Due Saturday 7/26/14 – before midnight eastern time.

Unused/ Original. No copy-paste work!!

I need 2 critiques in regard to each of the essays below fitting the following reqs:

• What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
• What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
• What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?

Essay #1

In this discussion I will talk about logistics through my company. I work at Allied Barton a security company. I am at Purina site as the site supervisor. I will go over what both companies do from a logistics stand point. There I so much that the companies do. Then I will go over metrics that are important to the customers and to the internal stakeholders. I will go over why I chose those metrics as well. So let’s jump on in and talk about my company.

So Allied Barton provides security ad when we get placed at a site we have to follow Allied Barton’s rules and the place we are working at rules. So I will talk about logistics from both companies. First Allied Barton we provide security so sending uniforms to and from sites are important. They also mail out all the important information like W-2 or medical insurance forums. They mail a lot of important document. Let’s not forget they provide security. Logistics can be service as well. For Purina they well ship pet food from their place. They also get meat mix and stuff shipped to them to make the food. They mail samples to other places and get parts and designs for machines shipped to them. Logistics is big in Purina to getting the job done.

There can be many different ways to assess your logistics to the customers. I find the performance to promise is a key on to the customer. You want your stuff on time so that would also fall under on time delivery. In this case though you are promising when the order or service will be performed. I think that would be a vary key on in making the customers happy. Another time would be transportation. You want to make sure the product is delivered when it says it will be so making sure the transportation works out is also another key to on time delivery.

Now to look at the metrics for stake holders. It is kind of the same for customers maybe a couple extras like inventory accuracy. The reason I chose the same for the customers is because if the customers are happy they will return. That is good if you are a stakeholder. The reason for inventory accuracy I chose that because you want to make sure everything is accounted for and you have anything for any order at any given time. Don’t want to lose money on the inside by not taking inventory right.

Essay #2

            I work for DuPont Pioneer. This is a company that develops and distributes high quality crops such as corn, sorghum, sunflower, alfalfa, canola, wheat, rice, cotton, pearl millet, and mustard seed. This company has combined conventional and new technologies in “delivering solutions to help meet the needs of a growing population whose demand for agricultural seeds and products continues to increase” (Niebur, 2014). To develop the product for farmers all over the world, DuPont Pioneer needs to be involved in heavy logistics and supply chain management especially when business is being operated in more than 90 countries. It is a long process starting from the Breeders, to the Research and Development Group, to the Parent Seed and Production Group, all the way to Commercial and Sales Group, and then to the end customers.

            In the Parent Seed or Production group located in Hawaii where I currently work, we receive seeds from the mid-west and other countries. The modes of transportation of these crops are via air and ship transportations. When it gets to the port, delivery companies (UPS and FedEx) will transport the product via trucks. The product is scanned into our warehouse or cold room while waiting for the field crew to plant the product. After planting, and caring for the crop, it gets harvested, processed, boxed, stored in warehouse for no more than 11 days, and then it gets shipped out to its next destination.

             In this industry, it is very important to identify metrics. In order to assess the effectiveness of the logistics function, one of the metrics that would be important to customers is the delivery of the right product at the right time. To explain further, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) under the delivery would be the actual number of bags or units produced at a given time (Quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) versus the product request from the customers. Another metrics would be under quality, wherein customers do their own “stand count” test or counting the number of plants that germinated in a 1-acre field (i.e. target is 30,000 plants per acre). This is a spot check to ensure that the product received has the highest quality. It is always appreciated when customers gives their feedback to the company. They are very useful in continuous improvement process.

            For the internal stakeholders, there are many KPIs that our industry uses. The first one is cost per unit. It is very important that we keep our cost down and ensure that we are competitive. The second one is delivering to plan or how well we are producing and delivering our product versus the overall target (if the target is to deliver 1000 units to the conditioning plant, we want to know if we met that target or not). The third metrics is under quality—cold germination and warm germination percentage (pass or fail). Measuring this will give us a good indication whether our product could germinate in warm and cold conditions and if it could withstand other sorts of environmental factors.

            There are many more KPIs that companies could use depending on the industry. These measurements need to be aligned with the overall company business goals. Whatever the measurement is, it is vital to involve top level management, middle management, supervisors and ultimately employees when establishing metrics. All employees must know what KPIs are being measured, why they are important to the business, and they must understand their roles and responsibilities to ensure success.