Last month I visited two different clients, in both cases for delivering an S&OP Master Class, and I subsequently attended their Demand Review meetings. Always interesting, a bit of theory that is applied into practice immediately afterwards. Part of the Master Classes was a simple S&OP Maturity Scan, mainly included to make people think. What...
Driven by big and global developments and specifically in supply chain management, continuous learning should be seen as a continuous process. Since each individual and organisation is unique, developing and implementing effective learning programs is challenging. Supply Chain Movement and consultancy Involvation have therefore developed a mind...
Competition is more global and fiercer than ever. Not many companies are able to dominate the market and hence for most companies cost price is a ‘qualifier’. If your product is too expensive, you’re out. Efficiency is a necessity. On the other hand the market requires more and more service. Product ranges are widened, product life cycles are...
In our consultancy practice we find that large numbers of manufacturing companies are struggling with the decision whether to use a Cyclic or Non-Cyclic production system. Cyclic production is often regarded as an inflexible way of production; a pre-defined cycle reduces degrees of freedom in the production schedule. However, cyclic production...
Many companies embrace Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and consider it the perfect tool to balance out supply and demand. In addition, S&OP can act as a perfect link between the business strategy and operational execution. Sadly all too often, S&OP does not meet expectations. Many companies struggle to implement an effective and efficient...
It is the main theme of 2014. Again. Books, magazines, blogs, opinion and expert articles, advertisements galore! But how often do you happen to bump into something really new? When was the last time that you were surprised by a truly original view? It seems so logical. A process in which the plans of the different business functions are...
Decrease safety stocks with 25% with a decrease in service level. That sounds like a good deal! And it is quite easy to establish by differentiating service level targets. By aiming for high service levels of inexpensive fast movers and a lower service level of expensive slow movers, a good service level can be obtained on average against...
The life cycle of items is getting shorter and shorter. Many items nowadays exist for only one year or sometimes only one season. Just think of items in the apparel industry or consumer electronics. Managing these short life cycle items is complicated. If these items are purchased in Asia, only one purchasing decision can be made, often long...
Most production companies acknowledge the importance of batch sizes. They realize that batch sizes directly contribute to inventory levels, costs, working capital and even capacity. A one-size-fits-all solution, for instance to give every item a batch size of a month, is without a doubt not optimal. There is room for optimization. There are two...
Back in the early nineties, Steve Jobs already realized that a well-designed, effective supply chain was paramount to Apple’s success. Hence he actively participated in managing it. Last year he was succeeded by the man who had been responsible for the supply chain for years. Apple’s story shows that supply chains need not merely be a source of...