Programs: Supply Chain: Products/Services - Supply Chain Products and Services for Vermont Manufacturers

VMEC / Supply Chain / Products/Services

Products & Services - Supply Chain

Supply Chain Improvement Jumpstart

For companies that recognize the importance of good supply chain management, and want to get started down the road to improvement, VMEC offers the Supply Chain Improvement Jumpstart .

During this two-day, on-site “Jumpstart,” our supply chain experts will work directly with you to:

Assess quantitative performance using your company’s metrics and set supply chain goals based on your strategic goals

Define and assess your supply chain configuration and its capability to deliver your business goals

Review and complete a supply chain business process maturity assessment along the major supply chain processes of Plan, Source, Make, and Deliver

Combine findings from quantitative performance, supply chain configuration, and business process analyses into a prioritized list of initiatives designed to deliver quantitative performance goals

The benefits to your company:

A firm grasp/understanding of supply chain fundamentals and potential benefits of running a lean supply chain

Complete understanding of current supply chain performance through a full-spectrum analysis technique

First-pass roadmap of tactical improvement initiatives that ensure that the supply chain is capable of delivering on business goals

For most manufacturers, the supply chain is the single most important process within company operations. It contains almost all the assets, touches almost all the costs, and delivers all the product to the customer. VMEC knows that the difference between an average and well-run supply chain can mean significant profit improvement. Call us today to schedule your “Jumpstart” and let us help your company be more profitable!

Supply Chain Essentials

The supply chain is one of the most important, but often the most overlooked, business capability for manufacturing companies. The supply chain delivers all product to the customer, controls most of the productive assets of a company, and consumes a significant amount of a company’s costs. In fact, benchmarking studies reveal that best-in-class companies spend half of average companies on supply chain management.

This workshop will be facilitated by an instructor who has worked globally to help companies improve supply chain management. The instructor will present an overview of supply chain management, including a definition of the supply chain, economic and other business benefits possible, appropriate performance metrics, and key best practices of superior-performing companies. The supply chain will encompass the four fundamental processes of Plan, Source, Make, and Deliver, fundamental processes as detailed by the Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR). The SCOR model is a standard framework that can describe any supply chain and is currently used and maintained by several hundred companies in the U.S. and globally. The Department of Defense (DoD) has endorsed the SCOR model as a DoD best practice for documenting, assessing, and improving supply chain performance. Other models used to characterize supply chain sophistication will also be discussed. Straightforward examples will be presented to demonstrate why good supply chain management is required for all businesses, large and small.

The links between other important VMEC offerings such as Lean, Value Stream Mapping, and Performance Measurements and the supply chain will be discussed. Additionally, there will be an introduction to an assessment framework that can be simply applied to get immediate results.

This workshop should be attended by anyone who has responsibility for key operational processes, including procurement, manufacturing, customer service, strategic planning, and finance.

Lean Supply Chain Logistics

The Time Wise Lean Logistics workshop features a physical simulation of a supply chain incorporating the roles of business customers, warehouse managers, sales managers, plant managers, suppliers, and logistics providers.

Participants go through the process of building products and delivering the products to business customers. The focus is on holistic supply chain improvement. The challenge for participants is to figure out how to transform the supply chain from a tradition forecast driven system (Push) to an execution-based system (Pull) that is both cost efficient and responsive to customers.

Participants learn to "optimize" the supply chain of a second tier supplier - the Time Wise Clock Company - by actually doing it.

The simulation model uses a systems approach to balance "tradeoffs" in four key drivers of supply chain performance: