• Maximize completion of orders on time and in full
• Minimize the cost of warehouse operations
• Maximize Inventory turn-over
• Minimize response time to demand and errors in dispatches
• Preserve the value, quality and security of the stored items

Reference:

BayanTrade

GSP exempts WTO member countries from MFN for the purpose of lowering tariffs for the least developing countries (without also doing so for rich countries). The idea of tariff preferences for developing countries was the subject of considerable discussion within UNCTAD in the 1960s. Among other concerns, developing countries claimed that MFN was creating a disincentive for richer countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and other trade restrictions with enough speed to benefit developing countries.

In 1971, the GATT followed the lead of UNCTAD and enacted two waivers to the MFN which permitted tariff preferences to be granted to developing country goods. Both these waivers were limited in time to ten years. In 1979, the GATT established a permanent exemption to the MFN obligation by way of the Enabling clause. This exemption allowed contracting parties to the GATT (the equivalent of today’s WTO members) to establish systems of trade preferences for other countries, with the caveat that these systems had to be “generalized, non’discriminatory and non’reciprocal’ with respect to the countries they benefited (so-called “beneficiary” countries) Countries were not supposed to set up GSP programs that benefited just a few of their “friends.’

From the perspective of developing countries as a group, GSP programs have been a mixed success. On one hand, most rich countries have complied with the obligation to generalize their programs by offering benefits to a large swath of beneficiaries, generally including nearly every non-OECD member state. Certainly, every GSP program imposes some restrictions. The United States, for instance, has excluded countries from GSP coverage for reasons such as being communist (Vietnam), being placed on the U.S. State Department’s list of countries that support terrorism (Libya), and failing to respect U.S. intellectual property laws.

But more significant is that most GSP programs are not completely generalized with respect to products. That is, they don’t cover most products, at least most products of export interest to developing countries. And this is by design. In the United States and many other rich countries, domestic producers of “simple” manfuctures, such as textiles, leather goods, ceramics, glass and steel, have long claimed that they could not compete with large quantities of imports. Thus, such products have been categorically excluded from GSP coverage under the U.S. and many other GSP programs. Unfortunately, these excluded products are precisely the kinds of manufactures that most developing countries are able to export. (Most developing countries can not efficiently produce things like locomotives or telecommunications satellites, but they can make shoes.)

Even in the face of its limitations, it would not be accurate to conclude that GSP has failed to benefit developing countries. Rather, it is the case that GSP has benefited some developing countries a lot and others very little. Specifically, for most of its history, GSP has benefited “richer developing” countries, such as Brazil and India, and more recently “Asian tigers” such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia substantially, while providing virtually no assistance to the world’s least developed countries, such as Haiti, Nepal, and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Notably, during the past decade, a historic change affecting developing countries has occurred within the WTO. Namely, WTO rules have been extended to cover both textiles and agricultural products. For nearly all of the WTO’s (and GATT’s) existence, which started in 1948, textiles and agricultural products were excluded from WTO/GATT coverage because they were so sensitive to GATT’s primary promoters, the United States and Europe. But now that situation has changed. Under new WTO rules, many textiles tariffs and quotas already have been eliminated, and liberalization of trade policy also is occurring on the complex agricultural front. Given that textiles and agricultural products - especially processed agricultural products, such as flour as opposed to wheat - are the main products that many of the world’s least developed countries are able to export competitively and lucratively, these and similar changes at the WTO may someday mean that the limitations of GSP programs will be resolved - outside of the rubric of GSP itself.

Reference:

Wikipedia

Space Utilization and Racking Design

Reference:

Wikipedia

 Just-in-time (JIT)

Just-in-time Planning and Control

JIT  as a Total Management Commitment : A Philosophy for all Operations

JIT  Implementation

JIT  Implementation Wheel

JIT  Approach to Production and Control

Building Blocks for combining the best JIT and MRP Systems

Combining  JIT and MRP Systems in practice

Reference:

BayanTrade

                                                                 ERP Objective = Reduction of costs

• Integration typicaly means that each of the process modules shares a common user interface, common databases or data warehouse and information/entities across modules or geographic locations.
• Examples of ERP common process modules:

             Purchasing, Materials Management, Plant Maintenance,  Finance (General Ledger &   Costs), ¦lt;br />              HR (Benefits, Time,  Personnel and Payroll), Sales capture and logistics.

 What covers ERP?

1.  A sales order is made and recorded (Sales)
2. Parts are reserved or purchased and delivered (Purchasing and Supply)
3. Labour is scheduled and charged (Human Resources)
4. The cost of parts is taken from General Ledger inventory accounts, and the revenue is booked and billed when the order is completed (Finance)
5. The required goods are manufactured and assembled (Production)
6. The completed order is shipped to the costumer (Distribution)

What is the business case for ERP?

• Generally first tier, large organization… but latest developments are scalable to small enterprises.
• Return on investment of 20% or greater.
• Payback in less than 5 years.
• One ERP vendor has more than 9,000 customers… that’s a strong indicator of its popularity.
• Regulatory and reporting pressures may force firm to invest in a computerized enterprise resource management system like ERP.

Reference:

BayanTrade

• A comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster.
• The Primary objective of disaster recovery planning is to protect the organization in the event that all or parts of its operations, inventories and/or computer services are rendered unusable.
• Preparation is the key of success.

THE PLAN SHOULD AIM TO:

• Localize and minimize disruption to operations.
• Ensure some level of organizational stability during and after the crisis.
• Assure communications with customers, suppliers, share holders, financial institutions and the media.
• Provide for an orderly recovery.

Reference:

BayanTrade