The vast majority of business leaders do not come from supply chain, purchasing or operations. For a long time, when you were in these professions, your marshal’s baton was to become COO or Chief Supply Chain Officer. Of course there are notable exceptions, such as Tim Cook at Apple, but you’re probably more likely to … Read more
Automation has taken over distribution platforms and industrial sites. Robots and machines are used to prepare orders and manufacture our products. However, supply chain planning remains a human prerogative — a task for planners, buyers, master schedulers, forecasters, supply chain managers, and so on. Is this is something to be welcomed or worried about? Companies … Read more
We often get questions or comments about the level of supply chain maturity required for companies to be ready to implement DDMRP and realize the significant operational benefits it brings. These questions are sometimes paradoxical. Many companies tell us things like: “DDMRP sounds interesting, and well-suited to our environment, but we must first achieve more … Read more
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
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
We are all different… The question is a recurring one. “We manufacture to order, is this relevant to us?” “For the automotive industry, yes, but we are in the aerospace industry, we have many more items!” “We have many constraints, is it compatible?” “It’s for large corporations, isn’t it? We are a SME!” “Okay for … Read more
Instead of Big Data, Why Don’t We Take Care of our Small Data First? Big data and advanced analytics are front page news in the supply chain and have been on the rise for years in the vocabulary of consulting firms and software vendors. Accumulating masses of information, passing it through the mill of statistical … Read more
You’ve heard about DDMRP, you’ve browsed the web, you’ve read testimonials, maybe you’ve taken a training course, and you tell yourself that it can make sense in your business. So, why don’t we experiment live to see what happens? One advantage of DDMRP is its simplicity: the calculation formulas are simple, you select a few … Read more
“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.
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.
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?”
