Abstract: It is about “moving” – or “transforming” – raw materials and ideas into products or services and getting them to customers. In supply chain, Logistics is about moving materials or goods from one place to another. No other function in the supply chain is required to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve—there are no days off. That is why customers often take logistics for granted; they have come to expect that product delivery will be performed as promised. It can be expensive and takes expertise. As these statistics indicate, the largest contributor to logistics cost is transportation: the movement of raw materials to a processing plant, parts to a manufacturer, and finished goods to wholesalers, retailers, and customers. But getting the goods from one point to another requires performing a number of other functions related to shipment. Goods need to be packaged, loaded, unloaded, warehoused, distributed, and paid for whenever they change hands. There are many examples of prosperous companies like the coca cola company, amazon that have correctly developed the supply change management concept and that enforce efficient practices. Introduction: It is an online shopping App can sell music, videogames, shoes, clothing, luggage and many other accessories. It offers about everything you can think of and their variety in offers and products along with their customer driven shopping and recommendations is a hit with customers. For placing order , customer must have to login first,then customer place order what he/she wants ,when he ordered ,it shows a notification of order receiving date with price according to product quantity .Application also shows live tracking of driver when driver is on their way to deliver the product to customer.When driver deliver it,a notification show to company that he done his job.When customer receives order on time thy can comment it on comment box and show her/his satisfaction about product.it can currently ship close to 10 million different products . It can distribute right product with right quantity and condition to right location, at right time and right customer with right price. Problem statement: Whatever the ‘size of your business’, today everyone will want to grow and expand it. That probably means expanding on a regional, international or global level. Companies want they could lower costs and increase productivity by managing logistics and managing the company as a whole to boost performance Whatever your business location or industry, logistics and supply chain management system can help cut on the costs and time you spend to move products from one point to another. Our effective transport improves a supply chain by decreasing waste of materials, time and deliver them to the right location, on time.
Objectives¬¬ An effective logistics and supply chain management system ensures an adequate quantity and quality of orders , supplies are always available to meet user demand. In order to do this, the logistics and supply chain management system support:
- Capturing accurate routine administration, dispensing and consumption data.
- Real-time, end-to-end logistics data from point of origin to service delivery point.
- Demand forecasting, capacity building and modeling based on consumption. Functional Requirement Functional requirement are capacities that we must actualize to empower our users to achieve their tasks. Functional software requirement describes the behavior of the system as it relates to the system’s functionality. This behavior may be expressed as functions, services or tasks or which system is required to perform.
Requirement ID Requirement Type Descriptions FR-01-01 Functional Forecasting provide accurate estimation of supplies for a specific time period
FR-01-02 Functional Requesting ensure timely ordering of the orders in the right quantity
FR-01-03 Functional Receiving: receive verified quantity and quality of goods and determine need for remedial action when necessary
FR-01-04 Functional User must be able to track his order and live tracking of driver.
FR-01-05 Functional User must be able to check his order date/shipment date , time , id and order number.
FR-01-06 Functional User must be able to ask any query regarding his order in comment box.
FR-01-07 Functional User must be able to receive notification.
FR-01-08 Functional Dispatch (distribution): identify and prepare accurate quantities of items packed correctly needed for distribution.
FR-01-09 Functional Transport (distribution): manage movement of supplies between locations to ensure items are delivered in good condition and on time
Non-Functional Requirement Non-Functional requirement characterizes the quality trait of project. They speak to a set of benchmarks utilized to judge the particular projects Requirement ID Requirement Type Descriptions NR-01-01 Non-Functional Platform. The system shall execute on the Windows 2000 platform NR-01-02 Non-Functional The response time for each transaction must not exceed 2 seconds, and should perform instantaneously for the vast majority of the transactions. NR-01-03 Non-Functional Reliability of database. The system should use a reliable database management system. All database updates must be dependable. NR-01-04 Non-Functional Interoperability of report formats. The system shall be capable of generating report data in text format for interoperability between this system and other systems in the company, such as the Accounts Department software and the Purchasing Department software.
NR-01-05 Non-Functional Interoperability with Purchasing. The system shall be able to interoperate with the current Purchasing Software System. NR-01-06 Non-Functional User Friendly. The system should use familiar user interfaces such as that used to surf the Internet. NR-01-07 Non-Functional Modularity. The Inventory Control system should be able to operate on its own. It is independent of all other software systems except the underlying operating system. NR-01-08 Non-Functional Application must be efficient in terms of time.
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Related Work: Here are some project’s related to logistics and supply chain management system. The projects cited in this year's "100" article and online at SDCExec.com put the spotlight on successful and innovative transformation projects that are delivering bottom-line value to small, medium and large enterprises across the different functions that comprise the supply chain.
- Enabler: Apptricity Corporation (Irving, TX, apptricity.com) Customer: Department of Defense (Defense) The Project: TMS. Automate planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling theater transportation activities. Solutions/Services: TMS based on Apptricity's SOA platform, providing advanced transportation request planning, management and execution capabilities. Cargo management and real-time visibility throughout the theater of operations and accessible worldwide via the DoD enterprise.
- Enabler: Avercast (Rexburg, ID, avercast.com) Customer: Markwins International (Health & Beauty) The Project: Forecasting, planning and collaboration. Move from flat-file database, improve accuracy and provide suppliers and planners a way to interact directly with planning data. Solutions/Services: Avercast Business Forecasting, Supply Planning, Sales Forecasting & Supplier Connection. Business Impact: Today Markwins' key suppliers can view the company forecast while customers are entering their own projections for Markwins' products. Markwins can now roll up accounts of smaller (but no less important) customers and treat it as one record without sacrificing fine-grain analysis and the ability to adjust forecasting parameters as needed. Methodology: The proposed methodology was based on the conceptual model of supply chain and management RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The approach used in this work combines three different stages and methodologies.
Development of the Evaluating Methodology In this section we detail all the stages necessary for constructing the methodology to evaluate companies’ degrees of adherence to a SCM conceptual model. Stage one: development of the preliminary methodology Based on The Global Supply Chain Forum SCM definition, on the conceptual model of Supply Chain Management proposed by Cooper, Lambert and Pagh and on some basic SCM initiatives & practices, the methodology establishes eleven analysis referential axes. The first nine analysis referential axes are related to key business processes and should identify whether the company manages and integrates them with key first-tier customers and key first-tier suppliers. Key business processes proposed by Cooper et al. (1997), Lambert, Cooper and Pagh (1998) and Croxton, Garcia-Dastugue, Lambert and Rogers (2001) are: • Customer Relationship Management; • Customer Service Management; • Demand Management; • Order Fulfillment; • Manufacturing Flow Management; • Supplier Relationship Management; • Product Development and Commercialization, and • Returns Management. These processes must be coordinated by means of collaboration and relationship management along the supply chain, from initial suppliers to end consumers (Ballou, 2006). Stage two: developing model dimensions In this stage, we develop and adjust the model’s dimensions based on academy and industry perspectives. Requirements were associated with key business processes, horizontal supply chain structures, and SCM initiatives & practices. Requirements associated to key business process Company differentiates customers by identifying key customers. Company has a cross-functional team for customer relationship management. Company provides the framework for managing relationships with customers. Develops and implements customized product/service agreements for key customers. Develops and implements product/service agreements for customer segments. Develops process improvement programs with customers. Develops efforts to reduce demand variability with customers. Develops programs with customers to eliminate non value-added activities. Identifies opportunities with customers. Develops guidelines for sharing process improvement benefits with customers. There are procedures to periodically evaluate customers, based on products bought, sales and positions in their market segments. Designs performance reports to measure the firm's financial impact on customers. Designs performance reports to measure customer's financial impact on the company. Requirements associated with horizontal supply chain structures Supply chain management currently occurs to a very limited degree. This means that the most likely place for SCM to take place is between the company and its first-tier suppliers and customers (Ballou, 2006). Nevertheless, for horizontal supply chain structures, which identify whether the company monitors the management of key business processes beyond first-tier key suppliers and first-tier key customers, four requirements were defined: Requirements associated with SCM initiative & practices For initiatives & practices, which identify if the company uses or intends to use SCM initiatives & practices to support business process management, eight requirements were defined. Categories and measurement scale A set of categories is associated with each requirement of each referential axis. So, each requirement is classified into five categories, and each category reflects the company situation related to that specific requirement. The categories combine characteristics of amplitude and depth. Amplitude is related to the quantity of items to which the requirement is applied and is expressed in two levels: (a) for the majority of the items, and (b) not for the majority of the items. Depth is related to the way the requirement is applied: in a documented manner (formally) and in a non-documented manner (informally). Considering these situations, the following categories were established: As a result, category 5 reflects the best situation concerning the parameters toward the high degree of adherence by the company to the SCM conceptual model. To the contrary, Category 1 reflects the worst situation. Analysis of the results Normally companies apply many of the requirements of business processes, but this does not mean that they have successful SCM. What really matters is the integration and management of all business processes, and to do this, companies must apply all the requirements of all processes, for the majority of the items related to each requirement, and in a documented manner (i.e. formally). This is called the highest ordination and this is the situation that can lead companies to the highest degree of adherence to the SCM conceptual model. So, the degree of company adherence is obtained in dependence with the frequency of requirements occurring in the highest ordination, taking into account all referential axes. Organization and planning of applying the methodology The requirements established for the referential analysis axis form the questions that are put together in a questionnaire built on a structure aiming to facilitate its application and motivate respondents. Considering the complexity and the high number of questions, the data collection instrument should be applied by personal interviews. In this manner the researcher can get more detailed information, explain the questions, provide detailed instructions, and assure response reliability by checking evidence. On the other hand, there are disadvantages when using this method; for instance, higher costs, more stress and less privacy (Rea & Parker, 2000). In these applications, disadvantages are easily compensated for by the advantages, mainly taking into account that SCM is a new field and needs practical and theoretical complementation. Identifying the focal company The methodology considers that a supply chain is a group of basic chains, and each basic chain involves the company that will be evaluated and its first-tier customers and suppliers. In this way, each company must manage and integrate business processes within key members of their basic chain and then the whole chain will be managed. The lead company of the supply chain is responsible for verifying or monitoring whether the other key members, both suppliers and customers, are managing their basic chains. Therefore the evaluating methodology should be applied at the supply-chain lead company. Development of adjusted methodology After its development, the preliminary methodology was pretested to evaluate the defined requirements, categories, measurement scale and matters related to the interviewees’ understanding of the questions, clarity of construction and readability, comprehensiveness and focus of requirements and related categories and acceptability. Based upon the results of the pretest, some items were eliminated or reworded, and others were added. For this purpose four academic and three industry experts were interviewed. Development of evaluating methodology As initially stated, an illustration application was conducted in three relevant companies to accomplish Forza’s (2002) and Lewis’ (1998) recommendations, for refining the methodology and for demonstrating its applicability. For this purpose, an intentional sampling was established. Intentional sampling is a non-probabilistic sampling in which the researcher utilizes professional experience to select, for instance, the companies that will participate in a defined research (Rea & Parker, 2000) rather than selecting them at random. The companies included one with recognized competency in SCM, and two companies without recognized competency in the area. However, the three companies are leaders in their respective supply chains. After the illustration application the knowledge gained was analyzed and added to the adjusted methodology, resulting in the final methodology for evaluating company degree of adherence to a SCM or SCM – EAD Methodology conceptual model. CONCLUSIONS Although SCM today is undoubtedly a contemporary and important area in the field of operations management, the literature still reveals a paucity of academic studies involving key topics, such as generic methodologies to guide and support SCM implementation and evaluation. The scientific development of a structured supply chain management discipline requires that advances must be made in the development of measurement tools as well as in theoretical models to improve supply chain management understanding. This paper makes several contributions to the knowledge of supply chain management evaluation. In general terms, the methodology proposed in this article can be considered to be a diagnostic instrument that permits companies to evaluate their status concerning SCM aspects. Based on this diagnosis, companies can identify and implement activities aimed at increasing their adherence to the reference model and augmenting the benefits gained through SCM. The methodology provides a model to analyze SCM, contributes to the development of the subject and provides explanations for practical applications. Additionally, it can be used by both academics and practitioners to develop complementary research in this area.