My takeaway from the case study was the significance of time compression in the supply chain. The time factor in the supply chain has a massive effect on planning, cost, flexibility, and performance indicators. We looked at the case study of Finnforest Corporation, a timber products company with a €1.2 billion turnover based in Finland. The case examines how the corporation provides its major DIY stores in the United Kingdom. Vinod Thayil, a Cranfield School of Management researcher, used a three-stage technique to rebuild the Finnforest DIY supply chain. Vinod considered the existing supply chain of timber products from Finland to major DIY retailers in the UK. The second stage of the supply chain redesign is to analyse the process. Vinod employed a technique known as “time-based processing.” This aids in determining where waste exists in the supply chain. The final component of this supply chain redesign strategy is to restructure the process.
As we grasped the researcher’s aim, I looked for steps in Table 1. Supply Chain Steps with Performance Measures and noted which steps took the most time to complete and how they affected supply chain efficiency. The most time was spent on harvesting trees, transporting them to the United Kingdom, doing secondary manufacturing, and transporting them to retailers. Using an activity-based map, we determined that 60% of lead time is lost. The significant amount of squandered lead time should be brought to the attention of top management. Using the supplied data, we can find ways to shorten the total supply chain lead time, including continuous process activities and enormous coordination between harvesting and logistics are essential to prevent raw materials from stacking up in the warehouse and increasing inventory time.
As a result of classroom discussion, the idea of including a wooden log of each city’s activities in each voyage was proposed. Every city on its route would be serviced by these ships before it made its way back to the main warehouse and the continuous cycle. The same ship will deliver its cargo to one port while another vessel comes in to unload some of its cargo. The disparity is explained by the fact that we are receiving fewer goods but more frequently. This is one of the case studies that helped me look over the researcher’s work and see how he went about mapping out the supply chain of a timber manufacturer and giving us detailed information about the things that happen at the factory and how long they take to do using a time-based process map and an activity-based map.