By Denise Perreault
PBN Staff Writer
Supply-chain management has become so effective and accurate due to today’s technology that this once-invisible aspect of business has become an essential part of the global economy, according to experts who took part in a recent summit at Bryant University.
Computerized technology can now tell a company in a matter of moments the status of its inventory, what raw materials it needs and when it needs them and can simplify the process of locating a specific product in even the most expansive warehouse.
The recent Rhode Island Supply Chain Management Summit marked “the first time that both public and private sectors came together to promote supply-chain management within any state,” said Cheryl W. Snead, president and CEO of Banneker Industries in North Smithfield, a leader in the supply-chain field. Banneker played a key role in organizing the June 20 summit.
The goal of the summit, she said, was to “highlight the expertise and resources available to businesses that will allow them to expand their operations by incorporating cutting-edge supply-chain philosophies and techniques to save time, energy and money.”
The daylong summit was billed as the “first annual” event of its kind, attended by 78 people including representatives of such companies as CVS Caremark Corp., Raytheon Co., Lifespan and Amgen. It was so successful that a second-annual event will be held in 2009, according to Raymond Fogarty, director of the John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant.
“We had great people involved, and everyone was so enthusiastic. A lot of people already are asking about the next one,” he said. Fogarty added he can envision the supply-chain summit becoming an annual event that eventually may draw hundreds of people, similar to World Trade Day at Bryant.
Supply-chain management has “come a long way,” said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. “It used to be a set of fragmented capabilities, but now we can see integrated supply chains that tie all the pieces together.”
A business can position itself for success and acquire a distinctly competitive edge simply with the right supply-chain management, Kaplansuggested.
With facilities in California, Texas, Indiana and Massachusetts, as well as Rhode Island, Banneker offers what company officials call a comprehensive range of supply-chain management services for industries in such fields as defense, aerospace, transportation, retail and consumer goods. The company has 135,000 square feet of storage in North Smithfield alone.
Junior Jabbie, executive associate with Banneker for three years, cited four technological advances that have made supply-chain management faster, more efficient and more accurate:
• The warehouse management system (WMS) basically consists of customized software that can help a company find products quickly in a warehouse or storage setting.
Let’s say you buy 12 books from a company on the Internet. Your purchase will generate an order ticket listing the books you want and, with WMS, those books (with bar codes) will be listed in such a way that warehouse personnel won’t have to roam all over the facility to find them. The books on the ticket will be listed in the order you would find them on the shelves of the warehouse, Jabbie explained, saving employees time and steps.
• The enterprise resource planning system (ERP), Jabbie said, can give a company a “bird’s-eye view” of its inventory. One look at a computer screen can indicate which items are low and which are overstocked. Jabbie compared the ERP to the dashboard of a car, through which a driver can check various components of the engine such as fuel level and temperature with one glance.
• The manufacturing resource planning system (MRP) tells a manufacturer when to order raw materials needed to make a product and how much of those raw materials are needed at any one time. “Banneker can get the information through your MRP” via a direct connection, Jabbie said.
• Radio frequency identification (RFID) devjces are tiny tags placed on products that have information embedded in them. When these products are delivered to the warehouse, an antenna or reader on the loading dock automatically updates inventory lists so “the computer can tell you where those products are stored,” Jabbie said.
Wal-Mart, with its mammoth inventory, has been a leader in the RFID field and its demands for further advances have pushed the limits of this technology, Jabbie said.
But In spite of the demands of Wal-Mart and other retailers, the RFID system has yet to be perfected. Jabbie said it is still an expensive system; the ID tags have not been standardized, so different products can have different tags; and sometimes the antenna or reader at a loading dock can pick up extraneous data from nearby buildings. •
