外文翻译设计供应链以用来合理区分原始设备制造商的特点.docx

1、外文翻译设计供应链以用来合理区分原始设备制造商的特点中文3070字标题：Making supply chain design the rational differentiating characteristic of the OEMs原文： The ownership of the parts manufacturers was consequently fused together into new global companies with significant technological and innovation capabilities. At the same time, t

2、he OEMs divested their components and sub-systems divisions in an effort to tap into the non-OEM automotive markets. These developments intensified the OEMs move to outsource the bulk of the manufacturing and design of the subsystems and components to their suppliers and, in effect, lost most of the

3、ir manufacturing strength and bargaining power to them; the suppliers currently account for 28% of the total automotive industry profits as opposed to only 24% for the OEMs. The outsourcing trend has thus resulted in OEMs relinquishing their historical strategic role and to position themselves more

4、like original brand manufacturers (OBMs).These trends have contributed to an accelerated increase of the supply uncertainty in addition to the already recognized demand uncertainty. Various supply uncertainty reduction strategies have been designed in order to stabilize the planning process among wh

5、ich the most significant is the design collaboration which includes the sharing of NPI plans and even a joint NPI plans design.As the components and sub-systems are being outsourced, and the suppliers are leveraging the innovation and technological costs across OEMs, industry SC structure has also e

6、volved into an extremely complex and intricate network in which all suppliers tend to have short-term relations with multiple OEMs. The result: any difference in quality, performance, safety, fuel efficiency, and amenities has been reduced significantly. The OEMs, in many ways, have historically bee

7、n treating SC design as atactical issue separate from concurrently designing the product and manufacturing process: after the concept design phase, the Purchasing Department would start continuous quest for the lowest cost components by establishing an optimum between the capacity and production cos

8、ts, location of the suppliers facility, and ransportation and logistics costs (Financial Times 2005). Chain performance would thus be measured in oversimplified and sometimes counterproductive (cost reduction-based) terms. However, the performance measures that emphasize mainly costs distort the way

9、 in which the chain members reach key decisions concerning which customers are the most important and therefore the most profitable to serve. The fundamental problem of cost-centric measures is its focus on individual costs minimization rather than on the maximization of value to end customers (see

10、e.g. Simaputang and Sridharan (2002) for details on the advantages of collaboration and cooperation in SCM).While the cost-centric measures might still be acceptable for components with low strategic importance, low customer visibility and low clock speed (e.g. nuts and bolts), they are far less app

11、ropriate for those with high clock speed. The lessons learned from fast moving industries (such as Dell, Nike and Li & Fung) teach us that the companies that have successfully outsourced their manufacturing in order to lower their costs and increase their flexibility concomitantly created extremely

12、valuable SC controls that led them to remain the dominant player of the SC. This in turn has permitted these companies to further differentiate themselves from their competitors and has allowed them to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Not following the strategy of implementing SC contro

13、ls, on the other hand, has severely limited the ability of the OEMs to make the fundamental SC design and synchronization decision and has ultimately caused them to lose their role as integrators within the value chain. To maintain their role as value chain integrators, the OEMs should put more emph

14、asis on the restructuring of their existing SC; the industry has to shift its differentiation focus into the realm of SC design and synchronization. This implies that the supplier selection decisions should be guided not only by operational factors but also by strategic factors such as flexibility,

15、the capacity to innovate, and the suppliers business-technology alignment. When the development of the SC becomes integral to the NPI process, then the suppliers responsibilities at different stages of product and process designs could be clearly acknowledged depending on the strategic importance an

16、d the clock speed of different components and sub-systems. In fact, in our opinion, the design of the SC links that precede the final assembly should be considered as the rational differentiating characteristic of the OEMs from an operational point of view (agility, innovation, quality and reliabili

17、ty). Styling, an distribution channel design and management (the post-OEM assembly operations)are the emotional differentiating characteristics from a brand perspective.Classifying components based on their clock speed The barriers to clock speed, the dampeners, are the complexity of the product arc

18、hitecture and the organizational inertia of the OEMs. The up-stream rates of technological innovation, which are dictated by the customer demands and the industry competitiveness, are accelerating as they cascade down the supply chain. In order to capitalize on this down-stream acceleration, the OEM

19、s have to modularize their products architecture. As mentioned, there are different clock speeds for different auto sub-systems and components. To illustrate, we can consider 10 of a vehicles most representative components. The sheet metal and the hardware (screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, etc.) have th

20、e lowest clock speed because these components rate of change and innovation is relatively low. Sheet metal and automotive hardware is produced in large-scale manufacturing facilities with very little flexibility. The engineering efforts are focused on efficiency and optimization of processes and not

21、 on new product design. At the concept design stage all the product and process characteristics are well known and can be easily planned for. To a lesser extent, the same is valid for glass and other automotive construction materials such as steel, aluminium, rubber and plastic The non-functional st

22、ructural components like the frames, sub-frames, rear axels, suspension components and the seats are located in the middle of the scale. These components are fabricated in large batches and the engineering efforts are focused both on improving efficiency as well as product innovation and quality. So

23、me product attributes need to be designed and developed after the concept design phasebut in general the approach is conservative and incremental to current designs and processes. Exterior and interior ornamentation components and colors are closely related to the latest design trends and, as a resu

24、lt, they are associated with a higher clockspeed than the other components. During the concept phase the design fashion trends are still evolving but the core product attributes (plastic moulds, pigments, etc.) are known, as are the basic manufacturing processes. The batches are smaller than the one

25、s used for the previous components in order to ensure flexibility. The electronic components and software have the highest clockspeed among the automotive sub-systems. During the concept design phase only the performance specifications can be determined. Even these specifications are subject to chan

26、gepending technological advancement during the design phase as well as the social preferences of the customers. In the automotive industry the highest financial burden is created by the huge time gap between the capital investment and the moment of the first sale. This creates an acute need for accu

27、rate sales volumes predictions and, even more importantly ,sales option mix. The base models volumes (with lower sticker prices and profitability) are easier to predict than the high option content vehicles which bring in the most profits. In general, the higher the clockspeed the less predictable t

28、he demand becomes. The clockspeed of the components and their associated clock speed scores are instrumental in prioritizing the product design, process capacity planning and SC coordination activities during the NPI concept design phase.Classifying components based on their strategic importanceFrom

29、 the government requirements and customer preferences point of view, the components and sub-systems could also have different strategic importance to the OEMs. In fact, as we will show later, the make or buy decisions as well as thedesign of the SC during the concept phase of the NPI also require a

30、greater understanding of the components strategic importance.How could we organize these strategic differences? Generally, the architecture of a product is considered a constraint for the sourcing decisions. In the openarchitecture (the one whose specifications are public), as long as the performanc

31、e specifications of a product are met then the manufacturing process could be spread outside the boundaries of one corporation. One of the great advantages of an open architecture is that anyone can design add-on products for it. By making architecture public, however, a manufacturer allows others t

32、o duplicate its product. Bicycles and PCs are excellent examples of modular products with open architectures. Putting together standardized parts will result in the final product.Naturally, the extreme complexity of a vehicle (4,0005,000 main components and up to 20,000 parts) and the inherited inte

33、gral character of the system make it difficult to develop robust interfaces and performance specifications to serve as a development base for the individual sub-systems and components functional specifications. However, the applicability of the open architecture concept to auto manufacturing is a growing phenomenon. Today, t