Classmates Responses- Due in 3
budsimpson
Week6Discussion67.docxDiscussion 6
Marcus Brown
What is important to keep in mind with regard to maintenance factors when looking at supply chain management processes and systems? How does this differ in advanced supply chains?
Maintenance management is vital factor in the all of supply chain management processes and systems. Supervisors throughout the supply chain should understand and enforce the maintenance management process to minimize downtime of any equipment or systems that will affect the overall supply chain process. Crespo (2007), mentioned in a study that the maintenance management process is the course of action and the series of stages to follow in order effectively manage a maintenance program properly. The steps in the maintenance management process are the following: maintenance planning, maintenance scheduling, assess maintenance, and continuous improvement.
Maintenance planning is the first step in the maintenance management process. Crespo (2007), describes this step as a structured set of tasks that includes activities procedures, resources and the time scale required to carry out maintenance. Putting an effective maintenance plan together could determine the overall health of the supply chain. The second step is maintenance scheduling. This step has several factors that impact the final scheduling of a service to include: acquiring material/parts needed, tools required to perform services, and identifying external resources required to complete the task. Supervisors almost must determine the priority to allocate limited resources if this is the case. The next step in the process is the maintenance assessment. Now during this step there are several ways to assessment the effectiveness of a maintenance program. Crespo (2007), mentions that “assessment of preventive and corrective maintenance tasks can be performed either each time maintenance is done, on a periodic basis to review overall performance, or by type of equipment for a certain period. As a supervisor in the Army, I assess the overall performance over a periodic basis usually monthly to look at the trends and make adjustment as needed. The last step is the process is continuous improvement. As with any process, you should always look for ways to improve the process to be more efficient. In this case, effective communication and assessment of the maintenance program will assist in process improvement. During my assessments, I ask for feedback from my subordinates on ways to improve day-to-day operations and additional resources needed to improve going forward. Essentially, without proper implementation of an effective maintenance program, the supply chain management performance will effect product flow, information flow, and finance flow; ultimately impacting the supply chain negatively.
References
Crespo, M.A. (2007). The Maintenance Management Framework. Retrieved September 25, 2017, from http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781846288203
Kristopher
Maintenance is necessary in supply chain management; however, it can be minimal if the correct steps are taken to ensure optimum actions are taken to limit or coordinate when maintenance happens. Lean logistics can cause conflict with maintenance coordination, since having the repair part or necessary component can inhibit maintenance all together. That is where forecasting and record keeping can help project future issues and enable the warehouse to be optimally stocked with the general parts required, depending on equipment and fleet vehicles. Another way to bypass the warehousing of items, is through third-party contracting to conduct maintenance themselves. Although this costs more financially upfront, it could be beneficial when equipment fails and the third-party contractor maintains large quantities of specific parts required for your equipment. Additionally, by developing a contract with the maintenance company, you can protect your supply chain through equipment stagnant time limitations and possible receive exceptional service by utilizing subject matter experts that only perform maintenance duties.
Maintenance directly correlates to customer service, reliability, and functionality. By focusing on maintenance actions, you are accepting that all equipment has failure points and predicting them through data analyzation can reduce downtime and cut overall non-productivity costs. Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is the information system that records this data in an organization’s maintenance operations and provides businesses with more integrated maintenance forecasting (Albert). This forecasting enables more competent preventative and scheduled maintenance, all while developing forecast models that list predictive maintenance. But this CMMS all comes with additional costs since data retrieval, monitoring, consumption, storage, and analyzation all place stressors on systems. Furthermore, the monitoring and retrieval effects can become cumbersome and potentially interfere with productivity, which then are flawed in concept. This may also not ensure that defective processes are in function and may inhibit noticeable characteristics that would generally be discovered and analyzed correctly. Therefore, CMMS can become beneficial to operations in a supply chain if they are implemented correctly and effectively through close monitoring and preplacement research.
Advanced Supply Chains only cause the level of maintenance to become exaggerated and more important to operational success. This stems from the more sophisticated procedures to enable robust movements and warehousing of larger scale customer service to ensure reliability.
Sources:
Albert, Mark (April 2009). The Case for Integrated Control of Machining Operations,
Modern Machine Shop. Vol. 81 Issue 11, p28-30. Retrieved from EBSCOhost: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Simchi-Levi, D., Kalminski, P., Simchi-Levi, E., (2008). Designing and Managing the
Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies, and Case Studies
Discussion 7
Rusty
The first thing that I have found useful during these first few weeks of classes is really trying to push myself to think deep into logistics and think of those advanced techniques that separate simple supply chains from advanced supply chains. A lot of the questions and discussions have asked a question or needed a response to something that seemed fairly simple at first but then it ramped up the difficulty by asking how it is affected by advanced supply chain techniques or thinking. This has helped me not just take the first answer I come across to post my response or write my homework. I truly try to dig deep and try and think of how each decision in the supply chain has ripples of effects up and down that chain and all throughout the logistics network. I have broadened my scope beyond my normal military logistics mindset to think as a civilian or as a stakeholder in the efficiency and profit of that endeavor that is being supported by the supply chain. I have found this approach very useful in stretching my mind and thinking to learn more of supply chain management and to make me both a better decision maker when it comes to logistics as well as a better representative of the supply chain when my idea or decision must be seen and understood by those not in logistics or the supply chain both in the military and in the civilian sector.
Specifically I truly enjoyed and find incredibly useful the human factor of logistics and the study we did on it early in the semester. Every concept, decision, choice, nearly every movement, all data input, etc is handled by a human being at some point in time if not the entire time in the supply chain so that human factor cannot be overstated. I think too often in modern day technology and business decisions employers and organizations want to take the human out of everything and rely solely on computers and automation to get the job done. I think this is insane! Sure, utilize computers and automation to do calculating or make the same measured, precise movement repeatedly overtime but the decisions and the meat and potatoes of logistics should always have a human at the helm to make decision, especially decisions that may not always line up perfectly with computer generated models. It is, after all, the human factor that drives demand, computers don’t desire items nor do they often need things, but humans do. We must cater to the human caste and ensure that they remain in and an integral aspect of all supply chain business. It is the cognitive aspects of an organization, that that are qualitative and can only be done by a human that truly make or break an organization (Jurcevic, Ivakovic and Babic, n.d.).
The third item I would like to discuss that I found useful is the breakdown by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) of life-cycle analysis (LCCA). The thought of looking at LCCA and deciphering its code was daunting to me as I began this semester. However the five step process laid out by the DOT seems fairly simple to follow and something I will definitely utilize. Those five items are (1) establish alternative design strategies (2) determine activity timing (3) estimate agency costs (4) estimate user costs and (5) determine life-cycle cost (U.S. DOT, 2017). I can readily use this system in my current job and I imagine in nearly any logistics job I have in the future.
References:
Jurcevic, Marinko; Ivakovic, Morana and Babic, Darko (n.d.). The role of human factors in supply chains. Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences. Zagreb, Croatia.
U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration (2017). Improving transportation investment decisions through life-cycle cost analysis. Washington, D.C. Office of Asset Management
Richard
Two topics that have really struck me in the past few weeks are LCCA, or life cycle cost analysis, and reliability. While we have learned a several other topics since the beginning of class, I firmly believe that these are two topics that can stick with us throughout the rest of our careers.
Life cycle cost analysis could theoretically be used in not only our jobs/careers, but in some aspects of our daily lives. Life cycle cost analysis is an analysis tool or technique that enables us to identify the cost of a process, system, or even major purchases throughout the life of that item. LCCA helps us make decisions when we are stuck between two or more items. For example, in your daily job, as you grow in the ranks, LCCA can help you determine the best option between two design aspects for your company, all while saving costs and showing value to the shareholders. In our daily lives, you could potentially use LCCA as a technique when purchasing a home or deciding whether or not to install solar panels on your roof. In any event, LCCA can be useful when making big monetary decisions.
Reliability is a term that we all like to hear. Whether you hear it from auto manufacturers, or cellular networks, we all strive to purchase reliable products (one time use products may not have the same fate, however). In a supply chain, reliability is no different. Supply chains must be reliable. Otherwise, products that you want to buy may not be reliable and the retailer may have the product on the shelves at the time of purchase. In the event in which there are many subcontractors, those subcontractors must be held accountable for the reliability of their products by the prime contractor. If not, then unreliable products and services will then begin to trickle down to the consumer. In my opinion, I couldn't imagine a company that would not wish to achieve reliability. Poor reliability affects relationships with other supply chain professionals, cost and ultimately, you, the consumer.
Reference
U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration (2017). Improving transportation investment decisions through life-cycle cost analysis. Washington, D.C. Office of Asset Management.
Christopher
In my present position, I support the development of new acquisition programs that will enter into the military supply chain. Learning the processes which are found in an advanced supply chains will serve me well. Several topics which have been covered over the past weeks have a direct correlation with my current work efforts. One of the areas of emphasis is designing for reliability and maintainability. A number of the programs have been mandated to have a reliability requirement. The intent of designing for reliability is to design and develop a system that will meet the objective in an effective and efficient manner. Increasing the reliability of a system lessons the burden of the supply chain by reducing the burden of ordering, stocking, and shipping repair parts.
Another area that has been incredible useful are the discussions centering on Life Cycle Costs (LCC) and the economic factors which influence them. LCCs, although only being a forecast, is still one of the few options available to assess the impact of design, operation, and support decisions for the supply chain. (Jones, 2006) One of the most important ideas is the issue of addressing LCC early in the design, this allows greater influence during the process. (Blanchard, 2003) The identification of high cost contributors can result in cost saving benefits in times when resources are limited. The LCC data must be at the proper depth, must be timely, and must be manageable. To be useful, there must be a commitment to life cycle thinking from the top; the right type of date must be collected and available; and the person developing a LCC model must have access to all applicable areas of activity.
References:
Blanchard, B. (2004). Logistics Engineering and Management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle Ridge: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Department of Transportation. (2002). Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Primer. Retrieved from https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/lcca.cfm
