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A Story of Throwing the Baby Out With The Bathwater in Supply Chain Planning

Supply Chain Shaman

In 2004, I worked with a Midwest North American meatpacker to help define its supply chain strategy. Consumers constantly change the mix preferences in purchases. Somedays, the focus is on steaks or ribs and the next on the purchase of ground or cubed meat. Maximize the value of your purchase. What do I mean? Be careful.

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Untangling The Tangled Web We Weave

Supply Chain Shaman

The year was 2004. Was it that Kraft was not clear in its definition of supply chain excellence (which was true) or not clear on how to best use the system (which was also true)? What defines supply chain excellence? And, while companies have purchased Multi-Enterprise Inventory Optimization technologies.

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5 Spooky Excel Error Tales That Could Become Your Nightmare

Arkieva

A serious Excel error could cost a business thousands or millions of dollars. Here are 5 Spooky Excel Tales that we hope never becomes your nightmare. In June 2003, a simple copy-and-paste error led to the Canadian power generator company, TransAlta buying more US power transmission hedging contracts in May at higher prices than usual.

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Supply Visibility: More Important Than Ever. Yet Elusive.

Supply Chain Shaman

In 2004, I joined AMR Research, a Boston Analyst firm. The secondary problem is the lack of definition of process requirements and a buying team that cannot see past simple MRP/MRP II/DDMRP requirements. Reflection. To illustrate the point, let me share a story. I volunteered to write a report on supply visibility.

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Demand Planning. When The Answer To Two Simple Questions Is Not So Simple.

Supply Chain Shaman

The Center of Excellence at the company wanted to improve base-level capabilities but struggled to move forward due to the traditional views of the planning team, which they felt were self-serving. (The The team was not calibrated on the role of forecasting and the basics around process excellence. Models Matter. Misunderstandings.

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Collaboration? When It Comes to Cash-to-Cash, We Don’t Know How to Walk the Talk

Supply Chain Shaman

Note the elongation of the cash-to-cash cycle in the chemical industry of 38 additional days when comparing the 2014-2019 averages to the pre-recession period of 2004-2006. While touted as a digital procurement provider, it took the Company nine days to onboard me as a vendor, and two weeks to process a Purchase Order. My takeaway?

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S&OP: Can You Make Decisions at the Speed of Business?

Supply Chain Shaman

Eerily the case studies sound the same as the ones heard when I completed S&OP research in 2004. Dependency on Excel. Due to the shortfalls in the evolution of Advanced Planning, 68% of business users use Excel spreadsheets as the primary mechanism for planning. Driving supply chain excellence is a balancing act.

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