Design and Development in Supply Chain Management

[Edith]

Hello me again, Remember me? Shy one.

Does anyone have a document/form where an initator requests a "project" or an improvement to a process? (For documenting purposes?)

For example when management request to sponser a "project" and/or "improvement, it has to go through an approval cycel, prioritization cycle, monitoring, determination of training needs, resource needs, costs,validation, verification, etc etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Talk to you soon!!

Edith

[Marc]

In the service industry this is much more variable than in manufacturing. maybe if you tell us what your service is we can better help. Call center? House cleaning? Repair?

[Edith]

Hi Marc!

We are in the freight forwarding industry. We move international, airfreight, seafreight, roadfreight, import,, export, domestic, distribution etc etc. So basically, the total supply chain management for large multi national customers.

We recently released a new "product" in roadfreight, which we used the Design and Development element of the standard which sufficed the auditor. The problem is, the process is not very user friendly.

Any suggestions?

[Marc]

Well, I have a client which is in transportation and they 'opted out' of design. But it is a small company and is not very complex.

In your case it sounds more like an insurance company I worked with which looked at it's policies and how they design them - including selling, data inputs (electronic exchange, etc.) When I worked with them they had a form which was what would be the equivalent of a project template they used. It was a company which sold 'extended warranties' and provides the service to many major businesses. Anyway, I guess my point is I don't have a form myself. But you started out well.

> For example when management request to sponser a "project"
> and/or "improvement, it has to go through an approval
> cycel, prioritization cycle, monitoring, determination of
> training needs, resource needs, costs,validation,
> verification, etc etc.

Maybe one of the others will have some type of form. Sorry, I don't off hand. What makes it difficult is the degree of company specificity. But to pull one together just look at your initial 'list' above. I do the same thing in implementation projects. I took a list of 'mile stones' and put them in a spreadsheet and project management software (either will do) and go from there.

Sorry I can't help with a form for you but mabe the above will help a bit.

[Edith]

Thanks Marc!

I think I really need to re-look at the process again. Our Continuous Improvement and Design and Development is actually used interchangably.

I find that so many service industries, opt out of design, (when it really does exist in so many ways) personally I find this element extremely challenging!

Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Thanks Again!!!

Edith

[Marc]

Well, service industries 'opt out' of design often because they don't want to recognize that they do in fact design their services every bit as much as manufacturing companies do. If you want some thoughts on this, see This Thread.

Again, the specificity of each company - particularly in service industries - to some degree precludes a base sheet. That said, if you know of a company which approximates your size and operations then you'd have a good starting point. I would flow chart out the 'system' as it currently operates and go from there. Like any project, there is a linear progression of events constrained by certain 'key' events (can't do this until that is finished).

Your biggest 'problem' will be identifying (recognizing) aspects such as validation and verification as they apply to your situation as opposed to manuacturers designing a 'widget'. Design of a 'widget' in manufacturing has had a 'good practices' base (which includes these aspects) for many years (which does not speak to how many companies actually use 'good practices in design).

Just some thoughts.