Final year projects (Baccalaureus Theses) (Industrial Engineering)

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Browsing Final year projects (Baccalaureus Theses) (Industrial Engineering) by Author "Du Toit, Nina"

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    A study of Shoprites imported non-foods supply chain
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011-12) Du Toit, Nina; Von Leipzig, Konrad; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Shoprite retail group, based in South Africa, imports over 90% of their non-food goods. Two routes for transporting imports to Johannesburg were studied, specifically, (1) cross-docking the goods through distribution centres in Cape Town and, (2) direct shipments of entire containers via the port of Durban. A literature study comprised of research on supply chain management, logistics and the purchasing supply chain function was conducted. The literature study described various supply chain techniques, such as centralised distribution, and summarised ways of measuring and improving supply chains. An analysis based on the company’s strategies and financial and other data was used to determine the best route. The cross-docking route via Cape Town was chosen as it is aligned with the current company strategies and aids the visual management system used. There is no significant cost saving when using the Cape Town route, eliminating the choice to base the routing decision solely on financial implications. A detailed analysis of Shoprite’s process of importing revealed several problems. The high demurrage cost was studied further and it was shown that a lack of control of the timing of the release of goods from the supplier causes container storage costs to rise. The suggestion of implementing a freight forwarder to monitor the consolidation and timely shipment of goods was made. The promotion of communication between the buyers, suppliers, replenishers and distribution centre management was further identified as a major stumbling block for improved efficiency. If rectified, it would enable the supply chain to be flexible and allow management of the supply chain as a whole, instead of management of individual parts. An important classification was that of the distribution centres as the bottleneck in the supply chain. The supply chain can be improved by managing the flow of imported goods according to the capacity of the distribution centres. The project achieved its aims of identifying a route that should be used to import non-food goods from the East and of assessing the supply chain to provide improvement strategies.