Most folks involved in Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) for supply chain management have heard the terms “optimization” or “linear programming” with regards to supply planning and have cringed at the sound. Over the past few years a new “cringe” worthy term has emerged – “machine learning” which is sometimes used with the term predictive
Research shows that a majority of mergers fail. A recent study put the percentage as high as 83%. As one would imagine, there are various reasons for this high rate of failure. However, the reasons can be divided into two main groups:
As more and more data becomes available, more and more algorithms are being developed to analyze it. We see this happening in our day-to-day life where apps help us choose where to eat, sleep, dance and repeat. Based on some indicators such as age, friends, preferences and past activities, the new digital tools help plan
The term ‘optimization’ can and does have different meanings to different groups. For the folks who build and develop scheduling algorithms, creating the best schedule is defined in terms of cost criteria – perfectly logical. For business settings (from manufacturing to hospitals) optimization refers to the entire process. Let’s look at the scheduler’s world to
Recently, I visited our office in Antwerp, Belgium. I was there to participate in the LogiChem conference with William (Billy) Duty, the Director of S&OP Center of Excellence at Momentive and an Arkieva client. As is often the case with my trips to Belgium, I ended up drinking more beer in my very short stay
Each year I work with new bright-eyed future experts in planning and scheduling as they make the transition from their academic studies to the murky world of applied planning and scheduling. One of the first rules of thumb I suggest is to ensure everyone has the same view of the problem. Is this a planning
*I would like to thank Eric Jensen for his contribution, participation and guidance in creating this blog post. Recently, Arkieva has been labeled as a Challenger by a third party organization. When I hear the word “Challenger” it conjures up what I believe to be the most famous challenger in all of history, David versus
In a software development environment, people sometimes unknowingly blame or harm the credibility of the testers. For instance, when a bug occurs in a live system, the first thing that comes to mind is “why didn’t the testers find this?” This is sometimes followed by an initiative to improve the testing process which is usually
In my previous post you read that testing is not the same as checking. So when I talk about testing I never mean checking. When I talk about a tester, I talk about someone who does everything else including checking.
I am fairly new to the supply chain industry. Ever since joining Arkieva, I have been immersed in all things manufacturing, planning and optimizing related. As I worked with my colleagues I observed that naturally every company is different and these differences can be seen especially during the implementation process. The steps, rules, politics, etc.,