CONCEPT PAPER

Supply Chain Operational System

Abstract
Supply chain management is one of the most essential aspects of conducting
business that is needed in the daily transaction of business activities. It facilitates the
coordination, management, strategic data-flow & information resources and
materials to deliver best product & services to all stakeholders from the process of
converting raw goods to salable products and delivering it to the ultimate customer
or client.

Odongo Pius, Lajara Bridget, Otim Denis

20/u/0490/GBC/PS. 20/u/480/GIT/PS. 20/u/230/GIT/PS
 Supply-Chain Operational System

1. Introduction
The Supply-chain operational system is that enterprise web-based system that will facilitate the
coordination, management, strategic data flow & information resources and materials to deliver
the best products and services to all stakeholders, from the process of converting raw goods to a
salable product and delivering it the ultimate customer. The stakeholder could be the last
consumer or retailer depending on the level of supply. The system will focus on the relation
between the customer and the supplier.
This will require a client knowing the supplier’s business name, the kind of product or service
and the level of inventory. The means of financial transaction either being through direct
transfers, cheque or by cash for an effective business transaction. This will be possible to archive
since most business firms are registered by the Uganda Registration Service Bureau (URSB).
The registration policy can be accessed online by the client, organization and or a business firm.
On a further note, the system focuses on the management of the flow of goods and services
between businesses and there locations. Therefore, it’s a practice of coordinating the various
activities necessary to produce and deliver goods or services to business’s customers and all
other stakeholders. For example a customer will have access to the goods or services of the
various suppliers on the site herein displayed. When a customer places an order which is then
processed by the system through a checkout chart.

2. Background
The system is a web-based system designed for a production sector, which gives information
related to clients and dealers of the enterprise with respect to its product launches. This product
develops a system that can be used by the company management to keep track of sales, dealers
and its clients. In the existing method of tracking of all the details is tedious and time consuming.
Any product survey and launching of the area is carried out manually by representatives, which
is a time taking task. It fulfills different requirements of clients of the company. The purpose of
the system is to automate the communication between clients, Admin and the dealers of the
organization. [O. Ergun et al. (2009) 368]

2.1 Illustrative view of the Supply Chain Operational System

[https://supply-chain-system/images.]

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This system is the management of a network of interconnected business firms involved in the
ultimate provision of product and service packages required by the end-users or customers. It
spans all the movement and storage of raw-materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished
goods from point of origin to point of consumption. It is mainly designed for the production
sector in an enterprise, which give information related to client and dealers of the company with
respect to product launches.
This application is designed to run on computer and therefore, there is need to install java
software on a client side machine. Based on the designation of the user who registers into the
application he has permission to submit his registration form and then specify the requirements.
This app document plays a vital role in companies which are the targets of the supply chain tool.
Thus it is expected that the firm will deal directly with each other clients of the enterprise
regarding product information. It fulfills different requirements of the clients’. The specific
purpose of the system is to automate the communication between the management (Admin),
clients and the dealers of the enterprise.
2.2 The Module designs
There will be different modules display on the user interface and these modules may include the
orders module, customer module, affiliate module, coupons module, gift vouchers, mail module,
profiles module, manufactures module, categories module, shipment module, product company
module, product module. These will appear on the homepage of the application for easy retrieval
and navigation through the system.
2.3 Input and Output of the system
The system is basically, the movement of raw materials into finished goods. In this system the
client provides its requirements about the product. The admin, then contacts its various dealers or
suppliers for gathering the requirements. The dealers display the list of items from which the
admin selects the items as specified by the client. After gathering the items, the admin gives the

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gathered items to the inventory or sales department where the processing is done. The final
product is manufactured processed packaged and then finally delivered to the client which is the
output of the Supply Chain Operational System. In the meanwhile, the manufacturing cost and
other expenses is tabulated by the accounting department and given to the client, finally the
client gives its feedback which is transferred to the admin and the dealers or suppliers.
2.4 System structure
The supply chain operational system is the management of a network of interconnected
businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by the
end user/ customers. The system spans all the movement and storage of raw materials, work in
process inventory and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption level.
Therefore firms increasingly find that they must rely on effective supply chains or networks to
successfully compete in the global market and the networked economy.
During the past decades, globalization, outsourcing and information technology have enabled
many firms to successfully operate solid collaborative supply networks in which each specialized
business partner focuses on only a few key strategic activities. Any product survey and launching
of the area carried out manually by the representatives which is a time task, and even gathering
all the requirements from different dealers is also so tedious.
The proposed system structure is a web-based system, where the admin will be responsible for
performing all the operations in the system and will have all full rights to access the system,
mainly for production sector, which give information related to the clients and the dealers of the
firm in relation to its product launches. And therefore product development helps the enterprise
management to keep track of its sales, dealers and clients. It also spans all the movement and
storage of raw materials, work in process inventory and finished goods from point of origin to
consumption level. The application is designed to operate and run on any computer system. So
there is need as well to install java software on the client side machine.
Based on the designation of the user who registers into the application, he has the permission to
submit his registration form and then specify the requirements he has ordered for in the chart.
The next steps and processes are undertaken by the admin till delivery of product is achieved to
the right stakeholder hence giving a feedback if goods reached in safely as at the specified
requirements. [Swaminathan, J.M. (2001) 6(2), 283-301]
2.5 Functionalities of the system
It provides the searching facilities based on various factors such as customer, order, shipment
and others. The system also manages the delivery of details online for order details, shipment
details, and customer details. It tracks and shows all the information plus description of the
product, delivery, order, and manage the information of the product customer and the enterprise
firm. It helps to increase the efficiency of managing the customer in relation to the product and
firm. It also deals with monitoring the information and transactions of the order till it reaches the
client’s premises. It improves editing, adding and updating the records which results in proper

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resource management of customer data. It also manages the information of the order and
integration of all records of shipment.

3. Statement of the problem

Exploring through the challenge of transport and proximity of market centers, you find it really
hard for a person in rural setting to get access to some goods and services perhaps there would be
delay in delivering such kind of goods or services. This person will have to move very far
distance in order to get that particular product or service.
In Uganda as third world country faces a big challenge in the transport system and network that
is made up of roads, railways, aircrafts and water vessels that help to coordinate the framework
of transportation network. And therefore, due to the undeveloped transport system of bad roads
with potholes, muddy & floods during wet seasons makes it difficult for the delivery of a
particular product or service to a client in remote areas.
The challenge of machinery breakdown, accidents and uncertainties are also another challenge
that the system tends to reduce to some level. The mass storage of records business transaction
and information on paper which might be on risk of getting stolen, catching fire, damaged or
even getting miss-placed when seeking its attention, and so the system is online and web-based
that requires computational operations and automation of information execution and control
hence doesn’t actually involve active manual operations.
Supply chain management is one of the most essential aspects of conducting business. Many
people outside of the direct community (in research and industry) do not realize this because an
ordinary consumer often experiences only its effects. Recall the times when the item that you
wanted was not available in your favorite garments or grocery store, recall how many times you
got a great ‘deal’ at the end of the season, recall the sudden increases in gas prices due to
shortages, recall the times when your e-commerce site promised availability but later could not
send the required product or sent you the wrong product, or recall the times when your
customized product (like a personal computer or kitchen cabinet) was delayed to a great extent.
In the late 2000s, due to glitches of its extensively outsourced supply chain for Dreamliner 787,
Boeing experienced substantial delay in launching the new aircraft and incurred more than $2
billion in charges to support and expedite component supplies. Less than two years after the first
delivery of Dreamliner 787 in 2011, Boeing was ordered to shut down production of the aircraft
due to quality issues with batteries. In 2007, Mattel had to recall of tens of millions of toys made
in China, which becomes poster child for concerns about quality of offshore goods. While some
firms suffered from consequences of bad supply chain management, firms such as Amazon, Wal-
Mart, and Zara, have consistently outperformed competition due to great supply chain
capabilities. [G. de Kok, S. C. Graves. (2003) 64:3, 340-348]
All the above and several other experiences that consumers have on a routine basis are direct
consequences of supply chain practices followed by firms. As opposed to business-to-consumer
transactions, supply chain practices have immediate impact on business-to-business transactions.

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 4. Aim & Objectives
The main objective of this system is to find out the supply chain management system is
controlled automatically. The supply chain distribution channel is a lengthy process. Basically
their supply chain is totally warehouse-based too. In supply chain at first they store the entire
product from different manufacturers in their warehouse. The transportation cost is totally born
by the manufacturing company. Then the stored products distributed by their own vehicle to its
several outlets. There is no intermediary between warehouse and manufacturing enterprise
besides no product comes directly to the outlet without the hands of warehouse.
Other objectives of this concept are:
 To know the supply chain & distribution channels of the global market
 To understand the difference between the traditional markets and foreign-markets supply
chain
 To explore the relation of shopping to the supermarkets, online markets and local markets
of residential area and non-residential area based on gender, income & age of commodity
demand.
 To gather practical knowledge & skills of supply chain management
 To improve operational & streamlining operations in the business world
 To maintain all project, employee and the database administration
 To maintain a global standard of product and market development principles
 To reduce manpower labor costs and manual paper works for maintaining the records
offline
 To maintain the accuracy, integrity and consistency of the data management and security
 Providing such a mechanism helps to make the man power fast to maintain the
information about the system efficiently & effectively.

5. Expected Outcomes
The specific purpose of this system is to automate the communication between the management,
clients and the dealers of the firms. This system maintains the information related to the client
and dealers of the company with respect to its product launch. This will also keep track of sale
and dealers. The scope of this system is to enable the user of a firm to view the issues through
the LAN/Internet (online). Based on the category of the user i.e. employee or the administrator,
the various parts of the system are made available to the users.
The main objective of this system is to manage the details of customer, product, company, order
shipment. It manages all the information about the customer, delivery, shipment and services.
The system is totally built and designed with administrative end-user rights and thus only the
admin is guaranteed the access. The purpose of the system is to build an application program to

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reduce the manual work for managing the customer, product, Delivery Company. It tracks all the
deals about the product, company, order and shipment.
It may help in collecting perfect management in details.in a very short time, the collection will be
obvious, simple and sensible. It will also help a person to know the management of past years
perfectly and vividly. It also helps in current all works relative to supply chain management. It
will also be reduce the cost of collecting the management & collection procedure will go
smoothly. The system aims at business process automation, i.e. we have tried to computerize
various processes of supply chain management system.
In computer system the person has to fill various forms and number of copies of the forms can be
easily generated at a time. It is not necessary to create the manifest but we can directly print it,
which saves our time. The system will also assist the staff in capturing the effort spent on their
respective working areas to utilize resources in an efficient manner by increasing their
productivity through automation.
The system generates types of information that can be used for various purposes to easily satisfy
the user requirement and be easy to understand by the user and operator hence, be easy to operate
& run. It will have a good user interface hence user- friendly, expandable and delivered on
schedule within the budget.

References
G. de Kok, S. C. Graves. 2003. Handbooks in Operations Research and Management
Science: Supply Chain Management. Elsevier. Amsterdam.
Swaminathan, J.M. (2001). Supply Chain Management, International Encyclopedia of the
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier Sciences, Oxford, England.
Tayur, S., Ganeshan, R., & Magazine, M. J. (1998). Quantitative Models for Supply
Chain Management. MA: Kluwer.
O. Ergun, G. Karakus, P.Keskinocak, J.Swann, M.Villarreal (2009), “Humanitarian
Supply Chain Management - An Overview,” in Models and Algorithms for Optimization
in Logistics, C. Barnhart, U. Clausen, U. Lauther, R.H. Mohring (editors), Germany.