Over and above what is reported in the case, what additional lean manufacturing and supply chain management practices should the company consider and implement in (for): (provide at least two such practices for each part)

1. logistics department, b) warehouse management and c) packaging strategy

Logistics Department When Salinas arrived in Reynosa, the logistics department (also called the MRP department) had a total of 14 employees: one superintendent, one manager, two supervisors, five buyers and five planners. Members of this department were organized into two groups, each composed of five buyers (or planners) and a supervisor. The buyer group was responsible for material procurement and the planning group was responsible for coordinating production activities with delivery schedules. There was a large gap between the two groups' interests, which made their coordination difficult; as a result, it was common to see insufficient production schedules being launched that often required materials to be expedited for production. In addition to being ineffective, the MRP department was causing high labour costs for the plant as unscheduled overtime productions were often necessary; therefore, IAC decided to reorganize the department. The team was reduced to a total of four logistic planners - who performed the functions of buyers and planners - led by a new logistics manager. The combination of both functions led to increased communication and transparency since each buyer-planner would then have control over several materials through the entire supply chain.Warehouse Management Warehouse management was a key element of the supply chain. It primarily aimed at controlling the movement and storage of materials within the warehouse, involving activities such as receiving, shelving, loading and shipping. IAC had a warehouse in Reynosa and also stored materials in another warehouse located in neighbouring US. city, McAllen, TX. The original warehouse management was based on xed locations: specic incoming material or nished goods could only be stored at a designated space in the warehouse. Consequently, IAC realized there were many components that would rarely be used and yet occupied valuable space, resulting in higher costs. In addition, information concerning the incoming material was recorded manually in the receiving area, which led to frequent typing errors; as a result, it was difcult to identily the batch of a specic part number when tracking the details in the system. In an effort to achieve better effectiveness of the physical storage facilities and the stored materials, IAC adopted a chaotic warehouse management system. No specic location for any product was assigned; instead, when the goods arrived the system would identify the optimal empty storage location. Since every space could be assigned optimally, more materials could be stored which resulted in a high degree of eiciency and the elimination of wasted spaces. Although the Reynosa plant previously had access to SAP software, it was only using a limited number of available functions, especially in the logistics area. By upgrading to a newer version and training employees with a wider scope, IAC was able to successilly monitor the ow of materials. IAC required its suppliers to comply with a standard bar code label and a standard packaging size for space optimization. Manual data entry was successllly replaced by the scanning of bar code labels, thus drastically reducing the number of errors. The data then went immediately into the SAP software where it became instantly accessible. This new system enabled a seamless link between order processing and logistics management through the improved tracking of parts. Once the system was able to generate useful and accurate reports of the status of materials in the warehouse, the inventory level was reduced considerably. Shortly thereaer, IAC eliminated the McAllen warehouse. Packaging Strategy The plant used several types of plastic containers for packaging. These containers were lled with raw materials and shipped from Canada to South Texas; empty containers were shipped back to Canada. All of the transportation management occurred at the [AC Canada logistics department but at the Reynosa plant's expense: IAC Reynosa incurred costs associated with shipping, storing, cleaning and returning packages. When analyzing this strategy, the team discovered that some of these activities were not adding value to the final product and it looked for ways to improve the process. Salinas remembered that the Quertaro plant sometimes used cardboard boxes: although this was not always a more affordable option, the plant did not need to return the boxes and could even sell them to other companies after use. Plastic containers would only be efficient if they were lled with nished goods upon shipment back to Canada. The plastic option would be preferable for large orders of raw materials when a whole truck would be loaded by the same supplier in Canada; however, the only compatible option with IAC' s milk run strategy was the use of standard cardboard boxes which could be stacked