The impact of increase in lead times in supply chain activities on Research Paper

The impact of increase in lead times in supply chain activities on retail concerns - Research Paper Example However, for this to happen to any supply chain, the management must enforce some of the basic rules that allow them to compress time to enhance their processes and ensure that the clients receive their orders in due time. Precision and accuracy always work positively as they ensure that the time that lapses between the placement of an order and the delivery of the same is as minimal as possible and at the right time (Chen, et al., 2000, p. 436). This does not imply a reduction in the quality just to satisfy demand. Each employer understands that the employees will always work best if motivated and inspired to keep the quality and time as congruent as possible. As such, working hand in hand with them is not only necessary but advantageous because the management will understand what is required to help them achieve the very best within the shortest time possible (Borzath, Warsing, Flynn and Flynn, 2009, p. 78). Pressurizing them may hinder their full potential and thus failure in the production system because they are not satisfied with what they are doing. However, a clever supply chain manager will always seek innovative means through which they can improve the demand chain performance. To achieve this, they may need to include some of the time-proven ideologies such as lead time reduction, forecasting or customer satisfaction matrix. The report herein will explore the impact of lead time reduction and how this affects the services within a supply chain. The report will also offer some recommendations based on the impacts discussed in relation to the Norwich Nordic and Pulp Company as well as the best means of maintaining this trend. Lead Time This is defined by several researchers as the amount of time that elapses between the start of a process and its completion (Chen, et al. 2000; Borzath, Warsing, Flynn and Flynn 2009; de Treville et al., 2004; Shah and Ward, 2007). Every company wants to encompass the whole system in the supply chain from the consumer de mand to customer satisfaction this means that by all means they have to deal with the total cycle time (TCT) or the lead time. This has three major components that are imperative in meeting the customer demand, information flow and material flow. These attributes are necessities and if well intertwined, could offer the best strategy in meeting the demands of the supply chain management system. The consequent reduction of the lead time is very imperative in the creation of a direct leverage on the bottom-line (Shah and Ward, 2007, p. 786). This will help the chain achieve better competition and allow the management to deal with each of the factors from a more informed position compared to before. By allowing this component, the management will be offering a chance for each of the employees to play to the same music hence minimizing delays and maximizing on the time allocated for each activity. When talking about the lead time there are several components that ought to be considered. They include pre-processing, processing and post-processing. Pre-processing includes the determinations made when resources are required and the steps that allow each of them to be filled in order. It also looks at the final product and how it reflects the current order placed by the client (Ketchen and Hult 2006, p. 575). The processing bit looks at the actual manufacturing of the product and making it like the real product that has been ordered. Post-processing looks at the delivery of the order to the client after the order has been manufactured. Each of this is what the lead time has to be measured against based on the benchmarks set by the company. Reducing the process