Supply Chain Management Essentials

Kinaxis RapidResponse System

• Kinaxis developed RapidResponse, a cloud-based software system helping companies manage supply chains.
• The software allows users to examine supplier data, identify bottlenecks, and quickly answer questions about supply chain capacity.
• RapidResponse can reduce lead times by 50% and rush orders by 83%.

Supply Chain Management in Services

• Supply chain management is important for services, such as the Port of Vancouver.
• The Port of Vancouver reduced container dwell time by improving their supply chain strategy, reducing time from 3.7 days to 2.5 days.
• This improvement led to better relationships with transportation companies.

Global Supply Chains

• Global supply chains are increasingly common.
• Examples include architects from Malaysia sketching office towers in London, architects from the Philippines providing detailed renderings, and engineers from China assessing building structure.

Supply Chain Disruptions

• Supply chains can be disrupted by natural disasters, shortages of parts, and pandemics.
• The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in many supply chains, particularly for essential goods like hand sanitizer.
• A disruption in one part of a supply chain can affect the entire chain.

Outsourcing and Global Supply Chains

• Outsourcing is the strategy of paying suppliers and distributors to perform certain business processes or provide materials or services.
• Outsourcing expands supply chains.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, outsourcing magnified supply chain problems when factories in China (initially affected by the virus) were forced to close.
• Reduced domestic employment resulted from moving manufacturing and service operations overseas (to countries like China, Mexico, and India). This caused a shift in the type of jobs available.

Returning Manufacturing

• Companies and governments considered returning certain essential manufacturing (like pharmaceuticals and PPE) to domestic markets after significant global supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Maytag, for example, adopted new supply chain evaluation strategies to identify suitable outsourcing partners.

Explore the key concepts of supply chain management including tools like Kinaxis RapidResponse, services strategy, global supply chains, and disruptions. This quiz highlights important strategies to optimize supply chain operations and enhances understanding of the involved technologies and practices.