Scm_at_Tisco

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA (A CASE STUDY OF TISCO) Introduction Today’s world is moving in turbulent economic environment, firms are striving for waysto achieve competitive advantage. One of the approaches is to manage the entire supplychain to reduce costs and improve performance to create competitive advantage andbusiness success. Supply chains are now at the center-stage of business performance ofmanufacturing and service organisations. This research explores and investigates howhigh technology firm’s uses supply chain management to gain competitive advantage andincrease business success. This research provides a theoretical framework to understand afirm’s performance and argues that supply chain management will help a firm to becompetitive and successful. In order to leverage on existing supply chain investments, firms in the SteelManufacturing industry, like many other industries, are faced with the challenge of beingable to align their supply chain strategies with the effective use of technology. To thisend, manufacturing firms are changing their focus from a simple product-focus, to a morecustomer focused approach, achieved through the development of more viable, longer-term relationships with their customers. Many firms in this industry sector have realisedthat the Internet is an effective tool that can be used to build these relationships. This isachieved by adding value to the services a firm offers to its customers (Kalakota andRobinson, 2000). The result of this approach is a shift in supply chain managementpractices, whereby, a business to consumer link is added in the supply chain, typically atthe distribution end (Anderson, 2001) the business to consumer link is facilitated throughthe integration of Internet technologies into the supply chain. Supply chain management is not a static concept or solution. Instead, new advances andtechniques for supply chain management continue to mushroom. This tremendous growthin new ideas and processes is starting to influence and change the business processes andmodels of companies. Hence companies have many choices in selecting programs in The secondary data needed for this study has been collected from various sources likeJournals, annual report, Profit and loss account, Balance sheet, financial Statement of thecompany, online published document on internet, previous research report related to TataSteel. This research is exploratory in nature; both primary and secondary data is collected. Chapterisation: Plan of the study: This research is focused on how Tata Steel implemented ERP system to manage its supply chain management to increase its ROI and benefit to the company, investor and people at large. This research consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1. Introduction. Chapter 2. Conceptual study of Supply Chain Management. Chapter 3. Tata Iron and Steel Company- An overview. Chapter 4. Implementation of ERP system SAP and E- commerce in Tata Steel. Chapter 5. Performance Measures of Supply Chain Management. Chapter 6. Relationship between supply chain management and performance in Tata Steel. Chapter 7. Suggestions and Conclusion. Limitation There are several limitations in this study. The theoretical model derived from this research is only applicable to the hightechnology companies. The research is focused on single company operatinggeographically in Jharkhand, India. The most significant weakness of this study can be attributed to the chosen case studyresearch methodology. Yin (1994) cites several known limitations and criticisms of the casestudy research methodology. These include the lack of generalization, perceived lack ofrigor, subjectivity, and voluminous documents. This study is an exploratory case study with alimited sample size. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized beyond the context of thisstudy. As an exploratory study, the goal of this research effort is to seek greater understanding that can lead to building a foundation for more extensive research in the future. This research work has been completed after facing various types of difficulties becauseit is too tough to measure the success of an ERP implementation in a company. The firsttough task was collection of data for the purpose of review. Since the data is related toimplementation of any ERP systems are confidential of the company. Getting primarydata from the company is very difficult. For being a private company the employees ofthe company are reluctant to give any information, which is specific to that company.Getting the response of the questionnaire was the toughest part in the collection of data,since the respondent were not willing to give their opinion to the questions. They leftmany of the questions unanswered. Through this thesis I have tried to give useful andpositive result so that it can act as guidance for further research in this field. SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS CHAPTER I Introduction This chapter serves as an introduction to the research. It comprises sections, which coverthe importance of the study, objective of the research, scope of the study, Hypothesis ofthe study, source of data collection, a brief description of the methodology, an outline ofthe structure of the study, key definitions, limitations of this research, and the chapter’sconclusion. CHAPTER II Conceptual Study of Supply Chain Management Globalization also brings foreign competition into markets that traditionally were local.Local companies are thereby forced to respond by improving their manufacturingpractices and supply chain management. Experience shows that the gains to be made incost, lead-time and quality through working in partnership with customers and suppliersare significant. Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing andcontrolling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible. Supply ChainManagement spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-processinventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption Ganeshan and Harrison have yet another analogous definition: A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs thefunctions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediateand finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers. According to Wikipedia.org Supply Chain Management (SCM): Supply chain management is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain with thepurpose of satisfying customer requirements as efficiently as possible. Supply chainmanagement spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work–in–processinventory, and finished goods from point–of–origin to point–of–consumption The definition one American professional association put forward is that Supply ChainManagement encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved insourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can besuppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, SupplyChain Management integrates supply and demand management within and acrosscompanies. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businessesthat cooperates to provide product and service offerings has been called theExtended The steel majors prompt response to market change and shifting to customer orientation from product coupled with the implementation of ERP will speak more than volumes of their success for the timely action. The company is now able to reap benefits in all aspect and make further progress in each and every operation of an enterprise. The company decided to implement SAP ERP 3 after careful consideration for they matched best with their requirements. In addition the company also forecasted on what would happen to their operations in the future while making this choice .This anticipation helped them to obtain the proper solution at the right point of time. The implementation process took a long span of about a year owing to the volume of operations and the major steps to be taken. The company never got bogged down by the reported failure rate of ERP implementations especially in bigger units and kept continuing their endeavors with vigor to get the best and make the whole process learning cum experimental one. The net result brought substantial increase in profits. The speed at which they worked (and without even the minutest error) deserves great appreciation and is accorded as one of the main contributing factors for the success.