ABSTRACT
PPI produces a product where the lighting is built right into the plastic, it is actually part of the printed plastic, and it requires a minimal amount of low-voltage electricity. PPI’s supply chain starts with its sourcing of colored inks and plastics and ends with the end customer that uses the product. The sourcing side of the supply chain has problems with product and schedule consistency. Disruptions to supply chain can occur via any of the suppliers, via the shipper, or internal to PPI’s operations. But it is the poor quality and poor on-time delivery performance that has PPI worried. PPI needs to see a cultural change before it is ready to experience a quality transformation. The PPI problems are systems problems, not operational problems. In the spirit of information technology becoming a profit center, they could help with the supply chain problem by facilitating data access or vendor interfaces.
