Eleven Greatest Supply Chain Disasters

Description
supply chain disasters Foxmeyer Distribution Disaster, 1996, GM’s Robot Mania, WebVan Automation Spree, 2001, Adidas Warehouse Meltdown, Denver Baggage Handling System, ToysRUs.com Christmas 1999, Hershey’s Halloween Nightmare 1999, Cisco's 2001 Inventory Disaster, Nike's 2001 Planning System Perplexity, Aris Isotoner, Apple - Power Mac

Introduction
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Man made disasters Huge financial implications

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Flawed strategy, Flawed execution
Analysis and learning

Foxmeyer
Distribution Disaster, 1996

Foxmeyer, second largest drug exporter in US, 1996
Revamping IT & Distribution Systems -New ERP System -DC in Ohio

Counted on being up and running in 18 Months

Anticipated huge operational profits and signed several giant contracts

What went wrong?
SAP?s first high distribution foray

High such huge volumes was proving unmanageable

DC Automation System • Constant Bugs • Software trips during the process • Manpower in thousands required to fix the problem Many issues, apparently trivial in nature ignored

Partial shipment delivery due to DC issues

Some Effects on Foxmeyer

GM?s Robot Mania
THE CASE
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1980’s - Japanese offered reliable, small, competitively priced cars GM’s Radical business plan to automate and modernize
? Cost - $ 40 – 45 billion ? In 1980, CEO, Roger Smith honored with awards (Including: Financial World Gold Medal - best CEO in America)

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The result:

? Plants running at 50% capacity GM ? Two major strikes in the U.S. & Canada Ford ? CEO, Robert Smith fired

Average number of autos produced by each employee 11.7 16.1 57.7

Toyota

“GM could have bought both Toyota and Nissan for this amount” - CFO, GM

GM?s Robot Mania
ANALYSIS
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False assumptions - Replacing people with machines could increase productivity Missed essence of Toyota’s low-cost production success
? JIT inventory, ? TQM, ? Attention to production processes, ? Lean production, ? Extensive employee training, ? Close cooperation with suppliers

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Balancing value added time Vs waiting time of labor Productivity is not just based on labor costs but on the entire production system

WebVan
Automation Spree, 2001

WebVan, Among major online grocery initiatives during late 1990?s
Initially backed by - Prominent financial outfits like Goldman Sachs - Hiring high profile CEO from Accenture - Getting into public, thus raising billions of dollars Opted to automate their entire business, specifically warehouses Two assumptions - Capital was endless - Demand was endless

What went wrong?
Saying, it was an overkill, is too mildly putting it

Could not drive logistics costs even to make up the investments

Could not do reach high levels of system utilization

Had this large amount not been invested, would it be a profit making preposition?

Attempt to create a „state of art? distribution system at Spartanburg, SC, in 1993

Adidas Warehouse Meltdown
Software ported from UNIX to Stratus Computer fault-tolerant OS failed due to compatibility problems Problem compounded when the software vendor, Integrated Software Logistics Engineering, went out of business Another WMS vendor(IBM) implemented the system and went live before the system was ready

Unable to process and ship orders Fulfilled just 20% of the orders from the North American market Suffered major market share loss

IT and logistics staff left the company Magazine named it “Warehouse of the Month” – before the facility even went live.
SCM concepts in play: Warehouse Management, Logistics and Supply Chain efficiency

Denver Baggage Handling System
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Automated system built to improve baggage handling at Airport Originally scheduled to open in March 1994, the airport opening was postponed till February 1995 Automated system was an underground, computerdriven railroad network for moving baggage The Automated system built to decrease the turnaround time of the aircraft

Denver Baggage Handling System
Underground tunnels were not designed with the level of automation and thus failed Significant mechanical and software problems plagued the automated baggage handling system The system was not tested effectively Became partly operational but continuous failures and high operating costs led to return to traditional handling methods

SCM concepts in play: Automated Material Management or Handling and Logistics

Nov 6, 1999 • 62 million advertising circulars offering free shipping on Christmas toy orders placed before Dec. 10 over the Internet

Early Dec 1999 • Tens of thousands of orders • Inventory in place • Picking, Packing and Shipping is not fast • Employees worked for 49 straight days to fill orders

Dec 23, 1999 • Unable to fulfill orders in time • Company sent thousands of “We?re Sorry” mails • Negative publicity in Media • Customers displeased • Numerous customer complaints and angry emails

Packing

Upstream Side

Foca l Firm

Picking DownstreamShipping

Side
Problems

Downstream Side of Supply Chain Direct Customer Model

Outbound Logistics – Improper in-house forecasting

Distribution

Demand Forecasting

Empowered consumer

Competitive market

Poor design of Logistics network

Ignored Market Signals

No Risk Awareness or Risk Management

Insufficient Efulfillment capabilities

Even other E-Tailers had similar problems. ToysRUs.com?s failure led hundreds of other companies to add e-fulfillment capabilities

April 2000 • Company announced plans to triple fulfillment capabilities • Upgraded existing facilities & opened distribution centers • One centre to fill direct to customers order quickly, with well engineered facility • Location advantage as FedEx Home hub for shipping was close by

August 2000 • Signed a 10 year contract with Amazon.com • Outsourced its Outbound Logistics operations • ToysRUs focused on its core activities • Amazon would oversee site development, order fulfillment, and customer service

• $112 million spent on new order management, supply chain planning, & CRM system • Aimed at transforming company?s infrastructure & supply chain 1998-1999 • Intended to ease shipping and logistics between plants and retailers

• • • April 1999 •

System expected to go live Demand for products had increased Incompatibility due to different service providers – Problems! Rather than waiting, Hershey switched over in the summer to the new system (Mid July) • Failure of transactions and inventory visibility

• Company said that at least $150 million were lost in the Halloween orders

• Quarterly profits dropped by 19% September • Headlines across business press

1999

Upstream Side

Foca l Firm

Tracking Inventory Downstream

Order Fulfillment

Side
Problems

Failed Technology Implementation Incomplete testing and development of systems Wrong timing for implementation of ERP

Failure of ERP systems

Supply Chain Integration

Direct cutover strategy

Mismatch between project plan and complexity

Issue in Information flow led to problems in material flow

Problems in Technological Development

Order Fulfillment

Downstream side

Outbound Logistics issue

Demanding retailers switched to competitors

Later, lost sales effect

Personnel training not given

Cisco's 2001 Inventory Disaster
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Cisco rode the technology wave of the 1990's Slow to react when the tech bubble burst
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Solutions
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Agile supply chain
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Networking industry had never witnessed a slowdown Response to high order rates was higher build rates and inventory accumulation

Channel-wide information gathering taking into account every stage of the supply chain Detect early warning signals in the marketplace and take reactionary measures

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$2.2 billion writeoff in May 2001

Nike's 2001 Planning System Perplexity
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New, complex supply chain management system Myriad of issues
Software bugs and integration problems, complexity and change for planners, lack of training Major challenges in forecasting demand and deploying inventory

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$10 million revenue shortfall 20% knocked off on stock price Solutions
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Phased approach
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Pilot approach
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Changes will be familier

Shorter introduction Momentum is easier to maintain

Tools and processes can be well defined before

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roll-out

Source:Hassan, Masood., (2005) Phased Implementation v. Big Bang, Frontline Solutions, Vol. 6 Issue 7, p37-39

Aris Isotoner

1994: High profit subsidiary of Sara Lee based in Manila

Highly skilled labor force with experience upto 15 years

Very low cost of production

Post - Outsourcing

Huge turn around time

10 to 20% higher costs of production

Quality much poorer

SCM concepts at play: Logistics network design, Supply chain efficiency

Apple - Power Mac
1995: Apple was the market leader in PC?s Introduced Power Mac line Wary of potential – Power Books failure Conservative market estimate: Limited launch

Power Mac Launch
Explosion in demand Upto $ 1 billion in unfilled orders Permanent hit to industry standing SCM concepts at Play: Supplier Relationship management, Demand-driven Supply

A Common Thread
Common Problems
? Implementation of

Impact
? Companies have lost

technology/IT spoils a well running business ? Problems due to new systems cause problems in time and additional manpower

their position – instead of consolidation, have fallen back, or even gone into bankruptcy.

Solution - The Rational Unified Process
Process Workflows (Also called disciplines)
Business Modeling Requirements Analysis & Design Implementation Test Deployment

Phases
Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

Supporting Workflows
Configuration & Change Mgmt Project Management Environment Customise the Process Establish tools
Preliminary Iteration(s) Iter. #1 Iter. #2 Iter. #n Iter. Iter. #n+1 #n+2 Iter. #m Iter. #m+1

Iterations

Thank you…..



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