ease than in a normal year. As the demand gradually
increased in 2010, the backlog also increased as expected in
2010 through 2011. The rate of the backlog increase in 2011
was less than that of 2010 because the effects of the EBSCP
implementations had started to kick in. We have recently
begun to see the full impact of the implementations, as
demonstrated by a backlog of just 0.29 percent as of
February 2012—despite a record-high demand and daily
production rate.
As a result of the implementations described above and
other Hosdere 2010 projects, MBT has achieved a significant drop in costs and has sustained profitability despite the
global economic downturn. This success has attracted the
attention of upper-level management at
Daimler AG. As a result, the bus plant
has hosted several visits and received
recognition from the parent company’s
management. In fact, Daimler AG’s
top-level management meeting was
held in Turkey in July 2011, and during
the event executives had a chance to see
the implementations’ results firsthand.
Top management has been so
impressed with our accomplishments
that it is considering implementing
some of our ideas elsewhere in the
company. For example, an extension of
the just-in-time delivery to the line
strategy, better known by the German
term Spezialgutabwicklung (or the
Turkish term set sevkiyat among MBT employees), is now
being considered for incorporation into an ongoing
process-harmonization initiative for other bus plants in
Europe. The lean in-plant logistics system we developed is
about to become a companywide benchmark and, with
minor local variations, has the potential to be implemented
in any of Daimler’s bus plants.
We believe it is important to share our knowledge and
ideas with others. Accordingly, our plant has hosted visits
by many logistics- and manufacturing-related groups and
logistics specialists from all over Europe, as well as by faculty and students from local universities.
The MBT logistics team can point to many achievements. Yet even while we work on current projects, the fast-changing nature of business means that already there are
new challenges that must be addressed. As we deal with
them, the evidence-based supply chain practices concept
that has proved so successful in the past will continue to be
our guide. ●
Notes:
1. Marcia MacLeod, “Making the Warehouse Visible,”
Automotive Logistics, July–September (2011).
2. A. E. Ellinger, M. Natarajarathiram, G. A. Frank, J. B.
Gray, D. Hofman, and K. O’Marah, “Supply Chain
Management Competency and Firm Financial Success,”
Journal of Business Logistics 32. 3 (2011): 214–226.
3. C. Eroglu and C. Hofer, “Inventory Types and Firm
Performance: Vector Autoregressive and Vector Error
Correction Models,” Journal of Business Logistics 32. 3
(2011): 227–239.
4. G. Ghiani, G. Laporte, and R. Musmanno, Introduction
to Logistics Systems Planning and Control, John Wiley &
Sons (2004).
5. Harry Moser, “Time to Come
Home,” CSCMP’s Supply Chain
Quarterly, Q4 (2011).
6. M. W. Stephan and C. Bode, “An
Empirical Examination of Supply
Chain Performance Along Several
Dimensions of Risk,” Journal of Business
Logistics 29. 1 (2008): 307–325.
7. Bruce Arntzen, “Global Supply
Chain Risk Management Part 1: Differences in Attitudes,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Transportation and Logistics White Paper
(2010), http://ctl.mit.edu/research/
global_scale_risk_initiative.
8. James A. Cooke, “Supply Chain versus the Volcano,” CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly Q2 (2010).
9. D. J. Thomas and J. E. Tyworth, “Pooling Lead-Time
Risk by Order Splitting: A Critical Review,” Transportation
Research Part E 42. 4 (2006): 245–257.
10. P. D. Berger, A. Gerstenfeld, and A. Z. Zeng, “How
many suppliers are best? A decision analysis approach,” The
International Journal of Management Science 32. 1 (2004):
9–15.
11. E. A. Silver, D. F. Pyke, and R. Peterson, Inventory
Management and Production Planning and Scheduling, John
Wiley & Sons (1998): 50.
12. Thomas H. Davenport and Jerry O’Dwyer, “Tap into
the Power of Analytics,” CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly
Q4 (2011).
13. J. Blackhurst, K. S. Dunn, and C. W. Craighead. “An
Empirically Derived Framework of Global Supply
Resiliency,” Journal of Business Logistics 32. 4 (2011): 374–391.
14. Tim M. Stratman, “Why You Should Never
“Graduate,’” CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly Q4 (2011).
MATERIALS PICKED FROM A DEDICATED
JUST-IN-TIME ZONE ARE PLACED ON CARTS
ATTACHED TO A TOW TRACTOR FOR DELIVERY TO THE ASSEMBLY LINE. NEARLY 15 PERCENT OF ALL ASSEMBLY MATERIALS ARE
NOW HANDLED IN THIS DEDICATED ZONE,
UP FROM 0.5 PERCENT FOUR YEARS AGO.
