Supply Chain Management

"THE IMPACT OF TIME-BASED MANAGEMENT ON THE LEAD-TIME REDUCTION AND EFFICIENCY OF A SUPPLY CHAIN:
AN EXPLORATION ON NHS SUPPLY CHAIN".











INTRODUCTION 3
LITERATURE REVIEW OF TIME-BASED MANAGEMENT 4
Time and business 4
Time and customers 4
Time and innovation 4
Time and money 4
Time-based competition 5
Shortening product life cycle 5
Desire for reducedinventory 6
Increasingly unreliable forecasts 6
The concept of lead time 7
A BEFORE-AND-AFTER OF THE FORMATION OF NHS SUPPLIES 8
CRITICAL EVALUATION 9
CONCLUSION 10
REFERENCE LIST 11






INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the customers of every market are increasingly time-sensitive. Due to competition in many industries is intensifying, the companies are trying to look for more effectiveways to operate their business in terms of time-based competition.
As consequence of this competitive environment, the product-life-cycles are becoming shorter and shorter and the ability to bring to market new products and processes quickly is discovered as a new source of competitive advantage.
Time ago, product development efforts associated with the aspect of time were rarely used. However,nowadays the situation has completely changed and the time has become a key competently element. It means that today's innovation is time-based competition because time is the equivalent of money, productivity and quality. It includes from competitive costs and quality to competitive costs, quality, and responsiveness.
Therefore, in accordance with this reality, this paper is going to examinethe impact of the application of time-based supply chain strategies in NHS. Firstly, a literature review section will be defined the key points. Then, a critical evaluation of that topic will done followed by suggest improvement. Finally, a conclusion is summarising the key findings I have discovered through the case study.







LITERATURE REVIEW OF TIME-BASED MANAGEMENT
According toStalk, G. and Hout, T.M. (1990) in their book Competing Against Time, time is a resource and a firm that make better use of it acquires a competitive advantage.
The power of time as competitive advantage affects every element inside the organisation:
Time and business
Time is a fundamental business performance variable and it impacts directly in the achievement of an organization. Responsetime, lead time, up time, on time are the key elements in the success of the companies. (Stalk, G. and Hout, T.M., 1990)
Time and customers
Customers want what they want when they want it. This is why the way to work must be more dynamic to satisfy demanding customers and avoid that other customers will be forced to wait. (Stalk, G. and Hout, T.M., 1990)
Time and innovation
Innovation is the keyto the long-term vitality of all enterprises, but innovation means more than just new products; it means new services and ways of doing successful business.
Innovation's success is related with time but obviously the challenge to innovation is in creating new ideas and this is why timely execution is critical to successful innovation and to high rates of change. (Stalk, G. and Hout, T.M., 1990)Time and money
Time and money are closely linked in business: "Time is money".
The management of product-oriented or even service-oriented companies are starting to focus their efforts to speed new product development programs, due to the importance of the relation time-profitability. (Stalk, G. and Hout, T.M., 1990)
Time-based competition
Nowadays, gain a competitive advantage becomesmore difficult. Traditional sources of competitive advantage like, for instance, quality are no longer useful as a distinguishing factor. Consequently, there has to be a search for something new, and innovative companies have found time as a new source of competitive advantage.
By reducing unproductive time, companies are able to reduce costs, improve quality, and stay close to their customers;...