VERTICALLY INTEGRATED SUPPLY CHAIN
In 1994, the Cadillac Motor Division of General Motors (GM) sought competitive advantage over Lincoln, Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. After receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1992, Cadillac found that superior product quality was not enough to make it more competitive with Lincoln and the Japanese imports. Cadillac decided that its competitive advantage would be the ability to provide a custom-configured car to potential buyers virtually on demand.
Prior to 1994, Cadillac did not use distribution centers. The company shipped autos directly to dealers from the factory in Hamtramck, Mich.
Dealers were awash in new car inventories on their lots.
Because of the high cost of luxury autos, however, customers for upscale cars are less tolerant of prepackaged options and colors. They are reluctant WHITE PAPER 9 to pay for what is on the lot if it lacks certain options, contains options they do not really want or is not the precise color they prefer. Cadillac management decided that it could gain competitive advantage by providing customers exactly the car they wanted, in the color desired, without having to wait the usual 70 to 85 days for the vehicle to be custom-built and delivered from the factory.
Cadillac applied the Synchronous Demand Network concept to its operation. GM had a sophisticated information network connecting individual dealers with the assembly plant—a significant incentive to try the concept. This almost instantaneous information transfer enabled Cadillac to support the production and inventory policy changes needed to shorten the lead time for delivering custom-configured cars to customers.
Using GM’s voluminous data on customer consumption patterns, Cadillac determined that 85 percent of all requests for custom-configured cars fit into roughly 250 combinations and permutations of colors and options. With the right inventory management strategies, Cadillac could satisfy customer demands for custom-configured cars from distribution centers in two days.
In 1994, GM tested the new supply chain concept for six months in Florida. The company established a distribution center near Orlando, no more than a day’s drive from any dealership in the state, and populated it with 2,000 cars divided among the 250 combinations and permutations of options and colors. The Florida dealerships connected to the distribution center and the factory via information systems. drew down their inventories as model years approached an end. Additionally, the factory stored fewer finished cars and was ultimately more responsive to real-world demand. Cadillac’s Xpress Delivery service is one of the most solid examples today of a Synchronous Demand Network being implemented. The results were resoundingly successful, and Cadillac is now one of the top two automotive brands in the world.
SYNCHRONOUS DEMAND NETWORKS: SPEED, FLEXIBILITY AND HIGH RETURN ON INVESTMENT A request for a new Cadillac at a Miami dealership generated an immediate inquiry to the distribution center. If the request fell within the assortment of 250 colors and options in stock, as it did 85 percent of the time, the distribution center loaded the car on a carrier and sent it to Miami the next day. The car arrived within 48 hours of the time the customer signed the order and put down a deposit. At the same time, the system generated a “build” order at the factory in Michigan to fill the slot created by this new order. If the car did not exist at the distribution center, the system routed the customer order to the factory and production on the order began the very next day. Building the car required about three days.
In the past, the factory amassed finished cars in parking areas until there was a train load that could be shipped to Florida. This could take anywhere from three to six weeks, depending on the sales volume.
Importantly, Cadillac changed these inventory and transportation policies to support the new supply chain approach. It reduced shipping batches from entire train loads to individual train car loads.
In the final analysis, Cadillac was able to insert a new order into production, complete manufacturing and ship the car through the distribution center to the dealer in only 19 days. The test in Florida demonstrated that dealers could meet their promised delivery dates 94 percent of the time. In the remaining 6 percent, the delivery was only one day later than promised. Cadillac ultimately branded this service Xpress Delivery and deployed it nationwide by 1997. As a result, dealers operated with less inventory and fewer end-of-year discounts. Distribution centers drew down their inventories as model years approached an end. Additionally, the factory stored fewer finished cars and was ultimately more responsive to real-world demand. Cadillac’s Xpress Delivery service is one of the most solid examples today of a Synchronous Demand Network being implemented. The results were resoundingly successful, and Cadillac is now one of the top two automotive brands in the world. 问题: 结合TOC分销理论,详细分析凯迪拉克同步分销模式与传统销售模式的不同,以及新模式对公司竞争力的影响。 该贴来自群组:TOC约束理论 |