imagine you are a logistics manager at your selected company and you have just received an email from the CEO asking you to come to his office first thing in the morning and give a one-minute pitch on what went wrong and how you would solve the problem(s). Your one-minute pitch to the CEO must include the following:

· State the problem/disruption that occurred.

· Explain how the problem/disruption affected the company’s operations.

· Describe the cause(s) of the problem.

· Explain how the company can fix the problem by applying logistics principles to strengthen the organization’s competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

· Describe how the problem/disruption can be prevented from reoccurring in the future.

Write a script of your pitch, and practice delivering it to ensure it is no longer than one-minute in duration. Once you think you have it right, use your smart phone, any free online recording service, or app, and make a recording of yourself delivering your pitch to the CEO so you can hear how it sounds. When you are satisfied with your recorded pitch, upload the saved audio file to the discussion forum.

If you don’t have a smart phone with a voice recording function, there are plenty of free voice recording apps or software available online, such as Voki (Links to an external site.) and the iTalk Recorder app.

Response to classmate 125 words

Greetings All,

My topic will be based on Walmart company, how Covid-19 significantly affected customers coming to the store to do business daily.

The problem is that customers are not allowed to come to the store, and it has caused us to change our daily routine of doing business with the shoppers. Now that no one can show up for work due to the risk of getting sick, we have to devise a game plan to keep our business going since we have come into a world pandemic with the Covid 19. With the pandemic, we have to give cause to the reason we have to keep the store up and going since the state only allows essential workers to be out of their homes. Walmart is suffering from orders not arriving in a timely fashion because this pandemic is affecting all companies across the world. The plan is to operate through the internet and set up an online shopping to where the customers order all grocery items online and drive to the designated parking spots and have a sales representative come to the trunk of the car and drop off items; people can still get whatever they need to return home without making contact with the customer and not risking getting sick. Once the pandemic is over, we can still offer this service to the people on edge about being around other people inside the store. The drive-up park-and-go service can stay in effect for everyone who chooses to use this service.

 

433 FINAL PAPER