Producing and/or subcontracting in faraway regions can often lower the cost per unit in terms of labor and capital equipment investment. This supply chain strategy greatly increases lead times, the need for long range planning and increased inventory to cover demand uncertainty. A thorough evaluation should be made of the trade-offs of agile vs purely low cost supply chain strategies. The low cost solution might not be the best solution.
Recently, I experienced an earthquake during my trip to Taiwan. I am not sure but I think this was the first one for me. As it happened, you could feel a little back and forth movement. It lasted for a few seconds and then it was gone. While it caused some excitement (and concern) from
Most, if not all of us, know someone who has lost a bag during their travels. It happened to me recently. I was on a business trip to Taipei, Taiwan and the airline lost my bag on the way out. In this blog post, I will sharing my experience around losing and then being reunited
If you are running a manufacturing or distribution business, you have to deal with inventory. In supply chains, inventory acts as a shock absorber just like the ones in your car. If there were no shock absorbers in your car, you would feel every bump in the road. Similarly in a supply chain you would
At the recently concluded Supply Chain Insights Global Summit, I heard a talk from Cheryl Campbell and Kevin Cooke from the Eileen Fisher Company. Cheryl founded the Green Eileen company as a non-profit which was supported by the owner Eileen Fisher Company. She had a desire to make Green Eileen sustainable in the near future
Recently, I participated in a podcast with Lora Cecere where we discussed the following question: What would the supply chain of 2025 look like? Questions like this are always fun to consider. Of course, they would be easier to answer if one had a crystal ball. Below is where my mind went as we discussed
It is time to bring out the crystal ball and see what the future has in store for us! Admittedly, no one really know the future but there is no harm in imagining. And it is fun as well. Read this blog and share your thoughts as well.
In one of my previous posts, I wrote about using coefficient of variation (CV) as a predictor of forecastability. In this post, I will talk about how it can be used to indicate a sensitivity of lead time towards the safety stock calculations. To quickly remind the reader first: The formula for CV = StdDev
Last post, I discussed in some detail the concept of cycle service level and how it works in the retail or a B2C environment. This week, let me take up the case of a business in a B2B environment. Typically, in a B2B environment, the orders are placed in bulk over the phone or the
Most businesses would put high customer service as one of their top business priorities. While there are many different things that make up the overall customer experience, one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that companies measure is the timely delivery of goods to the customer. In safety stock calculations, this is typically an input