is taking part in a
how increasing the choice of
products that a business offers
can help to improve its supply
chain performance.
to a period of economic uncertainty,
businesses have been extending
their product variety in order to
provide a more tailored approach
for customers, with greater flexibility
and responsiveness-enhancing
initiatives being implemented to
help businesses to adopt customer-
centric strategies.
changes to the way manufacturing
operations and supply chains are
organised, but to date, very little
research has been undertaken on
the impact that increasing the
amount and variety of products a
chain performance.
addressed at ULMS through its
involvement as an academic
partner in the EU Framework 7
REMPLANET (Resilient Multi-Plant
Networks) research project.
uncertainty costs associated
with the provision of high-variety
solutions
delivery of high-variety solutions
chain performance within a
high-variety context.
explains: "We were approached to
be involved in the project because
of the School's expertise in
responsive supply chain design.
to design supply chains that are
`customer-driven', in other words
initiatives that are concerned with
analysing and improving the
flexibility of a particular business
unit in order to respond to changes
in customer requirements. This
requires effective, customer-driven
processes that align production
with demand, eliminate waste and
creatively involve the workforce in
process improvement activities.
It also requires synchronicity in
terms of planning, production and
delivery of products and materials."
the benefits of the `glass pipeline'
approach, information systems that
allow the sharing of demand and
production data across supply
chain tiers so that customer and
supply chain behaviour are
completely transparent to decision
makers. However the concept is not
only dependent on the appropriate
use of information and
communications technologies, but
also requires inter-organisational
collaboration and agile processes