CHALLENGES OF OPSCM

Future Challenges of Operations Supply Chain Management



Future Challenges of Operations Supply Chain Management

Introduction

Operations supply chain management (OPSCM) is designed to automate and manage all stages of supply the company makes for the control of the movement of goods. It faces innumerable challenges in today's world due to a wide range of factors. OPSCM system significantly meets the demand for the company's products and significantly reduces the costs of logistics and procurement. OPSCM encompasses the entire cycle of raw material purchasing, production, and distribution of goods. Researchers typically distinguish six pivotal areas of supply chain management including production, supply, location, inventory, transportation, and information. Operations supply chain management is only successful if they support the actions of the company's strategic goals (Blanchard, 2007). Kanban is a method of production flow control. It is also called as the pick-up or pull-principle, and it is based solely on actual consumption of materials at the marshalling and assembly location. The just-in-time is a set of technical logistics to improve the productivity of a global business by reducing inventory and costs associated with these stocks.

Discussion

Challenges

One of the most challenging scenarios faced by supply chain is the unstable pricing of raw materials. The challenges of the volatile prices of raw material pose a threat to supply chain. The companies feel that they may face loss if they overstock the raw materials. Apart from these issues, there are a various political risks that give a challenge to supply chains. Political risk may begin from three sources, often in an overlapping latest trend: (1) worldwide relatives such as inter-state wars, cross national terrorism and anti-globalization organizations which endeavor to destabilize free trade; (2) unstable political schemes or nations characterized by violent household confrontations over legitimacy and the irregular move or exercise of political power; and (2) governmental policies such as intrusive enterprise regulations and ownership, corruption and need of transparency, insufficient capacity to enforce the direct of regulation and ineffective macroeconomic principles.

The risk of external risk and its influence on the supply string of links are showed with several examples. The enterprise procedures of Drummond Co., a US mining company in Colombia, face a spectrum of ecological dangers encompassing political volatility, infrastructure decimation and legal liabilities. Due to the Colombian civil war, Drummond's trains provided chain that has been bombed 40 times since 1995 by leftist guerrillas. The business outsourced security of its amenities and supply chain to the Colombian military. Drummond now faces accusations of legal culpability for the wrongful death of ...