Category Archives: Manufacturing

TradeCard: Transaction Management for the Global Supply Chain Part II

In yesterday’s post we introduced you to TradeCard, a supply chain management services and trade finance company that provides an end-to-end SaaS transaction management solution that connects over 4,000 buyer and supplier companies across the world with local support in over 50 countries. This solution, which implements end-to-end transaction management from the cutting of the Purchase Order to final settlement (including chargebacks) with support for financing, document management, 3rd party freight forwarders, and factory floor shipment packaging, is one of the most extensive SI has seen with respect to visibility into the three critical supply chain flows — financial, physical, and information.

We discussed the financial flow, which supports pre- and post- export financing, payment protection, invoice discounting, and settlement with their Procure-to-Pay solution; the physical flow, that is supported by their collaboration, Factory Xpress, and document management solutions; and the information flow, which is supported by the aforementioned solutions along with the TradeCard Advantage and Custom Objects Toolkit solution. Today we are going to dive into the physical flow and the solutions that support it.

We’ll start with the collaboration solution. Designed with forecasting and supply planning in mind, the solution allows for forecast and purchase order data to be pulled from your ERP / forecasting system / system of record of choice and pushed back when the production plan and/or purchase order is complete. Forecasting revolves around (rolling) supply plans, that can be completed from a material, supplier, forecast, inventory, (material) commitment, or demand view. Buyers and suppliers, who are given permission, can edit the forecast, and the revised forecast can be maintained along side the original forecast. The forecast can be at the product level, or the component material level, as the platform has equal support for component and 2nd tier raw material suppliers, who can also be given (read or edit) access if relevant or key. The system also allows the scheduled production runs to be collaboratively decided upon (and updates the projected inventory automatically). There are no built-in forecasting models at this time, but that may change in a future release. (In the interim, Tradecard can integrate any forecasting system that can provide data in a standard format such as EDI, XML, or CSV.)

The UI is similar to many web-based supply management platforms, and includes a “taskboard” that keeps track of all of the current tasks for the current user, which can be ordered by action type, transaction, or assignment date. With respect to transactions, which the suite is designed around, a user can query and track transactions by purchase order, invoices, payments, packing & shipping, financing, (goods) receipts, contracts, adjustments, events, and customs filings in addition to supply plans. Purchase orders are extremely detailed and can contain all of the information required by the supplier, freight forwarders, and any customs authorites (including order terms, parties, freight terms, destinations, items, components, additional terms, and required documents). This allows for the easy generation and submission of appropriate trade and customs documents (with over 10 import and export document formats supported out-of-the-box). The system maintains complete document history and allows an authorized buyer to query exactly who did what when. Events allow the buyer to track the transaction after the PO is issued and record actual production, shipments, receipt, distribution to warehouses, returns, chargebacks, and other relevant events.

Factory Xpress is the “shop floor” solution that is designed for the personnel who are actually packing and shipping the orders. The users can access, and (if they have permission) edit the packing plans, create and print packing slips and/or shipping labels, and even scan appropriately barcoded labels to indicate when an order has been packaged and shipped. In addition, orders for packing labels and materials can be sent directly to Avery Dennison, whom the solution was developed in conjunction with. The system supports bulk packing, multi-packing, and free-packing plans and can automatically regenerate packing plans based upon changes in order quantity, delivery location, carton sizes, or item mix. Once the shipment has been packed, packing manifests can automatically generated from the packing plan and purchase order.

One very neat feature of the platform is the “discrepancy preview” that a supplier can run before finalizing the invoice. When the discrepancy preview is run on a draft invoice, it compares invoice data to shipment/packing manifest data and PO data and reports all discrepancies in pricing, order quantities, factories, origins, destinations, and other comparable data and checks that all terms and/or documents have been completed. This allows the supplier to correct any data that can be corrected before the invoice is sent, minimizing the chance of the buyer rejecting it or sending it back for correction. It also allows the buyer to verify that the invoice they received is consistent with what they expected, or if its not, immediately determine what the discrepancy is and whether or not it was approved (due to a change in forecast or demand).

With respect to reporting, there are dozens of built in report types and the user can select the attributes and value ranges for each report, but TradeCard does not yet possess a generic report builder tool, although custom reports can be created by way of their Common Objects toolkit if required. However, complete export of all in XML and CSV format is supported and the buyer can use a third party data analysis and reporting tool to construct whatever report they want for more detailed analysis.

Finally, the TradeCard platform currently supports English, Traditional, and Simplified Chinese with Spanish coming later this year, and most implmentations, which includes integration to your ERP and forecasting systems, and onboarding of 80% of your relevant supply base, and user training, are accomplished in 90 days. It’s a solid solution and one worth looking into if you need to manage end-to-end transactions across the global supply chain.

TradeCard: Transaction Management for the Global Supply Chain Part I

In yesterday’s post on how it’s sourcing, procurement, and global trade management, we mentioned how a critical part of global trade is finance and document management. One company that facilitates this process is TradeCard, an end-to-end SaaS transaction management solution that connects over 4,000 buyer and supplier companies across the world with local support in over 50 countries. And while they aren’t the only company that facilitates this process, with notable competitors being Integration Point and their extensive suite of import, export, and supply chain compliance solutions and TradeBeam with their import, export, and visibility solutions, they are the first solution that I’ve seen that implements end-to-end transaction management from the PO to final settlement (including chargebacks) with support for financing, document management, 3rd party freight forwarders, and factory floor shipment packaging. Furthermore, their solution, which supports the physical, financial, and information flows from all parties, focusses on the alignment of the flows.

The financial flow is supported by way of a procure-to-pay solution that enables pre- and post- export financing solutions, payment protection, invoice discounting, settlement, and chargebacks. Through agreements and alliances with over 25 banks, insurers, and other third parties, the TradeCard platform allows a suppier to request financing as soon as the purchase order is received. Then, depending on the supplier’s credit rating and the amount of the request, the request will be forwarded to one or more financing partners who will offer financing at standard terms or the TradeCard credit line, where the TradeCard platform can automatically grant certain financing requests under standard terms on behalf of the partners in the financial network.

The time of the financing request is flexible. The supplier can request financing at any point from the receipt of the purchase order to the receipt of goods by the buyer, and might even be able to request financing beyond receipt of the goods by the buyer, depending on the buyer’s standard payment terms. In addition, the platform allows the supplier to offer invoice discounting on early payment by the buyer as soon as the invoice has been accepted. Finally, the platform allows for electronic payments, which completes the end-to-end financial lifecycle of the transaction.

The physical flow is supported by their collaboration solution, which allows buyers and suppliers to collaboratively share current demand data and collaborate on forecasts and production plans, the Factory Xpress solution that allows for the creation and execution of detailed packing plans, and the document management solution that allows for the creation and transmission of documents that are required by freight forwarders, customs agents (for import and export), and distribution centers.

The information flow is supported by their Procure-to-Pay, Collaboration, and Factory Xpress solutions as well as their TradeCard Advantage solution that allows for queries and reports across the platform and the transaction data that it contains. It’s also supported by their new Custom Objects Toolkit that allows TradeCard to quickly create custom extensions — that can take the form of integrations, reports, or global trade documents — for customers on an as-needed basis.

By integrating the three flows, TradeCard provides a single view into the global supply chain for buyers, suppliers, factories, and partners around the world, which can be integrated into the platform as needed. TradeCard can, and has, integrated multiple ERP, best-of-breed, and home-grown sourcing, procurement, and global trade solutions into its platform in support of its hundreds of global Fortune 3000 customers. Furthermore, over 150 service providers already inject services into the platform in the form of financing, payment protection, inspection, and logistics, which a customer can take advantage of day one.

Tomorrow’s post will dive into the physical supply chain flow and the solutions that TradeCard provides.

Tompkins Associates and the Next Generation Supply Chain, Part III.1

In Monday’s post, we brought your attention to Tompkins Associates’ recent white paper on “Leveraging the Supply Chain for Increased Shareholder Value” which nicely complements CAPS Research and A.T. Kearney’s study on “Value Focussed Supply: Linking Supply to Competitive Business Strategies” and echos our cry for Next Generation Sourcing methodologies. A cry which has been taken up not only by The MPower Group (and spearheaded by Dalip Raheja who has declared that Strategic Sourcing is Dead and invited you to the The Wake for Strategic Sourcing) but by BravoSolution (who are rallying the battle cry for High Definition Sourcing and who have given us A Futuristic Look at High Definition Sourcing). We told you how they declared the need for a new Supply Chain Value Creation Framework and a renewed focus on business value in the supply chain, outlined three supply chain objectives — Profitable Growth, Margin Improvement, and Capital Efficiency, and described six primary types of value enabling actions to achieve the objectives before telling you that we would spend the next four posts discussing some of these actions and why Tompkins Associates’ white paper on “Leveraging the Supply Chain for Increased Shareholder Value” should definitely be on your reading list as you outline your Next Generation Sourcing strategy.

So, today, we are going to discuss the objective of Margin Improvement.

There are three fundamental ways that a company can improve margins:

  1. Reduce COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
  2. Improve Speed and Productivity
  3. Practice Tax Effective Supply Chain Management

Reducing COGS involves taking cost out of the supply chain mega process of Plan – Buy – Make – Move – Store – Sell – Return. Thus, the supply chain has lots of opportunities to reduce cost as each stage has multiple costly inputs.

Plan

While the white-paper skips over this step, there are lots of opportunities to take cost out in the planning stage. Without going into much detail they are:

  • Understand true spend
    and identify where the organization is spending money and ask if it needs to be spending money there? Maybe it’s paying for twice as much warehouse space as it ever uses, maybe it’s buying office supplies off-contract at double the contract rate, and maybe it hasn’t even analyzed it’s energy spend.
  • Understand true demand
    as better forecasting takes cost out of spend across the board, as the organization won’t overbuy (and tie up working capital in inventory) and won’t underbuy (and lose marketshare to the competition)
  • Understand true 3rd party needs
    and know exactly what skills and equipment are needed by the third party component manufacturers, 3PLs, etc.

Buy

Not only can the organization reduce cost by designing the supply chain for the optimal goal — be it lowest TCO / highest TVM, best quality, greatest availability, or maximum agility — depending on the product or service being sourced, but it can should-cost model before the buy to understand precisely what it should be paying (and why) and then apply decision optimization to understand how all of the different cost drivers interact, which will enable it to negotiate the best overall deal.

Make

There are a large number of opportunities to take cost out of the production stage, and go lean, including the following seven opportunities identified in the white paper:

  • eliminate overproduction
  • reduce waiting time (between steps)
  • reduce transport (of raw materials)
  • remove unnecessary processing steps
  • eliminate excess inventory
  • reduce unnecessary motion
  • reduce the defect rate

Move

Similarly, there are a large number of opportunities to take cost out of the transportation stage, especially if you redesign your logistics network, and the following seven opportunities identified in the white paper are a great start:

  • develop core carrier programs
  • implement a TMS (Transportation Management System)
  • take control of inbound freight
  • outsource various (non-core) transportation management functions
  • identify shipment planning and execution opportunities
  • rationalize fleets
  • improve controls

Store

Inventory represents a huge opportunity to reduce costs, especially since most organizations make a number of inventory management mistakes on a daily basis. In many operations inventory accounts for over 20% of the overall product stock. The white-paper identifies a number of opportunities every company has to improve inventory management and lower costs. The following ten opportunities identified in the white paper are great ways to obtain profitable growth through better storage management:

  • strategic positioning of inventory
  • product protection
  • seasonal buys
  • special deals
  • quality assurance
  • postponement
  • value-added services
  • returns management
  • freight spend reduction
  • growth management

Sell

Margin can be improved by improving the perfect order rate and by planning and implementing profitable, differentiated, service programs. A company can create a differentiatd service program by:

  • segmenting markets and product groups
  • identifying key value points by customer
  • identifying consolidation opportunities around the customer
  • identifying and creating common processes and systems

Return

The supply chain can take cost out of the return stage by:

  • reducing the number of returns (which can be as high as 20% in electronics)
  • reducing the cost per RMA (Return Material Authorization)
  • improving the return velocity
  • capturing residual product value
  • deriving value from sustainability initiatives
  • standardizing the process
  • recovering costs from suppliers (who do not meet defect rate targets) and
  • multi-channel visibility

The white-paper provides five great approaches for reducing the number, and rate, of returns and four great suggestions for capturing the residual value of products that should not be missed.

For more information on designing the supply chain for the optimal goal (best price/TCO, best quality, best availability, and agile supply base); improving production, transportation, and storage; creating differentiated service programs, and improving the returns process, see Tompkins Associates’ white paper on “Leveraging the Supply Chain for Increased Shareholder Value”. For more information on decision optimization or Should-Cost Modelling, see various posts here on Sourcing Innovation and the e-Sourcing Wiki.

In tomorrow’s post we’ll discuss the other two strategies for margin improvement: improving speed and productivity and tax-efficient supply chain management.

Don’t Fear New Technologies

This byline in a recent Industry Article on “five things you need to know about material handling” is an article in itself. It’s bad enough that most companies think they can’t afford new technologies and put upgrades off until they’re so far behind the curve that the upgrade is a multi-million dollar effort because everything has to be upgraded, and usually all at once, resulting in a big bang project that, more often than not, blows up in their face. It’s even worse when they fear new technologies. Good technology saves time, money, and enables the identification of opportunities that would never be noticed otherwise.

This isn’t to say that you should buy every module that a sales person will throw at you, but that you should look for the solutions most appropriate to your needs, buy them, implement them, and profit from them. Becuse, without the right technology, as the article points out:

    • you’ll never know you have too many lift trucks
      which results from not optimizing fleet management for maximum uptime and efficiency
    • you’ll never know that some trade-offs are only illusions
      and disappear when you use optimization to identify a third transportation option that saves time and money
    • you’ll never know that capital equipment can be more than capital equipment

and that it can be an ongoing expense as the initial cost of most equipment these days is only a fraction of the total lifetime cost when maintenance and operation is factored into account, and this is as true for computing technology as it is for lift trucks; an average PC costs much more to operate over its lifetime with today’s energy costs than it costs to buy it

So don’t fear new technology. However, remember that a commodity is a commodity and you’re not looking for a partner. I have to disagree with the author, who works for a vendor, on this point. Sometimes you just need a PC, or, in this case, a lift-truck.

Should You Manufacture That Product?

A recent article over on Industry Week that asked you to “show me the money” laid out six money questions that the author believes should be asked and answered before a manufacturing decision is made because a product that can’t be manufactured affordably shouldn’t be manufactured at all. As a supply chain professional, it’s your job to ask, and answer, these questions even if product development doesn’t, and even if the product can’t be cut, your job to figure out if it’s cheaper to build in house or outsource.

So, what are the key questions that should be answered?

  • How much will the total project cost?
  • How many products will be sold in a year? and
  • How many years will it take to get your investment back if you manufacture in house?

If the ROI will take years because an investment in new technology is needed, then, even if outsourcing adds cost, it might be the right idea.

For more insights, including the questions to asks (and calculations to do) if you’re trying to decide whether or not to manufacture a product in the first place, see the article.