Leagility in supply chain

What is leagility in fork out bowed stringed instrument design?In a supply ambit analysis of an dodge manufacturer, coating of leagility concept take to signifi push asidet benefits of the companys performance. The company is based in Thailand whose factory is located in capital capital of Thailand (Banomyong & Supatn). The current b separate of the firm is accumulated in its turn logistics (e.g. managing returned products) being threefold namely, extravagant transit speak tos, damaged products and slow node response. The current system requires clients to function from their homes to the retailer stores where they bought the firms products. Retailers will then transport the returned products to the capital of Thailand factory or in some cases even give birth to forward first to distribution/ service center before actual repair in Bangkok factory. When repaired, the products are sent to customers, however, in retail stores only so they have to travel to claim.With the application of leagility, creating service shops in retail stores serve as decoupling posts to manage customer demand volatility efficiently. These services shops will be supplied by Bangkok factory with sufficient parts for the former to enshroud simple defects and compulsioned repairs. Bangkok factory will only ingest complex problems that do non require immediate action. With the presence of leagility, the reverse logistics of the firm eliminate the three problems cited above. It is able to prevent excessive transportation because service shops can serve as direct access of customers to Bangkok factory capabilities. Less travel is required that can prevent minus the products. Lastly, customer satisfaction is increased because the response is faster while their need to come-back is minimized due to ready service.Leagility is derived from the word leagile. The term is first defined by Naylor et al (1999) which bureau the mixture of lean and agile capabilities in the supply chain design. Managing the decoupling point is the crucial aspect of leagile with the objective of responding to a fluctuating demand at one end and its scheduling on the other. When strategic decoupling plan is implemented, it is possible to respond to abrupt market demand in an agile way while also carrying an ability to submit or being lean to achieve efficiency. De-coupling manages the difference between orders and forecasts. Leagility is a combination of leanness and agility.The former emphasized on reduction of embody and waste and profit maximization through a level document. The latter(prenominal) is inclined with flexible service and profit maximization through sagaciousness customer requirements efficiently. Leagility is achieved when these care for-creating activities are present namely, just-in- cadence (JIT), quality improvement, IT upgrades, lot-size minimization (i.e. less cow dung and faster response time), system integration and global optimization.Other aut hors defined leagility as a hybrid strategy between lean and agile supply chain. Being agile is the use of market knowledge and virtual billet to manage fluctuations in demand while leanness is the use of value stream where waste and time are reduced and level schedule is obtained. In their definition, decoupling point is clearer. Decoupling point is the part of the supply chain in which customers can interfere and take part through the chain design.The point serves as signal to the firm about demand that can admit the forecasts/ Kanban system. With the use of decoupling, inventories are managed on a stable level that has cost efficiency implications. The combined features of agile and lean supply chains led to inherent characteristics of leagile supply chain. These include volatile and unpredictable market demand, speciality productivity variety, short product biography cycle, service level customer performance, moderate profit margins, dominant physical and marketability costs , vendor-managed inventory, demandity of information and other desirable effects to quality, forecasts, lead time and other costs (OBrien 2005).Leagility application to USMCIN USMC, information engineering science is used to improve the supply chain management. IT is deemed essential in leagile design and USMC has addressed this issue. Assuming that SAP NetWeave enables information sacramental manduction across different functions in the supply chain, the organization can perk up leagile framework through its IT. However, the investment in IT must not be too high because currency are required in creating decoupling points systems and resources. It should be noted that agile supply chain will not be acquired by USMC rather leagile and this makes IT non-obligatory.Further, IT may have intensified the ability of USMC in integrating information and resources to armed forces and suppliers of other countries. Adoption of leagility can deliver relaxation on the demand in reducing lea d time for USMC services as this is not essential to being leagile. USMC can outride sharing resources with other countries that can result to acquiring the latest technology without the problem against time constraints (e.g. on approval of the cooperating country about the local information).The use of GPS and RFID device in tracking supplies should be minimized since leagility does not confront stock-out penalties especially there are no place for stock-out (RFID Journal). This means that the advantage of GPS and RFID to provide real-time information about the location of the inventories in the stock room or warehouses are seen less useful. Further, the cost of such(prenominal) technologies is higher than the common barcode that their use in leagility is sub-optimal.Therefore, barcodes should be revisited. The use of air communications in relation to service provision in a timely manner and also quick response must be maintained. Leagility does not offer robustness while its fo recast mechanism requires algorithmic and consultative areas inherent to lean and agile supply chains respectively. As a result, service provision can be adversely unnatural when satellites will not feedback real-time events in the area of jurisdiction.The use of fast logistics is required in leagility. However, this can be adversely affected as purchasing policy is managed by vendor inventory. Even with an efficient logistics, a non-cooperative vendor can cause delays of resources delivery and transfer. In contrast, the fast logistics can aid in providing products within the concept of leagility. Leagile products are provided as per customer demand which can increase customer satisfaction by rapid delivery. In effect, service level is achieved with low cost from USMC due to absence of excessive stocks and inventory spaces.Smart fisticuffs is required to be an efficient serve because the products carried through a leagile supply chain have short life cycles. Further, it is als o a difficulty that USMC is obliged to produce different packing designs to a medium-scale product differentiation (Smart Packing). Perhaps, a lean supply chain can better fit smart packing due to abundant life cycle. If USMC requires cost efficiency, smart packing should be minimized and funds should be diverted to dominant costs in physical and marketability expenditures.ReferencesBanomyong, R. & Supatn, N. (unknown). Leagility in reverse logistics a case study of electronic appliance manufacturer Internet Available from Accessed 6 August 2007.OBrien, V. (2005). Should manufacturing pursue a lean, agile or leagile strategy? Internet Available from Accessed 6 August 2007.Naylor, J., Naim, M. & Berry, D. (1999). Leagility Integrating the Lean and AgileManufacturing Paradigms in the Total Supply Chain. International Journal Of ProductionEconomics, 62(1), p.2.RFID Journal (unknown). Available from Accessed 6 August 2007.Smart Packing (unknown). Available from Accessed 6 August 20 07.