UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTAD DE CONTADURÍA PÚBLICA Y ADMINISTRACIÓN
Assignment 4.- SME Interview
Unidad de aprendizaje: Taller de plano programación operativa
Nombre del Maestro: ARTURO IVAN LARA BLANCAS
Programa educativo: LNI
Grupo: 6Di
Dannanyai Patiño Garza 2036231
Victoria Fernanda Mata Montemayor 1880797
Alejandra Nicole Tovar Valdez 1951622
Sergio Adrián Salcido López 1815216
Gabriel sifuentes lumbreras 2036319
Mty, NL. 2/Noviembre/2022
INTRODUCTION
Absolutely all companies have a supply chain, regardless of how it works or how
good it is, from small businesses to large companies have one and manage it
differently depending on their knowledge, capital, objective, etc. This has the
function, among other things, of providing you with the materials necessary to
produce your products. Good management will lead to more efficient processes and
savings in resources.
While it is true that much of the information is found in books, articles, etc. The reality
is that part of the knowledge that we would rather learn is found in people’s
experience, Since they have lived in their own flesh and put into practice first hand
the knowledge that we acquired during our stay in the university. It is because of this
that we conducted two interviews with different people in the area of supply chain
management so that they could share with us their knowledge for our subsequent
analysis in which we will reflect and compare their responses with the knowledge
that we already have.
BACKGROUND
Bachelor of Business Administration Cristina Lorena Lopez Villarreal
Master's Degree in Marketing.
● Work Experience:
Bristol Myers Squibb- Promoter for product launch for 2 years
Mead Johnson- Medical representative for 1 year.
Lakeside- Product representative/ antibiotics for 2 years
Smart Media Bus- Partner of the enterprise/ Legal representative for 5 years.
QUESTIONS
[Link]'s the biggest challenge you've faced working? And how do you
manage to solve them?
A= Definitely the pandemic, as there has never been anything like this before. In our
case, we made a very strong investment in machinery that was going to boost
production and then the pandemic arrived. The expenses were solved as much as
possible; the employees were liquidated as it was due and their respective
declaration of bankruptcy.
2. How do you decide what supplier you should work with? Is it because of
price, or rules of the company or what factors do you take on consideration?
A= In my case, I pay a lot of attention to the quality of the product, since the fact that
a product is cheaper does not assure us that due to unforeseen defects, rework must
be done, which in the long run costs more time, money and effort.
3. We know that there’s no key to success but if you would give a tip to the
new workers of your area what will it be and why?
A= It's going to sound like something everyone would say but setting clear goals with
realistic timelines gets you a long way. Because you focus on those goals that are a
priority and dedicate both your attention and your time to them, generating real
results. And it's not just a one-time thing, you keep on constantly surpassing yourself
with new goals!
4. What do you consider to be key elements in inventory planning and
management?
A= In my case in particular, I managed my inventory with a just in case model. Since
being stocked in advance we avoided setbacks and / or problems when working for
the customer or have a peak in demand. Obviously, it's about not being overstocked,
you calculate by forecasting your consumption.
5. What's your process for handling cost efficiency through strong
relationships with suppliers?
A= I would not consider it as a process, the truth is that I have always thought that
we should have a good relationship with the supplier because it depends on them if
we meet the customer or not. But you should always try to have a channel with good,
open and close communication. In my opinion the fact of having an uninterrupted
information channel between us and the supplier generated faster responses, which
by default generated faster and more efficient actions.
6. What type of forecasting method do you prefer? Why?
A= I have always been of the opinion that the old school is very safe, so I would say
pure pen. Or rather on the basis of historical consumption we would estimate how
much would be used based on season, current demand, etc.
7. Do you have experience collaborating with overseas suppliers? How do you
manage to keep in touch with them?
A= Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to work with overseas suppliers, I
only got to work within the Mexican territory and with the United States. But the
communication with my American suppliers was really difficult, because of time
zones, etc.
8. What is the basis for creating a successful logistics plan? It could be for
transportation, production, etc
A= It's going to sound silly, but the most important thing is proper planning. Because
without a good "plan of attack" you have no way to work, you must consider
everything with due time and delicacy. And if you can't consider everything, have
contingency plans for unexpected details. And after having the plan, the most
important thing is the proper follow up of the methods and procedures already
established.
9. Has a shipment to your warehouse ever been unexpectedly delayed? How
did you handle the situation?
A= Yes, more times than I can remember. And the way we solved it was to look
everywhere for alternate suppliers. Preferably those that would give us the same
quality, even if it was more expensive.
10. Do you believe just in time system is the best? Why yes or why not?
A= That depends on many factors, both the demand and the product in question. If I
know that I have a product with a lot of circulation, I prefer to have a stock that allows
me to work and not be delayed by lack of it.
11. Which are the most common situations you have to deal with in your work?
A= Due to this new era, one of the problems we faced the most was the use of new
technologies. Our service (advertising on route trucks) at the time began to be
updated and implemented using digital screens and it was very complicated to
program them and make them work wirelessly since they needed to be near an
antenna to receive a signal.
12. Which managerial skills are essential in your work?
A= Obviously they are those already mentioned in your school, healthy coexistence,
open communication (in all departments and levels), respect and commitment.
INTERPRETATION
In this interview we saw Lic. Cristina has a lot of experience, she has been working
on the field for 10 years, she seems to know what she's talking about. What we can
take from the interview is that the work on the companies is not easy, they face a lot
of problems and sometimes this are completely out of hand so they have to be
prepared, even if they cannot accomplish the clients satisfaction to try and be the
most prepared. About the relationship with clients and suppliers we saw that they are
most interested in having a good and clear communication/relationship. We also saw
that the company has methods like just in case and they also do forecasts that help
them with the good performance of the company. We can say that Lic. Cristina gave
us the answers that we were expecting, the methods that they use are just what a
company of that type needs. The skills required according to the Lic are really basic,
we will add maybe emotional intelligence, creativity and leadership. According to the
Forbes article “The top 10 Most In-Demand” we saw that these skills are needed for
the near future.
BACKGROUND
Nancy Ramírez 15 years in Supply chain
● She has been an area manager for 3 years
Previously she was an expediting practitioner, buyer, planner and master scheduler.
QUESTIONS
[Link]'s the biggest challenge you've faced working? And how do you
manage to solve them?
A= Challenge - covid restriction of Chinese and electronic shipments. We monitored
end customer specific orders to allocate materials in those orders. This had an
impact on production but NOT on the end customer. We searched the market to buy
spot buy with accepted distributors. Cienega had a very large backlog, but the chiller
installation dates were monitored with the end customer to ensure that production
would be completed in that order.
2. How do you decide what supplier you should work with? Is it because of
price, or rules of the company or what factors do you take on consideration?
A= Suppliers are defined by an external purchasing department as they make the
selection of suppliers based on compliance, service and quality, negotiate payment
terms, freight, capacity research and banking and are assigned in SAP for the buyer
to release purchase orders.
3. We know that there’s no key to success but if you would give a tip to the
new workers of your area what will it be and why?
A= Attitude, proactivity, being open to new ideas, always being attentive to
opportunities. Seek to learn manufacturing processes to understand what we are
doing, the degree of complexity.
4. What do you consider to be key elements in inventory planning and
management?
A=I think that you need to track all your activities, you need to know what is
happening with your inventory at all time and have an organized work environment
5. What's your process for handling cost efficiency through strong
relationships with suppliers?
A= Communication. We must keep our suppliers informed of demand projections,
know and confirm delivery times and capacity restrictions in order to work together
with the supplier and reach the expected goal of delivering our purchase orders on
time.
6. What type of forecasting method do you prefer? Why?
A= Forecast is based on past consumption increasing a % of sales that was provided
by customer, as well as considering if new projects are coming up that we should
notify to Supplier Forecast we use the exponential Smoothing Forecast formula.
7. Do you have experience collaborating with overseas suppliers? How do you
manage to keep in touch with them?
A= Our 4 main suppliers for compressors come from France and China. Weekly
conferences to monitor shipments. During the covid emergency there were daily
conferences to ensure timely supply. Negotiation with DHL to have containers
available at a good price since during that time the transportation cost rise 4 times.
8. What is the basis for creating a successful logistics plan? It could be for
transportation, production, etc
A= Everything is on a plan basis. Forecast to negotiate rates and ensure the route is
covered. Trucks and Containers
9. Has a shipment to your warehouse ever been unexpectedly delayed? How
did you handle the situation?
A= Yes, we carry daily shipment metrics where we monitor the shipment until the
final destination. In case there is any problem, we make a stopover to solve it.
Always look for opportunities to DO comply. Notify customers of any delays.
10. Do you believe just in time system is the best? Why yes or why not?
A= Yes for material and movement control, avoid storage risks. Saving $$ for the
company not to have unused material. However, we must have a solid contract with
the supplier and develop together the whole strategy for this to be fulfilled
successfully.
11. Which are the most common situations you have to deal with in your work?
A= Sometimes the materials don't arrive on time, the raw materials can be damaged
by the workers or can also be here but not in the system
12. Which managerial skills are essential in your work?
A=Well, some of them are good communication, negotiation with the distributors, you
need to focus on the details and also have the ability to manage not only
commodities but time and personnel
INTERPRETATION
The interviewee demonstrated to be really informed and prepared for the situations
that may arise in a company’s supply chain management. The experience that she
has acquired is very impressive and it shows how useful it is to be an open person
that is proactive and open to new opportunities, as well as being attentive to what
may help a company’s supply chain. The interviewee answered each question with a
background basis and explained each of the questions giving a bit of context of the
situations she lived. This transmits confidence and knowledge, as well as the
interviewee answered each question without any problem.
CONCLUSION
We can take from this interview very good points of view people that are already
experienced and who know a lot about the working world. It is important to take this
advice as it does not come from a theoretical way like school but was shaped
empirically and based on years of experience.
The supply chain is a very valuable process which, if for any reason it fails, we
damage many areas, and not only we damage us as a company but also the final
customer. Having a good manage of it lead to a lot of benefits like more efficient
processes and the reduction of the different types of waste we saw during the
classes, that's why we decided to interview managers specialized in this area,
because the know-how they have is very important for us students to learn from it
The information we obtained from interviews is one that cannot be acquired in books
or in general text documents. It is important because it will give us some advantage
when putting into practice what we already know, since we won’t start from scratch
because we already know certain things that someone who only learned from theory
wouldn’t know. It is important for us to know the views of someone who has years of
experience in the area since there is a certain type of information that only by
experiencing it you are able to obtain. We found the information we obtained quite
useful and overall they were quite fruitful interviews.