The Research Of Herman Miller Inc For Its Supply Chain Management At China

With the rapid development of globalization and technology information, SCM (Supply Chain Management) has been one of the advanced management philosophies in the 21st century. Nowadays, SCM is being used more and more widely, and getting more and more attentions. It is commonly believed competition today is no longer between individual firms. The companies that configure the best supply chains will be the market winners.This thesis consists of 5 chapters. The whole framework is to provide solutions to actual problems being faced by Herman Miller China operation under the guide of the SCM theory, considering Herman Miller's market positioning and the overall global office furniture market situation. This research touched 6 key areas including SCM value positioning, SCM based organization chart, supplier management, material management, inventory management, and information management. Chapter 1: SCM Theory. This chapter serves as the theory basis for the whole thesis. It starts with an introduction of SCM and emphasizes the importance of coordinated SCM and strategic partnership with suppliers, then is followed by an elaboration of the evolution of SCM, some typical SCM types and benefits brought by SCM implementation.Chapter 2: Herman Miller's Market Positioning. Firstly, it introduces the background of Herman Miller, Inc. As a leading office furniture provider in US, as well as globally, Herman Miller has made lots of achievements and received bunches of recognitions worldwide. Secondly, the overall outlook of current furniture market is illustrated with a purpose to show the market environment, in particular the office furniture. Thanks to the opening up and reform, office furniture market in China is growing rapidly, while in US, it is another story recently, market is stepping into a recession because of US sub-prime mortgage issue, which on the contrast elicits a lot of investments to China from overseas. Finally, it briefs Herman Miller's market positioning and development strategy. Market segmentation is the key for market positioning. Without it, it is impossible to tailor make a SCM to meet customer specific requirements. As part of Herman Miller development strategy, a sales office as a regional headquarter was established in Shanghai, and a manufacturing site was founded in Ningbo too to serve the whole Asia market.Chapter 3: The SCM of Herman Miller in China. This chapter lists a lot of SCM related problems existed in Herman Miller China operation, such as: no SCM based organization chart; few local suppliers developed with few businesses, lack of trust and relationship with local suppliers; production materials mainly consigned from Herman Miller US or supplied by some key and sole suppliers; high inventory level without regular monitoring; complicated & insufficient logistics flow; data and information not shared across the organization as well as with key members in SCM, etc. Furthermore, improvement urgency is addressed by a SWOT analysis.Chapter 4: Re-design Herman Miller's SCM. It is the fundamental chapter of the whole thesis. With reference to the successful practices in Herman Miller US, SCM is re-designed in terms of SCM value positioning, SCM based organization chart, supplier management, material management, inventory management and information management by using analysis tools, such as portfolio analysis, game theory, etc.Chapter 5: Conclusion. With the newly designed SCM in Herman Miller China operation, it can be concluded without any doubt that a lot of benefits can be perceived, which includes: lowered total cost of SCM, improved on time delivery, shortened lead time, increased production efficiency, reduced inventory level, bettered cash flow, raised customer satisfaction, etc.