You have probably already seen this diagram, which summarizes different manufacturing typologies, in one form or another: Is the Demand Driven model a good fit for these typologies? How would your demand driven manufacturing implementation change to support each environment? In each of these flow typologies, with the exception of Engineering-to-Order (ETO), customer demand moves … Read more
Adaptive forecasting. Driverless trucks. Autonomous planning. AI is coming for your supply chain. Right? In many ways, industry watchers can be forgiven for having a little skepticism when it comes to AI in supply chain. According to research by Deloitte, only 40% of supply chain executives said they are actively using AI. The 2021 MHI Annual Industry Report put that figure … Read more
What is the relationship between submarines and the global supply chain? Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to do with underwater container ships, and Elon Musk hasn’t floated the idea of a silk road via an underwater Hyperloop. Well, not yet, I guess. But what is it about? We have recently seen in the press the … Read more
Supply chain leaders have dealt with disruption since well before the pandemic. Strategies for addressing VUCA—an acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—have circulated in business management journals for the better part of a decade. Industry watchers have warned about dangers that range from natural disasters to trade disputes. And then, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic gave … Read more
When you learn the principles of MRP, you use a view like the one below. Periods 1 2 3 4 5 6 Forecast 40 50 40 40 70 20 Registered orders 80 45 30 50 50 5 Requirements 80 45 40 50 70 20 Projected Inventory 50 170 125 85 35 … Read more
What happens in our brain when we exercise our intuition? A French scientific magazine recently devoted a fascinating dossier to intuition (Science & Vie, August 2021 https://www.science-et-vie.com/archives/n-1247 ). It appears in particular that intuition is the automatic implementation by our brain of knowledge accumulated in our long-term memory. Far from being a random and therefore unreliable process, … Read more
For small and medium enterprises, the question of upstream supply chain vs. downstream supply chain management does not arise. The factory is in direct contact with the company’s customers, and the supply chain team handles the end-to-end planning process: sales forecasts, order taking, production planning, procurement, inventory management and distribution. In large, multi-site groups, things … Read more
If you are an operational supply chain manager, you have a taste for action. Reacting quickly, making fast decisions, getting a small dose of adrenaline under stress: this is your daily life. If you are an operational sales manager, you need to get things moving. Signing a deal, providing a decisive answer that leaves the … Read more
Preparing for a software implementation or a supply chain enhancement project can be a long process. You research and select potential software, draw up project timelines, name project champions, and solicit project and budget approvals, to name just a few highlights. At the end of this, you are ready to turn this over to the … Read more
DDMRP was put into the public domain in 2011, when the third edition of Orlicky’s Materials Requirements Planning book was published. It was also in 2011 that Demand Driven Technologies was created. The first versions of the Replenishment+ material requirements planning and DBR+ production planning solutions had been developed in the mid-2000s by the Constraint … Read more
In my career, I must have participated in more than 200 monthly S&OP meetings, at the level of a factory or industrial group management committee. A recurring challenge during these reviews was to get the team to look over the horizon and prepare the company to face its medium/long term challenges in a coordinated and … Read more
The pandemic dealt an unprecedented blow to global supply chains, with virtually all business leaders reporting disruptions to their strategic sourcing and supplier management processes. Yet some companies found ways to mitigate the impact to their operations. In Demand Driven Technology’s Pandemic Planning series, we take a look at their stories—and how they leveraged DDMRP … Read more
