supply chain of drawing boards

8/9/2019 Supply Chain of Drawing Boards

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Assignment No 1

Date: 15th March 2010

BINOY KM 431

KAILAS SREE CHANDRAN 432

KRISHNA KUMAR R 433

SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS

SUPPLY CHAIN OF DRAWING BOARDS

Describe the various Supply Chain

Stages, Drivers and Flows involved

when a customer orders a

Drawing Board at the retail shop.



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2SUPPLY CHAIN OF DRAWING BOARDS

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INTRODUCTION

Supply Chain consists of all parties involved directly or indirectly in fulfilling a

customer requests. Supply Chain includes manufactures, suppliers, transports, warehouses,

retailers and customers. It involves constant flow of information, product and funds

between different stages. The pricing purpose of supply chain is to a) Satisfy customers b)

Generate profits. Supply Chain activities starts with customer order and ends when a

satisfied customer has paid for his or her purchase. In this article, the Supply Chain of

“Drawing Board” is described. Its various Stages, Drivers and Flows involved when a

customer orders the product at a retail shop.

STAGES OF SUPPLY CHAIN

The stages of Supply Chain for “Drawing Board” involves Customers, Retailers,

Wholesalers/ Distributors, Manufacturers, Raw material suppliers etc.

1. Customer:

The customers of drawing boards are mostly students and design/ drawing

professionals. Students will go for small costless drawing boards and the professionals will

go for big ones with stands. To fulfill the need, they will go to near by shop (retailer).

2. Retailer:

The Retailer here is actually a shop where different models of drawing boards are

available. They stocks different models of different manufactures according to the demand

based on forecast and other policies. They will get the drawing boards from the distributors.

When the inventories come below the minimum level, they give orders to the distributors

for refilling.

3. Distributor:

Its actually a wholesaler which can be of a specified manufacturer or for different

manufacturers. The distributor stocks the products, here its drawing board, from the

manufacturer. And gives to the retailers according to the orders. The distributor also act as a

warehouse. The products can be saved for sometime till they receives orders.



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4. Manufacturer:

This is the main stage in supply chain. The product is actually made during this stage. The

manufacturer of drawing boards analyses the customer population and demands and

manufactures the drawing boards according to the requirements of the customer. The

manufacturer receives raw materials (Wood and other things) for manufacturing drawing

boards from different suppliers.

5. Supplier:

The supplier for the manufacturer who manufactures drawing boards will be an industry

which collects and finishes woods. The supplier has contacts with different manufacturers

which not only producing Drawing boards but different products using woods. Supplier’s

product is the input to the manufacturer.

SUPPLY CHAIN FLOWS

A Supply Chain is dynamic and involves the constant flow of information, Products

and funds between different stages, i.e. the Supply Chain flow includes



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a) Product

b) Information

c) Cash

There is a close connection between the design and management of supply chain flows and

the success of a supply chain.

1. Information

The success of supply chain is facilitated by sophisticated information exchange. The

information flow is a two way direction flow which comes between all the stages. When the

customer gives orders for the drawing board in the shop, i.e. the retailer, information is

transferred in the form of customer order. From there it flows to the distributor as the

orders for the Retailer. This information flows to the coming stages also. The same thing

happens in the opposite direction. The information may be about the pricing, availability,

needs, orders, etc.

2. Product

In the supply chain of drawing board, the flow off product is all physical. And it will

depend on the information. Usually the flow of product will be unidirectional. I.e. in this

case, it is supplier to customer direction. The supplier sends their product, ie wood to the

manufacturer. From then, the drawing boards are transported to the distributor, retailer

and finally to the customer. The flow may be of semi-finished product in the initial stages

but at the end stages, it will be fully finished product.

3. Funds:

This flow means flow of money. There is only one source of revenue in supply chain. I.e.

the flow of money from customer to retailer, which flows till end of the supply chain, i.e.

supplier. All other flow of funds are expenses. So that means all other cost should be less

than the inflow of cash from the customer. All flow of information, product or funds

generates costs within the supply chain. Thus the appropriate management of these flows is

a key to supply chain success. Supply chain management involves the management of flows

between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain profitability.



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SUPPLY CHAIN DRIVERS

Supply Chain drivers are used to determine the performance of supply chain. Drivers

can be categorized into two. Logical drivers and Cross functional drivers. Logical drivers

include Facilities, Inventory, and Transportation. Cross functional drivers includes

Information, Sourcing, Pricing etc.

1. Facilities:

Facilities are the actual physical locations in the supply chain network where product is

stored, assembled or fabricated. In the case of drawing boards, the products are

manufactured in industries and stored in warehouses. The supply chain of drawing boards

don’t have to be big responsive. So it needs only a central warehouse or can use zonal

warehouse for large area. The capacity of the warehouse depends on the demand and

production.

2. Inventory:

It encompasses all raw materials, work in process and finished goods within a supply

chain. Changing inventory policies can dramatically alter the supply chain’s efficiency and

responsive. Drawing boards don’t need big inventory and also the demand pattern can be

analyzed easily. So always keep required amount of inventories, no big safety inventory

needed.



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3. Transportation

Drawing boards can be transported from manufacturer to distributor and there to

Retailers using trucks. No need to use air or water transport. But the route of road transport

can be analyzed to make efficient. No deteriotion is happened in this product so

transportation can be slowly, just try to keep the schedule.

4. Information

This consists of data and analyze concerning facilities, inventory, transportation, costs,

price and customer throughout the supply chain. Information presents management with

the opportunity to make supply chain more responsive and more efficient. As mentioned

earlier, the information about the demand of drawing boards and other things are

transferred between different stages of supply chain.

5. Sourcing

Sourcing is the choice of who will perform a particular supply chain activity such as

production, storage, transportation, or the management of information. In this case, the

need of sourcing is not required, the manufacturer can produce the drawing boards

themselves but if the demand during some period exceeds, they can opt for sourcing.

6. Pricing

This has the biggest input in the supply chain. The price of drawing board should include

the cost of production and profit. The cost of supply chain comes in the production cost. So

to reduce the production cost, the supply chain should be analyzed and expenses should be

minimized. In the supply chain of drawing boards, cost comes in all stages, during all flows.To increase the demand, price of drawing boards should be minimum. We can reduce the

percentage of profit required from the product. So an efficient way is to optimize the cost of

supply chain. Supply chain of drawing boards need not be efficient so some expenses can be

saved. Also it doesn’t require faster transportation methods. So expense can be controlled

in that also. We can also reduce cost by optimizing warehouse facility, inventory policy etc.



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supply chain of drawing boards

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