Economic packaging and transportation
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Effective design plays several critical roles in the supply chain. Most obviously, certain product design may increase inventory holding or transportation cost relative to other design, while other designs may facilitate a shorter manufacturing lead time. Even though product design is often expensive, so it's sometimes worthwhile to redesign products to reduce logistics costs and supply chain lead times. The following are three ways in which product design and supply chain are directly linked:
Economic packaging and transportation: Redesigning and developing products should be done an in manner which can be effectively packed and stored. Products that are more compact can be stored and transported less expensively and help control costs. It also makes it easier for retailers who can stack them easily reducing the warehousing space.
Concurrent and parallel processing: Modifying the manufacturing process so that steps that were previously performed in a sequence can be completed at the same time (parallel).This helps reduce manufacturing lead time, lower inventory cost through improved forecasting and reduces safety stock requirement.
Standardization: Developing and designing standard products helps lower inventory cost and increase forecast accuracy. Instead of having to calculate the demand for different products in different regions, with standardization a company has to make a aggregate forecast and can be more accurate...