ITLS6010 Logistics and Supply Chain Management Systems : Automation and Ethical

Week Number

Text of Padlet post

Provide a brief critique of your post and explain how it could be improved (no more than five sentences per post)

1

1.
– In these videos, automation is used mostly in handling a high volume of inventory and managing storage. For instance, picking, packing, storing, collecting data, and so on.  Here, automation is used to gain critical efficiencies, maximize productivity and reduce costs. In these videos, I can see some good combinations of digital automation( data collection, ERP software )  and physical automation (robotic systems). Amazon, Witron, and Autostore have advanced warehouses where a great deal of modern warehouse automation is used. Some of the critical goals of the automaton are, reducing operating costs, increasing efficiency and productivity, greater coordination of material handling equipment, warehouse space utilization, and reducing manual process. Automation is implemented mostly for time, repetitive and labour-intensive activities.

2.
– Automation adaptability depends on the country to country (trade regulations, labour union, tax policies ). It also depends on the organization, industry, and ROI value. Much of the automation growth is driven by the promise of new technologies and the ROI value they can provide. Not every country or company has the power or capability to adopt sophisticated computing technology-based automation. In developing countries, labour costs are much lower compared to the developed countries. Therefore, implementing a costly automation process is unjustifiable. On the other hand, developed countries tend to use more automation due to its high labour costs.  

3.
– Yes, automation processes are considered energy efficient when we count ROI value in a given period. The Automation process, which replaces high labour costs, has a higher ROI value. Human intensive operations are considered as low energy efficient due to its higher maintenance costs such as temperature control, occupational health safety, and so on

4.
–  Perhaps the most cited concern of increased automation is that it is likely to replace most hard physical work. Recent studies indicate that in the coming years, increased modern industrial automation will seriously disturb the labour market. Besides, human adaptiveness with the complex automation process is poorly understood.

Although I have discussed the prospects of automation and ethical issues to consider in my Padlet post, I would like to add two points about today’s automation prospects:

1. Employees managing automation rather than lifting boxes are far more common these days. Modern warehouses will optimize the entire supply chain, from vendors to end users, in the coming days. Meijer already has such a warehouse, which is the most technologically advanced in the American region.

2. Automation has recently become a source of concern in almost every industry due to the potential for mass unemployment and loss of control over decision-making processes.There is a frightening possibility that bots will become smarter than humans and begin communicating with each other in ways that humans will find incomprehensible.

2

Problem 1.

A. Key data elements captured by a WMS :

– License Plate Number (LPN)
– Item Barcode, descriptions and number of items to be picked up.
– Status of inventory

B.

Similarities:

– WMS in both videos can help the team members to find priority task.
– WMS in both videos supports efficient piking and packing  process
– In both videos, printed tickets or barcode is used to prioritize the orders to be picked

Differences: 

– Oracle WMS is suitable for both tablets or PCs whereas  WMS in video 2 require a full functioning PC. 
– Oracle helps customers to know about the available product in store, but Manhattan doesn’t.
– Manhattan focuses on picking , packing and shipping away within same day, whereas oracle visualize, control and executes overall product circle. 
– Oracle WMS is cloud based, but Manhattan is built on a server based system. 
– Oracle WMS Cloud can be paperless, but Manhattan require printed pick tickets. 
– Oracle WMS has more visibility compare to Manhattan system

Problem 2. 

A. Partial design 1 consists of details product information (product circle) whereas Partial design 2 focuses on specifics product details such as suppliers details. Partial design 1 covers more elements of a particular product compared to Partial design 2, which covers a particular element in detailed. 

B. Partial design consists one manufacturing elements such as product components, , unit of measurement, orders number and usage. Therefore,  Partial design one is suitable for manufacturing or production plant. On the other hand, Partial design 2 is consists of such elements ( suppliers items, inventory items ,stock levels, brands)  which is used in warehouse or storage facilities. Warehouse or production plant can use Partial design 2 for better inventory management.

C.

Partial Design 1

Return Items

PK Product_ I/N (Item number )

PK Product_Name

PK Product_Class

PK Product _Sold _ Date

PK Product_ List_price

FK Product_Supplier

FK Product_ Warranty

D.

Implement partial design 1 in lucidchart and include a screenshot in your post:

Partial Design one lucidchart screenshot:

I made a mistake when establishing PK & FK relationships in the partial design one table. As a result, I revised the first table in Partial Design One:

Partial Design One

Return Items

(PK)Product_Name
(FK)Product_ id
(FK)Customer _id
Product_class
Product _sold _ date
Product_ list_price
Product_supplier
Product_warranty_end_date

Usage: Using this table we can calculate the remaining warranty period during customers warranty claim.   

Also, I would like to add another table for the Partial Design Two:

Partial Design Two

Order Items

(PK)Order_id

(FK)Item_id

Order_date

Order_status

Expected_delivery_date

Item_receiving_Date

Space_requaired_for_item

Space_available

Usage: Using this table we would be able track down the items delivered late, and communicate with supplier of these items to find a solution for late delivery. In addition, using this table we can calculate how many items we can order by measuring available storage space.

11

TWO key takeaways from the SAP MM and SAP SD videos:

1. Materials management (MM) is a fundamental feature of supply chain management that entails the design and implementation of supply chains to meet a company’s material requirements. These requirements include controlling and monitoring the flow of material while constantly assessing variables such as price, demand, and availability.

SAP MM is a part of a company’s logistics functions that helps to coordinate procurement activities and support all aspects of material management. It is regarded as the logistical backbone, and it incorporates modules such as distribution, production planning, plant management, and project systems.

2. The sap material management module is made up of several components and sub-components. Master data, purchasing, inventory management, and pricing procedures are the most commonly used components. Each of these components has subcomponents that are required for a specific business process. Transitions are used to carry out all of these processes. In SAP, a transaction is the processing of specific information in order to meet the requirements of a business process.

SIX key takeaways from the three SAP WM configuration videos. Remember to watch the theory (i.e., slide-based) components only for each video:

1. Most Warehouse Inventory management only tells us about the total product unit stored in the warehouse. Typical inventory management without SAP WM is unable to locate the products exact locations. 
2. SAP WM Structure =  Warehouse->Storage Types->Storage Sections -> Bins
3. Second video shows, how to create High Rack structure( e. g., storage bins) in a warehouse in the SAP WM System. Storage bins are master data. 
4. First, we have to create all the bins in a quality environment to test, then we also have to create these in the product system. Therefore, we must define the sequences to make work easier and logical. 
5. Quant means separate identifiable quantities of materials. For instance, 10 piece of a particular product can be grouped and called by quant ( unique Key) in a SAP WM system. (SAP Language). 
6. In SAP Wm, Quant is used to manage and monitor high volume of stocks in the Storage Bins.

In addition to my padlet post, I’d like to mention two points from the SAP MM video:

1. SAP’s material management module is made up of various components and subcomponents and Master data, purchasing inventory management, and pricing method are the most notable and widely used.

2. The fundamental data that serves as the foundation for any transaction is known as master data. Vendor master data, material master data, price master data, customer master data, and warehouse management master data are some types of master data.

I would also like to add one important point from SAP SD video:

Two of the most essential features of the SAP SD module are the execution of business processes utilized in the sale and billing of goods and services, as well as the integration of data flow to other SAP modules.

12

Two key takeaways from considerations for ERP selection video (First video):

1. Most of the company (75%-80%) struggle to reaching the third stage of the ERP where they get stuck in first two stages (software selection and base implementation). Successful companies reaches to the third stage through on time system implementation, ROI realization and continuous improvement.
2. To streamline the software implementation process, the first and most important step is choosing ERP system fastidiously through sufficient industry and product knowledge. (industry, size, complexity). 

Two key takeaways from considerations for ERP selection video (Second video)

1. Microsoft dynamics 365 is easier to learn compared to Oracle system or SAP ERP. It has also Power BI for better prediction and analytics. 
2. SAP S/4 HANA is much more mature in cloud based solution offerings compared to Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics. Also, for ‘scalability and universal solutions’ SAP HANA is ahead of the other two systems. 

Two key takeaways from SAP System implementation failures in Lidl (First video):

1. Lidi did not make the required changes for SAP implementation. 
2. Lidi customized the SAP ERP (HANA) system significantly because they are not willing to change. One of reason could be lack of proper organisational change management mechanism in place. 

Two key takeaways from SAP System implementation failures in LeasePlan (Second video):

1. LeasePlan was trying to integrate their 35 different system to one single SAP ERP platform which is considered as very challenging due to organisational and operational change management issue.  
2. One of the LeasePlan’s biggest operation was running on Oracle ERP System. Moving from oracle to SAP ERP sometimes can be a challenging task. Also, most importantly,  LeasePlan was integrating from industry specific solution system to a universal SAP ERP.

In addition to my  post, I would like to add some points:

ERP selection video(First video).

For a company to be successful in the ERP system selection process, it must invest more time and money. As a result, even a poor selection process with exceptional implementation efforts is preferable.

ERP selection video (Second video).

When it comes to standardizing and integrating business operations, SAP is the gold standard.

Also, I would like to add one key takeaway from SAP System implementation failures videos:

To close the implementation requirements gap, the organization can either adapt its business processes to meet what the software requires, or customize the software to match existing business processes, and a smart solution would be to meet in the middle and change the software and business processes to some extent.

13

Five key takeaways from the fireside chat on supply-chain visibility:

1.    In a supply chain, without visibility, each participating company has limited knowledge, thus has limited ability to mitigate any problems. Visibility helps companies to be able to work in the most efficient way possible. To maximize the benefits of visibility, businesses must set expectations for all parties regarding the level of information that will be exchanged. Furthermore, companies should strive to bring all participating companies up to the same level of visibility.

2.    One of the significant challenge is getting inside information from the trading partners. According to Levine,  80% of their trading partners don’t interact with them via EDI because it’s cost-prohibitive.

3.    To built a sustainable supply chain, we need upstream and downstream visibility. As a result, internal supply chain and external supply chain visibility can be considered as a team sport.

4.    Because the end consumer experience is so important for retail companies, visibility in online shopping platforms is critical. Because most customers are flaky these days, retail websites must display the correct number of available items in order to ship the product on time. A bad experience with one retailer will lead to a customer switching to another, as it only takes a couple of clicks of the button. 

5.    Organizations needed to be much more agile during the pandemic and be able to reroute inventory from one location to another. It is difficult to move goods around due to a lack of horizontal collaboration across the supply chain network. Maintaining real-time visibility is difficult due to the lack of access to every node in the supply chain.

Key takeaways resulting from the questions i asked :

1.      

Question: Recently, Is IBM implementing any unique strategy for better traceability?

Key takeaways: 

Levine discussed about three activity stream (dimensions) in IBM.

a.     Physical product movement

b.     Transactional document exchange between suppliers via EDI

c.     Cross border trade (e.g., exchanging contractual documents)

There are multiple players in IBM supply chain. As a result, IBM’s strategies address visibility issues in each of those dimensions separately. Then, IBM provides a comprehensive solution that addresses all three dimensions at the same time.

2.      

Question: What ERP system IMB uses? Do they uses IBM made ERP Systems or third party ERP Systems?

Key takeaways: 

a.     IBM doesn’t product ERP systems 

b.     IBM uses multiple third party ERP Systems based on need, location and business stream. 

3.      

Question: What technologies  IBM uses ? Is IMB using AI, BI and 5G ?

Key takeaways:  To provide comprehensive visibility across the supply-chain network, IBM uses various technologies such as EDI, IoT, distributed ledger technologies, blockchain, and so on. Recently, the most disruptive technologies in the world are IoT and AI enabled by 5G.

IBM invests significantly in the latest technologies, and IBM is considered a global leader  in blockchain.

I’d like to add a few more takeaways from the discussion:

1. Companies within a supply – chain network should use unified standard traceability systems for better and more effective traceability, though this is difficult in practice.

2. Due to financial constraints and privacy concerns, not all businesses want to use a better traceability system.

3. In the era of counterfeiting products, a long-term and effective traceability system embedded in ERP is critical to combating the large volume of counterfeiting products all over the world.

4. The increased use of IoT and blockchain technology will significantly change how customers and businesses interact with one another.