《物流专业英语》26《物流专业英语》Unit26Vendormanagedinventory第三版新编1

Readingmaterials阅读材料To“Feed”materialsintotheassemblyline

---Dell’sVMIsolutions

把物料“喂”进生产线---戴尔的VMI方案InOctober1994,DellshifteditsAsia-PacificmanufacturingcentrefromMalaysiatoXiamen,andBAXGlobalcamealongasitspartner.1994年10月，戴尔公司将其亚太区制造中心从马来西亚转移到厦门，伯灵顿就以其合作伙伴一起来到厦门。BAXGlobalmanagesandoperatesVMIforDellinXiamen,assistingDell(China)toactualizethe“genuinezerostock”.InXiamen,BAXGlobalisabletoensurethatmaterialswillbedeliveredrighttotheproductionlinein90minutes,aslongasDelldemandsthem.伯灵顿在厦门为戴尔管理和运作VMI，帮助戴尔（中国）实现“真正的零库存”。在厦门，伯灵顿能够保证只要戴尔要货，90分钟内物料就能直接上线。Asarule,VMIwarehousesareestablishedinthevicinityofthefactory.Howeverthereneedtobea“bufferzone”inventoryfortheproductionline.Inlogisticsterms,thisprocessformaterialstotravelfromthebufferzonetotheproductionlineiscalled“feeding”:materialsarefirstshippedfromtheVMIwarehousetothemanufacturer’sbufferzone,andthen“feed”intotheproductionline.一般情况下，VMI仓库都会设在工厂附近，但生产线还需要一个“缓冲区”库存。在物流术语中，物料从缓冲区运行到生产线的这个过程被称作“喂料”：物料先从VMI仓库运到厂家的缓冲区，再从缓冲区“喂”进生产线。NowDellhasevenabolishedthismotionof“feeding”,consequentlyreducingitscostsfurther.BAXGlobal’scontainertruckinXiamenhaulsthematerialsforward,withitsheadturningbacktomakethecarriagedoorfaceDell’sproductionline.Inthisway,thematerialsareshippedstraighttotheproductionline.现在戴尔甚至连这个“喂”的动作也取消了，因而进一步降低了成本，BAXGlobal在厦门的集装箱卡车把物料运过去，车头调过来，车厢朝着戴尔的生产线，这样，物料就直接运到了生产线上。JustbecauseDelldoesnothavetomanageitsowninventory,VMIbecomespossible.Dell’soutputvariesdaily,andsometimesgreatly,althoughitsmonthlyturnoverapproximatestoabillionYuan.IfDellweretosetupitsownwarehouse,itwouldbequitedifficultforittoknowhowbigthewarehouseshouldbeinordertomeettheever-changingmarketdemand,whereasBAXGlobal’soperationeliminatedDell’scostrisk.正因为戴尔不需要管理自己的库存，才使供应商管理库存成为可能，虽然戴尔在厦门一个月的营业额近10亿元，但它每天的产量都不同，有时相差非常大。如果设立自己的仓库，戴尔很难知道究竟建多大的仓库才能满足不断变化的市场需求，而伯灵顿的运作则消除了它的成本风险。OnthepartofBAXGlobal,themodeofscaleoperationcanreducetheriskswhichhavebeentransferredtoitsownlink.ItisalmostimpossibleforasuppliertoosmallinscaletogainaccesstoVMI.Largesuppliersgenerallysuppliesgoodstoanumberofbigenterprisesandcanfreelyallocatethegoods,thusminimizingtherisks.而对于伯灵顿而言，规模经营方式可以降低被转移到自己这一环上的风险。规模太小的供应商几乎无法进入VMI，大供应商一般同时给几家大企业供货，自由调配物料，因而把风险降到最低。AmorepioneeringpracticeisthatthesupplieritselfcanalsoadopttheVMImodetomanagethemoreupstreamsuppliers.Somemajorsuppliersplaythedualidentity,servingbothasalinkinVMIforbigmanufacturersandVMIoperatoroftheirown.Zeroinventoryremainsanidea,whereasVMIoffersafeasiblesolution