Question

How is distribution requirements planning (DRP) used to enhance supply chains? Also, what is process thinking and what is the anatomy of a process?

Answer 1

A Supply Chain is the network of all the individuals, organizations, resources, activities and technology involved in the creation and sale of a product, from the delivery of source materials from the supplier to the manufacturer, through to its eventual delivery to the end user.

Distribution requirements planning (DRP) is the process in which goods are delivered in a more efficient manner. These include considering the aspects of establishing a good, quantity of the good, and the direct location that it is needed to arrive at in a given time.

Distribution requirements planning will benefit the operation as a whole through the increase in efficiency through the following benefits:

• Faster Decision Making
• Utilization of Demand Forecasting
• Planning Initiation Accuracy
• Cost - Awareness
• Customer Service Enhancement
• Push or Pull Method

The pull or push method is utilized by DRP distribution, with pull and push differing from each other.

The Pull method: The pull method includes goods shifting upward throughout the system and obtaining customer order achievement.

The Push method: differs from the pull method by doing the opposite of pull - sending the goods downward through the system. This method has advantages of lower cost. As distribution requirements planning is gradually being implemented into the production facilities and manufacturing operations, there is a drastic increase in production efficiency, accuracy, and order fulfillment.

These capabilities are extremely beneficial to supply chain and will gradually increase production and distribution efficiency for production facilities around the globe.

Process Thinking:

Process thinking is a way of interpreting events in terms of processes of change that create them. It focuses on the nonlinear dynamics of change over time that create certain patterns out of which events emerge. Process thinking involves considering phenomena dynamically – concerning movement, activity, events, change and temporal evolution

In business during process thinking, The customer is kept in focus, value-adding activities are focused and process responsibility is made clear. A business process consists of activities that are performed during business, implying the operative business.

A business process consists of activities, that refine input to output. During the refinement process objects flow from one activity to another. The activities are contextually related to each other. The result of the business process is of value for the customer.

The process thinking in a business can categorized into various sub processes:

The Manufacturing Process: Manufacturing engineering or manufacturing process are the steps through which raw materials are transformed into a final product. ... Modernmanufacturing includes all intermediate processes required in the production and integration of a product's components.

The Logistical Process: A logistical process tries to find the best solution for manufacturing and distributing goods by considering how the market uses these products. As part of this process, a company should always consider the location of a product and analyse the various factors associated with these locations. This includes production costs, personnel, the time and cost required for deconsolidation, and warehousing possibilities, including cost and space. As part of this process, a company also should consider the factors that affect production quality and efficient transportation between hubs..

The Marketing Process: Marketing process consists of two steps. The first step of the Marketing Process looks at who the customer is and what he needs and wants. The second step of the process is to design a customer-driven marketing strategy. It is the marketing logic by which the firm wants to create this customer value and achieve these profitable customer relationships.

The Order Management Process: Order management is all about keeping track of orders coming into a retail business and managing the processes required to fulfil them.

The Delivery Process: Here the products are delivered to the customer at the destined location by the supplier. This stage is basically the logistics phase, where customer orders are accepted and delivery of the goods is planned.

It can be explained in the form of a diagram as well: