Here is another topic in Exam 3 that is designed to propel the supply manager to center stage in the organization and is also a bridge exam topic. Here you are responsible for:
- All that you buy (direct and indirect) not only when it enters the organization but throughout its life cycle. Think about a typical indirect like toner cartridges and consider whether you have re-fill programs and re-cycling programs in place.
- If you make ink cartridges or anything else you need to think about how customers deal with your product throughout the product cycle. Here is an opportunity to work with your marketing and sales to be more environmentally conscious.In addition you must be in sync with spares and consumables needed in different markets that you have to arrange.
Also read an example of Product end of life policy on the CISCO website. As you can see, supply management gets involved for spares etc. that are required for models that are being phased out. This situation of making sure that spares are available for products at different stages of life-cycle in different markets is even more important with global markets today. For example, you might have a model on a growth phase of the product life cycle in Brazil (no spares needed as everything is new), to spares needed in Malaysia and not applicable in Germany as the model itself has been phased out.
In this section you need to cover life cycle costing , supplier relationship management (see examples in SRM) and Product Life-Cycle Management or PLM (see examples in PLM).
Some of these things you are already doing and have developed good plans. Try to relate what you are doing already to this section and think about the other things you should be doing, going forward and you'll be in great shape for the exam topic.
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