Simon BOUDINOT
RPO
1. What your main takeaways from the DDMRP? How did you find the course?
The LV company course was very interesting, as it allowed us to see how Supply Chain concepts
apply to a company and adapt to its particularities. As a manufacturer of luxury products, LV
must organise its Supply Chain differently from its competitors. For example, the transport of
goods is carried out by air, which is rather rare because it is much more expensive than a boat. LV
can afford it because the cost of transport represents only a small part of the price of the
product, which is not necessarily the case for a classic leather goods or ready-to-wear brand.
The LV supply chain is very simple to understand: about twenty factories in Europe manufacture
the products, which are all centralized in a warehouse near Paris. They are then transported to
eight regional warehouses around the world, which redistribute them to the stores. The chain
operates in push flow between the factories and the central warehouse, and in pull flow
between the central warehouse and the stores. The stores have almost no stock but are
replenished every day. The transportation costs are so very high, but we saw that this was not a
problem. The advantage of this system is that it reduces storage costs, but also adapts to the
changing and unpredictable demand of the fashion industry.
2. What your main takeaways from the STOCK & PRODUCTION? How did you find the course?
This theoretical course on industrial flow management was fundamental to understanding the
concept of Supply Chain. It also compared the two main SCM models, namely the Western MRPII
and Lean Manufacturing from Japan.
We first saw how Supply Chain Management has evolved since the glorious thirty years to adapt
to economic difficulties and meet customer needs, first by reducing costs, then by increasing
quality, and finally by controlling deadlines.
We then turned our attention to the two main workshop models: the jobshop and the flowshop.
We have seen how an operations manager in each of these two systems must organize
production, i.e. plan operations, assign them to machines, schedule them and control them.
After that, we saw how to build models to manage business flows, for example for the design of
an ERP. We have thus addressed the main performance indicators (RTF and TEM).
Finally, we looked at the issue of stocks. We have seen how to model and dimension
replenishment and safety stock.
3. What your main takeaways from the TRANSPORT? How did you find the course?
The transport course began with an overview of the different means of transport used today in
the Supply Chain. We were able to see their main advantages and disadvantages.
Then, we focused on the innovations currently being developed in the field of transport. The
main objective was to understand their evolution prospects. We discussed platooning, delivery
drones, autonomous vehicles... We also discussed the issues that such innovations could raise
and the obstacles to their development.
This course was interesting, but a little out of step with the other courses in the RPO field.
Overall, we have not talked much about Supply Chain Management
4. What your main takeaways from the TOYOTA? How did you find the course?
The Toyota conference gave us another perspective on Supply Chain Management with an
introduction to Lean Manufacturing.
The objective of this approach is to improve customer satisfaction by optimizing the quality-cost-
time triangle. To do this, managers use five tools: work standardization, Kaizen (or continuous
improvement), 4S (four good behaviors, namely clearing, storing, cleaning and maintaining), TPM
(for Total Productive Maintenance) and Problem Solving. These tools allow them to apply two
principles in the Supply Chain. First of all, the JIT (Just In Time) which consists in controlling the
times in the supply chain by calculating Takt Time (or cadence), setting up Kanban, and managing
workshops in a continuous flow. The JIT requires the implementation of Heijimka, a method that
minimizes the impact of fluctuating demand by distributing production. The second pillar of Lean
Manufacturing is Jidoka (or autonomation), whose objective is to minimize the number of
operators required to monitor the machines. To do this, the Jidoka uses human-machine
segregation and built-in quality.