ISCOM 370 week 3 (750 words + matrix)

Forecasting and Constraint Study

ISCOM/370

Introduction

ICC is a company that manufactures connectivity and cable management items like faceplates and RJ45 connectors. They have been in business for over 20 years and have dominated the marketplace when it comes to connectivity and cable management items. A proposal will be submitted to the CEO of ICC in which will include two forecasting models and how various constraints-such as information technology affect the company’s supply chain. The proposal will also analyze the expected pros and cons against the company’s current operational performance to propose improvements to the existing supply chain and evaluate how each would affect the company’s supply chain performance in the proposal.

Proposal

Companies use forecasting to make predictions of the future that is based on past and present data and analyze trends. It is used in marketing, production, purchasing and financial planning. There are two types of forecasting models: quantitative, and qualitative. Quantitative is based on judgment and opinion. Some approaches include executive opinions, Delphi technique, salesforce polling, and consumer surveys. The qualitative is based on historical data and some approached include naïve methods, moving average, exponential smoothing, trend analysis and decomposition of time series (Putra, n.d). The market is constantly changing and the best type for ICC to use to forecast is by using the qualitative forecasting method. It is the best method because ICC has been in business for over 20 years and can use the historical data to help forecast. The decisions are made from executive opinions from sales, production, finance, and purchasing and are done quickly without the need for complicated statistics. ICC has been successful because of using historical data with trend analysis and will bring value to the company.

Various constraints can affect the supply chain because of limited capacity, technology, information technology, and capital. It can affect everything from the quality of your products to the speed of delivery to your customers. It would be beneficial to take advantage of technological developments (Chrisos, 2018). If a company has little capital or have limited capacity, they will not be able to have inventory to sell to their customers or have issues paying suppliers to produce your item. One of the complaints ICC used to get from the customers was how we were out of stock a lot and the lead times were long because it came from overseas. ICC moved to a bigger location 10 years ago and gained capital to where we rarely went out of stock on an item, or if we did the next shipment was coming in shortly.

The following improvements are recommended for the existing supply chain after the review of the Comparison Matrix. ICC should look for new suppliers with the latest technology, look for other forwarding companies, update or renew contracts with shipping vessels and look into a 3PL to ship the final product to the customer. These four improvements will have a large impact on the company’s supply chain performance. Changing vendors that use the latest technology can increase the quality of the product. There are other forwarding companies that use advanced technology to keep track and trace shipments from port to destination with real-time information. We currently only get when it sails and when it arrives at port and the information we get is always delayed. ICC has not renewed our contract with the current vessel, so we are being charged a higher rate and don’t get priority when it comes to booking. By renewing our contract, we will get better rates along with priority on booking. Current logistics is spending a lot of time quoting various trucking carriers daily to ensure we are getting the lowest rate. Moving to 3PL, we will save time and make fewer mistakes. The extra time can be used to concentrate on open claims with current trucking carriers.

Conclusion

There is always room for improvement, and with the following improvements, ICC will be very successful. In summary, ICC will change vendors that use the best technology along with changing forwarding company that uses real-time information for shipping and tracking containers. Vessel contracts will be renewed or updated along with moving to use a 3PL for logistics. With these improvements, the company will save time, money and ensure quality product with great customer service while making a profit.

References

Nordmeyer, B. (n.d). Examples of Forecasting Techniques. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com.

Putra, D. (n.d). Qualitative Forecasting Methods and Techniques. Retrieved from http://accounting-financial-tax.com

Chrisos, M. (2018). Future Impact of Technology on Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from https://www.techfunnel.com/information-technology/future-impact-of-technology-on-supply-chain-management/