Traceability of Baby Strollers: Supply Chain Management and Educational Prospective

1. Traceability of Baby Strollers: Supply Chain Management and Educational Prospective Ik-Whan G. Kwon, Ph.D Professor and Director Center for Supply Chain Management Studies

2. Product Safety Program at Saint Louis University • Saint Louis University’s Center for Supply Chain Management Studies since 1998 • University education in product safety in partnership with ADK Information Services since 2010 • Emphasis on practical applications for practitioners • Incorporate supply chain principles into product safety management curriculum

3. Supply Chain Operating Reference (SCOR) Model Information flow Plan (design) Buy (suppliers) Make (producers) Deliver (logistics) Retrieve (reverse logistics Product flow Foundation of SC: Collaboration Results: Improved profitability 3 Global Supply Chain Management

4. Product Safety in Supply Chain Plan: By planning a system, a company can protect its brand names, operate efficiently, and create route for safe products to its consumers Buy: A discipline that involves search for qualified suppliers, stating the specifications that suppliers must comply, test and certify that they are following procedures, and documenting their compliances.

5. Product Safety in Supply Chain Make: Product safety must be integrated into the production process through a defect analysis. This process incorporates a testing protocol at each critical manufacturing step. Deliver: Where logistics may involve influencing the basic characteristic of a product, there must be definitions on compliance requirements.

6. Product Safety in Supply Chain Retrieve:Where product must be retrieved from the field, a well designed plan must be embraced by management and often approved by a government regulator. Retrieval is a form of data base management and traceability of the product through the supply chain.

7. Pilot Project Road Map • Product design/review • Conform to regulations at product design phase • Secure investment in label/tracking system • Integrate uniform label into product design, production process, distribution networks and retrieve process – a big challenge • Educate supply chain practitioners the tracking system and its value throughout supply chain channel. • Institute relevant curriculum in product safety management program at university graduate level course(s) for a sustainable operations

8. Benefits: uniform label/tracking system • Improve transparency/visibility throughout supply chain and reduce uncertainty doing business • Increase efficiency for global supply chain markets • Consistency in consumer and regulatory feedback • Timely and agile response to major disruptions of global trade due to product safety issues. • Allows companies to plan ahead in the entire supply chain networks (inventory, distribution networks, sourcing, and transportation)

9. Challenges • Language and regulatory variations across global supply chain operations • Investment in roll out of tracking system for broad line manufacturers (phase in) • Balance perspectives of all stakeholders • Educating product safety professionals the value of supply chain principles • Building interdisciplinary curriculum in a higher education system (schools of business, engineering, law, and public health)

10. Thank you Ik-Whan Kwon, Ph.D, Professor and Director Center for Supply Chain Management Studies at Saint Louis University St. Louis, Missouri, USA E-mail: kwoni@slu.edu Phone: 314-977-7155