supply chain- BA Level 2400 words

Running Head: SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Supply Chain Operations Management

Student’s Name: Angeline Hibbert

As a report this needs to have subheadings for each of the sections; a good approach is to have similar sections to the assessment brief. Your work requires more in-text citations. This is good academic practice. Please note that a high product variety that needs customisation requires a strategy that is flexible, fast and responsive- take the hint.

A lean supply chain is an older method that greatly focusses on producing more and in a reduced cost. This therefore adds value for their customers and eliminates any wastage on valueless things. Its focus is on forecasting where they pre-plan years or months before production to reduce on cost especially where a large amount of goods is produced. Agile supply method on the other hand gives a high receptiveness to being flexible so as to adapt quickly to changing circumstances in the society. It handles market unpredictability by waiting to see how the market reacts, before they have finished with the production process therefore responding directly to product demand rather than depending on a forecast (Limm, n.d.). Company A is suited to both agile and lean supply strategies. It can be suited to the agile strategy because different customers have different tastes and preferences when it comes to product specifications. They may make more hinges and iron products which may end up not being bought by their customers. Rethink this argument. See my comment above. They may require customizing and they respond quickly to market changes and trends. Through the lean strategy, they can make the products earlier, taking into consideration the current trends in the market. This will enable them to serve customers who may require the products urgently. These are customers who may not have various specifications for the products and may take what is readily available in the market. It will also serve the inconsistent number of orders which they receive from their customers. For company B, they have to cut on inventory costs by reducing on what is produced because they have a consistent order size. To reduce accumulation of products, they should produce what their customer demands, rather than forecasting what their customers will demand but it ends up accumulating in the stores. Therefore, agile supply chain method will be better suited for company B.

Some organizations may prefer the lean method because it highly cuts on the cost of production and minimizes wastage of the already produced products. It is able to minimize wastage because it can eliminate outdated inventories and possibly reduce the operational costs involved I the production process. It also provides for a timely delivery of products to customers and at the place where they want them and hence, they are able to meet customer requirements without having to observe a strict time limit which leads to an improved customer relationship. The flow of the products from the manufacturers to the consumers is made continuous and this ensures that there is no wastage of operational space which leads to a better production efficiency. Predicting how the market will be helps in preparing the processes which will be involved in the processing stage and they are therefore able to avoid any errors which may occur in the future (Shpak, 2018). Despite its advantages, lean method also has shortcomings which may override the advantages. There may be equipment or labor failures because change may result to fear and stress leading to loss of the optimized advantage. Though it delivers products in the right quantity, sometime there may be an error in deliveries or missed deliveries which may be caused by traffic congestion in some areas. The implementation cost involved is very high because it involves purchasing of the required machinery, training employees on the use of these machines and employing managers who are familiar with the method. Is this not the case for any manufacturing strategy? Agile manufacturing may currently be the best considered method of production. This is because it focusses more on customer needs and product design and thus, it produces goods which take into consideration changing demands. The manufacturing companies are able to quickly respond to change since they retain some mass production features and remain flexible while still doing mass customization. There is a tendency to accept uncertainty faster which leads to them solving a problem faster since it gives priority to experimentation in order to clear the uncertainty before bringing a strategy to implementation. Please provide a source for this. It is not academically sound. Also, it can be operated with a low inventory in that they produce what is demanded, thus reducing on product spoilage or being outdated. The method also has various shortcomings like lack of predictability in its approach because only what is required to lead into the next level of business is executed. Greater success in any organization is achievable through beforehand advance planning. Lack of adoption to change is another shortcoming where the employees may lack the dedication towards giving the method priority in the organization and making it work. It may be difficult to measure difficulties since tracking of progress in the agile method is difficult because of unclear resource planning. Also, lack of formal personnel training on processes involved and tools may lead to overlooking problems and develop bad habits that may result into a blame game and result into a poor output since the goods are produced at a much faster pace and at times with little knowledge. Source?

In implementing lean method of production, the management should prepare their team for change by making them understand in details what lean production strategy is and the benefits which come with implementing it. They should understand the reason why you are implementing the method as well as the goals and objectives which they should meet by using the method. After this is understood, one should identify a pilot team who should be volunteers and start the change with them. From here, you choose a department with which you can start implementing the method, and keep progressing to another if you have successfully achieved the objectives. By doing this step by step, then you are able to finally transform the whole organization. In this section I am looking to see what techniques of lean are suited to the company according to the brief you were given; so 5S, Kanban system, JIT, etc- that’s what we are looking for. Once the organization is familiar with the concept, identify value-adding activities by involving the other team players in considering the end product that the customers get and pay for. Having identified value adding activities, identify the steps it will pass through before reaching the customers. Map each process involved and keep correcting it as you continuously implement the method. Create a flow of value on which tasks are carried out, how they are carried out noting the challenges which you may experience. After identifying challenges, you come up with a way of eliminating them so that there is a smooth delivery of the product since receiving the order to delivering the order. Having done this, establish a pull system where you process items which have a high priority as they are arranged in the queue. One identifies the time taken in production and the tasks finished in a given time. They should choose the shorter time taken with more production then continuously improve on the methods used to make production more effective. Implement a shared leadership model where every team player takes ownership for their tasks and has a responsibility of explaining what they did the previous day, the challenges they faced, how they plan to overcome the challenges as well as what they are going to execute. In implementing agile production strategy, they should first of all come up with a vision through calling for a strategy meeting with all the relevant personnel and stakeholders to come up with the vision and goals. Having developed the vision, they should come up with the requirements for the project and when they are going to be developed. One comes up with a goal-oriented roadmap where they identify the date to manufacture a certain product, its name, its goal, feature and metric and everyone should be informed. You only need either or. Which means you need to do one strategy for one company so you can get detail in. The product owner then should come up with the launching and release dates all the concerned employees and stakeholders should be involved in the meeting. They should then come up with short cycles in which certain goals and tasks will be carried out by the individuals. This is important since it enables the team to accurately plan on future activities. The cycle should not go for a long period. Within the short cycles, they should keep holding regular meetings which may take less time to discuss on the progress or any challenges which they are encountering. They then come up with a review plan where they establish that all the requirements were met and assessing any adjustments necessary at the end of the cycle. Finally, they should decide on what to focus on after the cycle is complete, the lesson learned in the cycle and the changes which they should make in the next cycle.

Spotify is a company that successfully implemented the agile strategy. The engineering team came up with rules and created their own rules in regards to their company culture. The first thing they did was to replace the terms scrum masters and teams as used in agile methodology with the terms agile coach and squads (Eriksson, 2015). Each individual had responsibility for what they did and had the freedom to decide what they were going to do and how. The squads were then allowed to work in an environment which encouraged team work and sharing of ideas during meetings. These squads were given a say in making and acting according to the laid down decisions and came up with a high alignment and autonomy where the different squads could agree on a common challenge and came up with the best solutions. The different squads were allowed to experiment with whichever agile method they wanted and when any squad identified a properly functioning system, the other squads had to implement it for a period of time. The employees showed great level of respect towards each other and praised each other for the accomplished achievements which maintained a positive atmosphere and they were constantly pushed towards improving the work processes and the environment. People in the squads were allowed to move into other squads with lesser inconvenience to other squad members. These squads formed a community which related closely with each other and the leaders took upon duties such as being coaches and mentors. Lastly, the organization had a belief that they should keep coming up with new versions of their product and so the squad was continuously working to add new features to the already existing product. From the implementation of agile supply chain, Spotify has around sixty million users worldwide and were able to expand to fifty eight different countries and at the same time, are able to compete favorably with the main competitors in the music industry. They were able to recruit talented people who were in turn involved in continuous product development. The Spotify team is highly motivated to bring new developments and they are always encouraged ton aim higher. They also were able to keep up with rising market trends and this enabled them to get more users. From the squads, Spotify is able to deliver a working and tested application where they continuously work on it to ensure that it is convenient to the user. Through working with the small squads, they realized how much productive these groups were and they therefore took advantage of each individual’s skills and ability to mentor others in the squads. This worked best since unnecessary competition was reduced and the squads became more cohesive. There is also a continuous planning which is carried out by the organization to ensure that the software application is successful and effective as well as having the appropriate data. Through the timely planning, they have been able to continuously test and deliver quality services which they are testing continuously so as it remains relevant to their customers.

Reference

Limm, M. (n.d.). The Difference Between Agile vs. Lean Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from: https://blog.procurify.com/2014/04/22/agile-lean-supply-chain-management/.

Wood, L.J. (26 September 2017). Disadvantages of Lean Manufacturing. Retrieved from: https://bizfluent.com/list-6025715-disadvantages-lean-manufacturing.html.

Shpak, S. (27 June 2018). Advantages & Disadvantages of Lean Production. Retrieved from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-amp-disadvantages-lean-production-46696.html

Gilley, C. (12 March 2015). The Pros and Cons of Agile Product Development. Retrieved from: https://community.uservoice.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-agile-product-development/

The Core 5 Principles for Implementing Lean. Retrieved from: https://kanbanize.com/lean-management/implementing-lean/

MacKay, J. (January 11 2018). The Ultimate Guide to Implementing Agile Project Management (and Scrum). Retrieved from: https://plan.io/blog/ultimate-guide-to-implementing-agile-project-management-and-scrum/

Eriksson, U. (31 March 2015). How Spotify does agile – A look at the Spotify engineering culture. Retrieved from: https://reqtest.com/agile-blog/how-spotify-does-agile-a-look-at-the-spotify-engineering-culture/