Edward N Beaver

In this week’s lecture, we have learned about RFID and how it is being used, can be implement in future.
RFID is the ‘Radio Frequency Identification’ type of identification system (somewhat similar to barcodes) that could read the product or items information through chips or wires that is on the tag which could be scanned and transmit the information on the database system. Currently it is not widely use because of certain challenges and prices of it, but if RFID could be used in wide range of our daily life, it will definitely make lot of things easier. It has 3 types of tag (Passive, Active, Semi Active), and require to have component of Scanner (or reader), Antenna, and Host. There are still challenges to uses RFID in many different places, but it is currently being used in wide range of our daily life such as passport, card, keys, etc.
Lastly, just want to mention that exam was bit harder than I thought..

In our last lecture, first we took a test and then we talked about RFID. Radio Frequency Identification is used in a variety of places. In a supply chain it can be used in warehouses to speed up the transfer of goods, in some restaurants it can be used to notify customers that their table is ready for them, and it is also used for some cars so that they can be keyless. RFID has two different types. One that can only be sensed from 5m away, and another one that can be tracked up to 100m away. In class we received one that we may use for our next class in relation to attendance.

In week six we learned about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) which is used to track shipment of goods through the supply chain. RFID is the use of radio waves to read and capture information stored on a tag attached to an object. RFID tags have created a better way of tracking goods through the supply chain in real time while storing it into the database. It has also created an easy mechanism of counting several hundreds and thousands of shipment which in turn saves the company time and money. RFID still needs more work so it can be cheaper and spread widely to other companies. This will streamline processes in the supply chain. The exam was a little tougher than expected but what i liked most was that majority of the questions related to real life situations.

In week 6’s class we took our first test and then discussed RFID technology. We reviewed the components, applications, and challenges in RFID, as well as the security and privacy concerns regarding RFID. To give us a hands on approach to the components of RFID, Professor Beaver handed out small chips that looked as though they could be put on a key chain. He explained how the small chip contained an electronic integrated circuit, a miniature antenna, and substrate inside which made it an RFID device. We also learned the tag types, for example the chip we receive is a passive tag which is powered by incoming rf, is smaller, cheaper, and lives a longer life than other types of chips. We then learned about the compenents needed to make a RFID work such such a scanner and a host. Next we learned about what RFIDs could be used for, one application that I didn’t even realized was RFID was E-ZPass which I found very interesting. Overall, I am interested and excited to see how RFID will be implemented in the future.

Last week we took our exam in the first portion of class then learned about RFID technology in the second portion of class.We all were handed in RFID tags on keychains as we handed in our tests. We talked about components of RFID. The components of RFID are tags (passive tags, active tags and semi active tags), scanner and readers, antenna and host. We then discussed RFID applications such as garage door openers, automatic toll collection like E-ZPass, equipment tracking etc. We learned some benefits of RFID in Supply Chain Management such as being an innovative way to identify, locate and monitor goods through the supply chain and the implementation of RFID resulting in increased accuracy of orders, reducing loss form theft, fewer misplaced items (in warehouse), etc. For the exam, I was a little surprised by the case portion and thought that it was tough but wasn’t really surprised by any of the other questions.

On a first note, I would say that the exam was pretty much laid out how i expected. The study guide helped in preparing. During week 6 though, we learned about RFID and the various uses the technology has applications for. I found it very interesting to learn of all the capabilities and this technology will be transformed to change certain processes as we know them such as grocery shopping. The professor’s account of Microsoft’s “Store of the Future” was a good personal experience to share in order to teach the class about how RFID can change traditional processes that have been standard for years.

During week six we took our first exam, as well as learned about RFID. Although I was familiar with RFID, I found the lecture to be interesting and insightful. I found the uses for RFID are unlimited, and all around us everyday; sometimes we don’t even think about it. For example, those of us who use E-Z pass while driving on the turnpike use RFID any time we pass through a toll terminal without stopping. RFID is designed to improve efficiency, and that’s definitely the case with E-Z pass. I’m not sure if we watched it in this class, but I saw a video of a retail store employee who went to take inventory of products on the floor. She used a scanner to identify the RFID tags and was able to locate and identify over 5,000 products in under 15 seconds which is incredible if you’ve ever worked in retail and have had to scan away products individually via barcode. Overall, I thought the test was exactly like the study guide, although I wasn’t a fan of the case study. I felt like I had to rush my answers for the case questions.

In week 6 we had spoken about RFID. RFID is Radio Frequency Identification. This is a system takes away the human touch of products to manage and track inventory. Items are placed with either a passive or active tag, and then can be scanned through a variety of methods whether it be handheld devices, or fixed scanners that can be placed at loading dock doors within a DC. RFID is a great technology, I guess have two questions about RFID as I am interested in Distribution Management. Will it ever replace the barcode? And when will it become cost efficient that it can be placed on all products, how many years until we are seeing RFID on all of our products?

In week 6 we discussed RFID in supply chain. RFID plays a big role in companies with respect to managing their inventory, but it’s also very much integrated in our daily lives as a consumer without us being entirely aware of it most of the time (examples: EZ Pass or tap-to-reader payments). Although RFID tags are relatively costly to implement (depending on the type and application), the benefits outweigh the costs. The technology itself has a lot of benefits with the main ones being increased inventory tracking and accuracy, improved order fulfillment accuracy, and reduced occurrences and risk of theft. Walmart is prime example of reaping the benefits of RFID technology because as we learned in class, by having such infrastructure in place allows the company to do things such as forecast demand and sales more accurately in addition to streamlining inventory levels in an efficient manner all in order to achieve maximum profits while improving customer service levels. In the end, this is how companies ultimately survive in business. In the future, we can definitely see the utilizations of RFID expand to different markets such as grocery shopping. Before that happens, I think costs to implement need to go down before we see that actually happen, but it’s certainly feasible.

I thought the exam was set up fine and covered the material I expected it to. RFID is a technology that can seriously benefit a company struggling with picking/shipping/handling errors. These types of errors can cost a company a lot of money, so investing in the RFID technology should be paramount for any business today. Not only does RFID reduce errors, but it can drastically speed up the order fulfillment process. Warehouse workers no longer have to take educated guesses on where a product is located or how many are in stock. RFID technology ensures that the correct product is picked in the correct amount, and is packaged on the proper pallet. This technology will be utilized in a growing percentage of supply chains throughout the world.

In this week, we have discussed about Bullwhip effect, and also went through beer game simulation.
One thing that really surprised me is that when we played the beer game, my group actually had the bullwhip effect throughout our supply chain activity. I was the retailer and had lack of fulfill the customer’s order, and at the end of our supply chain, we have massive amount of supplies in inventory for some reason. I think our group had problem with rationing and shortage gaming, so when we started the game, we did not have any idea to prepare for the shortage for customer’s future order. Therefore, I (as a retailer) was having trouble send my order to our supply chain and it have had so much inventory in stock at the end of our supply chain. Hopefully for the next round, my group will find better way to deal with this problem.

In the last class we mainly learned about the bull whip effect, and worked on the beer game simulation. It was interesting, playing the simulation again. I felt that I understood how to preform better than my first attempt at the simulation, however, like professor Beaver explained in class, my group also had the bullwhip effect. As the simulation got longer, and we did more and more weeks, my weekly costs kept rising and it was harder to return back to $0 for a weekly cost.

In week 5, we had our first real round of the beer game and we discussed the bull whip effect. My experience with the beer game was that of confusion at first because I was not sure who I was sending orders to vs who I was receiving them from which hurt my understanding of demand and therefore hurt my performance. I was not alone in my confusion about demand fluctuations because when we discussed the round afterward many people felt the same way. It was interesting though when we began to talk about the bullwhip effect because it was apparent that, that is what had happened to many of the groups. Demand changed and because of the lack of communication and determination to not have excess inventory or stock out, the bullwhip effect was in full swing. It cause many groups, including my own to over or under produce costing our company more and more each time we incorrectly attempted to correct for the demand. Thanks to the simulation it was easy to see how many companies can fall prey to something as simple as the bullwhip effect.

During week 5 of class, we ran through the root beer game simulation as well as covering the bullwhip effect. The root beer game was very frustrating to say the least due to lack of communication between team members. If we were able to communicate, the game would be much easier and we would be able to better forecast as a team for future demand. The game represented the bullwhip effect very well, as the consequences of no/low demand were exploited due to lack of supply. The root beer game also displays how important communication is in a supply chain. Without communication between departments, suppliers, or demand forecasts… the bullwhip effect is more present than ever.

During week five week ran through our first timed round of the beer game. Again, there was a little confusion because we we’re able to speak with one another. I agree with Jon that if there was communication between group members the game would be simpler and cause less confusion. We then learned about the Bullwhip effect. We learned that the bullwhip effect is explained as distorted information from one end of the supply chain to another creating a fluctuation in how the various entities behave. The resulting variability in forecasts, orders and inventory levels what causes the bullwhip effect. It is called the bullwhip effect because a small change in the beginning of the supply chain can cause a larger fluctuation or change toward the end of the supply chain. We then discussed the causes of the bullwhip effect and how to counteract it.

During week 5 we worked on the Beer Game which was a simulation that gave us real experience into that weeks topic the Bullwhip Effect. I think the key thing from the Beer Game that you are able to realize is that without communication in your businesses supply chain one small change within that supply chain will have drastic changes all the way down to the manufacturer. In order to ensure the supply chain is running smoothly communication is key, everyone from the manufacturer, wholesale, distributor, and retailer must be on the same page or someones bottom line will be suffer.

During week 5, we learned about the bullwhip effect and we learned how it affects the manufacturing, distributing, warehousing, and retailing processes. The beer game was an interesting simulation and I learned that communication is key in the supply chain process in order to be effective. Being a single player team, I did not have to worry about the communication being aligned through the other channels as I’m sure that is something other teams struggled with. For me, I just had to make sure I was understanding the warehouse and that I could account for the 2 week shipping delay throughout the process.

In week 5 we discussed what the Bullwhip Effect as well as completed the Beer game simulation. I thought that this related really well to what was happening in the Beer Game. It was interesting to see just how much strategies for forecasting and production, as well as extreme reactions to demand can effect the supply chain. For example, while completing the beer game, I realized I had made a horrible mistake by only ordering a small amount of units because I had a ton of inventory. I didn’t take into consideration that demand could change substantially and could leave me with stock outs and lost profits, as well as the other parts of the supply chain 9depending on which role you were playing).

In week 5 we discussed The Bullwhip Effect. Our lecture was also reinforced by the beer game simulation. I felt as though the simulation portrayed a very accurate scenario as to what it’s like to create such an effect within business. Through the class and the simulation, we learned that it is very important to have transparent communication throughout the whole process: from retailer to wholesaler to distributor to manufacturing, or however the particular supply chain is set up. In the end, communication is key because if one part of the process decides to change by any amount, that amount can exponentially multiply down the road for another component of the supply chain and ultimately harming the efficiency of a business, or multiple firms. Things that cause the bullwhip effect include price fluctuations, rationing and shortage gaming and non-transparent communication.

The simulations was really fun, until the bullwhip effect came to light. I had a great understanding of the Bullwhip effect from the class lecture, but it is an entirely different monster when you actually have to deal with it. The beer game simulation at first made me feel like I knew what I was doing, but when the order amounts began changing unpredictably, I was at the complete mercy of the Bullwhip. It’s just like losing control of your car on an icy road, the initial human instinct is to over-steer in the opposite direction, which only compounds the problem.

In class lecture we have discussed about WWT case, and one of the key take away that I have is, Technology is no the key driver for success. There are other factors to think about in business specially, if the business is position in intermediary of the supply chain activity. It should fulfill the need of buyers and sellers on both side. And key success of the WWT is that they put value in outsourcing, thus WWT take the jobs that are complicated for OE to deal with tons of different vendors. In addition to the case study, beer game was also very useful tool to see what and how the inbound and outbound work is being done through supply chain. Having the inventory for the order on time requires lots of condition and work through supply chain and it was very interesting to see how different aspect of supply chain works throughout the game.

In the last class lecture I learned a number of new things. The biggest take away that I received was that to understand a supply chain, the best way to know how it works it to actually use a program or do a game and attempt it. It was interesting to see how my group was able to work together during the beer game and change our costs and other things. I think that it will be more interesting once we are not able to talk to one another. Another thing that I learned form the last class is that outsourcing was a very successful decision for WWT, and it can be a big plus for many companies. Also, the more vendors you have, doesn’t always mean that you are better off. In the WWT case, they had about 1,800 vendors and were not doing to well with the MRO. It wasn’t until they pulled back to 300 vendors that they were more successful.

My biggest takeaway from this past class was actually getting first hand experience playing the beer game. No matter how much you learn in class, theres nothing like actually being put in a real life scenario. In the beginning my team was very ineffective and confused, but I began to understand how the supply chain process works the more we played the game. From the case, the two main things I took away was that technology is not always the key driving factor behind behind success, however it is very beneficial, and that outsourcing, when done at the right time, can be an extremely successful tool for increasing the efficiency of a supply chain.

In week 4 we discussed the Clear Orbit Case. We discussed the challenges OME’s MRO purchasing options. For example, many of the vendors were submitting both hard and electronic copies of data. There also was a challenge due to big and small vendors. Typically smaller vendors accepted the new system because they did not have very advanced IT departments. Larger vendors had more advanced IT departments and their own systems which is why it was hard to convince them to adapt OEM/WWT’s new system. This relates to the biggest take-a-way of this case which was that technology is not always the key driver in regards to the success of a supply chain. During the second portion of class we had an intro to the beer game. My team was confused at first during the game because we didn’t really know what we were doing and it didn’t really help that we couldn’t talk to each other. Hopefully next time we will start to get the hang of what we are supposed to do.

In week 4 class, we learned the WWT/ Clear Orbit case. The three biggest challenges for OEM’s MRO purchasing operations was 1.) Too many vendors, they work with about 1800 vendors. They had to create more positions to maintain the relationships between all the vendors. It leads to next challenge which is 2.) Cost is high, many employees’ position are redundant. They are paying more but getting less. 3.) Inefficient, every vendor will provide all kinds of information back to OEM, but they are not all in the same form, in order to keep all the data, employees need to put more effects into their work and can’t use their time wisely. Also, we played the beer game. Personally, I think it is fun. We should low the inventory to a certain point and if everybody uses same number after that, I think we can make the lowest cost.

Although I was not present during the lecture for week 4, I did read the WWT and clear Orbit case. The main thing that I took away from the case was that collaboration between companies can greatly increase said companies’ supply chain efficiency. For example, the collaboration increased visibility and scalability. In regard to visibility, it increase how the companies could view their products which in turn they used to develop and provide better timing. When it came to scalability, the collaboration allowed for a much lower amount of human resources to manage a large number of accounts which in turn reduced labor costs by 30%.

During week 4, the WWT/Clear Orbit case had taught me a little more about how car part manufacturer’s operate and run their business. It taught me that outsourcing car parts is a very valuable technique to use in that industry to diminish substantial costs relating to car parts. I also learned that although technology is a clear driver of success, it is not of the utmost importance to the company. Sometimes small business changes have a larger impact than implementing a new technology. The correct implementation of technology can impact the business in a very positive manner, as technology in this case enhanced collaboration throughout the whole supply chain. While being introduced to the beer game, my team was very confused due to the no communication role and also had trouble grasping the concept of a demand driven item. I hope to see improvements in our teams numbers the next round.

Week four brought us an interesting case to dive into and explore. The Clear Orbit case was a difficult example to wrap my head around at first but eventually the lecture brought everything around full circle. The reason WWT chose Clear Orbits POC system was because it did work as a sort of ERP system within the supply chain that enhanced communications between every parties involved. But the technology was not the differentiating factor, this small business was chosen by WWT as a partner because their mediary service simplified WWT’s problems and improved their supply chain process. Though this was done through Clear Orbit’s technology, the larger benefit here is having a party to do some sort of similar service there. The first round of the beer game was very confusing and challenging. I need to look over the tutorial again to understand the software better.

In week 4 we examined the Clear Orbit Case. We discussed some of the major challenges of OME’s MRO purchasing options. One major issue was they fact that they had too many vendors. What ended up happening was that they were kind of forced into having to create more jobs to maintain the relationships between all the vendors. Another challenge that they faced was that when they wanted to implement a new system, their larger vendors were opposed to the idea, where their smaller ones were more ready to accept the changes. A final challenge they faced was that the information/data being received from each vendor were in different forms (electronic and paper/hard copy) which was time consuming for employees and decreased efficiency. In the final segment of the class we did the beer game simulation. I found this simulation to be fun and informative. I found it fun because I learned first hand what a supply chain is all about (in a really general sense), and I found it informative because I learned that its really hard to run an efficient business without good communication/lack of information.

The key thing I learned in week four of class through the beer game was the necessary needs for communication. Without communication throughout the entire supply chain everyone will experience inefficiencies. Retailers must keep open communication with the distributor who must be in contact with the wholesaler who keeps in contact with the manufacturer. I think something that can help with this communication is Vendor Managed Inventory Systems something we have spoken about in class. VMI allows the supplier to directly manage the buyers inventory and will make necessary changes when it sees and increase in demand.

In week 4, we discussed the WWT Orbit Case and started the beer game simulation. The case proved to be a very interesting concept but for me, the key takeaway for class was the lessons learned in the simulation. This activity really helped us visualize the bullwhip effect in supply chain and ultimately stressed the importance of communication throughout all levels of the process. Because we were not allowed to talk to our group members, we were only able to guess what each component of the supply chain was doing, which proves to be very inefficient and costly when you examine the values associated with excess inventory, etc. At the end of the day, the simulation put the value of communication as it relates to the bullwhip effect and supply chain into better perspective because great communication is one of the key factors to the success of any business.

This week we went over the WWT Orbit Case and did the first part of the beer game simulation. The Clear Orbit Case went over outsourcing processes and making sure you picked the right one. By picking a small company instead of a large company to implement their new system, WWT was able to have a more specialized system tailored to their needs. Had they picked a large company they would of had to compromise and probably get less value out of their system. The beer game simulation was pretty fun but also confusing. At the start my group and I were confused as to what exactly each of our roles were and how we effected each other. In the end we skewed some numbers to attempt to even out the backlog we had created and it sort of worked but left us with a good amount of left over inventory. Either way it was good to practice before doing it outside of class.