Supply chain operations improved by simulation

For companies wanting to improve end-to-end supply chain costs and performance, but lacking overall visibility, a software tool developed by Leeds University’s Faraday Packaging Partnership, could be the answer. Researchers at the unit, which was founded in 1998 and is backed by the DTI and EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to improve technologies specifically in the packaging industry, have developed SCET (Supply Chain Evaluation Tool) to provide a ‘helicopter’ view. Following basic data entry from supply chain members in a workshop environment, it provides a graphical reconstruction all the way out – not just of immediate suppliers and customers – and indicates problems, their severity, potential solutions and benefits. A spokesperson for Faraday said that in one instance SCET highlighted poor communications between companies as responsible for delayed customer order processing. A small change in shift patterns solved the problem. In another, SCET revealed excess inventory due to supplier and customer both holding safety stock, and resulting in instantly halved costs. Blindingly obvious, but proof that too many manufacturers either fail to, or unable to, look far outside their own four walls.