Posted: September 13th, 2017

Purchasing and materials management: What are some ways to reduce the logistics cycle Custom Essay

Answer 1: Some ways to reduce logistics cycle time is:
1) VMI (vendor managed inventories). This is when a vendor will store their goods at the customer’s site and

issue materials in a JIT (Just-In-Time) or other pull/demand system.
2) Depending on volume a supplier may locate or co-locate to the customer’s facility or nearby their facility.

This is popular in the automotive industry to assist with JIT requirements.
3) At my job with General Instrument, Tocom facility I was bringing in hundreds of thousands of components every

week from Japan delivered to our Maquiladora facility in Nogales Sonora every week. I designed a method for a

rotational dust stock located at one of Murata’s facility in the states to buffer accidents and our AS400 MRPI

short comings.

Answer 2: The best way to reduce the logistics cycle time is by eliminating steps in the cycle. The text provided

an excellent example for this. Sun Microsystems was able to reduce the logistics cycle time, by shipping directly

from supplier to customer. Besides eliminating steps in the cycle, firms can have a centrally located process. By

this I mean, widget A and widget B are both produced in the same place, so that they do not have to be shipped to

yet a different location to produce the final product.

Answer 3: Logistics and Supply chain Management are two areas that are often felt that they could overlap. It is

possible that different companies define them differently. Logistics deals with strategy and coordination between

marketing and production.On the other hand supply chain management focuses more on purchasing and procurement.

This is one of the main differences between logistics and supply chain management.It is interesting to note that

supply chain management can include factors relating to inventory, materials and production planning too in its

concept. On the other hand logistics includes factors relating to demand management and forecasting in its

concept. This is also an interesting difference between logistics and supply chain management.Experts argue that

logistics management is a part of the supply chain management that plans and implements the flow and storage of

goods, services in order to meet the demands of the consumers. This is indeed an important study made by the

experts.Source: http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-logistics-and-vs-supply-chain-

management/#ixzz2uiiSd8on

Answer 4: Supply management determines lead-for each component and enters it into the parts masters’ records,

which includes the logistics into the required point of manufacturing. If the system happens to be an enterprise

resource planning system or ERP, then shop floor capacity management will be incorporated into the production

planning. The production planning is part of the master schedule that incorporates the lead times, including any

internal lead times for purchase order processing. Once the master schedule has been approved, the system will

release the work orders in accordance to time fence requirements and the master parts records. If supply

management has done their job and put in place agreements with the suppliers. Then requisitioning and purchasing

of the materials will be released and acted upon.

Question 5: Can you give an example of an organization front-ending?