Background Intellectual Property

CIOP is an end-to-end supply chain training and certification program designed and developed by supply chain practitioners and consultants. The syllabus was developed in consultation with the industry, which led to Inventory Management Body of Knowledge (IMBoK v3.0). Most of the class discussions you will hear cannot be found in any textbook rather these are all the original contribution from the developers of CIOP. For example, think about the types of inventories such as raw material, work-in-process and finished goods. Out of these three, WIP is the most difficult to sell in the market and that is one of the reasons, WIP should be controlled well. The company has a built-in capability and capacity to sell finished goods, which is their business. The second easy to sell are the raw materials as you know the suppliers, who may either buy-back or at least guide you. But in case of WIP, this is custom manufactured to suit your manufacturing processes and may not well fit any other organisation, hence you may have to sell it as a scrap.

Intellectual Property Law covers concepts such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade names. Production Processes comprise material procedures such as manufacturing, assembly and packaging, in addition to the raw materials, labor and other variables. The final product or deliverable, which is the end product or the object of the production 

process, forms the tangible and non-tangible components of the production process. In order to protect these components, strategies have been developed to enhance overall production process efficiencies, while also helping to provide sufficient supply chain capabilities to support growth, such as by reducing waste or improving productivity.

The most obvious example of a production process that would involve intellectual property protection is the production of automobiles. However, this protection does not only extend to automobiles, but also to the assembly or packaging of those automobiles and the various components which compose them. For example, material processes involved in the assembling of a car would likely also require warehouse space, and it is in this space that strategic inventories could be organized. Additionally, the manufacturing of motor vehicles requires the use of a variety of components which could also be protected through intellectual property rights. Finally, warehousing systems, which are typically a large part of any large scale production process, could be protected under the theories of intellectual property law.

The supply chain management concept, which is concerned with encouraging increased production through a systematic approach to warehousing, is just as important for the protection of production as it is for the reduction of waste or the optimizing of resources. The increased efficiency created by optimized supply chains can often translate into increased productivity, which leads to a corresponding increase in sales. Therefore, not only does the supply chain management of a production process itself become a valuable resource to protecting the production process itself; it can also become an important tool for the reduction of waste and the optimization of resources, both of which are important to the success of any production process. Furthermore, by improving warehouse operations, inventory management, production flow and production control, it is possible to reduce the overall cost of manufacturing any given item.

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