Sheffield Hallam University - Global Supply Chain Business Analysis

This report provides a business analysis of Leopard Tools' global supply chain and manufacturing strategy, advocating for lean production to address challenges like competition and high manufacturing costs. It critically analyzes manufacturing strategies, emphasizing the removal of waste and impediments to enhance product quality and reduce costs. The report also explores improvements in supply chain management through technologies like IoE and data science, highlighting the importance of synchronizing operational policies with business strategies. The analysis concludes by emphasizing the need for a comprehensive approach to integrate manufacturing and supply chain improvements for enhanced synergy and performance.

Running head: GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN & MANUFACTURING STRATEGY
GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN & MANUFACTURING STRATEGY
Name of student
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Improvements in the manufacturing strategy.............................................................3
Critical analysis of the alternatives............................................................................3
Improvements in the supply chain management........................................................5
Critical analysis of the supply chain management.....................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This report aims to discuss the global supply chain and the manufacturing strategy of
the Leopard tools. The manufacturing strategy and the global supply chain approach that has
been adopted by the company is briefly described in this report. The approach of the supply
chain management including the supporting technologies and the information has been
briefly detailed in this report. The contribution of the manufacturing strategy to the
improvement of performance is briefly described in this report and the methods by which the
strategy of manufacturing and the supply chain management complements each other for
achieving the enhanced synergy and the levels of performance is briefly stated in this report.
Discussion
The company leopard tools is the medium size producer of the manual hand tools that
is utilised by the professional craftsmen and in the home and the market of DIY. The
establishment of the company was done 100 years back and it is commonly popular for the
high quality. The company conventionally manufactured the majority of the tools in Germany
at the long established factory. The company went through huge modernisation with the
enhancement of the tools and the process of the manufacturing. But it has been observed that
the modern factory is still labour intensive. Because of the complexity and the size of the
conventionally designed range, there is immense downtime as the production has moved
from one type to another. The company faces significant competition from the declining
conventional market and the cheap imports and the huge manufacturing costs. The approach
that should be adopted by the company for dealing with the challenges in the business are is
the lean production system.

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Improvements in the manufacturing strategy
The lean production system is considered to be the approach for the management that
solely focuses on the elimination of the waste while the ensuring of the quality (Aguado,
Alvarez & Domingo, 2013). This approach is most suitable for the business as it faces
challenges related to the manufacturing of the products and the distribution of products and
the quality of the products that are being manufactured in the factories. The proponents of the
lean system claims that the lean production system provides the potential for the increased
modern improvements in the cost and the performance (Hill, 2017). It has been claimed by
several researchers that the with the implementation of the complete system in sole place, the
production would include the significant amount of the workforce in the factory, some of the
portion of the workforce in the space of manufacturing, some workforce in the tools of the
investment and some of the workforce in the development of the innovative products (). It has
been claimed by the researchers that until the adoption of the complete group of the practices
is done, the improvements in the production would be negligible (Löfving, Säfsten &
Winroth, 2014).
Critical analysis of the alternatives
The critical analysis could be done for the manufacturing strategies that would be best
suited for the company and that would provide the company with the major benefits. The
manufacturers of the Leopard DIY could achieve significant enhancement in the quality of
the products and reduce the costs by the removal of the buffers and the impediments from the
system. The elimination of the excess inventory drives the linkages among the suppliers and
assemblers, redesigns the floor of the factory, enforces the increased attention towards the
initial quality and several more aspects (Birasnav, 2014). The meaning of the excess
inventory denotes that the mistakes in the manufacturing or the equipment that are broken
would not hamper the production due to the fact that the downstream processes could draw

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on the inventories for the production during the time when the remedy of the mistakes is
being discovered (Roh, Hong & Min, 2014). Moreover, the cost of the excess inventory is
significant and it could hide the problems in production that leads to the huge problems later
on (Rinehart, Huxley & Robertson, 2018).
The mass production provides the opportunity of offering the buffer against any
mistakes using the excess inventory while the lean manufacturing intends to perform the
elimination of the mistakes and therefore there is a necessity of the costly buffers (Mellor,
Hao & Zhang, 2014). The removal of the inventory buffers needs increasingly tight coupled
processes that extensively links the various functions in the organisation. Moreover, the
adoption of the lean system should be done completely for viewing the improvements (Yang
et al., 2015). Synergies from the application of lean for the various areas of the process of
manufacturing are extensively significant so that the innovative processes could not be
correctly understood along or the adoption could be done solely (Pisano, 2015). There are
several improvements that are undertaken in the manufacturing floor, in the management of
the suppliers, in the effective management of the inventory, in the development and design, in
the human resources (Chatha, Butt & Tariq, 2015). The extensive attention towards the flow
and quality brings down the costs all through the process of production that includes the
phase of the design to the final delivery of the product to the customers (Dombrowski et al.,
2016). On the floor of the factory, the components of products are manufactured in the single
nature in the dedicated nature.
The extensive attention is provided towards the decreasing of the setup times and the
improvement of the first time quality (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010). The extensive
management of the inventory include the minimal or the non-existent stocks of the inventory
helps in maintaining the costs, helps in the reduction of the required space on the floor and it

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drives the attention to the first time quality for not allowing the defects to hamper the
production process (Ding et al., 2014).
The major constraint of this strategy is the increase in the cost of manufacturing as it
requires some extensive methods and tools. An extensive trained and the flexible workforce
could play a significant role in the continuous improvement of the quality and the
enhancement of the structure that would allow the workers to manage their jobs, which are
ultimately enriched (Brettel, Klein and Friederichsen 2016). The close links with the
customers ensures the meeting of the requirements of the customers and the proper delivery
of the products to the customers in the reduced time. The initial step in the implementation of
the lean production system involves the identification of the value of the product and
understand the value of the stream (Lyonnet & Toscano, 2014). The next step includes the
determination of the stream of value (Galeazzo & Klassen, 2015). For example, Walmart
implemented these strategies for enhancing their manufacturing process and it gained
significant benefit from proper working of the manufacturing department. The manufacturers
are required to comprehend each step in the production of the products efficiently for
managing the production accurately. These manufacturing strategies would help the company
to produce the enhanced goods and the services at lower costs and provide the customers with
better quality goods (Hitomi, 2017).
Improvements in the supply chain management
The supply chain management can be improved with the implementation of the
modern technologies that helps in the improvement of how the supply chain works for the
company. The implementation of the IoE including the IoT could enhance the process of
supply chain management in the company. This technology offers the vast area of
development around the supply chain (Christopher, 2016). The computer models using which
the supply chain is managed could be increasingly synchronised and the physical world and

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the digital world could be combined. This denotes that the computer models against which
the decisions of the supply chain are executed might or might not present the physical reality
of the present situation that is being covered in the supply chain. There is the latency among
the computer models and the physical supply chain for the execution of the decision making,
that leads to the sub-optimal decisions, In future, it is believed that the computer models
would constantly process the digital signals, that represents the state of the capacities,
movements and the inventory and importantly causing the convergence of the physical world
into the physical world and the digital world (Monczka et al., 2015). This would require the
software solutions of the supply chain to be extensively real-time.
Critical analysis of the supply chain management
The data science could be used by the company that is considered to be extensively
used in the modern supply chains for managing the production and the delivery of the
products. The big data is used by several companies in the present world to enhance the
supply chain management and it could be used by the company for gaining significant
competitive advantage (Hugos, 2018). The methods by which the companies leverage the big
data are the analytics, machine learning and the prescriptive analytics. This could be executed
if the company holds significant mass of the data science. The company in the case study has
immense data about the production processes and the suppliers that could be extensively
utilised by the company using the modern methods for enhancement of the supply chain
management. This strategy poses several advantages due to the extensive use of the
technology by the company but the major constraint of this strategy is the assurance of the
security of the inventory of the company.
In the present business environments, the governing of the supply chain is done by the
policies of operation that are specific to the functions and are combined along the end-to-end
chain from the back of the customers with the suppliers (Seuring, 2013). These policies are

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combined in the software, which supports every functions. In the supply chain of the Leopard
DIY, it is ordering the policies, the replenishment of the policies, the policies of the
management of the warehouse, the policies of the suppliers and the policies of the
procurement. The synchronisation of the policies might not be done efficiently. Moreover,
the synchronisation might not be done back to any strategy of the business that is being
intended to accomplish by the enterprise. The ordering policy of the company is designed for
shipping all the materials combined for any diverse set of the products might not be synch
with the pickup policies of the pickup of the transportation. The lack of the synchronisation
of the operational policies might lead to the significant leakage of the value in supply chain.
The improvement that could be done in the supply chain is the implementation of the
dashboard using which the enterprises could enter the strategies of the business and therefore
could have the strategies of that business be automatically translated in the operational
policies all across different domains of the functions from the back of the customers using the
suppliers. The company comprises of the various strategies of the business that directly
affects the policies of operation. It could be observed that the strategies of the business could
be provided to the dashboard and it would automatically populate the policies of operation
through every functional are of the supply chain and synchronise the policies through the
areas of function.
The machine learning is the sector of the artificial intelligence that is used for the
processing of the big data. This is based on the algorithms that could recognise the patterns of
data, understand from these patterns, then offer the insights and increase the understanding
with time. The supply chain of the company could implement the machine learning as part of
their enterprise resource planning. The major sectors where the machine learning could be
beneficial for the company includes the understanding of the behaviour of the consumers for
developing the assortments that are specific to the customers and the offers and the analysis

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of the patterns of the demand for establishing the policies of the inventory for the slow
moving merchandise.
Conclusion
Therefore, it could be concluded that the company could improve the manufacturing
strategy by the implementation of the lean production system in their business strategy. The
company leopard tools is the medium size producer of the manual hand tools that is utilised
by the professional craftsmen and in the home and the market of DIY. The establishment of
the company was done 100 years back and it is commonly popular for the high quality. The
lean production system is considered to be the approach for the management that solely
focuses on the elimination of the waste while the ensuring of the quality. This approach is
most suitable for the business as it faces challenges related to the manufacturing of the
products and the distribution of products and the quality of the products that are being
manufactured in the factories. The supply chain management can be improved with the
implementation of the modern technologies that helps in the improvement of how the supply
chain works for the company. The implementation of the IoE including the IoT could
enhance the process of supply chain management in the company. In the present business
environments, the governing of the supply chain is done by the policies of operation that are
specific to the functions and are combined along the end-to-end chain from the back of the
customers with the suppliers. The supply chain of the company could implement the machine
learning as part of their enterprise resource planning.

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References
Aguado, S., Alvarez, R., & Domingo, R. (2013). Model of efficient and sustainable
improvements in a lean production system through processes of environmental
innovation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 47, 141-148.
Birasnav, M. (2014). Relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and
manufacturing strategy. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(2), 205-
223.
Brettel, M., Klein, M. and Friederichsen, N., 2016. The relevance of manufacturing flexibility
in the context of Industrie 4.0. Procedia Cirp, 41, pp.105-110.
Chatha, K. A., Butt, I., & Tariq, A. (2015). Research methodologies and publication trends in
manufacturing strategy: A content analysis based literature review. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 35(4), 487-546.
Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Ding, D., Pan, Z. S., Cuiuri, D., & Li, H. (2014). A tool-path generation strategy for wire and
arc additive manufacturing. The international journal of advanced manufacturing
technology, 73(1-4), 173-183.
Dombrowski, U., Intra, C., Zahn, T., & Krenkel, P. (2016). Manufacturing strategy–a
neglected success factor for improving competitiveness. Procedia CIRP, 41, 9-14.
Galeazzo, A., & Klassen, R. D. (2015). Organizational context and the implementation of
environmental and social practices: what are the linkages to manufacturing
strategy?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 108, 158-168.

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Hill, T. (2017). Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing
function. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Hitomi, K. (2017). Manufacturing systems engineering: A unified approach to
manufacturing technology, production management and industrial economics.
Routledge.
Hugos, M. H. (2018). Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Löfving, M., Säfsten, K., & Winroth, M. (2014). Manufacturing strategy frameworks suitable
for SMEs. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 25(1), 7-26.
Lyonnet, B., & Toscano, R. (2014). Towards an adapted lean system–a push-pull
manufacturing strategy. Production Planning & Control, 25(4), 346-354.
Mellor, S., Hao, L., & Zhang, D. (2014). Additive manufacturing: A framework for
implementation. International Journal of Production Economics, 149, 194-201.
Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., & Patterson, J. L. (2015). Purchasing
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Pisano, G. P. (2015). You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 44-
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Rinehart, J., Huxley, C., & Robertson, D. (2018). Just another car factory?: Lean production
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Roh, J., Hong, P., & Min, H. (2014). Implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy in
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Production Economics, 147, 198-210.

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Seuring, S. (2013). A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain
management. Decision support systems, 54(4), 1513-1520.
Slack, Chambers & Johnston (2010). Operations management. Pearson education.

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Yang, T., Kuo, Y., Su, C. T., & Hou, C. L. (2015). Lean production system design for fishing
net manufacturing using lean principles and simulation optimization. Journal of
Manufacturing Systems, 34, 66-73.