The Sherwin-Williams Company: Manufacturing and Distribution of Products
- Miguel Virgen, PhD Student in Business
- Oct 9, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 10
Sherwin-Williams is a company that leads globally in manufacturing development and distribution and the sale of its products to professionals and industries. The company was founded in 1866 and later incorporated in Ohio. The company's core function is to manufacture, distribute, and sell paints in retail and wholesale. The companies commercial and retail customers are primarily in south and north America. Besides, other operations are in the Caribbean region and Europe as well as Asia and Australia (Edwards et al. 2019). The essay will discuss the management of the material in the company and the process of manufacturing. Besides, the flow of materials in the company through the value-added chain will be discussed. The literature will also describe the challenges of scheduling products in the company through the manufacturing process. Finally, we will explore how artificial intelligence and technology are used in production and the competitive ad advantage it provides over its closest rival.
Material management is a core factor in every organization. It entails planning, directing, and controlling as well as coordination of activities that are concerned with the material and the requirements in the inventory. Based on the research, Sherwin-Williams company has a well-organized protocol of material management. in purchasing, the purchasing manager ensures that the materials are obtained at the least total cost, and he is responsible for the raw materials and services within corporate guidelines as well as local management (Watson et al. 2001). Moreover, the manager controls the local price negotiation as well as the schedules and delivery plans.
Furthermore, the control analyst in the product inventory in the company is responsible for analyzing as well as recommending forecasts of Regional SKU-level. in addition, he or she prepares and executes plant production monthly plans. Besides, the analyst analyzes management reports for various materials to meet the customer orders by ensuring the development of inventory.
In the Sherwin-Williams company, the manufacturing process involves shading plaints to match standard paint color. Also, there is the use of determination of theoretical manufactured paint's dry color values as well as the addition of components amount of the paint, which later added to give the final color. Several steps are used in the manufacturing process. First, the components used are polymeric binder and solvent for the paint as well as the colorant, which is in the form of a solution. The components are added into a vessel that has mixing means. As the manufacturing process continues, the shading of the paint also continues to match the standard color (Charles n.d). The shading process involves a calculation that determines the value of the theoretical dry color of the paint that is being manufactured. Besides, the calculations determine the components of the paints that should be added to the mixture to give out the final dry color that falls within the color tolerance prescribed.
The flow of material by use of value-added chain has a great impact on the company. According to the research, the use of a value chain optimizes finances and production as well as information flow. Besides, the company, through improved information flow, can identify new opportunities and exploit them. Likewise, the improved information flow helps the company to reduce external threats. Based on the research, continuous evaluation of the value chain can have positive impacts on the company. Further, the company's value chain analysis was effectively implemented, and it improved the flow of the material and products due to demand and sales forecasting improvement (Charles n.d). The Sherwin-Williams company minimized delays through activity tracking throughout the supply chain, thus improving inventory management.
Every company's scheduling process entailed resource allocations and operations and required the required processes to create goods and services. Production scheduling in a company is based on resource availability and client orders. In the Sherwin-Williams company, some challenges affect the scheduling of production. The first challenge is inaccurate estimations. It is a challenge that is commonly faced by most companies, especially when dealing with direct team members. in most cases, the team members are optimistic while others are pessimistic. When the manager does not apply technicality in the scheduling, then the challenge magnifies (Watson et al. 2001). The best way to do away with this challenge is to consult several members before estimating the task.
Another challenge faced by Sherwin-Williams company in product scheduling is the lack of enough information about the skills of the team members. Mostly this challenge occurs when the manager is new and has little information about the team members. in the company, a manager may be assigned to a team that absolutely knows nothing about them. This becomes a challenge to the manager, and the best way is to consult from the team leader or previous manager.
Moreover, the company experiences scheduling products during vacations and holidays as well as when a team member is sick. This is brought about by a lack of coordination between the HR and the manager of the company. When the HR of the company gives a member of the team a vacation without informing the manager, issues arise, and the production schedule is affected. Also, product scheduling is affected by the scarcity of resources. Often, the project managers in the company may be pressured by the stakeholders to get the project finished before a certain day. It became a challenge when the allocated resources are not enough for the project, and the resources are scarce because the project cannot be through without the required resources. The manager in this situation needs to talk to the stakeholders about the situation and convince him to push the project's delivery or allocate more resources to accomplish the project.
Another challenge faced by Sherwin-Williams company is the competition from other companies. Sherwin company is not the only company that produces and supplies paints in the U.S., however. Other companies bring competition and affect the scheduling of the products. Even though SW company is a big manufacturing company, it has its competitors like PPG and Benjamin Moore. These companies produce the same products with SW and impact the schedule of products in the SW company. Also, competing projects in the same company become a challenge in the company. When two projects in the company are expected to be completed simultaneously, it becomes a challenge in the company because it affects the schedule of the product. when the two projects need some resources at the same time affects the products schedule and to solve this issue becomes a problem.
In this technological era most of the value chain activities are technologically supported. The SW company uses technology integration in their product distribution and marketing of their products as well as human resource activities. Technology in SW company is highly used. SW company has used artificial intelligence and robotics in the company, which has greatly impacted the company's development. SW company has divided the technology into product technological activities and process technological development. For instance, customer service is supported by automation software. Also, the software supports product research design as well as data analytics.
Moreover, the technology in the company has simplified the work of professionals than ever before. The new lineup of technology rolling out now in the company has enhanced personalized information and capabilities in the company. The company has brought a pro app and updated digital color selection tools. These new features have helped the company to add value to customer service. For instance, the company has used the mobile pro app at the beginning of 2017. customers are able to download the app, which has great features like the latest products and all color information. Also, the app contains not only a store locator but also, paint calculator. Also, the company has a tool that is used in taking control of the color. The tool is a digital system that makes the color selection and exploring to be convenient and easy.
The company experiences competition from other competitors, local and regional as well as national and international. Even though SW company is the leading manufacturer of paint and coatings and related products to the industries professionals customers, and commercial and retail customers, the competitive position varies in products and markets. However, technological development in the company has no competitors. The company has been leading in technology, making the company the leading manufactures of paints coating and other related products (Csimarket.com n.d). The company has created a technological advantage over its closest rivals because information technology is very powerful. The technology affects value activities, and it allows the company to gain competitive advantage through exploiting changes in the competitive scope and through lowering the cost of the products. also the quality of the products is very high because of the high technology used, enabling the company to gain a competitive advantage over the closest rivals.
In conclusion, Sherwin-Williams company has a well-organized protocol of material management. in purchasing, the purchasing manager ensures that the materials are obtained at the least total cost, and he is responsible for the raw materials and services within corporate guidelines as well as local management. Moreover, the manager controls the local price negotiation as well as the schedules and delivery plans. Besides, Sherwin-Williams company, the manufacturing process involves shading plaints to match standard paint color. Also, there is the use of determination of theoretical manufactured paint's dry color values as well as the addition of components amount of the paint, which I later added to give the final color. The SW company uses technology integration in their product distribution and marketing of their products as well as human resource activities. Technology in SW company is highly used. SW company has used artificial intelligence and robotics in the company, which has greatly impacted the company's development. Finally, the company has created a technological advantage over its closest rivals because information technology is very powerful. The technology affects value activities, and it allows the company to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting changes in the competitive scope and lowering the cost of the products.
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References:
Charles J. Sherman$ Kenneth S. Simone (n.d). Process for manufacturing paints retrieved fromhttps://patents.google.com/patent/US4887217A/en.
Csimarket.com (n.d). The Sherwin Williams Company Comparisons to its Competitors, Market share, and Competitiveness by Segment - CSIMarket. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://csimarket.com/stocks/compet_glance.php?code=SHW.
Edwards, C., Mathis, K., Frase, S., Connolly, M., & Howe, C. (2019). Sherwin-Williams Research Report.
Essay48. (2018). Value Chain Analysis of Sherwin-Williams Company. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://www.essay48.com/value-chain-analysis/15849-Sherwin-Williams-Company-Value-Chain-Analysis.
Press.sherwin-williams.com. (2017). Sherwin-Williams Rolls Out New Tools and Technologies. Retrieved 17 April 2021, from https://press.sherwin-williams.com/press/trade/releases/2017/tools-and-tech/.
Watson, H. J., Wixom, B. H., Buonamici, J. D., & Revak, J. R. (2001). Sherwin-Williams' data mart strategy: Creating intelligence across the supply chain. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 5(1), 9.
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