Strategic Benchmarking in the Supply Chain Triangle (Part 2)
Is it possible to use a company's public financial data to strategically benchmark inventory? Bram answers this in the two part conclusion to his 'Inventory Benchmarking’ blog series.
Advice to Students: The Next CEO Will Be From Supply Chain
The day is nearing where the next CEO will be a former VP of Supply Chain. Continue to develop your skills and you will become a great fit for that position in the future.
Three Steps to a Better Statistical Forecast Setup
Sometimes companies implement a forecasting system but do not realize the anticipated gains in the forecast accuracy. Very often, it is not the actual software but the setup that is to be blamed. And I do not mean the setup at the technical (parameter level) but more the process level. Read this blog post on how to get the setup right.
Supply Chain Planning and an Uncertain Economy
Supply Chain Planning deals with the future and therefore uncertainty with economy. As a result, the planners sometimes have to question other people’s assumptions. Whether for this or some other reason, they do not get credit that is due to them for the great job they do. Eric Wilson from Tempur Sealy gives them the due credit and then some and calls them the super heroes of business. We agree!
Five principles for future Supply Chain Planners
Are you a current supply chain planner? Or are you fixing to become one? Have you wondered what makes someone a good supply chain planner? In this post, I have compiled 5 principles for supply chain planners to follow.
Forecasting: What Business wants from Academia
Are the researchers in the academic world aligned with the expectations and needs of the business world when it comes to the world of forecasting? Or are the two very different? What can the academe do that will be of value to the business folks? Read on to see some of my thoughts on this topic.
A better way to forecast using attribute based dynamic hierarchies
Have you ever wondered whether you should forecast: Bottom-up? Top-down? Middle-Out? It turns many in the demand planning profession do. Read along to see why you can do all of that and more with attribute based demand planning.
How to define your forecasting hierarchy
Should one forecast at the SKU-Customer-Location level and aggregate the results up? Or should one forecast at the product-family-region level and dis-aggregate the results down? Or should one do both and try to triangulate the results? Which method gives the best results to the business? Let us look at this together.
Management and Supply Chain Planners: A case of hedgehog and the fox?
I was recently exposed to the idea of thinking like a hedgehog (one big idea) versus the fox (a lot of different ideas). So what happens when people who are more like hedgehogs in their line of work, interact with people who think like a fox? I just happen to know two such groups: Business leaders
Illusively Complex – Effective Approach to Mixing Judgment and Statistics in Forecasting
In 1994, the IBM Micro-electronics Division, itself a fortune 100 size firm, put in place a major effort to create best in class supply chain planning process and software including demand planning(DM), central planning, available to promise, et al. I was fortunate to be an original member and had the opportunity to work extensively on