Strategic Solutions Case Study

BSCL305-T105 Principles of Supply Chain Man (2171-1)

Group 1

Sept 25,2016

Names of students in the group: Vincent, Hugo, Eugene, Daisy

Executive summary

In this case, the way like LTL, telephone, and e-mail are outdated, which they can’t

meet customer’s needs. Now, the EDI and TMS are new power of company

development today. EDI ensures real-time information and the TMS makes Strategic

Solutions more fast and effective to identify potential routes. So, we believe that in

the new market competition environment, Scott should have integrated EDI and TMS

into the Strategic Solutions.

Introduction

Strategic Solutions started from the small-scale third-party logistics provider Scott

Crash. The strategic centers on the benefits of all important organizations in business

transaction chain and focuses on the resources optimization based on the core

competitiveness as well as coordinated development in an all-round way. Nowadays,

Scott faces various limitation of information technology, for example, the information

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 transferring method of telephone and e-mail cannot come up with the development

speed of supply chain. As a result, it is difficult for customer to communicate on

Strategic Solutions. Therefore, EDI and TMS are needed for Scott to solve the

problem and reduce custom churn

“Body” of the paper

1. Identify the characteristics of an ideal information system for this logistics

environment. Gather information on both EDI and TMS and compare their suitability

for this environment.

In this Case, Strategic Solutions(SS) have two main problems. First, they used

telephone and e-mail to do information exchange, it is hard to coordinate each

logistics links and communicate with the customers. Second, they are losing

reputation and customers. Base on this two problems, we can Identify three

characteristics of an ideal information system, which is the customers can easy to

communicate with logistics serve supplier; the information of logistics must be

accurate and not delay between each member; can reasonable to arrange each part of

logistics. DMI and TMS exactly is what they need.

DMI (Electronic Data Interchange) is transfer electronic data from one computer to

another computer with standard format and without the human intervention.

According to the article “Analysis of the Market Economy” (Shuo Yang, 2011), there

are three similarities in EDI: 1. the unified standard of information materials; 2.

passing information by electrical signals; 3. the connection between computer

systems. Most of the enterprises are both suppliers and vendors in the whole trading

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 chain, so that improving the transfer speed and processing speed of business file

became common needs to all the members in the trading chain. A number of company

can use DMI to exchange the documents on the Internet. It is make sure the

information can be share between multiple company on real-time, to strengthen the

coordinate and communicate between company and customer. The only down side of

DMI system is the expense and system failure.

TMS (Transportation Management System) is a software system designed to manage

transportation operations, it can strengthen the interactions between an organization's

order management system (OMS), warehouse management system (WMS), and

distribution center (DC). Usually, TMS used for the specific management of the

transport links in the logistics links, including vehicle management, the management

of goods in transit and so on. TMS can carry on the real-time tracking to all vehicles

of the logistics company (combined with GPS) and keep the information flow and the

logistics unobstructed. TMS can help the logistics company more fast and effective to

identify potential routes. Down side of TMS is that it would leave out non-contracted

carriers.

So, DMI and TMS would help the Strategic Solutions to solve the problems. The DMI

can made Strategic Solutions have ability to coordinate each part of logistics links and

communicate the customers in first time, improve customer satisfaction. TMS can

make Strategic Solutions have ability to better operate each logistics system and fast

to identify a more effective logistics project, increase the company ' s benefit.

If use DMI and TMS at the same time, that DMI with provide fast information

transfer between each part of TMS, and TMS with help DMI to provide timely and

accurate logistics information to customers. Also, when DMI system failure, TMS can

make sure everything under control; when certain time or route wasn’t available,

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 DMI’s real-time information can help TMS immediately to find other ways to

schedule the transportation of their customers’ goods.

2. Help Scott decide if he should invest in either EDI or TMS, or both. Is there

another Type of system that you would believe would be better? What kind of benefits,

including performance and customer satisfaction, can Scott expect by making these

proposed changes to the business process?

According to the case study, the major problem of Scott’s company is the information

technology constraints. To be more specific, Scott’s company does not have the real-

time information because their current method of information sharing is outdated. In

addition, customers are not satisfied because they are hard to communicate with

Strategic Solutions. Therefore, it is important for Scott to invest both EDI and TMS.

One of the greatest benefits of implementing EDI is that EDI enables real-time

information sharing, which can help Scott’ s company share the information with all

of their customers as well as potential carriers. The information is also available

online so customers can check them with access codes. In this case, customers always

know the real-time information, so their satisfaction will not drop.

TMS is also really important to Scott’s company. TMS is beneficial to the

transportation systems. By using TMS, they can efficiently identify and find the

potential routes which are good for the movement of cold and frozen food products.

What’s more, they don’t need to arrange shipments through telephone or e-mail so

outdated information is not an issue anymore.

In one word, implementing these two systems can make sure Strategic Solutions get

real-time information and improve the transportation system. As a result, the process

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 of transportations becomes visible and more efficient, which meets customers’ needs

greatly. Thus, customers will be satisfied with SS and then SS can make profits.

3. What are the key considerations for Scott when deciding on the best possible

systems to implement?

Scott knows that logistics depends on accurate real-time information, but he is not

sure what type of system will fit for his company. We do have two different types of

systems here that would be beneficial for his company. electronic data interchange

(EDI), which is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a

standard electronic format between business partners, and transportation management

system (TMS), which is a software that facilitate interactions between an

organization’s order management system (OMS) and its warehouse system (WMS) or

distribution center (DC).

The key considerations for Scott when deciding on the best possible systems to

implement are diverse. Communication is one of them because he has to

communicate or share information with its customers, or suppliers because

information can be available online with proper access codes so that scheduling

arrangement involving shipment equipment, and time schedule can be made with a

single point of contact.

Expectation can be another factor for Scott to take into consideration because in

today’s technological environment, visibility to shipment and communication of any

in route deviation should be given.

Conclusion

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 We believe that in the new market competition environment, Scott should have

integrated EDI and TMS into the Strategic Solutions. Because Scott can make use of

EDI to exchange data with customers by network system and quickly solve

customer’s problems. Then the company can use TMS to monitor and track the whole

logistic process in real time. It can not only ensue the unobstructed of logistic

information, but also satisfy customers’ requirement of checking at any time. When

the utilization of these systems can make the Strategic Solutions get information and

orders in time, their advantages such as large quantities, many varieties and fast

delivery can improve the degree of customers’ satisfaction, which finally leads to

company’s profits.

Sources

1,

Rouse, M. (2014). Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Techtarget. Retrieved October

15, 2014, from http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/EDI

2,

Rouse, M. (2015). transportation management system (TMS). TechTarget. Retrieved

August 15, 2015, from

http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/definition/Transportation-Management-

System-TMS

3,

Sanders, N. R. (2012). Logistics. In L. Johnson (Ed.), Supply Chain Management: A

Global Perspective (pp. 201). Hoboken, NJ: George Hoffmann.

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 4,

Yang, S. (n.d.). Analysis of Market Economy. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from

http://zhidao.baidu.com/link?

url=ayBwdL3zLW4xwAWaEwLNO0YDjb66MzYTxap9PxWJPE_qIsrMbLDf4iy850

lXwjxOfqFAqjRmzOa22EA0DtYQTFM1xLfuJwv_0zoPPcCTNy

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