Innovative Planning, Superior Results.
As I was browsing through my news feed one headline from the BBC caught my attention. “The inferno and the mystery ship” by By Rami Ruhayem and Paul Adams. It is only 4 days since the blast but this article does seem to have pieced together the story of the shipment of Ammonium Nitrite that…
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One of the constant challenges we face in industry is to optimize the supply chain. The supply chain environment is often set up to buffer against inefficiencies elsewhere in the organisation but there are some steps you can take to mitigate against that and optimize your supply chain. 1. Define the Strategic…
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As we come out of lockdown and businesses start to return to “normal” a key challenge is what is the new “normal”. A key change is working from home. For years people have spoken about working from home in dubious terms. There have been lots of studies into it and it seemed to be a…
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So you want to know about planning. MRP, MRP-II, S&OP, Forecasting etc etc. Many people jump straight into those methodologies and start to apply them in a live environment. But the best planners will first strive to set a foundation by understanding the business. Any college will teach you the fundamentals of planning such as…
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So as we are now exiting lock-down many companies are looking to either ramp up operations or even completely restart after a total lock-down. This can be a daunting prospect after a Christmas shutdown never mind a 3-month lock-down. With social distancing etc things are unlikely to return to normal for a long time. However,…
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So as we are approaching half way through 2020 mid-year performance reviews are probably in full swing. How has it been for you? I would safely say it turned out significantly different to how you imagined in December/January. I know it certainly was for me. In January I had heard of a virus in China…
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So what are the goals of supply chain management and planning. You want to deliver the right product Right Products: Having the product the customer wants. Depending on the industry and company that can change. For example what the customer wants this year may not be what they wanted last year. Producing last year’s smart…
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Planning is not easy. If it were then there would be half the amount of warehouses, no shortages to customers and far less garbage. Supply Chains, even simple ones don’t happen automatically. There must be some plan that tells the company what to make. Planning is difficult to explain to your family and friends. You…
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Inventory is a buffer against uncertainty. A common image that I first came across when studying Goldratt’s Theory of constraints (which I highly recommend by the way), is that of a ship sailing on a lake. The ship represents the company and the water inventory. Below the water are rocks representing problems in the company. …
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The major challenge in planning is finding the balance between supply and demand. An imbalance between the two will have a serious impact on the efficient and profitable running of the business. Too much supply (above and beyond the planned and targeted level set for valid business reasons) will result in: Building excess inventory which will…
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