Risk Management in Supply Chain

a) Process mapping refers to the activities that are involved in defining what an organization does, what standards a business process should be completed, who is responsible, and ho the success of the firm process can be determined. Primarily, mapping out the business processes is necessary to understand all the steps that are required to complete a workflow. Moreover, with process maps employees in the upper-level management can gain an overview of how the process is done within the organization, how many steps should be completed to drive the process to the end, and how the process can be improved. A good example of process mapping is one for payment that includes a few steps which are a start, receive payment, register the payment in the system, inform the payer, and lastly end of the process.

b) Supply chain mapping described as a process if engaging across firms and supplier to document the exact source of every process, shipment, and material involved in bringing the good to the market. Supply chain map is necessary for organizations as it creates social networking, verification, and real-time data. Examples of supply chain mapping include activities such as design, manufacturing, transportation, refining, and packaging.

c) Value chain mapping is the process of identifying the main activities that are associated with the organization’s product or service line and is mainly used in the corporate strategy to identify performance improvement opportunities. Primarily, proper value chain mapping is necessary for organizations operations and maximizing profits. Moreover, organizations can optimize value for their vendors, end customers, and themselves when they effectively manage the flow of sales and production from inbound logistics operations, marketing, sales, service, and outbound logistics. An example of value chain mapping is involved in the production of tea from output to the end production when the product is ready for sale.

d) Value stream mapping is mainly a lean management tool that helps the organization and administration in the organization visualize on the steps that are needed to be taken from the point of creating a product or a service to the end consumer. The purpose of value stream mapping is to show the places where the organization can improve its process through visualizing both wasteful steps and value-adding. An excellent example of value stream mapping is the movement of a good from the producer, to the supplier, company, shipping company, and then the consumer.

e) Statistical process control is the industry standard methodology of controlling and measuring quality during the manufacturing process; the quality data is obtained in real-time during the manufacturing process. The significance of statistical process control is detecting the error at inspection, reducing inspection cost, making them more uniform quality of production, and determining the capacity of the production process. An example is when an organization is trying to decide what is causing a defect in one of its products.

Question 5

a)

Risks can be seen as either external or internal to the focal firm, and they can be seen as external and internal to the supply chain. The most common risks include are process risks, environmental risks, and supply risks.

Process Risk

The process risks are the potential losses that are related to the business process. It is mainly considered a type of operational risk as many of the process in the firm are day-to-day operations of a firm. Examples of risks that are linked with the process risk include infrastructure risk, information technology risk, human error, workplace safety, mechanical failure, and process quality. For instance, the breakdown of equipment can interrupt the processes such as supply chain operations and manufacturing. Another excellent example is the potential threats to human safety and health such as injury or physical accidents due to repetitive strains.

Environmental Risk

The environmental risk is another significant risk that affects the global supply chain. It is mainly considered the factor with the highest probability of occurrence and the least effectively mitigated because the environmental risks are uncontrollable. The ecological risks include factors such as natural disasters which include earthquakes and extreme weather which include potential high sea levels. Moreover, pandemics are also possibilities, but their mitigation and probability remain uncertain.

Supply Risks

The supply risk is mainly referred to as the probability of any incident that is associated with the inbound supply from the individual supplier failures or the supply market occurring that leads to outcomes of the inability of the purchasing firm meeting the customers’ demands or may cause a threat to the safety and life of the customer. The common types of supply risks include shortages, price increases, quality, delivery failures, supplier relationships, availability, turnaround times, discounted items, supplier failure, supply stocks, and shrinkage among other factors.

b)

Advancements in business systems, telecommunication, and transportation have made the world become a global village, readily accessible, and more connected to organizations that are seeking are seeking to expand their activities beyond their local boundaries. Moreover, in today’s increasingly global business landscape it is no secret that most industrial and manufacturing firms maintain supply chains that stretch across the globe. It is clear that most buyers and organizations prefer supply chains that are close to home as possible and this is due to the following factors.

More flexibility, opportunities come from nowhere and so are the challenges. For instance, an individual might receive a lucrative deal or bis from a customer and might need to ramp up the order to meet the demand, and the question that comes is will you be ready? If the sourcing is local, then the answer would be yes. This is because the local supplier is more reactive than outside suppliers. Moreover, they can deliver the good much quicker as it is much faster for a supplier to coordinate a shipment within then border that across the globe. A good example is the supply of barley for beer production. It would be easy and quick to get the product from within the boundaries than from across the world.

Secondly, excellent control, it is important to note that the further away an organization or an individual is from the elements of the supply chain the less control he or she has over them. Moreover, the supplier may indicate that they treat all the purchases and customer orders the same, but if they anticipate a site visit, there is a likelihood that they will keep you on top of their mind. Primarily, the face to face meetings allows the customer to address all the concerns that he or she might have and make sure that the product supplied to meet the required standards. For example, it is easier to manage and control the supplier from a supplier who is near that as a supplier who is far.

Thirdly, reduced supply chain cost, if a business has a tight budget is it vital that it tighten its supply chain also. The amount organizations are spending on logistics across the globe. For, instance North America Companies receive and send products around the world meaning expense can add up as mile increases. Moreover, these products have to be stored in warehouses before they can be shipped to the respective customers. Most of these costs can be cut down though sourcing products and raw materials locally.

Question 6

The supply chain is a field that significantly utilizes analytics and big data. Until recently, firms have been reluctant to implement big data into their supply chain management than other areas such as manufacturing and marketing. Big data, re-distributed manufacturing, and smart cities are changing supply chain management for the better. Primarily, technology is producing more quantifiable improvement in the supply chain across the globe. Moreover, engineers are have created innovative technologies in these their aspects that are helping organizations track and efficiently allocate resources through smart cities, big data, re-distributed supply chain management.

Democratic manufacturing is a departure from traditional concepts such as one-person governance and autocratic management. This is because the system allows the workers to be involved in the decision-making process and they are treated as responsible partners in the organization. Moreover, the workers are given the right of self-expression and also an opportunity of communicating the views and ideas on the process of framing the company’s policy. Therefore, democratic manufacturing is a reality and not a science fiction.

Question 7

a)

There are multiple types of manufacturing that manufacturers rely on their day to day activities. They include:

1. Molding: this process is mainly used for the production of products whose starting from is liquid. The popular type of molding is casting which involved heaving heating of plastic to the point it becomes liquid and then pouring it to mold and let it cool to take the desired shape. Casting can also be used to make plastic sheeting which is used in several areas. Other types of molding include blow molding which is used to make milk bottles and piping; rotational molding uses to make shipping drums and furniture, injection molding for melting plastic to create 3-D materials such as toys and butter tubs, and compression molding which is used for large-scale production of car tires.

2. Machining: this is the type of manufacturing that is used to make metal products. It relies on tools like sheers, rotating wheels, and saws to achieve the desired shapes and results. A good example is the used of laser machine to cut pieces of metal.

3. Joining: assembling of products together rely on this type of manufacturing. A good example if joining manufacturing is soldering to pally heat and welding.

4. Shearing and forming: this type of manufacturing mainly comes into play when dealing with sheet metals. An excellent of this type of production is the metal shaping process which uses compression and a different kind of stress to make materials into the desired shapes.

5. Additive manufacturing is the use of technology in production. The process is defined as the use of technology to join materials to make objects from 3D model data which is usually layer upon layer. Examples of this type of manufacturing include material jetting, powder bed fusion, photopolymerization, binder jetting, and directed energy deposition.

b)

All the manufacturing processes exhibit variation. For instance, when in a manufacturing process the sample data on the output process such as the oxide thickness, resistivity, and critical dimensions it is observed that all the values are not the same. Primarily, a method is deemed stable if it runs predictably and consistently. This mainly means that the average process value in the manufacturing process is constant and the variability is controlled. Primarily, when the variation is uncontrolled then the process variation is changing, or the process average is changing, or both are changing.