Supply chain solution provides text book case for customisation

KEVIN MAYHEW USING THE benchmark practices of the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR), an innovative solution has been developed for the distribution of thousands of text books from publishers to educational institutions. Supply chain solutions provider Simulations & Solutions narrowed down the methods of SCOR – which is used for benchmark supply chain solutions in more sophisticated applications worldwide – and applied it to meet just the warehousing and dispatch elements of distribution for text books. “I believe that we have honed the SCOR model in this exercise to make it more relevant to smaller applications which have traditionally tried to put together their own warehouse handling – usually through manual applications,” explained the managing director of Simulations & Solutions in Johannesburg, Roelf Grové. The company designs supply chain applications that call for a high degree of customisation, using technologies such as bar code or RFID systems. They focus on small to medium sized distribution companies. The SCOR Model provides a supply chain template that is increasingly being used by major companies to streamline their own procedures and those of their suppliers and customers. Grové believes that the model should be used to provide supply chain solutions to smaller companies. Disconnects between smaller and larger supply chains must be avoided at all cost. “In this way one can use the model where the level of sophistication allows for it and then interface it with the next stage of the supply chain that might not be as sophisticated,” he said.