Supply Chain Enablers

4 Enablers and Drivers of Supply Chain Performance 1.4.1 Supply Chain Enablers 

Enablers make things happen and, in the case of supply chain management, are considered essential for a supply chain to perform effectively. Without the necessary enablers, the supply chain will not function smoothly. Simply having the necessary enablers, however, does not guarantee a successful supply chain performance. 

Based on a survey of supply chain managers, Marien (2000) describes four enablers of effective management of the supply chain. In order of their ranked importance by the survey respondents, they are organizational infrastructure, information technology, strategic alliances, and human resource management. 

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Professionalism Warehousing will be viewed as a critical supply chain enabler and a competitive strength, not as an inert facility. 

PC have to provide information down the supply chain enabling the safe use of articles if a SVHC is present at >0.1% wlw Article 33 1... 

Give two examples of supply chain enablers. How do they differ from supply chain drivers ... 

Marien, E. J. 2000. The four supply chain enablers. Supply Chain Management Review. March-April Issue. 4(1) 60-68. 

These services have become productive in 2011 and as of 2014 serve more than 300 companies. The platform is used by its founders and their international partners and suppliers. Two main benefits are targeted first, the use of these standardized services by the main European OEMs is anticipated to dramatically improve the generic collaboration with suppliers and interoperability with their information systems. Second, the platform is to reduce process cycles and overall costs. The mentioned services are provided as Software as a Service (SaaS) for all OEMs, suppliers and small companies along the whole supply chain, enabling them to potentially make the same gains in competitiveness as the five founders. 

Dr. Bjorn Asbjornslett tackles the issues associated with analyzing the potential vulnerabihty of supply chains, enabling a more proactive approach to SCRM. Having introduced the concepts of vulnerability and resilience in the context of the supply chain, the author examines the contributory factors influencing both vulnerabihty and resilience. The chapter concludes with the exposition of a detailed approach to assessing the vulnerability of the supply ch providing practical iUustrations, guidance and advice on associated tools that may be employed to support the analysis and assessment. 

Finally, an interesting trend in supply-chain management is improving business practices by providing capabilities to improve service for customers. One such concept is capability to promise. The idea is not just to ensure that the product is available, but that the supply chain is capable of delivering the product. This involves, for instance, capability to rapidly change the schedule to accommodate the customer order and interact with the active plant schedule. Such a system was developed at Celanese Fibers, which is integrated with a Customer Order System and enabled via a Web browser. 

With the globalization of the supply system and more open markets, traceability is required to enable everyone in the drug manufacture s supply chain to control and investigate any problems that may arise in one of their products, which may be caused by or linked to any excipient. A traceability system is required by cGMP. Cell excipients should be traceable and the drug product manufacturer may need to trace the origin of the excipient to assess whether it is appropriate for the intended use or not. 

Finally, SCM has a direct impact on production and logistics assets utilization and on the entire inventory level, which represents on average around ten to 20 percent of sales. An improved supply chain performance, such as a potential ten to 20 percent increase in production asset utilization and/or a ten to 15 percent reduction in inventory levels, enables companies to postpone or even cancel planned capital expenditure. 

Often an effective way of reducing risk is by substituting hazardous chemicals with more harmless ones. To enable substitution, the users of chemicals and products further down the supply chain need to have appropriate and sufficient information on the technical and hazardous properties associated with the chemicals they purchase. Such information is necessary in order to assess potential risks at the point of intended use and to compare different alternatives from a risk reducing perspective. Therefore, suppliers of chemicals, especially manufacturers and importers, need to identify and assess all of the hazardous properties and foreseeable risks - to human health, to the environment and to property due to fire or explosion - in order to be able ... 

A collaborative study on the Human and Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA) of cleaning products between Cefic and the International Soap, Detergent and Maintenance Products Association (AISE) resulted in the risk assessment of several substances through the relevant supply chains. The project enabled downstream users to develop a better understanding of the final use and environmental endpoints of these products. A major result of the initiative has been the creation of a website where customers and consumers can be informed on the risks associated with specific substances. 

The FDA has been interested in Web enablement of computer apphcations. Several inspections questioned client controls for intranet and Internet access. The FDA also appears to be looking more critically at distribution systems for pharmaceutical and healthcare products. The MHRA has noted that validation requirements for distribution systems are generally not well understood and consequently the vahdation of these systems is often deficient. Distribution systems are vital components of the supply chain and companies should address their validation accordingly. In particular, focus should be placed on validating product return and recall processes. 

The data held within marketing and supply applications are key inputs into the efficiency of the supply chain and provide the vital link that connects Information Technology to the physical world of raw materials, intermediate stock, finished inventory, business processes, and people. What is done with that data — how data are collected, processed, communicated, stored, or otherwise manipulated, determines their true value to any organization as Information Technology takes its place as an enabler for efficient enterprise coordination. 

A Sales Order Processing System that contains all relevant customer and inventory details to enable a sales order of the correct characteristics to be placed against the actual stock available to fully or partially satisfy the order. The characteristics of the contract between the company and each customer may differ greatly for example, some customers may only be licensed to receive a very limited subset of the total inventory held within the system, while others may be licensed to receive everything but a few specified inventory items available from the supply chain. In both cases, the system would be expected to contain functionality that allows each type of circumstance to be correctly set up to ensure that sales orders for onward wholesale suppliers are only raised for inventory that the supplier is licensed to hold. 

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