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Case study: Newice, the agricultural lighting manufacturer The company called Newice has produced lighting for agricultural machinery and vehicles in Torun, Poland, since 1977. Newice's products have been designed and produced successfully, combining modern design trends with the latest technical solutions. Based on this success, the products have been present on European and Asian markets for decades. Moreover, due to the excellent proportion between quality and price, Newice's lamps are used by numerous OEM (original equipment manufacturers) firms as well as by wholesalers of spare parts from different locations in Europe and Asia. Traditionally, Newice places emphasis on its customers' needs. Flexibility and innovation help the company to meet even the most complex requirements of its clients. Dedicated products are created for both regular and new customers. Newice has done well in the past and demand for their lightings and lamps is growing steadily. NEWICE's supply chain network comprises of; - four (4) warehouse distribution centres (DC): two (2) in Europe and two (2) in Asia - downstream partners: 32 wholesalers and 13 production firms (as direct partners) around Europe and Asia (first tear distributors) - upstream partners: 30-35 direct suppliers of parts and semi-finished material (first tear suppliers) and "90 second tier suppliers (suppliers' supplier). You have been hired as an expert consultant to study the firm's supply chain and quality control activities, as well as provide suggestions for improvement. Although the demand is growing steadily, and the company is in a good position, the Operations Manager has reported there to be difficult and robust supply chain processes and quality failures. You need to make improvements to the supply chain processes to get it to run effectively and efficiently, as well as make recommendation for quality improvements. The owners first noticed problems when they received a high number of calls from wholesalers and direct partners of production companies complaining about the time delay in receiving their orders and some of the lamps arrived not working. Customers of Newice, purchased the industrial lamps predominantly due to their affordable price and the reliable quality. Newice took pride in being able to deliver the latest industrial lamps within 15 working days of the customer placing the order but orders were recently taking up to 32 days to deliver. The head light covers were being produced by a company in Thailand who had been sending their product with a 6% failure rate, meaning that some covers had to be returned and replaced, causing yet further delays. The rest of the parts were modular and fitted into all of their models. Customer complaints (automotive manufacturers and wholesalers) in addition to late delivery of their orders have also included; incorrect orders being shipped and defects in the products received. Some defects are caused by damage during transportation and others occurred during the production process. The Operations Manager has commented; 'The suppliers are constantly letting us down, they say that materials are on their way and we find out later they have not left their factory and when they do arrive some parts are broken. We just cannot trust them and communication is breaking down' In terms of quality assurance, Newice implemented an industry specific quality assurance system, but it does not improve processes to the extent needed. Newice' senior management team are looking for advice on how to improve the company's internal and external quality processes. Newice have an exclusive agreement with a medium size company Lightronics, in Slovakia, who produces the LED lights for the lamps. However, their current supply to Newice has been delayed. Due to the fact that Lightronics' supplier, Goman have delays in producing the parts, neither Lightronics nor Newice receive the requested parts and semi-finished products on time. The other problem is that Lightronics are still only sending actual customer demand information and demand forecast information to Goman (his upstream partner) once a month in excel sheet by email. Newice uses Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business process management software which contains information about the business' sales and distribution, materials management, production planning, logistics execution and quality management. However, there have been problems with the information on the system being inaccurate. Only the management staff have access to the system and due to high workloads, managers are not always kept up to date and so the production staff are unable to trust the system. Not to mention that two of the four Distribution Centres (DC) do not have ERP systems, so they employ extra staff to transfer data to and from their systems. The operation manager has commented; 'my staff are under increased pressure and we realise that we are not being efficient with optimising the supply chain processes. We need to find solutions for both quality and supply issues. The orders are being delayed and customers are complaining The Operations Manager is notably concerned about letting down their customers and their reputation being affected. As mentioned earlier, you have been hired as an expert consultant to study the firm's supply chain and quality control activities, as well as provide suggestions for improvement. The main criteria of the report are 1. Critically discuss the problems in relation to both supply chain management and quality control issues of the operations 2. Your report should demonstrate the depth and breadth of your understanding by applying relevant theory. 3. Furthermore, you must demonstrate that you can critically analyse by bringing in examples provided in the case study. This will demonstrate your ability to link theory and practice and your analytical skills. In your discussion, connect theory to practice (or vice versa)