The Research To Shorten Lead Time Base On Supplier Cooperation

Lead time is one of the most important factors that impact the supply chain service level and the competitive power of companies. So shortening lead time is one of the most important tasks to improve the supply chain competitive power. This article is in the stand point of purchaser U, analyzed the lead time issue between the purchaser U and supplier JD, and found out the root causes considering the situation of supplier JD. The root causes are in two aspects: First, the low volume and high deviation quantity of purchaser U make JD difficult to plan resources for U's orders. Second, the WIP of JD is high and the manufacturing system is inefficient. The proper strategy of increase purchasing amount and balanced purchasing was developed, meanwhile, it makes use of the lean manufacturing principle and the emerging mixed model value stream analysis to analyze and find out the possible root cause of long lead time of the manufacturing system. And improved the supply chain service level of company JD by shorten the lead time. The average lead time for products of U company was decreased from 82.25 days to 36.3 days.