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A reflective essay is a type of paper that showcases your individuality, actions, and impacts on what you have learned, read and researched throughout the time period required. In the end, by reading your reflective essay, the audience finds out details about what you learned from the material you interacted with. As opposed to different types of papers you may have written in the past, a reflective essay is not based on certainties or examinations. Instead, it focuses on your personality and how it fit with the information within the lessons. It does not focus on any one traits, theory or lesson, it briefly discusses all that was learned.

For this assignment you will type your answer directly into the text box needs to be at least 500 words in length. Your reflection paper covers the first four weeks of class, so you have all the lessons, assigned readings, textbook and then any research that you did. You will still need to have in-text citations and reference page.

Please see all 4 weekly reading lessons below:

WEEK 1:

Supply Chain Maturity

A research study by the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation and PricewaterhouseCoopers titled “Supply Chain and Risk Management” identifies and explores the four levels of supply chain maturity:

Level 1: Reactive supply chain management

•Low degree of integration and little coordination between suppliers and partners

•Minimal coordination between product design and supplier operations

•Little visibility into source of supply chain risk

•Unbalanced inventory leading to poor customer service

Level 2: Internal supply chain integration with planned buffers

•Align performance objectives and information across internal departments

•Some visibility into emerging changes and patterns outside of the company

•Changing demand patterns influence product design

•Integration of internal risk management processes

Level 3: Collaboration across extended supply chain network

•Extensive data and information sharing produces high visibility

•Integration of product design and inventory management across all supply chain partners

•Visibility outside of the organization is exploited to predict change and variability

•Monitor supply chain resilience levels and business continuity plan preparation

Week 2:

Innovation and Process Management

 

According to Daniel Flint (2007) “when discussing what it means to be innovative, and why should we care? To many, the term "innovation" connotes a dramatically new technology that may even mean a dramatically new technological product that improves our living condition, making us more productive or efficient” (Flint, 2007, n. p.). Technically though, innovations span a range from incremental to radical and can apply to products, services, and processes -- in addition to technology -- and can emerge within virtually any discipline, including those seen as the realm of art and creativity. When it comes to supply chain innovation, we generally mean improvements in the way that supply chains operate, and more specifically, in the way that products, information, work, and funds flow (and are temporarily stored) throughout supply chains (Flint, 2007, n. p.).

 

So why should we care about supply chain innovations? In a search for competitive differential advantage, many managers of world-class organizations around the globe have come to realize that differentiating on processes is more sustainable than differentiating on products, even if product differentiation still exists. Product differentiation is more fleeting than process differentiation because products are easier to see and reverse engineer (Flint, 2007, n. p.).

 

Supply chain management processes, those that span multiple organizations and focus significantly on the flow of goods, information, and funds can be quite complex, requiring intra- and inter-organizational coordination and collaboration. But resources applied here often create significant cost savings or improved customer service through product availability measures. Both cost savings and improved service levels can be leveraged in the marketplace. For example, Caterpillar (CAT), a global industrial equipment manufacturer and supplier, has been successfully differentiating in part on service parts availability, holding to turnaround standards internationally that exceed most competitors. This serves as a differentiator because service part turnaround time affects customers' equipment downtime, a very important metric for developers, contractors, and mines. This gives CAT a competitive advantage in the marketplace (Flint, 2007, n. p.).

 

Developing dramatically improved processes such as parts availability without simply adding more inventory to the system requires a bit of innovation. And this kind of supply chain innovation can be seen internationally across industries. FedEx created an entirely new market simply through the creation of a radically new logistics service for which customers were willing to pay. Similarly, Wal-Mart, Ikea, the Walt Disney Co., UPS and many other similar firms are often highlighted for their own version of supply chain management mastery and innovation (Flint, 2007, n. p.).

 

What is interesting is not simply the innovations themselves, whether supply chain or product in nature, but the processes that lead to such innovations. Despite extensive research into new product development processes, the place where product and technology innovations take form for the marketplace, new service development and in particular supply chain process development research is relatively new. Some research we have been conducting however is showing that supply chain innovations can emerge from a customer-focused process aimed at uncovering clues to changes in the marketplace that might be addressed by supply chain management innovations and valued by customers (Flint, 2007, n. p.).

Week 3:

What is Strategic Sourcing?

Definition: A systematic and fact-based approach for optimizing an organization's supply base and improving the overall value proposition (University of Michigan Transportation Services, n. d.).

What it is?      

- Focused on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) incorporating customer needs, organizational goals, and market conditions.

- Getting the best product/service at the best value.

- Driven by a rigorous and collaborative approach.

- Addresses all levers for savings.

- Decisions based on fact analysis and market intelligence.

- A continuous process

 What it is not?

- Focused ONLY on cost.

- Getting the cheapest product/service,

- Ad-hoc activities involving only purchasing.

- Focused on “beating up suppliers”.

- Decisions on opinion preference based opinion, unjustified preference, or complacency.

- A one-time project or decision (University of Michigan Transportation Services, n. d.).

What is Strategic Sourcing? (Continued)

The last topic of discussion is collaboration, which needs to be done between companies—joint initiatives that go beyond their normal course of day-to-day business, with the aim of delivering significant improvement over the long term—is particularly attractive for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector.  According to Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan (n. d.) “the supply chain collaboration has delivered some real value for participants, but overall, these initiatives are more likely to fail than to succeed. If companies can't make collaborations work, they will not only fail to achieve the potential benefits that supply chain collaboration can provide, but they will also risk destroying the enthusiasm for further attempts, both inside their own organizations and with their trading partners” (n. p.). There are some companies, for example, either see their upper management as not supporting collaboration or see them as having a lack of commitment needed to drive the collaboration train or their message to the actions officers is misunderstand as it is passed down through the organization, with the result that mid-managers and/or action officers don't seem to have the same enthusiasm and commitment (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d.).  For collaboration to work, all the players involved need to know the difference and how to handle those within the in companies design and culture. Depending upon how well the company has collaborated in the past will have a lot to do with how willing they are to share and partner with one another in the future (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d.).

According to article titled “Six Steps to Successful Supply Chain Collaboration" by Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan (n. d.) there are six basic steps that will assist companies in effective collaboration.

1. Collaborate in areas where you have a solid footing. Companies are often tempted to use collaboration as a way to fill gaps in their own capabilities. In practice, the most successful collaborations build on strengths rather than compensating for weaknesses. A company seeking to collaborate with a major retailer to improve its own forecasting performance, for example, might have little to gain from access to the retailer's point-of-sale data unless it has the in-house analytical capability to make effective use of that data. Similarly, there is little point in entering collaborations to boost sales if any increase in demand is likely to run into manufacturing-capacity constraints (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d.).  Ensure you know what you need to use prior to starting your collaboration efforts so that you are not on the losing side of the collaboration effort.

2. Turn win-lose situations into win-win situations with the right benefit-sharing model. Some collaborations promise equal parts for all or very close to equal parts both parties. A good example might be, a manufacturer and a retailer collaborate to optimize product mix, and both could expect to benefit from the resulting increase in sales. On the hand, however, the collaboration might create as much value overall but the benefit could fall more to one partner than to the other. Another more realistic example is when a retailer and a manufacturer were able to reduce overall logistics costs between factory and store by cutting out the manufacturer's distribution centers and treating the retailer's distribution network as one integrated supply chain, from manufacturing plant to store shelf. However, the retailer's supply chain executives struggled to gain acceptance for the idea from their leadership because it resulted in the retailer carrying a far larger fraction of the logistics cost (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d.).

3. Select partners based on capability, strategic goals, and value potential. If only we could always choose our potential partners to collaborate with on any given project might make half are battle much easier.  But we all know that is not the case, many times we have to collaborate with the biggest suppliers or customers we have because they are going to give us the greatest value for the work that is involved.  But as luck would have it, we do not get that options, we usually get involved with a smaller partner, which may very well take up the same, if not more time, but the greatest value for our effort is not that big, just something we have to do (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d.).  A more effective way of getting after collaboration and the right mix of large and small companies/suppliers is to look at three different areas. One is the area of what the potential value with the partner might be in comparison to the work effort needed.  With this both partners need to ensure they are upfront and able to deliver the biggest bang for our collaborative buck.  Next, is that both partners need to know the strategic interest in order to support the collaboration interest on their collective side.  Lastly, do both partner have to correct infrastructure and processes in place to provide a basis for the collaboration? “Collaborating to improve forecasting and demand planning is likely to be frustrating if one partner's existing planning processes, systems, or performance are inadequate” (Benavida, DeEskinazis, and Swan, n. d., n. p.).

Week 4:

Traits of Supply Chain Excellence

The most effective supply chain management have consistent traits that will set the apart of all others.  According to TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE (n. d.) some of those include, but are not limited too-

 • Strategy is the first step of any effective management plan, whether it be for logistics or manufacturing. When looking at businesses who have very effective supply chains them most often have a very solid strategy plan in place that the business build upon while moving ahead. This plan will drive the planning, designing milestones and most all other steps with the development and implementation of the plan going forward. You must have a direction to what you are doing to deal in the global business environment. The best have a supply chain management strategy that enables them to plan the tactical operations and to prioritize suppliers, customers and products. Strategy sets the platform for supply chain execution. Supply chain leaders understand that supply chain management is a process that crosses their company and extends beyond the company. They know SCM is about the flow of products and information and that the supply chain stretches from suppliers through to store shelves or to customer warehouses. The supply chain strategy reflects their present position in the market and with supply chain management and what must be done to align with and drive the company strategy. If the company's strategy means a significant shift as to market, products or customers, then the supply chain must change. There is no such thing as "one" supply chain management approach and one-size supply chain does not fit all.  The strategy is long-term, recognizes globalization, and has a growth focus. They also understand how dynamic the strategy must be. They know there is often resistance to change that can happen within companies. That means the supply chain strategy must be a facilitator of change, be agile and able to recognize, incorporate and adapt to drive toward the changes required (TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE, n. d.).

 • Metrics do matter and need to be sure you have the correct measures in place.  They know how well their supply chain is or is not performing because they have key performance indicators to tell them. Financial measures are poor ways to evaluate, direct and manage supply chains. For overall evaluation, good supply chain executives look at select metrics, such as the perfect order, for both customers and for suppliers. Namely it is an order that is delivered complete, on time and accurate. They also focus on a key enemy of all business-time. International sourcing has created opportunities for lower-cost products. However it has also created challenges as to lead-times, reliability and resultant impact on inventory levels, potential out of stock conditions and logistics costs (TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE, n. d.).

 • Lean or going lean, is similar to going green. We all know that lean supply chain management is more than warehouses and transport topics, they have a total supply chain package.  Within this package it focuses on both domestic and international to ensure your company is competitive throughout the globe. They stay focused on adding value as defined by customer, using the pull which complements SCM, keeping a customer focus, and removing the waste of inventory and time (TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE, n. d.).

 • Technology is considered a process enabler, which without a strong process enabler, many of the much needed benefits of technology are lost or lessened. We all know for a company within a logistics field to make it, national and/or globally we need to have technology that is vital for supply chain execution to provide event management, exception management, complete supply chain visibility from purchase orders to delivery orders, and not just in warehouses or where a truck or container is. (TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE, n. d.).

 • Supplier performance understands the total supply chain process and know that its success is dependent upon supplier performance. So, if the supplier’s performance is not that great or it is very good, it will have a negative or positive impact on the revenue, inventory and profitability. Companies and their supply chains must control suppliers, and not let suppliers control their business (TRAITS OF SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE-OR HAVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN YOU DESIGNED AND DESERVE, n. d.).