Since March 2020, the world has changed completely: from the old normal to the ‘new normal’ and everything in between. That has placed great demands on everyone, and supply chain management professionals are no exception. Today, resilience is more important than ever. While it is tempting to throw ourselves into the work at hand and the problems...
The word ‘resilience’ suddenly seems to be cropping up everywhere – and not only in relation to supply chain. It’s as if resilience is being presented as the key to surviving the current crisis in almost every context. So am I going to argue against resilience in this article? No, definitely not. I fully agree that supply chain resilience (because...
It’s as if everyone’s talking about digital planning nowadays. That might seem pretty strange, because has there ever been such a thing as non-digital planning? Yes, once upon a time… decades ago, long before Excel’s predecessors became available. But since then, I’ve rarely come across any planners who prefer the proverbial back-of-a-cigarette-...
The unprecedented increases in energy prices continue to make headlines across Europe. Over the coming year, consumers could end up paying 50% more for gas and electricity. The effects on businesses are also becoming clear; a number of manufacturers of products including artificial fertilizer and aluminium have already scaled back their production...
Digital planning, hype or trend? Is digital planning just another buzzword or is it truly a meaningful new concept? The traditional approach is to first design the planning processes and then look for the appropriate tooling. Nowadays, it’s the other way round; the technological advancements determine which processes and skills are required. In...
With a crystal-clear objective, motivated teams, an effective process and – of course – the right resources, organizations can achieve great things. Various pharma companies have developed, gained approval for and manufactured effective vaccines against COVID-19 with unprecedented speed and on a scale that was previously considered impossible....
“Now, absolutely everyone’s convinced of the value of our new IBP process!” said the IBP manager to a client where we set up an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process last year. This company is gaining a competitive edge by making smart choices related to market segments, customer focus, production capacity and inventory management with a...
Sales & Operations Planning is essential in organisations with supply chains of any substance. Many companies struggle with it though. A summary of do’s and don’ts. Hans van der Drift is partner with Involvation, a consultancy that focuses on supply chain management. He observes that many organisations struggle with Sales & Operations Planning...
At Involvation, we are strong believers in experiential learning; the active process of learning from experience successfully embeds newly acquired knowledge. Over the years we have developed more than 20 serious games and simulations for use with our customers. We have utilized this approach hundreds of times, with thousands of participants, both...
To help organizations recognize and effectively deal with good and bad variability, Involvation has developed the Wheel of Five for Supply Chain Management. This is Part 4 in a series of five articles about the Wheel of Five.