A supply chain represents the core standard of the performance. A well-built supply chain supports expansion, drives customer experience and reduces operational costs. It considers order processing, outbound schedules, receiving procedures and reverse logistics. It focuses on the outcomes and external standards. The supply chain management is basically the process of managing the flow of products from point of origin to the final consumption by the consumers. This process comprises the marketing, transportation and warehousing channels. It plays a significant role in the sustainability and the risk management of the process. The supply chain management process helps in gaining competitive advantage to the company. it comprises the efforts made by the suppliers in developing and maintaining supply chain to be effective and economical. The supply chain regulates and manages the production, shipment and the distribution of the products. The effective supply chain cuts the unnecessary cost and delivers the products to the customers in a rapid and effective way. This paper has opposed the issues faced by the Bosch in its supply chain. A framework is also used to regulate a suitable supply chain for the company. A suitable plan is also suggested for the supply chain. The financial impacts are also considered of the supply chain and the financial performance is measured. The inventory control policies have represented effectiveness for the stock items.
Bosch faces supply chain issues on the regular basis. It affects the productivity of the company. In command to have a strong and productive supply chain, the company needs to have visibility with the suppliers. The production problems hinder a company to complete the accomplished targets. The implementation of the new technology on the regular basis has become a task for Bosch. It has put an influence on the capability layout and on the precision of the inventory. As a result, it affects the services provided to the customers (Tatoglu, Bayraktar, Golgeci, Koh, Demirbag & Zaim, 2016). The customers desired to get full limpidity regarding the evidence about the distribution of goods acquired by them. Due to the enhanced expectations of the customers, they are less desire to pay for the shipping charges. On the other side, Bosch faces issues regarding fuel costs. It is one of the severe issues faced by the company and it affects the distribution and transportation of the products in the global context. The high costs of the fuel are prospective to upsurge the transportation costs. The rise in the fuel prices causes mounting surcharges and is added to the rates of the freight. It affects and reduces revenue and earnings of the Bosch. One more issue is also confronted by the Bosch regarding the rise in inflation which is faced due to the high fuel prices. The company is also compelled by the declining demand and the increased agreements along with the increase in the key cost centers (Prajogo, Oke & Olhager, 2016).
Another issue faced in the supply chain of Bosch is unattainability of the skilled labor. The problem is faced not only in hiring but in retaining laborers as well. The company has to comply with the regulations imposed by the federal, state and local governments. The employees of the company are also not resistant to updated technology. The average employees of the company are aged 50 are not those resistant to learn new technology (Rushton, Croucher & Baker, 2014). The new talent is more capable of learning technology and initiates towards innovations. The environmental issues have been also confronted by the company regarding the anti-idling and other emissions being imposed by both state and local government.
The quality and compliance are other issues which affect the supply chain of the Bosch. Every time the company needs to ensure that it meets international and local standards about manufacturing, packaging, handling, and shipping of the products. The issue concerning the passing of quality control and safety tests bothers the supply chain. The company is required to always keep ready the compliance documents like certification, licenses and documents so that it can save itself from the unnecessary fines and penalties (Sindi & Roe, 2017). On the other side, the company is also required to comply with regulations and certifications in order to manage its suppliers. The supply chain managers are liable for knowing the required number of suppliers along with the handling of delays (Hugos, 2018).
In order to design an optimal supply chain, the lean manufacturing supply can be implemented in the supply chain framework of the Bosch. It is helpful in reducing wastage and resources and maintains the operational presentation of the supply chain. The reduced number of defects in the manufacturing process causes to increase in the efficiency and reduction of waste. The great quality leads to more satisfaction and reduces the number of returns. As a result, fewer resources are needed for returns and issues concerning quality. The lean supply chain comprises warehousing, conveyance, and the supply. The warehousing in the lean supply chain management applies to have a hygienic and systematized warehouse. It supports in augmenting operations, the effectiveness of the preparation and reassurance in communication. A warehouse should be sufficient enough to dash and tackle the issues quickly so that the origin sources can be addressed and their repetition can be prohibited (Touboulic & Walker, 2015). Whenever some part is stock out then the replacement can be done appropriately and rapidly. For instance, if any leakage is the lift equipment hydraulic fluid then the warehouse should identify and fix it as soon as possible with the help of 5S policy. Out of 5S, first S is sort. The warehouse managers of Bosch can species warehouse with the association of the kind of objects that is a record of the order cycle. An engineer in the supply chain can be appointed for supervising the warehouse operations linked with the strategies approved by the Bosch to encounter its objectives. Once the proper criterion is recognized, it is critical to certify that there is space for every part of the motor in the warehouse. The stock in the delivery centre should be kept with the intention for a business deal (Wang, Gunasekaran, Ngai & Papadopoulos, 2016).
The second element out of 5S is Set. It is also inferred as rationalize or straightens. As per this element, the warehouse is settled as per the picking process. The third element is Shine which is allied with the hygiene. The functions at warehouse suffer when they are generally messy and seem disorderly. The clean warehouse offers free space and enhances the productivity and profitability of the company. It also minimizes the breakdown of equipment and promotes the safety of the warehouse. The fourth element is identified as Standardize. It concerns setting standard labels in a lean warehouse. The labels should contain all the required information of any vessel or product. The fifth element is sustainability and it defines the success of any organization. According to this, the practices should be kept systematically and updated (Hazen, Boone, Ezell & Jones-Farmer, 2014). An effective process is required to be implemented in order to be a successful warehouse. There should be a transparent method of measuring every transaction taking place in the warehouse. The warehouse of the company is required to prioritize the constant enhancements in the processes.
The lean supply chain context can also include lean conveyance practices. It concerns to the suitable place, time, quantity, price, resources, and services. The conveyance practice is required to be customer-centric and must add worth to the customers. The transportation strategy should be fully understood and fulfill the expectations of the customers (Fernie & Sparks, 2014). On the other side, the distribution strategy should relate to numerous components and customer’s satisfaction is one of them. It is a critical task to understand the need of the customers for the lean supply chain of the Bosch. Identifying the petition of the customers leads to identifying preferences of the customers in the nation. Therefore it is required to enhance the accuracy of the forecast plans and the quality of the service (Gurtu, Searcy & Jaber, 2015). This strategy enables distributors and decision makers to articulate effective replacement strategies, control mechanisms and distribution network structures. It is necessary to manage the demand of the customers in order to enhance their value and services of the Bosch.
It is critical to classify the capable partners and strategic alliance agreements at the time of the implementation of the supply chain plan. The type of partners can be identified by their contribution in the supply chain activities and by determining the number of supply chain partners such as suppliers, warehouse managers, and logistics companies. In the supply chain design, the partners can be characterized into 2 parts main partners and the subordinate partners. The main partners are the part of planned business units and complete the operative activities for generating motors for the customers in the local nation. On the other side, the subordinate partners are the companies that propose resources like software, assets, utility, real estate property and information regarding the supply chain. The supportive partners of the Bosch are consulting firms, IT service providers, conveyance movers, logistic outsource companies and online brokers (Wang & Cullinane, 2015). The implementation plan of the supply chain is required to include the drivers which initiate the supply chain. The drivers include the instituting of the common goals which are acute for the success of the strategic alliances. Hence establishing goals is a significant step in the supply chain partnership. The supply chain partners are needed to figure out the major dynamic forces behind the supply chain associations in order to attain common goals. These driving forces comprise a monetary value, transaction’s information, customer service inventiveness along with the different risk elements.
The consumer service enterprises relate to the contentment of the customers depending on the accessibility of the products and the retort judgments. The retort time is the critical pointer of the tractability of the supply chain. It can encompass rime to market and on time distribution. The other significant factor is a fiscal value which can be described as the proportion of income to total cost. A supply chain can augment its fiscal value by fast-tracking its sales income, the efficiency of labor and market share. It should make efforts to reduce its imperfections, expenses, and severance in the products (Fahimnia, Sarkis & Davarzani, 2015).
The monetary value can be considered by the exploitation of the assets. The utilization of the assets can be estimated by the factors like inventory turnover, net asset turnover, and cube utilization. The components other than these return on investment (ROI) and cost behavior. Some other factors pertaining are information transactions and risk elements. The information transactions generally include real-time communication and technology transfers. The risk components contain risk quality failures and information failures (Wang, Wallace, Shen & Choi, 2015).
The lean supply chain practices are the set of practices which eliminates waste from the system. It ensures that everyone in the organization is associated to reach the maximum. These practices are linked with the upstream and downstream flow of activities linked to product amenities, evidence and finances aiming to reduce cost and waste in an efficient manner (Yu, Wang, Zhong & Huang, 2016). The primary elements contain only mandatory inventories as essential and have just in time inventory. It reduces the lead skills thus reviewing operations and completing activities at lowest costs. The lean supply chain is basically a philosophy founded on the deliberate removal of waste and constant enhancement in the productivity. It turns around the aspects of the reduction of cost and waste. The implementation of the supply chain strategies leads to the success of the company by reacting to the needs of the customers. It also aims to reduce costs and improvement in business procedures (Cosimato & Troisi, 2015).
The lean practices are effective in gaining flexibility, providing better services, cost reduction, quality, and innovations. The 5 principles of lean thinking are helpful to the company in gaining financial benefit in various ways. The numbers of the customers can be enhanced by considering their perceptions. The value can also be enhanced by removing the activities which do not add value to the organization. The measurements set for the value can be identified and mapped by the application of the lean supply chain. The value stream consists of various partners and alliances which are involved in providing goods and services combined. The lean supply chain initiates the flow by the removal of the wastage (Dubey, Gunasekaran, Papadopoulos, Childe, Shibin & Wamba, 2017). It also includes mapping of the value stream in which only 5% is combined with the help of activities. The initiatives raise 45% value in the service environment. The elimination of the waste in the supply chain ensures that the products flow without any hindrance and delay. It understands the demand of the customers and creates a process in response.
In order to eliminate waste and save resources, Bosch should only produce the products which are preferred and demanded by the customers. The manufacturing of suitable goods helps in increasing profits along with productivity. The company can pursue its perfection in the supply chain management with the practice of lean manufacturing (Wisner, Tan & Leong, 2014). The flow and pull can be generated by the identification of the individual process steps and its prominence enhances when all the steps are linked together. With the continuous practice of the lean supply chain management, more wastes come in the view of the company and the process is continued for attaining perfection in the actions which ass value to the company.
The inventory control policies comprise the activities of checking stock of the company. it manages the movement of inventory under its control. The type of the product influences the inventory control policies allocated to manage the product (Chen, Wu, Zhang, Djokic & Harrison, 2016). The inventory control policies control the inventories such as materials, supplies and fixed assets to determine the value of the inventories. The certain inventory control policies can be adopted in order to enhance the performance of the company. Bosch can go for quality programs like ISO, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Kaizen and Total Quality Management (TQM). All the managers in the Bosch are needed to support the quality programs and implement in the supply chain management. The company should take the initial step to analyze the current inventory accuracy rate and then take steps to improve it (Zeng, Wu, Wang, Zhang & Zeng, 2017).
Once the standard is set by the company then the scope for the improvement can be decided. It can also be measured in both percentage and dollars. The results should be checked the time on time to implement changes for the improvement and the sustainability. The inventory optimization process is required to keep modest and least complex. It is because if the Bosch is not able to explain the process then the process will be considered inappropriate and insurmountable for the optimization of the inventory. The whole supply chain should be inspected and a flawless directive metric should be formed to measure from the initial point to the last target (Waters & Rinsler, 2014). It is helpful in tracking the inventory performance across the structure. It might also help in improving accuracy in the supply chain.
The advanced policies can be executed in all the fields of the company so that company can be profited. There should be conducted product traceability in the distribution life cycle of the goods. The inventory pipeline can be comprised of both inbound and outbound shipments. The products should be transported only after the action is initiated by the authority. The authority is required to maintain a record properly (Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis & Seuring, 2014). Furthermore, suitable technology should be designated which getups the requirements of the Bosch. A constant cycle totalling program should be executed so that a great level of accurateness can be sustained. This program is one of the finest methods to find out the problematic areas and helpful in eradicating the physical inventory expenses. Bosch should make sure that the employees are trained on time and should be updated concerning the inventory management techniques.
Conclusion
This report concludes that the efficient supply chain communicates effectively, trains workforce systematically helps in supporting flow of money which are dispersed among the customers, different partners and the associations of the Bosch. The supply chain management is helpful in observing the flow of resources updated in the supply chain. The supply chain promotes the profitability of the company by organizing procedures and brings into line them by planning, making and supplying different products and services. The lean practices used by the company are effective in gaining flexibility, providing better services, cost reduction, quality, and innovations. The 5 principles of lean thinking are helpful to the company in gaining financial benefit in various ways. Bosch is responsible to make utilization of the people, procedures and the technology so that the requirements of the consumers can be confronted easily.
References
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