Global supply-chain disruptions are rampant. Manufacturers and business owners now routinely deal with triple and quadruple lead times, widespread shortages, escalating prices, and transportation delays. Every link in the supply chain is out of alignment. Think of the imbalance as a sixth-grader on one end of a teeter-totter and a kindergartner on the other—only worse.
Sales and operations planning is a dark art, and most organizations typically have a very ad-hoc process of forecasting due to its nature. But it's critical to be directionally correct with your plan. Or you might end up missing opportunities or losing customers. [...]
Predicting the Unpredictable Every client believes their demand cannot be predicted. After all, customers don't know what is going on in their end-to-end supply chain with the global supply chain chaos. Sales teams are optimistic and either forecast too much, hoping Operations will produce and store "just in case" [...]
To thrive post COVID, manufacturing resilience will be cornerstone. Customers expect personalization, customization, and rapid deliveries without disruption, and they will change suppliers, substitute products and do whatever is required to satisfy their customers or get what's needed. For example, although the preference is for online purchasing, consumers will return to stores to ensure quick, reliable supply of critical items.
2021 was plagued with shortages. As discussed in clients’ demand planning/ forecasting meetings, history is not representative of the future. In one example, the client experienced material shortages and couldn’t sell what customers requested, and so carrying that forecast into the New Year would deliberately carry that issue into 2022.
In recently talking with the US Glass Network, the constant state of supply chain disruption was in the forefront. In fact, the White House launched a supply chain dashboard to track progress. However, if you are hoping the supply chain will realign on its own anytime soon, unfortunately, it [...]
Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert, Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, president of LMA Consulting Group Inc., will talk about the current state of the supply chain, and more importantly, what executives should be doing to survive – and thrive – during these volatile times.
Supply chain is dominating the news. Demand is soaring, ports are backed up, container prices are soaring, shipping costs are skyrocketing, warehouses are full, and manufacturers are experiencing extended lead times across the board. The end-to-end supply chain challenges are exacerbated with the great resignation of people. Unfortunately, these issues are not going away anytime soon. [...]
The pandemic has spurred on the need to work smarter, not harder. In our Brushware article, the Digital Transformation Fueled with Business Intelligence, we talk about the critical importance of making meaningful decisions with data. As discussed in the SIOP client success story, data was a key driver of SIOP results. The key was in understanding data, the sources of data, cleansing data [...]
In working with clients across multiple industries including industrial equipment, food and beverage, building and construction products and healthcare products, there is no doubt that clients using a SIOP (sales, inventory and operations planning) and integrated business planning process are pulling away from the competition.
