Supply chain work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Supply chain work - Essay Example Different products demand different supply chain and the difference may be in total depending on nature of products and involved organizations and managements. I, in this paper, outline supply chain for paper, and discuss the product’s transportation and storage through its current supply chain and possible improvements, planning and control for the product, and lean manufacturing ideas. Outline of the supply chain for paper Outline of supply chain for paper begins with the growth of trees, raw materials for paper, up to the nearest storage facility to the product’s final consumer. The first stage in the chain is identification of suitable seeds by a gardener for quality trees. The gardener then grows the seeds into seedlings and in a process that is informed of agricultural skills. The gardener tends the seedlings, in a nursery, for a period until a stage at which the seedlings are mature enough to survive in a real environment for its species’ growth. The young tree is then transferred into a designated location that may be a domestic environment or a forest at which it is planted. Care of the young plant transfers from the gardener to an expert in tree husbandry who cares for the young plant until its maturity time. The mature tree is the cut into logs of wood and chipped to align the material into the production process. Chipping converts the blocks of wood to â€Å"wood pulp† that is modeled into â€Å"raw paper† (Palgrave n.d., n.p.). Further processing results into â€Å"large rolls of paper† that is then refined to smaller packages. At this stage, the product has been developed and further processes relates to packaging in desirable shapes and sizes for ultimate utility. Cutting of the smaller paper rolls follows into development of â€Å"sheets of paper† that is then wrapped as the final product. Transportation of the products follows from this point into wholesalers’ warehouses and storage facili ties before further distribution to retailers’ warehouses from which the product is sold to consumers (Palgrave n.d., p. 8). The product’s supply chain outline identifies with features of the traditional supply chain. According to McKinnon et al., traditional supply chain consists of â€Å"suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centers, retailers, and customers† (2010, p. 102). Suppliers deliver raw materials to manufacturing companies that generate the finished products before delivery to intermediaries or retailers. Delivery to the intermediaries leads the products to retailers who offer the commodity to consumers. In the supply chain outline for paper, suppliers consist of the owners of the trees that are delivered as raw materials for the production process. The gardener, if operating independently from the tree farmer, can however be identified as a preliminary supplier. Processing companies that chip the delivered logs and process the raw materials into pa per and paper sheets are the manufactures under the traditional supply chain. Transportation companies and wholesalers can be considered as distributors and retailers and consumers complete the traditional supply chain outline. This means that even though the supply chain outline for paper has a long process with numerous players and activities, it identifies the structure of the traditional supply chain (McKinnon et al. 2010, p. 102; Palgrave n.d., p.