OCTANE-The Octaphi Newsletter Volume 06, Issue 01, January 2017
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Student Articles Crossword Puzzle Do You Know… Industry Facts
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“The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing” – Seth Godin
Internet of things is the next big thing in SCM Internet of Things (IoT) makes a physical device smart and enables deeper intelligence to gain visibility into customer behaviour and the supply and demand situations. It helps to design a framework that integrates relevant data to provide swift response and solutions to make jobs inclusive and easier. The volumes of data when processed with intelligence involving both mathematical innovation and complex computations helps companies to provide solutions to the complex supply chain problems and these solutions can enable a better decision making and thus can reduce the supply chain expenses by almost 15 percent. According to Gartner estimates, IoT will cater to the business needs of $235 billion by 2017. It will significantly redefine the process in which supply chain operates today. For example, RFID chips, can inform the details of the shipping, the contents and its current location which in turn enhances supply chain performance by making it more reliable/predictable. As supply chains are getting smarter, many companies have adopted IoT technology. GM has implemented Cisco's IoT technology to develop plant floor control networks that measures the facility humidity and subsequently modifying its assembly line painting so that cars are not painted excessively humid environments as it ruins paint quality. Again, significant improvement in the fields of data intelligence and associated benefits have prompted GE Transportation systems at the Port of Los Angeles to develop an informational portal that provides real time shipping data and also the availability of hangars, supply chain operators and material handling equipment’s. All such integration
enables better coordination and thus provides sufficient time to optimize cargo movements and thus improving port availability. Again, BMW implemented intelligent information systems and fostered better intelligent decision making tools that has increased the scope of automations to better manage it logistics and supply chain covering almost 1,800 vendors from across 4,500 locations that are providing 30 million parts per day. To utilize it logistics resources effectively, BMW utilizes smart containers that are integrated with digital cloud technology, thus providing real time data about locations and conditions of inventory. BMW uses this real-time data of demand and delivery status to reduce costs and simplify its processes. Source: Supply Chain Brain, 2016.
~ Arijit Roy Ghatak (15 JGBS) DO YOU KNOW?? Charles Fruehauf invented the first tractor-trailer over 100 years ago, in 1914 when a customer wanted a vehicle that could haul a boat.
Leveraging Packaging-OnDemand Solutions Packaging is one of the most important part of a supply chain, however it’s not given much importance. Manufacturers who consider it to be important perceive packaging as a redeeming value. Therefore, they ensure that the customers receive the products in the unblemished condition at a nominal cost. Further, reduction or optimization of packaging space would result into
saving reasonable amount of inventory space, packaging as well as labour costs. Amazon which is the most liked ecommerce retail portal uses a process that contributes value to the supply chain process by providing top quality packaging services in a swift and cost effective manner. With its use exact amount of cardboard is being utilized to have the right sized box which fits the product precisely to safeguard from damages, thus saving space and cost of packaging. Another process that improves the supply chain efficiency is the use of pallet collars. It is easy to store, reduces labour cost and provides flexible packaging options. As there’s no requirement of any tool neither to assemble nor to dismantle, they are better than crates and pallet walls. This is an economical tool which enables to increase the packaging process. There are few other processes like product package ratio and the decision making processes for the measurement of feasible transport packaging performance. Product package ratio checks the excess material waste. Source: Inbound Logistics, 2016
~ Bijit Patnaik (15 JGBS)
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How it all Began...
In this issue
OCTANE-The Octaphi Newsletter
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Crossword Puzzle
How it all began …
Express delivery often called as same-day delivery is now becoming an efficient way to handle logistics, warehouse management and the last mile delivery. Many companies are banking upon this service as it is most liked by customers in need, is speedy and an immediate service that is always encouraged by the customers. Even many new sectors, such as the brickand-mortar retailers are also providing this hyper level service to compete with online retailers and get into the expedited race. Many companies are providing this service at many locations depending upon the population density and demand from that area. This transportation is costly and as e-commerce grows, the last mile delivery becomes more constrained. Also, it has a huge environmental impact when delivering small volumes at this speed. Irrespective of these challenges, express delivery mode is being adopted in mainstream by companies and is growing day-by-day. Generally, expedited service is used by shippers where time critical deadline must be met, where reliability and capacity matters and not price or when it is pre-planned. For example, the expedited shipping is needed to meet unexpected demand for pharmaceuticals to automotive parts. Customized service is also handled this way, it means when a customer wants the shipment to be handled in their own way, delivery at a suitable time, maintaining the shipment at a particular temperature range, hence for all these suitable arrangements are to be made by some additional equipment to meet the customer’s requirement. As an example, FedEx provides same-day delivery or overnight delivery of expedited goods. The response time for the expedited shipping carrier falls in the two to six hour range at the loading dock, which was 48 hours instead. Thus, by all these means the express delivery wins the expedited race.
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CLUES Across: 1. A process of gaining consensus from a group of experts while maintaining their anonymity. 3. The movement of product from one station to the next as soon as the cycle time has elapsed. 5. Automatically stopping the process when something is wrong and then fixing the problems on the line itself as they occur. 7. The total amount of time required to complete a group of jobs. Down: 2. A rule that selects the next customer to be served by the service facility. 4. The levelling of production load by both volume and product mix. 6. Mistake-proofing methods aimed at designing fail-safe systems that minimize human error. 8. An interdependent set of projects that have a common strategic purpose.
~ Harsh Jain (13 JGBS)
Student’s Feedback Corner The articles and other supplements are so well-organized and meaningful, and helped me immensely in improving my understandings of Supply Chain. It’s amazing to read OCTANE and I’m a staunch follower of OCTANE series for the past two years. ~ Sahil Singla (13 JGBS) I would say simply read OCTANE and all you gain insight and in-depth knowledge of all the new things and concepts related to supply chain, logistics and inventory management and also it is easily available on all most all platforms of social networking. ~ Rahul Sinha (15 FMS)
Editorial Board: Saroj Koul, S. Kumar Jagannath Jindal Global Business School
Source: Inbound Logistics, 2016
~ S. Kumar Jagannath (16 JGBS)
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Answers – Vol. 5, Issue 2:
Express Delivery “The expedited race”
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Across: 1. PRODUCTIVITY 3. LEAD TIME 6. ECONOMIES 8. KANBAN Down: 4. TQM 4. PROCRUREMENT 5. JOB 7. KAIZEN 9. AGILE
“United Parcel Service, or UPS, had extremely humble beginnings. In 1907, 19 year old James Casey founded the company with $100 borrowed from a friend and a bicycle. The teenager also served as president, CEO and chairman. Today, the company is the world’s largest package delivery company. Not bad for a kid with a cycle”.