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In follow-up qualitative interviews, one of the largest issues with organizational alignment was metric definition and a clear definition of supply chain excellence. To manage continuous improvement, companies need a clear definition of excellence and organizational alignment to that goal. What Drives Value?
Choosing the right inventory management software , often referred to as an inventory control system, can be the difference between a well-oiled, profit-generating operation and one plagued by costly mistakes and inefficiencies. The right software empowers businesses to take control of their stock, optimize operations, and drive growth.
Reason #4 Making key decisions by modelling the supply chain in Excel. Reason #9 Relentless pursuit of one supply chain metric at the expense of other metrics. Yet, these are similar instructions as what is passed down to the supply chain from executives focused on a specific supply chain metric.
Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change. What Is Supply Chain Excellence? My second observation is that for 96% of public companies supply chain excellence is slip-sliding away. Reflections on Excellence. Tom Peters. Here, in this blog, I explain.
Nick Lynch is the Global Excellence Manager at Shell Lubricants, a division of Shell Global. Located in the United Kingdom (UK), he has more than twelve years of experience in progressive roles driving demand-drive projects for their global supply chain. Components of a Demand-Driven Journey. Incrementalism Is Not Enough.
” Followed by “How are you organized, and what defines functional excellence? And, how do you tie functional excellence to corporate value?” Companies became less clear on the definition of supply chain excellence and how to implement decision support technologies. This gap grew over the last decade.
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. Bear with me.
Supply chain excellence is easier to say than to explain. The supply chain is a complex non-linear system. At each company, there is a relationship between the metrics of growth, margin, inventory, customer service, and asset strategy. The culture is dominated by “lifers” and technology investment is conservative.
Consumers are ever more conscious of value, sensitive to health and environmental issues – especially after the COVID pandemic, each demanding more options for their money. End-to-end supply chain visibility, planning, and execution support software are critical in agile supply chain performance.
The Company was attempting to gain economies of scale by grouping manufacturing technologies within a common infrastructure to reap the benefits of a co-generation facility, a centralized warehouse, and a talented administrative team. Engineers could sign up for hour-long blocks to use the new systems. Instead, we need to Jump.
of revenue on information technology (IT), only six percent of manufacturers drove performance at the intersection of growth and margin. Unequal to the Demand Shifts in the Pandemic. During the pandemic, conventional planning systems were inadequate. Informational Technology groups reporting to the Chief Financial Officer.
We need planning platforms to keep up with all the changes. This means we need more agile, flexible, and scalable planning platforms to process and consolidate new data sources, drive insights using advanced analytics such as AI/ML to drive autonomous decisions, and expand collaboration within and outside our organizations.
Millions of shoppers, like my Dad, are not going back to their old habits because there are now faster and more convenient ways for buying daily household needs. It excels on a union of E-Commerce mobile apps and last-mile delivery innovations. It also provides an excellent part-time employment opportunity with flexible shifts.
Supply chain efficiency is the cornerstone of success and involves the effective management of processes, resources, and technologies from procurement to production, transportation to warehousing. Technology integration: Leveraging digital tools to enhance visibility and decision-making.
When making discretionary purchases, I could look at my projection to make sure that if I made that purchase, I would have enough money in the bank, not only now, but at the end of the month when my mortgage and car loan came out. Then could I buy it? Planning systems, however, are not designed to allow you to ask ‘what if?’
In the work, I listen to existing processes to provide feedback, ideate with the team on potential improvement, share advice on the fit of technologies, and network leaders to leaders to gain additional insights. How aligned do you believe your organization is to drive these metrics? Instead, as an analyst, I work in an advisor role.
As an analyst in the supply chain market for 15 years, I have written many articles on best-of-breed technology companies purchased by a larger company. Today I am writing my take on the acquisition of Terra Technology by E2open. History of Terra Technology. Terra Technology is 15-years old.
The Failure of Existing Demand Planning Solutions. During the pandemic, supply chain leaders turned off their demand planning solutions. The systems–based on shipment and order data–were out of step with the market. Next Steps: Start to model demand based on market data to align the organization on baseline demand.
by Trevor Miles I have been in the advanced planning and scheduling (APS) space since 1995 when I joined i2 Technologies in Europe. My enhancements were to add the underlying technology and company information at the bottom which gives some context. . Let me start with the confusion between planning and execution. Their words.
The attendees were sitting on the edge of their seats to hear about the next release of Llamasoft software. The market for network design tools was growing at a moderate rate, and most of the market had invested in technologies from either i2 Technologies (then termed i2 Strategist) or Logictools. The theatre was packed.
The consulting team pitches a theme–vision of supply chain best practices, big data analytics, or demand-driven value networks– to the executive team, and a new project is initiated. The first evolution of technologies were built by best-of-breed solution vendors. The first step in the journey is a kick-off meeting.
Despite two decades of advancement in supply chain technologies, companies are struggling to gain balance at the intersection of operating margin, inventory turns and case fulfillment. I believed that the first generation of supply chain systems would improve operations to a greater degree than actually happened. I am an old gal.
I asked companies to “Navigate through the hype focusing on the feasibility of scope and technology.” At the time, the popular belief was that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technologies would build multi-tier capabilities. It went public last year in one of the few successful IPOs in the supply chain software space.
Warehouse optimization isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a lifeline for businesses seeking to thrive in the demanding world of modern commerce. It’s a holistic approach that blends strategic planning, streamlined processes, and the right technology to transform your warehouse into a well-oiled, profit-generating machine.
It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. Year after year, well intentioned people toiled against improving metrics that reduced, not improved, the effectiveness of the supply chain. These technologies are mature. I feel that many of these technologies are now legacy.
Many of the growth initiatives–trade promotions and price in consumer industries–shifted demand without lifting baseline demand. As demand shifts from period-to-period, the costs increase with no impact on growth. Each P&L leader will game the system to improve bonus structure payouts. The impact?
The award, based on beating the industry peer group on rate of improvement on the key metrics of growth, operating margin, inventory turns, and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) while outperforming their peer group, is tough to achieve. The orbit chart below illustrates L’Oréal’s performance at the intersection of two metrics.
Clear operating strategy and definition of supply chain excellence across plan, source, make and deliver. Most companies buy decision support technology, but do not redefine work to improve decisions. A shift from functional metrics to a balanced scorecard. A Focus on Error in Demand Planning. Drives Value.
In part 1 of my blog on Planning the Value Chain and Decision Making in Times of Disruption, the focus was on the ability to react and execute amidst the unpredictability of demand. Ultimately, what KPIs, as metrics and indicators derived from the set of plans are taken into account and prepared for each scenario.
But as she pointed out, there has been a strong move to counter COVID-19’s effects and restrictions by using technology. Continuing the technology theme, Shirell James, Vice President, EMEA at OneNetwork Enterprises, discussed the use of intelligent control towers in helping to master supply chains.
Interview for Metrics That Matter. My kitchen table is piled high with interviews for the upcoming book, Metrics That Matter. I recently interviewed him for my upcoming book, Metrics that Matter, that publishes in August 2014. Which metrics do you think matter to supply chain excellence? I am behind.
This is why I host training twice a year to challenge existing technology paradigms. He feels that based on his years of experience with a software provider, he has a whizzbang technology. Optimization engines to improve functional metric performance resulted in an exploding number of planners. Back to John.
While there was always passionate discussions on companies and metrics, the end goal was to raise awareness of supply chain as a practice. The Supply Chain Index methodology was built on the belief that the supply chain is a complex system with increasing complexity. Demand and supply volatility makes the supply chain “tough”.
If you are going to be excellent at ecommerce fulfillment, you need to have great perpetual inventory capabilities. Select your technology partners based on reliability and flexibility for ecommerce capabilities and aggressively build a multi-tier available-to-promise (ATP) signal to enable drop shipments and merge in transit capabilities.
The technology market is rife with unsubstantiated claims and myths. Each year, I publish a report analyzing the technologies in the S&OP space. I sent the report to technology vendors listed in the appendix with a deadline for feedback on factual accuracy for 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday. New technology is evolving.
We have used Lean process systems and swim-laned ourselves to death. In the last five years, while the physician is still important, the buying decisions transitioned from the supplier to the care provider. They are primarily focused on cost management on new purchase decisions. “Does everyone realize how bad the problem is?
As I shopped at Best Buy for office supplies, I struggled to not think about the massive disruption of electronics supply chain. The order is a poor proxy for demand and few supply chains have access to consumption data. Demand latency is the translation of market consumption to an order signal. It’s ironic, isn’t it?
Theme 2: Online buying will fuel home delivery growth, challenges and new strategies. In 2023, consumers will be less forgiving and poised to buy from retailers whose delivery performance is commensurate with the rest of the shopping experience. Theme 5: Machine learning (ML) will go mainstream in supply chain technology.
Mr. Welty founded a company that sold warehouse management systems (WMS) called AllPoints Systems in 1987. The company buying his company, EXE Technologies, is now infamous among those who have followed the WMS market. EXE Technologies bought AllPoints with stock. We had the demand. Fail Until You Win.
And companies at every stage of the supply chain have inflated their prices as demand exceeds supply. So, it appeared consumer demand would remain high despite COVID-19. forcing businesses to adjust to reduced and unpredictable demand. Brand loyalty is no longer the driver for consumer purchasing decisions.
Technologies and processes need change. The supply chain is a complex non-linear system with many constraints increasing the need for strategic thinking, better modeling, and organizational alignment. Virtual teams need better and easier technologies to improve decision-making in a more variable world. . ” I laughed.
Product Substitution Logic and Accurate Inventories: Clarity of product substitution and accurate inventories enables a robust Available to Promise Signal which helps to align demand and supply for order fulfillment. Q: You mention that Executive Buy-in is the biggest stumbling block. Streamline Horizontal Processes.
My primary insight is that many of the technology initiatives that were underway at the start of the disruption did not serve us well. We find that companies with an analytics center of excellence drove progress faster than those with a supply chain center of excellence. When you ask, “What defines supply chain excellence?”
My job, as the plant engineering manager, was to drive innovation and implement technology improvement. Ed argued that instead of buying new packaging equipment that we should work with R&D to have a base flavor and add the color and flavoring at the head of the machine. I remember one project quite well. The So What? The reason?
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