RABBIYAH ARSHAD 20201-27817

Asynchronous Attendance Assignment

Please answer the following questions based on the Case Study uploaded. Carefully read the whole case
study, refer to the lecture and your previous lectures to answer the questions fully.

1. Using your traditional supply chain flow as a basis, draw the traditional product development
and subset processes mentioned in the case study that BBA would undertake.
2. R&D phase:
 Market analysis: Assessment of customer requirements and market trends for customized
products.
 R&D for custom chip design: Initial R&D focused on creating custom semiconductor chips.
 Design Prototyping: Creating prototypes for custom chips based on specific customer needs.
3. Production phase:
 Toolkit Development: Creating user-friendly toolkits for customers to design their own chips.
 Manufacturing Process Customization: Customizing manufacturing processes to meet customer-
designed chips efficiently and cost-effectively.
 Custom Chip Manufacturing: Manufacturing chips based on customer designs using developed
tool sets and customized processes.
4. Customer engagement phase:
 Customer selection: Identifying potential customers interested in custom chip design.
 Customer Training: Training and supporting selected customers to effectively use the toolkits.
 Continuous improvement: Collecting feedback on an ongoing basis development of toolkits
based on customer needs and experience.

4. Customization of the business model:

 Sales and Marketing Development: Adjusting sales and marketing strategies to accommodate
the shift from human to computer-based interactions.
 Incentive programs: Implementation of incentives for employees to support the new business
model and customer-oriented approach.
 Value Proposition Changes: Revising the value proposition to include customer involvement in
the innovation process.
 5. In which area of supply chain would and was there a lot of waste and increased lead times in
BBA's development of customized products?
 Design and prototyping:
Waste: Traditional design and prototyping phases may have seen significant waste in
terms of resources, time and cost. Developing custom semiconductor chips using
conventional methods involved extensive R&D and prototyping cycles, which could lead
to wasted resources if the end product did not exactly meet customer needs.
 Extended lead times: In particular, the design iteration process could lead to extended
lead times as customer requirements were interpreted and translated into prototypes.
Repeated iterations to meet exact specifications could lengthen the development cycle.
 Customer engagement and training:
 Waste: If the toolkits provided were not user-friendly, or if the training and support
offered to customers was inadequate, this could lead to wasted effort as customers
struggled to design their chips efficiently. Ineffective training programs may have
resulted in customers making mistakes that resulted in unusable designs.
 Extended lead times: Customer engagement and training phases could take longer if
toolkits were complex or not well aligned with customer understanding. This may have
resulted in a delay in customers effectively using the kits to design their own chips.

 Adaptation of the production process:
 Waste: Adapting manufacturing processes to fit custom chip designs could lead to initial
waste, especially if modifications were not well planned or if the alignment between
customer designs and the production line was not optimal.
 Extended lead times: Changes in the manufacturing process to incorporate customer-
designed chips may have increased lead times initially as production lines were adapted
and optimized for these new designs.

3. What was the cause and how does this impact your understanding of value chains and lean retail?

Cause: The cause of this shift was primarily due to the limitations of traditional custom chip
development methods. Initially, suppliers handled the entire process of designing and manufacturing
custom semiconductor chips. However, this approach had limitations in effectively meeting diverse
customer needs, leading to longer lead times, higher costs, and limited innovation. The emergence of
toolkits allowed customers to design their own chips using standardized features and design modules
provided by suppliers.

Impact on value chains:

1. Decentralization of innovation: Traditional value chain centered around supplier control over design
and production. With the shift, innovation is decentralized, allowing customers to actively participate in
the design process. This changes the dynamics of the value chain and redistributes value creation from
primarily suppliers to collaboration between suppliers and customers.

2. Lean Retail: Lean principles aim to minimize waste and maximize value. In this context, lean retail
involves reducing waste in the supply chain, optimizing inventory and improving efficiency. The shift in
the semiconductor industry toward customer-driven design aligns with lean principles by reducing
inefficiencies in traditional stages from design to manufacturing. It enables a more demand-driven
approach, minimizing overproduction and excess inventory by manufacturing chips tailored to specific
customer needs.