A collection of resources and commentary providing an introduction to supply chain management and related systems for students, practitioners, and anyone else interested in learning more about how to design, manufacture, transport, store, deliver, and manage products.
RFID technology is, well, fascinating.An example of RFID technology in use comes
from Maryland.The Medical Examiners
Office is using RFID tags on cadavers.By automating all organ donor information of an RFID tag the Examiners
Office was able to increase effective organ donations by an estimated
50-70%.Organ donations operate under extremely
tight schedules, as the window for viable transplant is very small.By using RFID tags they were able help create
a more efficient system that decreased lag time and saved lives.
The second potential use of RFID technology is in
retail.While many companies already use
RFID tags in their supply chain process and inventory management systems one
area that remains unexplored are the end user applications.By putting RFID tags on the consumer, via a
rewards card or store credit card, individual retail stores could track a
consumer as soon as they enter the store.Associates could then more effectively meet the needs of each individual
customer.For example if a customer buys
clothing for a teenager every year at the same time, the system could target
items for a teenage birthday when the customer walks in during that ‘birthday’
window.Taking this step on step further
interactive displays, in the form of touch screen TVs can target a customer
with a welcome message and special discounts.All this is now possible with the cost reductions in RFID tags.
As the above web site’s name (spychips) might indicate, not
everyone appreciates this technology.Many people see this level of detail into their “private” lives as an
intrusion.But in a day when Facebook and
Giant Eagle Advantage cards track your every move anyway is this technology
much different?
When you think of your annual physical that you have every year with your primary care physician, you think of calling to make an appointment, going to the doctor's office, awkwardly sitting on that paper-covered exam table in order to see your physician. Now, with the usage of Health IT, you can visit your doctor via your iPhone of iPad. This usage of health IT changes the way that care is being delivered and not only is of more convenience for the patients but also can increase the productivity of the physician and the physician's office. With any technological implementation, there is always a high initial start-up costs to implement such technology, but in the long run, there is a significant costs savings and (hopefully) an improvement on the quality and efficiency of care being provided.
This change in care delivery has already been implemented in Ford Hospital
(http://mhealthinsight.com/2012/04/12/surgeons-at-the-henry-ford-hospital-now-using-facetime-to-provide-post-op-consultations/) and has demonstrated beneficial outcomes through its patient satisfaction on the care that they are receiving.
Although these virtual visits will not completely replace the face-to-face interaction that you would get from a physician, especially when a specific treatment is required, it expedites many routine intake and general consultations performed by physicians. There are still obstacles of confidentiality and physician reimbursement issues that are tagged along with this technology, but as the increase of health IT usage continues to grow, providers, insurers, and patients will learn to adapt to this new system and the policies will be more clearly defined.
In healthcare, it is all about the patient at the core. The quality of care and the outcomes of healthcare is the main concern of patients. As a patient, how would you feel about having a doctor's visits via your iPhone? Do you think that would affect the quality of care that you receive positively, negatively?
The Pittsburgh Community Food Bank provides food services to an 11 county area surrounding Pittsburgh. In the past, food bank have passed out bags of non-perishable items to folks who showed up. In the summer many communities partnered with a social service agency to give out free lunches for any kid 18 and younger who showed up at a specific time and place. Pretty much, that is still how it works. However, as with all things, the procedure has had to evolve. Research, communications, technology, and a member network have changed the way that food is provided. It is no longer simply canned goods. The Pittsburgh food bank provides fresh produce from farmers, nutritional information and how to cook tips.
As a non-profit the food bank staff and management has to be innovative and keep costs within a budget that relies on grants and donations. They must continue to provide top level service to stakeholders, maintain costs, minimize risks (ex. food recovery donated to food programs), continue to build and maintain relationships with donors and farmers, and hire top quality staff and recruit volunteers to help in their mission.
The challenges faced by food banks are not really any different from those faced by clothing manufacturers and furniture makers. Are there other evolutions possible in the procurement and distribution of food supplies to those who need it? What supply chain reasons exist to encourage everyone with a kitchen window to grow their own small scale garden with provided seeds and a DIY guide?
Sources:
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank www.pittsburghfoodbank.org
Supply Chain Council www.supply-chain.org The Five Most Common Supply Chain Challenges
Are you strange with e-packaging? It stands
for packaging with smart electronic devices which often involves the printing
of conductive circuits right on the packaging substrate—include increasing
sales by better merchandising, improving the human interface by spoken or
scrolling instructions, and providing valuable electronic rewards on or in the
package. [1] This nascent technology may change transform the packaging
ways in the world.
E-packaging has many advantages to customer
and supply chain management. For instance, in the healthcare medicine field,
using e-packaging to record which drug pill was removed from the packets in
order to monitor patients’ compliance. It can also increase attractive of
products, such as talking pizza boxes, winking logos on multipacks of biscuits
and bottles of rum, compliance-monitoring blister packs in drug trials, plastic
bottles of drugs that prompt the user, testers on batteries, and reprogrammable
decoration on mobile phones.[1] Other using as anti-theft retail package
product are also appealing.
However due to reasons like high cost and immature
technology, E-packaging is not widely used now, as data shown in the following
graph, seldom companies are using this technology currently. However the future
E-packaging using is predicted to sharply increase in next decades.
Seems that in next decades, the brands or packages
of products will look like all kinds of high-tech you can imagine. I am
wondering how these fancy packages will change the supply chain management in future.
Introduction
What if you could press a "print" button and have a single printer create your iPhone? While I have a hard time believing such a process will ever be financially viable for you or I to do at home, what if Apple could do that at an industrial level? What if Apple could just print iPhones at every store, rather than having them shipped from China?
This week's articles on small scale and custom manufacturing got me thinking about 3-D printers and how they could revolutionize where and how our products are manufactured. Up to now, the limitation with 3-D printing has been that, if you want to build an item with various components, those components had to be manually inserted into a shell during the printing process [1]. This was extremely inefficient because the printing process was interrupted and, despite the printer's automated process, an external operator was still needed to place in the additional component. Furthermore, this process necessitated a broader inventory than the printer's standard "inks".
Printing Complex Components
Two recent advancements in 3-D printing have made the dream of a print out iPhone closer to reality. The first, pioneered by Xerox, has allowed for the printing of conductors, semi-conductors, and resisters directly into the printed objects. The processes lays down a thin film of silver 5 nanometers thick. At that minuscule quantity, silver is inexpensive, a better conductor than copper, and can be applied with essentially zero waste [1].
The second advancement is from our own backyard, the collaboration of Disney Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University's HCI Institute. In a paper from October, 2012, the researchers demonstrated how a version of fiber optics can be printed into objects to form rudimentary screens and switches. The video below shows their progress [2].
These screens are not iPhone quality but they are a step in the right direction. More than the screens, the switch capabilities may be the most useful idea for printing in 2012. As the video shows, the switches can be manipulated to created a wide variety of usable features in printed objects already available.
Conclusion
I still have many questions regarding the viability of printed electronics. How good can the quality become? How low will the prices fall? How functional will the products be?
I also have a number of production oriented questions for such products. How long will it take to produce each product? Will printing produce a cost savings over traditional manufacturing? At what scale will/can products be printed?
Ultimately, I am unsure if printed goods will every replace the manufactured consumer products we use today. Still, I do believe that customized printing may eventually help maintain and build specialized technical equipment used by governments and large businesses. In those cases, printing certain parts may be vastly more cost effective and secure than having them built and shipped from another location. Until then, we may have to settle for more printed items like we have seen so far... cheap plastic crap.
On second thought, maybe these printer gurus are on to something.
Sources:
[1] "Print Me a Phone: New techniques used to embed electronics in products." The Economist, Technology and Science, July 28, 2012. Internet; Available from http://www.economist.com/node/21559593
3D printing is a new technology which makes
personal fabrication possible. 3D Printing builds up layers of material
(plastics, ceramics or metal powders) using a computer-aided design to create a
three-dimensional product. [1] This allows to manufacture items with minimal
human assistance, a large number of 3D printers could be a cost-effective way
to produce any small product or part without a large workforce -meaning the
manufacturer is able to move production closer to the end user at a low cost.[1]
Although duo to high cost, 3D printing technology is not a mainstream in manufacturing
or design process, but the advantages from using 3D printers are so attracting
and obvious that I believe it will be largely used in future and change the
structure of supply chain, bring both opportunities and threatens to logistics
companies and globalized manufacturing market.
3D printing technology will largely
simplified the flow of supply chain.
When the 2D printing becomes mature, either
using a personal 3D printer or relay on local services, the traditional supply
chain will be changed. A typical supply chain is illustrated as picture 1, it
includes outsourcing manufacturing part and international transportation part
and inevitable warehouses.
Picture 1
And under using 3D printers, the new supply
chain could be simplified as picture 2 in which situation producers and
manufacture different designs and product parts locally. This modification
bring outsourcing producing back home which eliminate time and cost on
outsourcing and global transportations. Additionally, the characteristic of 3D
printing also gives producers a capability to produce on demand of customers
which can help reduce level of warehouse.
Picture 2
To summarize, the simplification of supply
chain using 3D printing can lead to:[3]
1.Shorter lead times
2.Reduced supply chain risk
3.Reduction of transportation costs
Facing the coming revolution of 3D printing
technology, companies from all parts in the supply chain should consider the
opportunities and threatens it may bring. First, to traditional logistic companies,
3D printing will cause a decline in the cargo industry, reducing the demand for
long-distance transportation such as air, sea and rail freight industries. [1] The
logistic companies which do not realize the coming revolutions cannot adapt to
the new situation. As every coin has two sides, with 3D Printing, logistics companies
could also become able to act as the manufacturers.
Some constraints of 3Dprinting are it
currently only focus on small products manufacturing and the relatively high
cost. And changing traditional manufacturing machines to 3D printing will also
induce a high cost, this could also be a reason manufacturing companies
hesitate to use 3D printing. How to better switch a traditional manufacturing
flow to a new model using 3D printing without inducing high costs? what is the way
out for logistic firms? And is there a possibility that when everyone has a 3D
printing machine at home which leads to the extinction of manufacturing
companies someday in future?
It is undoubted that the usage of RFIDs have revolutionized
supply chain management strategies and how information is passed upstream and
downstream in the supply chain. However the adoption of RFID has not really
taken off beyond the point of sale. One area where RFIDs could not really take
off is at the consumer point. In practice, currently there is no scalable
technical solution that can enable this. However all of this might change with
the rise of NFC (subset of RFID technology) enabled devices (smart phones) in
the hands of consumers owing to its lower costs and a faster transaction
speed.
Near field communication (NFC) is a close range RFID
technology, meant for near to or physical touch applications to maintain
security. NFC is for smartphones and similar devices which establish radio
communication with each other. It uses electromagnetic radio fields instead of
radio transmissions as used by technologies like blue tooth” 1.
NFC usage is about to take off, and it
will change the way we conduct business and make payments or collect
information. This is evident by that fact that, 168 million
NFC-enabled handsets will be shipped in 2012 (According to HIS iSuppli).
NFC has a very powerful yet simple user interface. NFC
technology has a short readability range. It can be used in a supply chain to
track and share inventory information. “For instance, a delivery driver
would only need to tap a smartphone against a pallet of inventory and the
shipment information would be instantly ready to be sent to a customer or back
to the distribution center. This technology could be used to lower the
percentage of inventory errors and track products and equipment along a supply
chain.” 2. Imagine NFC collecting and feeding back
the information related to usage of groceries to online
stores in order to trigger automatic purchases. NFC enables sensing and
detection capabilities to individual customers at a scale that has not been
possible previously. There is a possibility that 5 years from now, wallets
might be replaced by NFC technology. It would be really interesting to see how
this technology evolves.
What other benefits can NFC enable that old RFID technology
could not (for supply chain)? What do you think are the biggest challenges
for widespread NFC adoption?
In today’s social era, it is difficult to imagine the supply chain industry
staying alienated from social media. A further interesting fact is that “91
percent of working adults who are linked in any manner to any company's supply
chain use social media regularly” (Supply Chain Management – Infosys Blogs).
This provides a huge opportunity to investigate the effects if these employees
start using social media for work purposes at their workplace. Nowadays, the
increase in collaboration between supply chain members and social media is
proving to be a key enabler for the same. “A study has revealed that employees
are able to interact more effectively with their suppliers and attain
information regarding the latest trends and technologies through the use of
social media” (Supply Chain Management – Infosys Blogs). Currently, around 40%
of the players in the supply chain industry use social media to connect with
their vendors and the vendors also leverage the social media to expand their
reach to the customers.
With an increase in the consumerization of technologies and
a radical shift towards BYOT (Bring your own technology) trends, there is a
compelling need for social media capabilities integrated to a firm’s supply
chain for effective communication, improved efficiency and enhanced
productivity. There are numerous use-cases that support the usage of social
media internally in an organization. For example, an internal social media
application can help the purchasing team collaborate more effectively with the
payables team.
Over the next couple of years, we’re probably going to
see an explosion in the use of social media to strengthen supply chain
operations. With the increasing proliferation of a plethora of Unified
Communication & Collaboration tools like Salesforce Chatter, Microsoft
Office 365, Yammer, Jive, etc. , organizations are looking at integration of
these collaboration tools with social media to enable the key players
(suppliers, retailers, end customers) in the supply chain value chain to be
connected. The key for businesses, however, is to choose the optimal blend of
social media applications that will answer specific business goals.
The question remains that can social media disrupt and
change the structure of the supply chain industry and will the heavy-weights of
the industry like Walmart, L.L. Bean serve as early adopters making significant
changes to their already successful supply chain model?
DIY Manufacturing, With a Twist I was pretty blown away by this weeks readings. The ability to create a tangible, 3D prototype of any object simply by rotating it in front of a webcam, something that so many people already have sitting in their homes, is absolutely astounding! The terms "new age manufacturing," "garage renaissance" and "circular design" were strikingly brought to life. So you can imagine that I was even more blown away, when just the other day, my sister witnessed as two of her friends were crowned the 2012 Lean Startup Challenge Champions, winning $25,000 cash and over $50,000 in other prizes that will help them launch their new startup: a lean, open source, furniture company. Their creation, Unbranded Designs (www.unbrandeddesigns.com) allows anyone (designer or not) to upload a furniture design to their website; members that aren't interested in designing can vote on their favorites; and favorites will go into production and be sold. The aim of their business is to create a community of designers and users that learn from one another. Accessing the ideas and feedback from the community allows everyone involved to make better products. Their dedication lies in the creation of high quality, relevant furniture that doesn't need to conform to any rules based on what is being done by established brands. And it's working. In addition to winning the Lean Startup Challenge, sponsored by Chicago Lean Startup Circle, they have already sold $3,200 worth of goods, and they've only been in business for ten days! It seems like last week, I knew next to nothing about the return of small-scale manufacturing and open source collaboration. Now all of sudden, it's everywhere! How would you apply open source and collaborative techniques in this return to hands on consumerism?
Sources:
"Nano-Based RFID Tags Could Replace
Barcodes." Science Daily 19 Mar. 2010. Print.
Anderson, Chris.
"In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits." Wired25 Jan. 2010: Print.
Mohr, Stephan,
Ken Somers, Steven Swartz, and Helga Vanthournout. "Manufacturing Resource
Productivity." McKinsey Quarterly June (2012): Print.
While preparing for an
interview, I have come across really good articles and whole different
perspective on how companies build their strategies with the growing evolution
of technology and how the gap between online sales and bricks and mortar sales is diminishing.
Online sales made up about
$300 billion last year, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.[2] It is getting hard to differentiate the channel from which a particular sale was made. This has called for
retailers adapting to a new integrated business model called omni-channel/integrated
retailing. What is integrated retailing?
Integrated retail is an
approach where the consumer experience is same through all the available
shopping channels; i.e. bricks and mortars, catalog, online and mobile devices.
Companies like Apple, Nike
and Toys “R” Us are way ahead of the pack in implementing this model, allowing
customers to buy online and pick up at stores, browse in the stores and buy
online etc. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears have implemented this model through
Site-to-Store shipping feature.
Technology becomes the key
component for the success of integrated retail. Sears CEO Louis D’Amboise has
said that, "We believe the retailers who best use technology to integrate
the customer experience across all channels will be the ones who win,"[1]
The core of integrated retail strategy is Sear’s Shop Your Way Rewards program.
Sears is building the rewards program to better connect with their customers.
As part of the strategy,
Sears Holdings Corp has rolled out iPad or iPod devices to almost 450 Sears and
Kmart stores around the country. Sales associates are given these devices to
help customers access product information, order products online and check
inventory for the products all at the shopping floor.
The biggest challenge the
retailer will face is provide these services to users consistently. Raj Penkar,
SVP and President, Supply Chain, Sears Holdings Corp state that, “For retailers
like us who have both a brick-and-mortar presence and a strong online presence,
the challenge and opportunity is to fulfill the promise of omni-channel, or
what we call integrated retail. So we also need a flexible supply chain that
can actually fulfill that promise.”[4]
Could you think of other
ideas that retailers can adapt to the integrated retail strategy they already
have in place?
Could you think of an
innovative way, a retailer can reach out to a customer and ensure they buy the
product in any channel of their choice?
