RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Managing Supply Chain in a Tea Manufacturing Company



Managing Supply Chain in a Tea Manufacturing Company

Introduction

The management of the supply chain is a knowledge application that is implementation or operational management or compliance in the field of web tasks (exemplified by the term "chain"), as well as the functioning of the logistics system, as determined by the terms of logistics costs of the organization. The company that I have chosen for the assignment is a tea manufacturing company. Supply chain integrates all the functions of management starting from the manufacturer and ending at the customer. This includes transporters, the suppliers, retailers and the wholesalers, and all the functionaries that link all of the above-mentioned functions. The main function of supply chain management is to meet the demands of the customers by adding value to the services and products in the most effective and efficient possible way (Fawcett, Ellram & Ogden, 2007).

Discussion

Inbound Logistics and Procurement

Procurement in the company involves the buying of raw materials, dealing with suppliers, as well as the vendors and the management of the billing system. There also is an automated indirect procurement system installed in the company.

Technology

The tea manufacturing company has invested in a real time microbiology analyzer. The packaging of bottles and boxes is all-automatic. New machinery is also introduced repeatedly in the company to keep up with the standards of the market.

Warehousing

The company has on site storage that eliminates the offsite storage to the cost of the warehouse. The company has designed the warehouses as per the future forecast for the expansion in the sales of the company. The warehouses of the company have been linked to five plants. They are also designed to dispatch 350 boxes each hour and receive more than 200 pellets per hour. The company keeps an inventory of 68 days on hand and the inventory turns of the company amount to 5.7927 turns.

Inventory Management

The tea manufacturing company has an integrated database for retailers, distributors, as well as, the sales channels. The company makes use of sales driven forecast that has an incorporation of business analysis and marketing research.

Transportation

The company has established the bottling plants of the company close to the major transport gateways of railway in North America. The company also has set up truck terminals to provide the customers with a door-to-door service. The tea manufacturing company is working towards adapting a transport system that is eco-friendly.

Supply Chain Management

It is the tendency of the companies to focus on core competencies (outsourcing, reduction of intra-organizational division of labor/production depth in the company) to develop increasingly differentiated supply. Fierce competition in global markets, short product lead times (time-to-market), short product life cycles and high customer expectations have moved into the center of business management supply chain decisions (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2009).

As a result, compete in their respective target markets not vertically integrated single manufacturer, but instead complex structured alternative supply chains, which consist of systemically related, but autonomously acting business ...