Manufacturing Supply Chain Professionals Managing with Demand-Driven Data

The supply chain manufacturing managers recognize the need to respond to customers' needs by becoming more demand-driven. From plant floor managers to operation managers the interface with suppliers is helping supply chain manufacturing leaders discover how demand-driven principles help organizations profit through more effective methods. The notion of demand-driven is not new; it is undergoing great expansion by helping manufacturers become more competitive and better equipped to meet customer needs, create synchronized systems that solve common manufacturing challenges, and achieve critical business goals. The visibility gained through demand-driven and synchronized factories enable manufacturers to quickly adapt to change and come out more profitable for it whether the change is based on competing market conditions, evolving needs of customers, increasing consistantency, or achieving quality with less error and waste.

Supply chain professionals must aggregate information from both machine-level and disparate enterprise systems, providing real-time visual information systems that empower everyone - from the top floor to the shop floor - with actionable information. More than any other role in manufacturing and distribution, supply chain execution requires managing constraints, improving flow, driving on-time delivery, and maintaining a competitive edge.   

Automobile Manufacturing Supply Chain Outlook

The news from General Motors Co. could not be much better for anyone taking part in the automobile manufacturing supply chain. The Wall Street Journal's Jeff Bennett reported the automaker will spend $1.2 billion to upgrade its Indiana pickup truck plant as part of a larger plan to plow billions of dollars into U.S. factories and facilities.

The announcement puts new detail behind the $5.4 billion expansion plan GM announced last month, and suggested GM is confident that it can take advantage of slowly improving consumer confidence. The investments are coming to the Midwest that has been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs. The $1.3 billion will go to a plant in Arlington, Texas, where the company makes sport-utility vehicles. For the sprawling world of parts suppliers and their service providers, it is the latest sign that the auto-manufacturing business still has a solid foundation in the U.S. Recent decisions by Volvo Car Corp and Daimler AG to locate new plants in South Carolina, are the types of investments that have multiplier effects on local economies, and contribute to the creation of big, new supply chains. 

Critical Issues Manufacturers Consider in Supply Chain

SupplyChain24/7 staff reported that a study, jointly conducted by Deloitte and MAPI, looked at how manufacturing companies are assessing and responding to risks. It found that the current operating environment demands a more analytical, agile, and clinical view of risk to effectively address the complexity and velocity of critical risks to businesses. "The pace and impact of innovation, coupled with cybersecurity risk, creates a risk environment that must be carefully managed," said Brian Clark, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and co-author of the study. "Product innovation can rapidly make existing products obsolete, potentially delivering considerable value to the innovator while leaving the unprepared facing competitive disadvantages. Further, technological innovation enables the manufacturing business model more, but can present a strategic risk as well. For manufacturers to thrive amid the ever-changing risk landscape, a company's risk assessment practices should align with those changes."

Supply chains are highly complex and continuously exposed to a variety of internal and external risks, if not managed carefully, can result in potential adverse impacts to manufacturers' sales and brand reputations. The study indicated manufacturers should build resiliency into supply chains to address critical vulnerabilities proactively, as well as balance risk and costs to prevent, or recover quickly from, risk-related disruptions. 

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