The synchronous supply chain

To overcome these problems it is clear that the supply chain needs to act as a synchronised network - not as a series of separate islands. Synchronisation implies that each stage in the chain is connected to the other and that they all march to the same drumbeat . The way in which entities in a supply chain become connected is through shared information. 

The information to be shared between supply chain partners includes demand data and forecasts, production schedules, new product launch details and bill of material changes. 

To enable this degree of visibility and transparency, synchronisation requires a high level of process alignment, which itself demands a higher level of collaborative working. These are issues to which we shall return. The box below indicates some of the key processes that need to be linked, upstream and downstream, to provide the foundation for supply chain synchronisation. 

Source Cookson, C. Linking supply chains to support collaborative manufacturing , Ascet, Vol. 3,2001, www.ascet.com 

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The synchronized supply chain has been tested repeatedly and it does address the more common problems of the traditional approach. The key is communication from the market. Material and information is released into the system based on the consumption at the primary control point. Every supplier of raw material as well as every producer along the supply chain is linked to that actual demand. Strategically sized and located buffers of inventory are designed to absorb the unpredictable variability, and sufficient protective capacity is planned to maximize the velocity of the product flow. As a result, the waves of demand are avoided and the productivity of the entire system is made much more predictable. As well, the properly synchronized system is more stable and easier to manage. 

Figure 7.1 depicts the difference between the conventional supply chain with limited transfer of information and the synchronous supply chain with network-wide... 

A similar solution but deriving from a business environment is offered by SAP, a leader in business software. The business software mySAP permits a transparent and synchronized supply chain with direct access of the production management to yield, personal costs, maintenance, raw material and energy consumption [105],... 

Anderson, D., and Lee, H. (1999), Synchronized Supply Chains The New Frontier, Achieving Supply Chain ExceUence Through Technology Project, www.ascet.com/ascet. Understanding the New Frontier. 

A key factor for the successful construction of e-network is that each organization in the supply chain looks beyond the basic function within the business and synchronizes its processes with the entire supply chain. Based on this concept, the network construction may not achieve the required result without mapping the process and considering the capacities of the other processes of the entire chain (Al-Hakim, 2003). Standardization of business processes is necessary to allow the communication and integration between business partners of the supply network since the complexity of processes in the supply chain has grown exponentially (Gunasekaran, Patel, Tirtiroglu, 2001). 

Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) A fixed order quantity model that determines the amount of an item to be purchased or manufactured at one time. The model minimizes the combined costs of acquiring and carrying inventory. When production rates are closer to consumption rates, as in a synchronized supply chain, the production quantity approaches infinity, or continuous operation. 

Synchronized supply chain A general vision of having all links in the supply chain producing at the same rate as customer demand. Obstacles include coordination, batch size limitations in production, and inability to share information. However, synchronization is a useful goal as it is likely to provide high levels of customer service at low cost relative to unsynchronized supply chains. The term is somewhat synonymous with a lean supply chain. 

The entire supply chain is synchronized in regard to scheduling and organization, comparable to the high-speed train with its technical synchronization (Fig. 17). 

The entire supply chain organization is synchronized in regard to planning, scheduling, and organization, much like a train that features a high degree of technical synchronization (Fig. 85). 

One of the major advantages of moving to OR and synchronous supply chain strategies is that, by reducing lot quantities and increasing the rate of throughput in the logistics system, modulations in the level of activity in the pipeline can be reduced. 

Another approach that seeks to improve synchronous supply chain processes is that of vendor-managed inventory (VMl). Here, the supplier takes responsibility for planning and controlling the customer s inventory (see section 8.4). The advantage is that a large element of imcertainty in the supply chain is removed... 

The framework is mainly based on the supply chain management framework of Rohde et al. (2000). Rohde s work is gradually enhanced to address the aspects of synchronized decision making within the value chain and the integration of supply, demand and value management concepts as shown in fig. 17. The framework is structured into the areas value chain, processes and methods. 

Scharlacken JW, Harland D (1997) Global Supply Chain Planning Synchronizing Operations and Logistics with the Pulse of the International Marketplace. 40th APICS International Conference Proceedings 211-219... 

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