Comments on: Trends in supply chain management http://blog.kinaxis.com/2006/08/trends-in-supply-chain-management/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:00:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Yan-Goh Ng, Ph.D. http://blog.kinaxis.com/2006/08/trends-in-supply-chain-management/#comment-13 Yan-Goh Ng, Ph.D. Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:06:11 +0000 http://127.0.0.1:88/2006/08/trends-in-supply-chain-management/#comment-13 There is also a trend to use the Total Costs of Ownership (TCO) to ensure the manufactured products, either made or outsourced, to be the lowest without necessarily selling the end products at a lower price. This is even more obvious when increasing number of manufacturers set up factories in China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia or any other emerging nations where the total cost of acquisition is relatively lower. Taking into consideration the increased competitiveness of Toyota and the Lean Manufacturing principles, the product life cycle can be shorted and new product introduction (NPI) can take advantage of SIMPLIFICATION & STANDARDISATION. This also makes Nokia highly competitive in the mobile phone NPI. Foxconn of Taiwan has definitely created a leadership to become the world's largest electronics manufacturing services (ECM)provider. The former top ECM providers were Flextronics, Solectron, SCI and other American enterprises. Foxconn has almost created its own city in Southern China. This has helped to redefine SCM at its best at the moment. It does not mean Foxconn does not have all the challenges and issues confronting the ECM providers, but rather they have the clear TCO advantage. On top of that there is a huge domestic market in China for all the products produced at Foxconn. The global SCM has to ensure that the spirit of free trade under the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) preceeding the WTO's trade liberalisation, can be addressed effectively. The current practices of trade quotas and volume can pose threats to develop more effective global SCM. The need to manage the business relationship in a foreign country cannot be under-estimated, and have to be handled in a win:win situation. Some countries are more corrupted than others, so the TCO equation must be worked out correctly to either avoid the malpractice or incorporate it into the product costs against the professional code of ethic. There is also a trend to use the Total Costs of Ownership (TCO) to ensure the manufactured products, either made or outsourced, to be the lowest without necessarily selling the end products at a lower price. This is even more obvious when increasing number of manufacturers set up factories in China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia or any other emerging nations where the total cost of acquisition is relatively lower.

Taking into consideration the increased competitiveness of Toyota and the Lean Manufacturing principles, the product life cycle can be shorted and new product introduction (NPI) can take advantage of SIMPLIFICATION & STANDARDISATION. This also makes Nokia highly competitive in the mobile phone NPI.

Foxconn of Taiwan has definitely created a leadership to become the world’s largest electronics manufacturing services (ECM)provider. The former top ECM providers were Flextronics, Solectron, SCI and other American enterprises. Foxconn has almost created its own city in Southern China. This has helped to redefine SCM at its best at the moment. It does not mean Foxconn does not have all the challenges and issues confronting the ECM providers, but rather they have the clear TCO advantage. On top of that there is a huge domestic market in China for all the products produced at Foxconn.

The global SCM has to ensure that the spirit of free trade under the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) preceeding the WTO’s trade liberalisation, can be addressed effectively. The current practices of trade quotas and volume can pose threats to develop more effective global SCM.

The need to manage the business relationship in a foreign country cannot be under-estimated, and have to be handled in a win:win situation. Some countries are more corrupted than others, so the TCO equation must be worked out correctly to either avoid the malpractice or incorporate it into the product costs against the professional code of ethic.

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