Blog

Are internal suppliers good suppliers? A few years ago, I had just joined a renowned international high-tech company as Supply Chain Director. I’d come from an automotive supplier, where I’d developed habits of customer/supplier relations that were, shall we say, frank and direct, and sometimes a little rough. When things weren’t going well, we said … Read more

Will you succumb to the new glamour?  Despite decades of new practices and increasingly powerful IT systems, are you still mired in shortages, emergencies, excess stock and a plethora of Excel files?  If this is your case, the solution may lie in the latest fashionable revolution, the new school of thought, the new algorithm that … Read more

The merry-go-round  In thirty years of responsibilities in major industrial groups and ten years as a consultant, I’ve seen a lot of managerial changes! That said, I understand – I myself have rarely stayed in the same role for more than four years. Mea culpa.  This turnover is natural in companies of a certain size … Read more

The traditional division of labor  In the supply chain organizations of large companies, work is divided between teams of demand planners and supply planners.  Demand planners interact with sales and marketing teams, to identify market trends and promotional activities, draw up forecasts, measure their accuracy, monitor order intake and so on.  Supply planners interact with … Read more

Variability, the enemy of flow As any supply chain practitioner knows, variability is deleterious – variability runs against our ability to have the right product in the right place at the right time to satisfy a customer need, and thus secure or increase our company’s revenues. Some have characterized variability as constituting “anti-flows” – disturbances … Read more

The promise of autonomous agents  The latest supply chain trend is based on AI agents.  Called “Agentic AI”, this technology promises to enable artificial intelligence to perform tasks autonomously, without human supervision.  This technology is often described as the future of productivity in supply chain planning and execution. It’s the hype of the moment, according … Read more

Tariff changes can reshape cost structures and sourcing strategies overnight. For supply chain teams, the key isn’t predicting every change, it’s being ready to respond with clarity and speed. Intuiflow equips companies with three essential capabilities to manage tariff risks proactively: Together, these tools help planners stay agile, protect margins, and maintain flow, even in … Read more

Investing in turmoil You’re an investor, involved in the industry. Perhaps you’re part of a private equity fund. Or perhaps you’re evaluating the possible acquisition of a new entity for your company. These are times of exceptional uncertainty, and you’re wondering how your investment portfolio will evolve. As economic and geopolitical conditions change from one … Read more

While browsing the website of a supply chain planning solution rated “leader” by Gartner, I came across the workflow below, designated as a reference for IBP best practices. I won’t give the name of the solution in question for charity’s sake, but you should know that it’s very expensive and has been adopted by some … Read more

To ensure plant performance and productivity, all you need to do is ensure that the flow flows naturally and without friction through the manufacturing stages. As soon as something is missing, we stop-and-go, and this deteriorates operational performance. We’re missing something, we have to put aside what we’d planned to do, we stop to solve … Read more