If you flip a coin, you have a 50/50 chance of winning. As long as the coin is evenly weighted and the coin flipper isn’t playing a trick on you, it’s going to come up heads or tails a roughly even number of times. There may be situations where it comes up one or the other more frequently, but those are outliers that even out the more times you flip the coin.
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Let’s Simplify the Management of our Supply Chains
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” Leonardo da Vinci
Over the last few decades, manufacturers and distributors have made huge technological investments in their supply chains. At the same time, we’ve invested heavily in developing sophisticated supply chain management processes. Too often, however, any similarity between our technologies (ERP, DRP, APS, etc.) and our processes is a matter of luck more than design.
This is Not a Constraint; This is a Gem!
Theory of constraints sometimes uses terminology that discourages us from taking the right perspective. If, like me, you have a somewhat rebellious mindset, controlling constraints isn’t very inspiring.
Demand Driven Buffer or Adaptive Cruise Control?
The bullwhip effect: Supply Chain Practitioners know this phenomenon quite well – a slight change in demand downstream may create big swings upstream, and reversely small delays upstream may create a catastrophe to downstream supply chain partners.
Reducing Lead Times with DDMRP
There is often a misunderstanding. How, by implementing software, can we reduce lead times?
The answer is, we can’t… Reducing lead times does not come from magical software.
Supply Chain Planners, Let’s Procrastinate Please!
As supply chain professionals, we’re trained to anticipate our company’s needs. That’s a good thing. Unfortunately, our training can also lead to some unfortunate habits.
Product Proliferation in the Food and Beverage Industry and its Impact on Supply Chain Planning
Niche providers are having a significantly greater impact on the Food and Beverage industry than they were just ten years ago. Providers of craft beers and craft soft drinks have experienced substantial growth of market share in their respective segments by providing unique flavors and greater variety to the market. For example, craft beers now … Read more
Religious Wars and Rearguard Fights, How About Peace?
In recent weeks we have seen in France two rather virulent online publications against DDMRP, one stating that “DDMRP is egocentric and short-sighted”, and the other giving a “numerical point of view” on DDMRP, to conclude in short that the methodology was too simplistic.
S&OP, Stop Looking For a Consensus on the Set of Numbers!
Sales & Operations Planning is an important process in most companies. Yet, with the increased volatility in supply and demand, it’s easy to wonder, “What’s the point?”
Remote Demand Driven Implementation
This period of health crisis has paradoxical effects on the progress of DDMRP implementation projects. Some corporations are putting all improvement / transformation projects on hold: expenses must be cut.
How to Manage a Demand Driven Recovery From This Crisis
You have implemented all or part of the Demand Driven operating model to drive your operations, so you should be prepared to deal with situations of uncertainty.
However, the current period presents an unprecedented level of disruption.
Using Lead Time To Be More Agile in VUCA Conditions
In my previous blog, I described how the outbreak of the Coronavirus was an illustration of the Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) conditions supply chains are encountering. Given that VUCA conditions are unpredictable, it’s imperative that supply chain leaders evaluate the actions they can take to improve the overall agility of their operations. The more agile your supply chain operations, the more adept you’ll be in dealing with unpredictable conditions.
