Arkieva Supply Chain Link Blog.
Creating the link between better supply chain planning and decisions.
RECENT POSTS
Who Should Take Ownership of Finished Product Inventory Management?
I mean who suffers directly when finished product inventory runs amuck by level, mix, or availability? Well, we all do, don’t we? After all, if we made it and can’t sell it, what have we done? Or, what if we promised it to customers but haven’t made it? Until we give finished goods velocity, no profits roll into the business meaning, no revenue (assuming when it sells, it gains velocity). Just think of the other side of the coin when it goes to the scrap heap for a write off (terminal velocity).
How to Determine the Best-Fit Plan with Supply Chain Optimization
The use of optimization in supply chain management is widespread, just not in supply planning. Regular use of optimization occurs in inventory management and demand forecasting. “Best-fit straight line” is one of the most common uses of optimization. With this method, you enter or pull into Excel (or your favorite statistics software) a set of “x values” (the independent value e.g. the number of cars in a train) and a set of “y values” (dependent value e.g. the fuel cost for each train), click a few buttons and you get a “best-fit” straight line – a slope (b1), a y-intercept (b0), a measure of goodness, and a straight line drawn through your scatter plot.
Supply Chain Talk: Is your planning data worth protecting?
Would you like advance knowledge of your competitor’s promotions? How about the production rates, or the costs that they use for measuring profitability? Just as you would welcome this type of competitive information, so would your competitors’ welcome similar information about your supply chain.
Can Supply Chain Optimization Lead to a Road Less Traveled?
An optimization model does the same; it calculates the decisions based on the stated preferences and constraints in the model. That can sometimes have the inadvertent effect of finding new pathways, a road less, if ever, traveled.
Supply Chain Optimization in Supply Planning: How to Develop a New Way of Thinking
Naturally, supply chain optimization in supply planning can feel counterintuitive. Here’s why you should combat that feeling to create the best plan possible.
How to Establish Early Warning Supply Chain Metrics
In recent webinars and presentations, I have been talking about Early Warning Systems within the context of supply chains. The news story above made me think of several examples where a supply chain would use similar concepts to develop early warning metrics.
Manufacturing Day 2017: [Infographic] The Evolution of Inventory Management Strategies
When you talk to any manufacturer no matter how large or small about their concerns, improved inventory management is bound to be a part of the conversation. To celebrate manufacturing day today, we thought it would be beneficial to take a closer look at how inventory strategy keeps evolving using an infographic from Arkieva based on research conducted by Aberdeen.
Using Descriptive Analytics to Improve Supply Chain Visibility for Variability, Velocity, Volume, and Variety.
In this guest blog series titled: “Memoirs of a Black Belt,” Stephen Boyd a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and 30-year supply chain veteran, shares his insights on achieving higher levels of performance using data from existing systems. All opinions expressed in guest authors may not reflect Arkieva’s view on the subject.
Who’s to Blame for the “Unwanted Extra Ingredient?” A look at Challenges of Supply Chain Management in the Fast Food Industry
Now and then, we hear about horrific fast food restaurant stories where an “unwanted extra ingredient” is found. While we may be quick to blame the serving fast food restaurant for the mishap, the supply chain of fast foods is often complicated. When we stop by our favorite fast food restaurant to grab a quick bite, we often don’t think about the process that goes into assembling our combo meal.
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