2014: Do You Know VUCA? When I started arguing with companies about the relevance of Demand Driven tactics eleven years ago, I had to explain the volatile business environment at some length. “Today’s environment is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, so we need to develop supply chain agility and resilience. It is illusory to … Read more
Understanding Good vs. Bad Stock When you work in any industry that deals with products, you quickly realize that inventory management is a complicated process. Businesses constantly struggle to find the right balance—do they need more stock, or is it better to reduce it? How much is too much? How little is too little? These … Read more
Urban legend has it that we need a very accurate forecast. Of course, we know that this won’t happen, as actual demand will differ from forecasts. Nevertheless, major efforts are being made to improve forecast accuracy in demand-driven planning. For the sake of curiosity, let’s take a look at an item replenished using a Demand … Read more
Understanding Safety Stock Calculation Strategic inventory positioning is critical in supply chain management, and one of the most important aspects of this is determining safety stock. Statistical formulas are commonly used to size safety stocks, helping businesses account for demand variability and lead-time variability. A well-known formula used in inventory management incorporates these variability assumptions, … Read more
At the end of 2023, while attending a supply chain planning conference organized by a leading analyst firm, I was particularly impressed by one of the presentations. An Austrian company presented its project to overhaul its supply chain planning processes, with the support of a major consulting firm for the implementation of a digital supply … Read more
The Pareto law in inventory management is essential because it allows us to focus on the essentials. To apply it, we may be tempted to carry out an ABC classification for inventory. This classification is encouraged by the literature and Supply Chain courses. In many cases, this classification is generated at regular intervals by a … Read more
Salespeople’s core business is to sell – to develop the company’s (profitable) sales. It’s not the job of salespeople to draw up sales forecasts, to ask for this or that level of stock, to worry about the availability of this or that component, to deal with out-of-stock situations, or to catch up with their customers. … Read more
Good resolutions, you know, those things you decided to do at the beginning of last year that… what was it again? Ah yes, but no, this year it’s different because the few good business resolutions that follow to steer your flows are now easy to put into practice! I’ll Protect and Accelerate the Flow If … Read more
You’re familiar with comparative tests: when you’re looking for the latest fashionable technological gadget to fall for, you browse comparative tests and user reviews! To help you select the best approach for workshop management, we’ve submitted several alternative practices to our not-at-all-independent lab! MRP MRP is undoubtedly the most widely used approach for generating production … Read more
“Ah, if only production would do as they’re told,” sighed one of our customers, a supply chain director, recently. I spent thirty years on factory management committees, so I can testify to traditional quibbling. “I can’t do my production because we’re out of your supply components.” “I can’t deliver to my customers because you haven’t … Read more
In all fields, and the supply chain is no exception, propaganda has an enormous influence. We are subjected to it in our social life, in our consumer incentives, in the political influences to which we are exposed. The Internet and social networks are a formidable gas pedal. I invite you to explore Google Trends, to … Read more
Are you familiar with the “five focusing steps”? This approach is at the heart of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), the school of thought initiated by Dr. Eli Goldratt, author of the bestseller “The Goal.” If you have 1 identified your constraints, 2 optimized their use, 3 subordinated other resources to these constraints, and 4 … Read more
