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Orchestrating the launch of new products is one of the processes you need to define when designing your Demand Driven model. It uses special techniques for several reasons: Since this is a new product, you have no historical demand, The uncertainty on the demand profile is greater than for a mature product, There can be … Read more

Music and Rhythm If you are a musician, or just a music lover, you probably have the rhythm in your skin! From classical to pop, rock, electro, or the “flow” of a rapper, music is a flow, isn’t it? The common point in most of these forms of music – at least Western ones – … Read more

Every time I visit a factory, I ask myself the following questions: Do we see the flows? Does material visibly flow? What are the process steps that set the tempo? Do we see this tempo? Are we early or late? How do we see it? What should be manufactured after the current batch? What are … Read more

Agility is in the genes of SMEs  Small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are an essential component of the industrial and commercial dynamism of the global economy. The first characteristic of successful SMEs is agility: they rely on tight teams, interactions between industrial, technical, and commercial functions are permanent, and the silos are less compartmentalized than in many … Read more

The promise of Vendor Managed Inventory, or VMI, is great: by sharing information and responsibility, VMI seeks to establish a mutually beneficial relationship where both sides are able to more smoothly and accurately control the flow of materials in a supply chain. The reality is often more complicated. But first, a little history. In the … Read more

The global health crisis has shone a spotlight on pharmaceutical and medical device supply chains—and highlighted their fragility.  Yet long before the pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry was suffering severe shortages, even though drug stock-outs can be life-threatening for patients.  One may wonder about the dynamics that have led over the years to this situation: the … Read more

In 2004, a TV station owner in France created controversy by cynically claiming that he was selling his advertisers “available brain time” from his viewers. More than fifteen years later, the available brain time that most of us possess has shrunk considerably, as we are constantly bombarded by a flow of information, along with explicit … Read more

What is the normal demand for a product, and what’s atypical? How can we size stocks according to demand variability and account for spikes in demand? These issues do not date back to the advent of DDMRP. However, DDMRP gives them a new framework by integrating the notion of “qualified demand” into the net flow … Read more

Okay, 2020 was an exceptional year with the pandemic. The impacts on our personal and professional lives were extreme. 2021 remains very uncertain.  Measuring global economic uncertainty If we take a step back and disregard Covid-19, however, we can see that the uncertainty facing our companies is constantly increasing. This is not a consultant’s speech, … Read more

If you live in an industrial or distribution environment, chances are that your product portfolios have multiplied over the last ten or twenty years. Marketing differentiation, personalization, configured items, depth of distribution networks: these are possibly tens or hundreds of thousands of references to manage.  In other words, there are tens or hundreds of thousands of references … Read more