OPERATIONAL LEVEL

Subject Managing Finance in a Digital World (E1)

Tharindu Ameresekere MBCS(UK),ACMA(UK),CGMA, Masters in Project Mgmt.(USQ)(Aus),

Lecturer PQHRM(IPM-SL),BSc(Hons) Computing(UK),BCS-PGD(UK), Cert.coach ABNLP

Module Tutorial 07 - How the Finance Function Interacts with Operations

Code E1/TA/07
 How the finance function interacts with
operations

1. How the finance function relates to the other functions.

The finance function’s role in managing the financial resources of the organisation and
providing information to help economic decision making will be integral to the effectiveness
of the other function (in this case the operations function).
The finance function will:
• Assemble and extract data to provide information to the other function and insight
about value creation/preservation.
• Work with the other function (an internal stakeholder) and other stakeholders to
influence and shape how this function creates and preserves value.
• The CFO will work with the head of each function (for example, the chief operating
officer (COO)) to achieve the desired organisational impact for this function.

2. Main role of operations

Operations are those activities concerned with the acquisition of raw materials, their
conversion into finished products and the supply of that finished product to the customer.
Contemporary thinking has broadened the definition to ‘what the company does’ to include
service operations as well as manufacturing operations.

Organisation Operations function Operation

McDonalds Kitchen and serving staff Selling fast food
Vauxhall Production line Making cars
Dell Production line, internet Making and selling
computers
Real Madrid Football coaches, Playing football
training facilities

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Operations management is the activities involved in designing, producing and delivering
products and services that satisfy the customer’s requirements.
operations managers are involved in a number of activities. These include:
I. Process design – arranging the store’s layout to give smooth and effective flow of
customers.
II. Product design – designing stylish products that can be flat-packed efficiently.
III. Job design – making sure that all staff can contribute to the company’s success.
IV. Supply network design – locating stores of an appropriate size in the most effective
place.
V. Supply chain management – arranging for the delivery of products to stores.
VI. Capacity management – coping with fluctuations in demand.
VII. Failure prevention – maintain cleanliness and safety of storage area.
VIII. Inventory management – avoiding running out of products for sale.
IX. Quality management – monitoring and enhancing quality of service to customers.
X. Operations improvement – continually examining and improving operations practice.
Processes – All operations consist of a collection of processes. These are the building blocks
of operations and connect with one another to form a network. The processes transform the
input resources into output products/services.

Operation Inputs Processes Outputs

Airline Aircraft Check Transported
Pilots and air passengers in passengers and
crew Board freight
Ground crew passengers

Passengers and Fly passengers

freight and freight
around the world

Care for
passengers

The different characteristics of operations processes

Although all operations processes are similar in that they all transform inputs into outputs,
they do differ in a number of ways, four of which, known as the four Vs.
I. Volume of inputs and outputs - High-volume operations are likely to be more capital-
intensive than low-volume operations, and there is likely to be a greater specialisation
of labour skills.
E.g.: The volume dimensions at McDonalds
McDonald’s serves millions of burgers around the world every day. The
first thing you notice if the repeatability of the tasks people are doing
and the systemisation of the work where standard procedures are set

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 down specifying how each part of the job should be carried out. Also,
because tasks are systemised and repeated, it is worthwhile developing
specialised fryers and ovens. All this gives low unit costs.

II. Variety of inputs and outputs - Some operations handle a wide range of different
inputs, or produce a wide range of output products or services. Higher the variety,
higher the cost.
E.g.: The variety in taxi drivers and buses
Buses travel only in permitted routes therefore, their variety is less but
taxis will pick and drop you off at any location therefore, their variety
is high.

III. Variation in demand - With some operations demand might vary significantly from
one season of the year to another or from one time of the day to another, with some
periods of peak demand and some periods of low demand.
E.g.: When Covid 19 broke out the demand for essential goods increased and
the demand for non-essentials like restaurants declined.

IV. Visibility to customers - Visibility refers to the extent to which an organisation is visible
to its customers. When an operation is highly visible, the employees will have to show
good communication skills and interpersonal skills in dealing with customers.
E.g.: Coca-Cola company has very low visibility as their customers don’t see the
manufacturing process but rather only experience their final product. In
contrast, Amazon allows their customers to track their order until the order is
received. Generally, service organizations have high visibility.
* Put simply, high volume, low variety, low variation and low customer contact (visibility) all
help keep processing costs down.

Porter's value chain

The value chain model is based around activities rather than traditional functional
departments. It considers the organisation’s activities that create value and drive costs and
therefore the organisation should focus on improving those activities. Many of the activities
relate to the operations function.

The activities are split into primary ones (the customer interacts with these and can ‘see’ the
value being created) and secondary (or support) activities which are necessary to support the
primary activities. Each activity is looked at to see if they give a cost advantage or a quality
advantage.

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Margin, i.e. profit will be achieved if the customer is willing to pay more for the
product/service than the sum of the costs of all the activities in the value chain.

Operations management is concerned with all of these primary activities apart from
marketing and sales.

Activity Description Example

Inbound logistics Receiving, storing and A just-in-time stock
handling raw material system could give a cost
inputs advantage.
Operations Transformation of raw Using skilled employees
materials into finished could give a quality
goods and services. advantage.
Outbound logistics Storing, distributing and Outsourcing activities
delivering finished goods could give a cost
and services. advantage.
Marketing and sales The mechanism by which Sponsorship of a sports
the customer is made celebrity could enhance
aware of the product or the image of a product.
service.
After sales service All activities that occur A friendly approach to
after the point of sale, such returns gives it a perceived
as customer enquiries, quality advantage.
returns and
repairs/maintenance.

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Operations management is directly concerned with procurement and some elements of firm
infrastructure and technology development.

Activity Description Example

Infrastructure How the firm is A firm could have a
organised. very 'lean' structure at
head office in contrast
to competitors with
more staff and more
bureaucracy.
Human resource How people contribute Employing expert
management to competitive buyers could enable a
advantage. Includes supermarket to
activities such as purchase better wines
recruitment, selection, than competitors.
training and
development and
reward policies.

Technology How the firm uses The latest computer-

technology controlled machinery
gives greater flexibility to
tailor products to customer
specifications.
Procurement Purchasing, but not Buying a building out
just limited to of town could give a
materials. cost advantage over
High Street
competitors.

Linkages connect the interdependent elements of the value chain together. For example,
better quality production could reduce the need for after-sales service.

Process design
Process design is the method by which individual specialists seek to understand business
processes and ensure that these processes are designed to be as efficient and effective as
possible. The design of processes will go hand in hand with the design of new products and
services.

Process maps can assist in understanding the organisation’s mission, goals and customer
needs and to carry out a detailed analysis of existing processes before any changes in
processes are undertaken.

A process map provides a visual representation of the steps and decisions by which a product
or transaction is processed.

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Advantages of process maps.

• Management understanding – allows a better understanding of the basic processes that

are undertaken, so providing management with a convenient overview demonstrating
responsibilities and key stages in the operations.
• Role understanding – allows workers to understand what their job is and how their work
fits into the whole process (and therefore the importance of undertaking their role
effectively). Process mapping also allows consideration of role reallocation.
• Standardisation – highlights where opportunities exist to standardise processes.
• Highlights inefficiencies – visually highlights areas where inefficiencies are present
through analysis of queues, value and location, so pinpointing areas of waste. This
provides an agenda to tackle duplication of effort, the requirement to complete
unnecessary paperwork, and misdirected queries that hold up production, etc.
• Supports corporate initiatives – mapping can be used as a tool as part of a corporate
initiative such as customer satisfaction improvement programmes.

Product and service development

Stage 1: Consider customers' needs

The product/service should satisfy the needs of the customer, for example value
for money, high quality, cutting edge design.

Stage 2: Concept screening

The new product/service concept should be vetted. It will only pass through to the design
and development process if it meets certain criteria.
For example, does the company think that the new product/ service will be profitable?

Stage 3: The design process

This may include procedures such as:

• Building a physical prototype or a virtual prototype (using computer aided design).

• Value engineering, i.e. ensuring that all components/features add value.

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Stage 4: Time-to-market
A short time-to-market is desirable since:
New product/service may be released ahead of competitors. (First-mover advantage)
Developments costs may be lower.

Stage 5: Product testing

The new product should be tested before it is released to the market:
Does it work properly?
Do customers like it?

3. Areas of interface between operations and finance

The operations function and the finance function should work in partnership to ensure this
efficiency and effectiveness is optimised. The focus here will be on the operational level tasks
performed by the finance function.

Purchasing (procurement)
It is responsible for placing and following up orders. It co-ordinates with the finance function
as follows:

Establishing The finance function will work with the purchasing to liaise with
credit terms suppliers to obtain a credit account and to negotiate credit terms
which are acceptable.
Prices The finance function can advise purchasing on the maximum
price that should be paid to maintain margins.
Payment Payments may be approved by purchasing but are made by
the finance function.
Data capture, Order details will be input by purchasing and details passed to
for example, the finance function.
orders
Inventory Purchasing will consult with the inventory section of the finance
function to determine the quantity of items already in stock and
therefore the quantity required.
Budgeting The finance function will consult with purchasing on the likely
costs in preparing budgets.

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Production
It liaises with the finance function as follows:

Cost Production measures quantities of materials and time used; the

measurement, management accountant gives a monetary value to them.
allocation, Costs are then allocated and absorbed to calculate production
absorption costs based on advice given by production.
Budgeting Production will decide how many items of what type are to be
produced. The cost of producing these will be determined by
the finance function and production together, and incorporated
into the overall budget.
Cost v quality Production and the finance function will discuss the features
that can be included in products and the raw materials that
should be used. They should agree which better quality
materials and features justify the extra cost, and discuss how
to maximise quality and profit.
Inventory Production will liaise with the inventory section of the finance
function to ensure that there are sufficient raw materials in
inventory for the production that is planned.

Service provision
Characteristics of services;
i. Intangibility – services are activities undertaken by the organisation on behalf of its
customers and therefore cannot be packaged for the customer to take away with
them. They often have few, if any, physical aspects.
ii. Inseparability – services are often created by the organisation at the same time as
they are consumed by the customer. The service cannot therefore be easily
distinguished from the person or organisation providing the service.
iii. Perishability – services cannot be stored for later.
iv. Variability – each service is unique and cannot usually be repeated in exactly the same
way, making offering a standardised service to customers very difficult.

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The relationship between service provision and the finance function.
A business very often provides services to customers, at the same time as a sale or afterwards.

Charge-out This is the hourly rate which the company charges clients. It
rates should be higher than the salary, as it should include a share of
overheads, for example training, and any profit the company
wishes to make. However if the charge-out rate is too high
customers will not use the service.
Estimating Problems arise in determining the amount of overhead to be
costs included in the charge-out rate. Also, if the service takes longer
to provide than expected, the company may not be able to pass
on the extra cost.
Problems Market conditions may mean that the charge-out rate contains a
measuring very low profit element. The company may question whether it is
benefits worth carrying out these services. The problem is that the
benefits are intangible and not easy no measure, but
nevertheless real. A company with effective service provision
has happier customers, and happy customers are more likely to
buy from the company in future, therefore leading to lower selling
costs. But it is very difficult to measure these benefits.

3. Supply chain management

A supply chain consists of a network of organisations. Together they provide and process the
necessary raw materials firstly into work in progress and then into finished goods for
distribution and sale to the end customer.

The transformation of the product along the supply chain includes activities such as:
• production planning
• purchasing
• materials management
• distribution
• customer service
• forecasting
Supply chain management (SCM) involves the co-ordination of activities from the supplier(s)
of raw materials at one end of the supply chain to the customer at the other end.

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Use of blockchain in supply chain transparency.
Brilliant Earth, a retailer of ethically sourced diamonds and fine jewelry, is tracking the
provenance of its diamonds on the Everledger blockchain.
In this section we will understand:
• how the relationships within the supply chain can be managed and
• the interface between SCM and the finance function.

The strategic supply wheel – Cousins

Traditionally, supply was viewed as an
operational issue. Purchasing was seen as an
administrative task with the emphasis being
on price negotiations with suppliers. There
was little awareness that supply could affect
the firm’s strategic goals or that it should be
viewed as a key part of strategic planning.
Successful organisations in today’s
competitive environment have recognised
that supply should be viewed as a strategic
issue. The organisation’s supply strategy should be aligned with the overall corporate goals
and strategy and is integral to the organisation’s competitive strategy.
Cousin’s model emphasises the importance of viewing supply as central to the organisation
and its effectiveness.
Cousins’ thinking is based on the notion that an organisation’s supply strategy should involve
a number of key areas described as ‘spokes’ in the wheel. As such, the model can help an
organisation concentrate on key areas for attention and action.
The wheel depicts the corporate supply strategy at the hub of the wheel and underlines the
need for an integrated approach to supply strategy involving balancing all five ‘spokes’.

Spoke of wheel Explanation

Organisation structure The choice of structure (centralised, decentralised or
a mix of these) impacts control and interaction. It
should enhance rather than hinder supply strategy.
Relationships with Relationships can be:
suppliers • competitive (contractual) – based on price
deals, or
• collaborative (relational) – a more positive
relationship based on a joint quest to reduce
costs and a sharing of technology and
innovations to improve quality.
Cost/benefit Supply decisions should be based on benefits as well
as costs. Cost/benefit analysis should be at the heart
of any strategic decision.

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 Competences Do the skills exist to achieve the chosen strategy? For
example, the development of long term supplier
relations may lead to a need to retrain key personnel.
Performance measures Necessary for monitoring and controlling the strategy
chosen. Measures should extend beyond price and
be aligned with the strategy.

Relationship with suppliers

A. Competitive (contractual) :-
In the past the supply chain was typically defined by competitive relationships.
• The purchasing function sought out the lowest-price suppliers, often through
a process of tendering, the use of 'power' and the constant switching of supply sources
to prevent getting too close to any individual source.
• Supplier contracts featured heavy penalty clauses and were drawn up in a spirit
of general mistrust of all external providers.
• The knowledge and skills of the supplier could not be exploited effectively.
Information was deliberately withheld in case the supplier used it to gain power during
price negotiations.
Hence, no single supplier ever knew enough about the ultimate customer to suggest
ways of improving the cost-effectiveness and quality of the trading relationship.

B. Collaborative (relational) :-
Over the last 15-20 years there has been an increased recognition that successful
management of suppliers is based upon collaboration and offers benefits to an
organisation's suppliers as well as to the organisation itself. By working together and
forming relationships organisations can make a much better job of satisfying the
requirements of their end market, and thus both can increase their market share.
• Organisations seek to enter into partnerships with key customers and suppliers
so as to better understand how to provide value and customer service.
• Organisations' product design processes include discussions that involve both
customers and suppliers. By opening up design departments and supply problems to
selected suppliers, a synergy results, generating new ideas, solutions, and new
innovative products.
• To enhance the nature of collaboration, the organisation may reward suppliers
with long-term sole sourcing agreements in return for a greater level of support to the
business and a commitment to on-going improvements of materials, deliveries and
relationships.
• The nature of the collaboration needs to shift to reflect the constant change in
the environment.

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Material requirement planning
One important aspect of supply chain management is to ensure that materials are ready when
they are needed. MRP is a computerised system for planning the requirements for raw
materials, work-in-progress and finished items.
MRP is designed to answer three questions:
• What is needed?
• How much is needed?
• When is it needed?
Functions include:
• Identifying firm orders and forecasting future orders with confidence.
• Using orders to determine quantities of material required.
• Determining the timing of the material requirement.
• Calculating purchase orders based on stock levels.
• Automatically placing purchase orders.
• Scheduling materials for future production
Benefits of MRP
✓ Improved forecasting.
✓ Improved ability to meet orders leading to increased customer satisfaction.
✓ Reduced stock holding.
✓ The MRP schedule can be amended quickly if demand estimates change since the
system is computerised.
✓ System can warn of purchasing or production problems due to bottlenecks or delays
in the supply chain.
✓ A close relationship tends to be built with suppliers.

o Manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) – goes several steps beyond MRP and
includes:
– production planning
– machine capacity scheduling
– demand forecasting and analysis
– quality tracking tools
– employee attendance and
– productivity tracking.

o Enterprise resource planning (ERP) – the next evolution of an MRP system. It

integrates information from many aspects of operations (for example, manufacturing,
inventory management, invoicing and management accounting) and support functions
(such as human resource management and marketing) into one single system.

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 Benefits of ERP
• identification and planning of the use of resources across the organisation to ensure
customers’ needs are fulfilled
• the free flow of information across all functions and improved communication
between departments
• aids management decision making due to decision support features
• can be extended to incorporate supply chain management (SCM) and customer
relationship management (CRM) software, thus helping to manage connections outside
the organisation.

Quality management
Quality can form a key part of a strategic supply chain management. Quality can be defined
in a number of ways:
• Is the product/service free from errors and does it adhere to design specifications?
• Is the product/service fit for use?
• Does the product/service meet customers' needs?
This also emphasises that every unit produced should meet the design specifications, so the
idea of consistency becomes important. Note that consistency is a key aspect of quality
standards such as the ISO 9000 series.

Methods of quality measurement

There are four main types of quality-related costs. The organisation needs to identify these
costs. Monitoring the costs of quality is central to the operation of any quality improvement
programme. Targets should be set for each of the quality-related costs.

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 4. Operational improvements
There are several techniques that an organisation may use to improve the effectiveness of
the supply chain and the management of relationships within the supply chain. These include:
• statistical process control
• total quality management (TQM)
• Kaizen
• Six Sigma
• lean thinking
• just-in-time and
• reverse logistics.
It is worth noting these techniques all have a quality focus and that the techniques may often
be used alongside one another.
A. Statistical process control
Statistical process control (SPC) is a method for measuring and controlling quality
during a process. Quality data is obtained in real-time and plotted on a graph with a
pre-determined target and control limits.
Data that falls within the control limits indicates that everything is operating as
expected – any variation within the control limits is due to natural variation that is
expected as part of a process.
If data falls outside of the control limits, the variation should be investigated and
corrective action taken before a defect occurs.
Eg: Statistical process control may be used when many similar items, such as Mars
Bars, are being produced. Every process is subject to variability, for example it is not
possible to put the same amount of ingredients in each Mars Bar.
A target weight is set for a Mars Bar (51g) and control limits assigned (1g above and
below the target). The weight of the Mars Bars produced will be plotted on a chart
and any points outside of the control limits (i.e. below 50g and above 52g) should be
investigated and corrective action taken)

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 B. Total quality management
TQM is the continuous improvement in quality, productivity and effectiveness
obtained by establishing management responsibility for processes as well as outputs.
In this, every process has an identified process owner and every person in an entity
operates within a process and contributes to its improvement. A philosophy of quality
management that originated in Japan in the 1950s.
Fundamental features of TQM include:
• Prevention of errors before they occur – the aim of TQM is to ‘get things right first
time'. TQM will result in an increase in prevention costs but internal and external failure costs
will fall.
• Continual improvement – quality management is not a one-off process, but is the
continuous examination and improvement of processes.
• Real participation by all – the ‘total’ in TQM means that everyone in the value chain is
involved in the process, including:
Employees – they are expected to seek out, identify and correct quality problems. Teamwork
will be vital. Employees should be empowered to decide how best to do their work and should
be responsible for achieving targets.
Suppliers – quality and reliability of suppliers will play a vital role. Customers – the goal is to
identify and meet the needs of the customer.
• Commitment of senior management – management must be fully committed and
encourage everyone else to become quality conscious.
Eg: TQM Success story
McDonald has implemented the Total Quality Management successfully by involving the 4
significant elements which are employee involvement, focus on customer, benchmarking, and
continuous improvement. In 2007, McDonald has updated to their suppliers with Supplier
Quality Management System that including food safety.
Eg: TQM Failure story
Ford Pinto was launched in response to competition from Japanese imports, at a price of
$2,000. However, in 1977 allegations appeared regarding a design default. The fuel tank was
understood to be in close proximity to the rear bumper and rear axle, meaning that rear-end
collisions would elevate the risk of fires. It was revealed that Ford had been aware of the
design flaw during production itself.

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Steps in TQM

C. Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese term for the philosophy of continuous improvement in performance via
small, incremental steps.
Characteristics
• Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually improving these standards to
achieve long-term sustainable improvements.
• The focus is on eliminating waste, improving processes and systems and improving
productivity.
• Kaizen involves all areas of the business.
• Employees often work in teams and are empowered to make changes. Rather than
viewing employees as the source of high costs, Kaizen views the employees as a source of
ideas on how to reduce costs. A change of culture will be required, encouraging employees
to suggest ideas to reduce costs.
• Kaizen allows the organisation to respond quickly to changes in the competitive
environment.

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Eg: Nestlé is a great example of how Kaizen can be used across different industries, in this
case, the food industry with one of the most important firms worldwide who have
implemented Kaizen. Lean production has been an aspect of Kaizen that Nestlé has taken
seriously, and they have made great improvements in the reduction of waste by lowering the
time and materials wasted on their processes. Lean production is focused on finding ways to
not only reduce waste, but also in finding methods to best use the space available, the
resources on hand and the best utilization of talent and technology the company has in their
arsenal.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is the continual examination and improvement of existing
processes and is very different from approaches such as business process re-engineering
(BPR), which seeks to make radical one-off changes to improve an organisation's operations
and processes. The concepts underlying continuous improvement are:
• The organisation should always seek perfection. Since perfection is never achieved,
there must always be scope for improving on the current methods.
• The search for perfection should be ingrained into the culture and mind-set of all
employees. Improvements should be sought all the time.
• Individual improvements identified by the work force will be small rather than far-
reaching.
D. Six Sigma
• Six Sigma is a quality management programme that was pioneered in the 1980s by
Motorola.
• The aim of the approach is to achieve a reduction in the number of faults that go
beyond an accepted tolerance limit using statistical techniques.
• The sigma stands for standard deviation. For reasons that need not be explained here,
it can be demonstrated that, if the error rate lies beyond the sixth sigma of probability, there
will be fewer than 3.4 defects in every one million.
• This is the tolerance level set. It is almost perfection since customers will have a reason
to complain fewer than four times in a million.
E. Lean thinking
lean is a philosophy that aims to systematically eliminate waste through the identification and
elimination of all non-value adding activities.
Eg: The cars that Toyota was making were uncompetitive in both cost and quality terms. To
catch up with its American competitors, it developed lean production.

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Wastes to be eliminated include:
• Inventory – holding or purchasing unnecessary raw materials, work-in- progress and
finished goods.
• Waiting – time delays/idle time when value is not added to the product.
• Defective units – production of a part that is scrapped or requires rework.
• Effort or motion – actions of people/equipment that do not add value.
• Transportation – delays in transportation or unnecessary handling due to poor
planning or factory layout.
• Over-processing – unnecessary steps that do not add value.
• Over-production – produce more than customers have ordered.
Characteristics of lean
• Improved production scheduling
• Small batch production or continuous production
• Economies of scope
• Continuous improvement
• Zero inventory
• Zero waiting time

The lean supply chain

The main objective of a lean supply chain is to completely remove waste in order to achieve
competitive advantage through a reduction in costs and an improvement in quality.
Lean synchronisation aims to meet demand instantaneously with perfect quality and no
waste. Lean synchronisation overlaps to a large degree with the general concept of lean
(elimination of waste) and just-in-time (which emphasises the idea of producing items only
when they are needed).

F. Just-in-time
An alternative view is that inventory is wasteful and adds no value to operations. Just-in-time
(JIT) is a system whose objective it is to produce or procure products or components as they
are required by the customer or for use, rather than for inventory. This means that inventory
levels of raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods can be kept to a minimum.

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 JIT JIT
purchasing production A production system that is
Method of purchasing that
driven by demand for the
involves ordering materials
finished products (a ‘pull’
only when customers place an
system), whereby each
order. When the goods are
component on a production
received, they go straight into
line is produced only when
production.
needed for the next stage.

Requirements for successful operation of a JIT system

• High quality and reliability – disruptions create hold ups in the entire system and must
be avoided. The emphasis is on getting the work 'right first time':
– Highly skilled and well trained staff should be used.
– Machinery must be fully maintained.
– Long-term links should be established with suppliers in order to ensure a reliable and
high quality service.
• Elimination of non-value added activities – value is only being added whilst a product
is being processed. For example, value is not added whilst storing the products and
therefore inventory levels should be minimised.
• Speed of throughput – the speed of production should match the rate at which
customers demand the product. Production runs should be shorter with smaller stocks
of finished goods.
• Flexibility – a flexible production system is needed in order to be able to respond
immediately to customer orders:
– The system should be capable of switching from making one product to making
another.
– The workforce should be dedicated and have the appropriate skills JIT is an
organisational culture and the concept should be adopted by everyone.
– Management should allow the work teams to use their initiative and to deal with
problems as they arise.
• Lower costs – another objective of JIT is to reduce costs by:
– Raising quality and eliminating waste.
– Achieving faster throughput.
– Minimising inventory levels

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JIT and supplier relations
Many of the steps taken to improve the supply chain (and hence profitability) involve
improving the relationship between the manufacturer and its suppliers. The advantages to a
JIT company of developing close supplier relationships are as follows:

• No rejects/returns – a strong relationship should help to improve the quality of

supplies. This should minimise production delays since there will be less inspection,
fewer returns and less reworking of goods.
• On-time deliveries – the development of close working relationships
should help to guarantee on-time deliveries of supplies.
• Low inventory – suppliers can be relied upon for frequent deliveries of small
quantities of material to the company, ensuring that each delivery is just enough to
meet the immediate production schedule.
• Close proximity – the supplier/portfolio of suppliers will be located close to the
manufacturing plant. This will reduce delivery times and costs.

G. Reverse logistics
Reverse logistics is the return of unwanted or surplus goods, materials or equipment back to
the organisation for reuse, recycling or disposal. The emergence of internet selling (some
internet retailers estimate returns of 50%) and shorter product life cycles has led to many
organisations focusing on their reverse logistics capability. The main reasons for returns are
as follows:
• The customer is not satisfied with the product and takes advantage of the
organisation’s return policy.
• Installation or usage problems – a common problem if installation or usage is
complicated, for example with IT equipment.
• Warranty claims for defective products or parts.
• Some manufacturers allow the return of unsold stock by retailers, for example this is
common practice in the book industry.
• Manufacturer recall program due to faults.
✓ Attacking the returns challenge is a critical area of supply chain management. Steps should
be taken to:
• minimise returns, for example through the production of good quality products or
parts, which meet customer requirements and have clear guidelines for installation and usage.
• ensure the possible reuse or recycling of material. This is closely linked to corporate
social responsibility but should contribute to increased profitability.

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Techniques include:
• Root cause analysis to understand the reasons for returns.
• Creation of profit centres around the returns process to focus organisations on
maximising the price that they will get for any returns.
• Separation of the supply chain into separate forward and reverse logistics.
• Centralising the returns centre to improve the speed and efficiency of handling returns.
• Outsourcing the returns process to a competent and dedicated provider.
• The use of technology such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) which supports
reverse logistics processes.
The use of these techniques should reduce costs, improve customer service and increase
revenue.
Eg: Walmart use reverse logistics to catch-up with Amazon.com. The company is setting itself
up to turn what most retailers consider to be a massive fail into a huge win with tactics like:
simplified online returns, simplifying returns of WalMart items in-store, Expanding in-store
returns to WalMart Marketplace items, etc.

5. SCM interface with finance

A collaborative relationship between the CFO and the leader of the supply chain (either
directly or through their teams) is advantageous for organisational growth and competitive
advantage:
– The role of the leader of the supply chain has become more prominent in recent years.
The focus of SCM has moved away from cost reductions to creating a supply chain strategy
that is aligned to the broader corporate goals of the organisation and is efficient in enabling
the organisation to respond to new opportunities.
– Meanwhile, the role of the finance function has been transformed. The finance
function now collaborates more closely with other internal functions; not just from a
monitoring, reporting and risk management perspective, but also as supporters and enablers
of performance.
– The result is that CFOs and supply chain leaders are working increasingly together to
understand, analyse and address supply chain issues. CFOs are drawing on their skills and
unique view of the organisation to provide insight to deliver more informed decision making.
Opportunities for business partnering
There are a number of areas where the CFO (and their team) has an opportunity to enhance
performance through business partnering with the supply chain. These include:

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• Stronger alignment between the supply chain and the broader strategy and
consistency of strategy within the various parts of the supply chain.
• CFOs help to set the right growth priorities and pace of growth; they support and
challenge the rationale for new investment, apply data analytics to support and
challenge business decisions and ensure that tax is considered as part of operational
decisions.
• Monitoring and enhancing performance through the establishment of appropriate
KPIs that are aligned to the broader organisation.
• Managing risk and business continuity; the CFO could work with procurement and
treasury to determine the extent to which risk is owned and managed by the company,
and to what extent it is pushed further down the supply chain.

Key performance indicators

Critical success factors (CSFs) are the vital areas ‘where things must go right’ for the business
for them to achieve their strategic objectives.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the measures which indicate whether or not the CSFs
are being achieved.
The achievement of the KPIs should be measured and any necessary corrective action taken.
Characteristics of good KPIs
✓ Should cascade from strategy to tactics, and to operational level.
✓ should cover all perspectives in supply chain management such as cost information and
financial performance, quality of the supply chain, flexibility, resource utilisation,
innovation, sustainability and competitiveness. This coverage will give a complete and
well balanced view of
– internal/external performance
– short and long term performance and
– financial and non-financial performance.
✓ Should be challenging but achievable and should enable employees to understand the
performance measures they have control over and should motivate them to achieve KPIs
through the establishment of appropriate rewards.
✓ Should be SMART.
✓ should be extended to include supply chain partners, because the objective of SCM is to
create a supply chain that is much more competitive than the alternative supply chain
providers of that product or service.

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Appropriate KPIs for operations may include:
• Supply chain costs per unit sold
• Time taken to deliver a customer order
• Percentage on-time delivery to a customer
• Percentage of customer orders fulfilled
• Percentage defect rate (supplies and customer orders)
• Percentage wastage rate
• Quality costs (individual KPIs for prevention, detection, internal failure and external
failure costs)
• Labour utilisation rate
• Asset utilisation rate
• Warehousing costs
• Transport costs
• Queues and waiting times
• Working capital ratios such as inventory days, payable days and receivable days and
the length of the cash operating cycle:
– Inventory days = Inventory ÷ Cost of sales × 365
– Receivables days = Receivables ÷ Sales × 365
– Payables days = Payables ÷ Purchases × 365
– Cash operating cycle = Inventory days + Payables days – Receivables days

How the finance function manages operations using KPIs

The finance function plays an important role in the performance management of the
operations function, implementing a performance management approach that gives a
complete and well-balanced view of all supply chain activities.
We can understand how the finance function helps manage operations through the use of
KPIs by looking the information to impact framework.

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 Finance Explanation of how the finance function helps manage
function activity operations through the use of KPIs
Assembling The finance function works with operations to establish a set of
information appropriate It then assembles data from a range of internal and
external sources and processes this data to turn it into useful KPI
information.
This information is then reported to those people who need it within
the organisation and across the supply chain.

Analysing for The finance function analyses the KPI information to draw out
insights patterns and relevant insights for those who use the information.
This questioning may require individual KPIs to be broken down into
several different performance measures so that the root cause of any
deviations between the actual KPI and the target KPI can be
established.

Advising to The finance function then:

influence
• communicates these insights and
• contributes an objective and responsible perspective helping to
develop solutions to any operational problems or areas for
improvement identified
to influence decision making in the operations function.

Applying for The finance function applies the information to harness value for
impact (also called the operations function through its impact.
‘execute’) Solutions are deployed such as changes to the
operational strategy and future KPIs.

Impact of technology
• Technology and automation will play an important role in all of the activities of the
finance function but will have the largest impact on the ‘assembly’ and ‘analysis’ activities.
– Successful companies operate an enterprise data warehouse that acts as a
single source to assemble ‘clean’ data (in-house data is seamlessly integrated with
data from supply chain partners) and reports this in the form of a supply chain
dashboard that is accessible and adaptable for relevant users across the supply chain
and the organisation.

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 – This integrated technology can draw out patterns and relevant insights for
those who use the information, reducing the analysis role of the finance function.
• This will ‘free up’ the resource of the finance function professionals who can now place
greater focus on the ‘advising’ and ‘applying/executing’ activities. However, even in these
activities, technology will take on a role. For example, predictive algorithms may be used for
advanced business intelligence and to determine timely corrective actions along the end-to-
end supply chain.
Technological developments
▪ Linking of internal supply chain data with external sources.
▪ Digitisation of supply chains.
▪ Web mining.
▪ Real-time data enabled by sensors covering different locations.
▪ Data visualisation.
▪ Predictive measures.
▪ Improved analytics capabilities.

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