- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by
.
- Posts
Hi
I sat this exam in June and failed. I left this part of the question out as I couldn’t understand what was being asked for.
Having looked over the answers I still can’t break down the question and see how they came up with the answer that is provided.
To me it looks like the question wants you to come up with performance measures and a system that will help to simplify the supply chain.
This bit in particular confuses me:
“They include the time taken to source new products
and the revenue and profits obtained from these (new measures)”How did they know this specifically, I can’t see that information in the scenario.
I know this is unlikely to come up in the September sitting but I am concerned that I am still unable to quickly see what question is actually being asked and interpreting it correctly.
I hope you can shed some light on it. Thank you
It’s not easy. Paer of the problem, for me, is that the term ‘supply chain’ usually refers to every stage of ordering, supply, warehousing, and distribution: everything involved in getting the product from suppliers to customers, because it is customers who are being supplied, ultimately. However, here, I think we are looking primarily at the input system ie goods coming into the business. Unless we are contemplating closing stores or having a web prescence, I don’t think that in a retail business there is much scope for simplification.
The value chain looks at each activity and sees how it adds vales and how it could add more value ie increase profits. Here we are looking at how simplification of supply-related activities could help. My ideas would have been:
?Reduce number of suppliers to improve efficiency and, perhaps, to get better terms. Measure = number of suppliers.
?Increase average number of products bought per employee
?Reduce number of orders.
(The above picked up from current measures).
?Improve order/delivery time so that we move towards JIT.
?Automation of ordering system eg using extranets with suppliers (measure = cost per order).
HTH
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.