Tactical Supply Chain Management

When a consumer or a business purchases an item or a service then this will normally be supplied with a warranty from the manufacturer or vendor. The warranty can either be express or implied and will come with clauses that a purchaser needs to be aware of. This article examines the many aspects of a warranty.

There are a number of costs that make up the total inventory costs for a company. Order costs include the expenses involved in placing an order for a quantity of material, but this does not include the actual cost of the material itself. Setup costs are incurred when production or assembly lines are changed for example when the manufacturing...

Wherever you travel these days there is always a container nearby. Whether it is on a train, on a ship, or on a truck, intermodal containers are an integral part of today’s supply chain. The modern era of containerization started only fifty years ago and revolutionized the way in which goods were moved along the supply chain. This article...

The procurement card, or P-card, is a form of company credit card that is issued to employees who can then purchase goods and services without having to process the purchase through a traditional purchasing procedure, such as using purchasing requisitions and purchase orders. This article looks at benefits and risks of the procurement card program.

The cost of carrying inventory is used to help companies determine how much profit can be made on current inventory. The cost is what a business will incur over a certain period of time, to hold and store its inventory. This article looks at the different components that combine to produce an overall cost of carrying inventory.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP), sometimes known as aggregate planning, is a process where executive level management regularly meets and reviews projections for demand, supply and the resulting financial impact. S&OP is a decision making process that makes certain that tactical plans in every business area are in line with the overall view of the company’s business plan.

Negotiation in the purchasing process covers the period from when the first communication is made between the purchasing buyer and the supplier through to the final signing of the contract. Negotiation can be as simple as trying to obtain a discount on a case of safety gloves through to the complexities of major capital purchases. This article looks at negotiations in the purchasing process.

A company’s supply chain will include warehousing functions. It can be company-owned, owned by a third party logistics (3PL) firm or a public warehouse. Extra warehouse space is sometimes required due to any number of factors including; seasonal inventory, warehouse re-organization or warehouse damage. This article examines public warehousing and the criteria used in selecting a public warehouse.

Lean Manufacturing has grown out of the production system developed by the Japanese automaker, Toyota. After WWII, Japanese manufacturers adopted production and quality procedures from US industry and expanded the principles to reduce waste in the manufacturing process. This article looks at the origins and principles of Lean Manufacturing.

Companies are constantly looking at their supply chain to reduce costs while improving the quality of the items they purchase. To select the appropriate vendor for a particular item, a purchasing department can use a vendor evaluation tool. This article is an introduction into the vendor evaluation process.

Many companies store their products on pallets in the warehouse. There are a number of pallet storage methods that allow the warehouse to store pallets efficiently. This article will examine a number of the popular pallet storage systems that are commonly used.

The term cross docking refers to moving product from a manufacturing plant and delivers it directly to the customer with little or no material handling in between. Cross docking not only reduces material handling, but also reduces the need to store the products in the warehouse. In this article, the different types, benefits and products suitable for ctross docking are examined.

Products are moved from point to point by a number of different modes of transport; air, rail, water and truck. In the US, the movement of goods by truck offers shippers infinite flexibility due at a relatively low cost. Truck transportation can move large items faster than rail as the shipment is not dependent on the railroads timetable. This article looks at the Less Than Truckload (LTL) sector.

Companies are constantly trying to find ways to improve performance and warehouse operations is area where supply chain managers can focus to gain maximum efficiency for minimum cost. To get the most out of the operation, a number of best practices can be adopted to improve productivity and overall customer satisfaction. Although best practices vary from industry to industry and by the products shipped there are a number of best practices that can be applied to most companies.

Tactical supply chain decisions focus on adopting measures that will produce cost benefits for a company. Tactical decisions are made within the construct of the wider reaching strategic supply chain decisions that are made by company management.

Tactical planning in supply chain management is extremely important to companies. This article shows some planning models that can be used in tactical supply chain management.

Kanban systems were developed in Japan by the Toyota corporation. The system has been used at thousands of manufacturing companies throughout the world. This article gives you an introduction to the functionality of the Kanban system.

Vendor Managed Inventory or VMI occurs when a vendor takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed level of inventory of certain items at the buyer's manufacturing or retail location. This article examines the benefits for both the customer and vendor as well as suggestions to develop a successful VMI relationship.

The Panama Canal is an important passageway for container ships as they move cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But the limitations of the original canal has meant that larger container ships were unable to use the canal and so an expansion project was needed. This article looks at the original canal and the expansion.

In 2009 the project was launched in the UK based on studies that freight traffic would increase by 40 percent between London and Birmingham. The country's second high speed link, called the HS2, has now been approved by the government after three years of impact studies and public consultations. The opening date for the first stage of the HS2 is...

In reverse auctions, a company will offer a contract on which a number of vendors will bid, based on the terms and conditions of the contract, and the company that has the lowest bid when the reverse auction expires is the winner of the contract. This article examines how and when reverse auctions should be used.