One of the meeting points for the company’s Finance and Supply Chain teams is the Excess and Obsolete, or “E&O” review. E&O are subject to a financial review at least annually, or quarterly in particular for listed companies. The purpose of this review is to determine the financial reserves to be made in the accounts … Read more
Supply chain resilience is an imperative in a VUCA world. The tremors of recent years, from Brexit and Covid to the war in Ukraine, have prompted many companies and governments to realize how fragile supply chains can be. In the western press these last months, there is talk of reshoring, reindustrialization, and shortening our supply … Read more
To size our stocks and replenish our products, we need to use a demand assumption. In a Demand Driven approach, the supply chain is scheduled based on real consumption, but for consumption to occur, it must have been initiated by available products, supplied based on a demand hypothesis.
The old-fashioned S&OP is a laborious and sequential process. The end of the month has just been closed. We know the sales, after aggregating inputs from all countries. We compare actual sales with forecasts, we generate statistical forecasts for the coming months, and we start the process of collaboration with the different marketing and sales … Read more
The concept of the supply chain control tower has become very popular. But what exactly does it mean? Magic keywords abound in this field: Digitalization, advanced analytics, end-to-end, big data, collaborative, real-time, etc. All this sounds attractive, but what is the reality behind the gimmicks? What is a supply chain control tower and what does … Read more
There are a number of reasons executives give when they say they’re not ready to undertake a supply chain transformation. Before we consider implementing Demand Driven, we must: Clean up our ERP system Implement a new version of our ERP system Strengthen our supply chain management basics Implement or strengthen our S&OP / MPS Deploy … Read more
The role of the supply chain manager is by nature very transverse. It is to orchestrate the collaboration of disparate functions — sales, production, marketing, product development, and more — and deliver a flawless service to the company’s customers, while ensuring profitability. Supply chain leaders must therefore be able to speak multiple languages with their … Read more
Our management systems are based on technical data, often maintained by dedicated teams. Rigor and discipline are required to maintain this data on an ongoing basis. If you have participated in an ERP implementation, you know how much attention is paid to the subject — which sometimes drifts a bit afterwards. But what is sometimes … Read more
In our first article on the 4.0 shop floor, we looked at how to start production orders at the right time. Then, we discussed how to optimize production batch size, synchronize manufacturing flows, and accelerate production flows. In this article, we’ll outline how to eliminate floating bottlenecks. Trying to Catch up on Backlogs? We were running behind … Read more
Even today, we encounter companies that have difficulty differentiating their stocking strategies according to demand profiles. Have you ever been instructed to put a month’s worth of stock on hand to secure sales? In several industrial and distribution sectors, this policy is simply based on ensuring a certain number of days of coverage, and it’s … Read more
In our series on the 4.0 shop floor, we’ve examined how to start production orders at the right time, optimize production batch size, synchronize manufacturing flows, and accelerate production flows. In this article, we’ll discuss how to automate finite capacity scheduling according to DDMRP principles. Combining Pull Flow and Capacity Constraints It’s important to pull manufacturing flows … Read more
In our first article on the 4.0 shop floor, we looked at how to start production orders at the right time. Then, we discussed how to optimize production batch size and synchronize manufacturing flows. In this article, we’ll outline how to use queues to accelerate production flows. Managing Production Flow If you have ever participated in value … Read more
