Supply Chain Management
Smart Supply Chain for Agile Implementation in the Manufacturing Industry

Article Details
Pub. Date : Marc, 2020
Product Name : The IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management
Product Type : Article
Product Code : IJSCM10320
Author Name : J Jawahar, S A Vasantha Kumara, S Padmanabhan
Availability : YES
Subject/Domain : Strategic
Download Format : PDF Format
No. of Pages : 16

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Abstract

This paper attempts to study the implementation of agile methods in a manufacturing industry and provides the best recommendation for improvement of efficiencies and optimization of costs, without compromising on quality and schedules. This study has been carried out in a real-time environment with actual data from the manufacturing unit and also several interviews with the vendors involved in supplying components and sub-assemblies. An attempt has been made to promote mutual trust and engage vendors as partners in business and bring in more transparency in everyday transactions. The study carried out resulted in adopting the agile supply chain for a select set of components which had well established vendors and had a high rate of acceptance. The idea was to run this as a pilot program and then extend this to the entire set of components and assemblies required for a weekly production schedule. In view of the very high daily production rates, the idea was to facilitate transformation with a very low element of risk. This pilot is likely to run for at least three months before the second wave of change sets in.


Description

Manufacturing involves conversion of raw material or components from one state to the other through various operations in order to form them into usable products for the intended purpose. At every stage there is value addition and the work-in-progress is brought closer to its final shape and size. There are various methods through which this is achieved (Geng, 2004).