International logistics and procurement (2010-2011)

Résumé du document

Definition of procurement:
It can be defined as the purchase of goods or services at the optimum possible cost, in the correct amount and quality.
These goods/services are also purchased at the correct time and location by signing a contract.

Definition of logistics: It is to get the right product, to the right place, in the right quantity at the right time, in the best conditions and at an acceptable cost. Definition of supply chain: A network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation into intermediate and finished products and distribution of these finished products to customers (from raw materials to distribution of the final product).

The trends:
•Push: Materials are produced accordingly to a planned forecast and moved to the next stage of the supply chain. (We produce for 15,000 products in the year, it is planed and not according to the demand) ex: Make to stock strategy.
It can be a good strategy to answer faster the demand. In the other hand, it is not a good strategy because the demand can decrease.
•Pull: Materials are only produced and moved when they are required. (Production starts when the customer has a demand.)

3 different strategies:
-Make to order strategy: a dress for just one person, or a plane
-lean strategy (stratégie sans surplus): created by Toyota Production system in the 30's and then developed in the US after WW2. It is use by a lot of automobile companies (Toyota). Purpose: ensuring that value is added at each stage of the process by eliminating mudas (waste) in 7 keys areas:
-Overproduction: if you produce too much, you will have to pay for a warehouse, salaries
-Waiting
-Transportation equals non value added time. You should reduce transportation time and optimizes it and try to add value during the transportation.
-Inappropriate processing (crash)
-Unnecessary inventory equals costly
-Unnecessary motion (movement in the company and outside the company)
-Defects equals production delays
-agile strategy: created by Martin Christopher at Cranfield University.

Purpose: To cope with volatility of the demand based on maximum flexibility. The tools: mass customization (a production philosophy based on the notion of postponement of final product as far downstream as possible; the decoupling point is the point at which we move the base product to customized product), postponed production. It is a way to share the costs with another company, an exchange of know-how, there are no wastes. Ex: Cooperation between Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen. Ex: Painting industry: they just have the three primary colors, when a customer wants a color, they just mixes the colors.