Demand Driven Supply Chain Management (DDSCM) is becoming increasingly popular – and deservedly so, in our opinion, because DDSCM offers huge potential – but the rate of adoption is still too slow for our liking. One thing holding it back could be the lack of a clear definition of what exactly DDSCM is. This is leading to many different...
In Part One of this four-parter we ascertained that demand-driven alignment is essential to break the service paradox. Although thoughtfully chosen targets and KPIs play an important role in this, they have limited scope. Luckily, there is another factor that you can influence, namely the ‘moment of decision’. In Part Two of this four-parter we...
In our attempts to anticipate future changes in demand, we often depend on forecasts. Unfortunately, however, they are rarely reliable in practice – with all the implications that brings. The ‘good news’ is that we are selling ourselves short, partly because we actually seem to be better off without a forecast in many cases, and also because –...
The bullwhip effect is not only one of the best-known supply chain phenomena, but also one of the most damaging. By increasing the upstream variation and uncertainty, it pushes chain partners ever-deeper into the so-called planning mismatch, resulting in unreliability, inflexibility and inefficiency. The long-held belief has been that...
Breaking the service paradox Going on a family holiday entails a whole host of decisions. Some are made early on in the process, such as the period of time, destination and means of transport, and others much later, such as when and where to stop to eat, to refuel and to go to the toilet. There is a clear reason why you make the latter decision...
On 4 June 2018, a diverse group of supply chain professionals gathered at the Shell Pernis refinery in the Netherlands for an inspiration session called ‘Grip on projects’. Although the participants came from a wide variety of companies, including machine builders, maintenance companies and grid operators, it quickly became clear that they all...
After years of oscillating between shortfalls and surpluses and the chaos and frustration that this entailed, calm has recently returned for one of my clients and his supplier. How come? They simply turned off their MRP system. The consequences of this decision have been astounding. By reducing the delivery time from several months to just a few...
Machine manufacturers suffering from high costs and long unreliable lead times can make huge gains in terms of competitive edge if they manage to resolve the so-called ‘service paradox’: from relatively slow, unreliable and inefficient to reliable, fast and efficient!Machine builders develop and manufacture often-complex machines, many of which...
In an edition of the Dutch newspaper Het Parool dated 17 February 1967 I came across a full-page advertisement in which the high-end Amsterdam department store De Bijenkorf proudly announced its 26 (!) collections per year – ‘fast fashion’ way ahead of its time. In fact, it took until the start of this century before fast fashion really achieved...
Not long ago, QRM was heralded as the new Lean, and now we are bombarded with DDMRP as the panacea for all our problems. It seems as if the different schools, in their hunger to sell more books, software, and / or advice, put more energy into highlighting the differences than celebrating what unites them. Meanwhile, they leave many an...