Improve & Manage Existing Supply Chains

Plexus can be applied to existing supply chains in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the original value stream and its interactions and dependencies and show where improvements can be made, or, to remodel / re-analyse the supply chain when planning changes.

This process uses the same tools and procedures described for Design New Supply Chains,  but used now to streamline ongoing developments, manufacturing operations or support services, to give improved process flow, reduced timescales and reduced costs.

Quickly Map the Whole Product Value Streams at the required granularity

Starting from the BOM, procurement databases and other data sources, Plexus produces a visual map of the whole value stream that can be aggregated for at a high level view or can show any level of granularity or analysis.

Find and explain opportunities for Affordability, Lead-Time and Response Improvement

The model can be mined to look for specific groups of information. For example, to identify patterns that indicate waste, so that these can be changed to reduce cost and timescales.

Identify and reduce Risk, increase Quality, and understand the Impact of Events

The Value Stream map can be laid out and filtered in many ways, in order to see where improvements can be made.  Users can identify interactions and dependencies using different views for different classes of data, such as: product breakdown; supplier; location; contract; material group; commodity type.

Plan, and Justify proposed changes to the project

When material changes are to be made to the project, these may impact the overall supply chain and value streams.  Plexus allows you to analyse these changes to determine any impact on any part of the project, justify the changes, or to carry our what-if analysis to evaluate alternatives and implement mitigation strategies.  Typical changes are:
· Consolidation of suppliers
· Transition of facilities to a new location ( e.g move final assembly to Singapore)
· Prepare for increased production rate
· Change to a product or process