The supply chain technology market is in transition. Over the last three decades, the market weathered consolidations, mergers and technology shifts. Many of the clients I work with are nervous about SAP APO’s transition and the evolution of SAP’s supply chain planning solutions. They are looking for alternatives. As I work with these teams, one thing is clear. Companies are at very different places, based on the company’s cultural DNA…
Oh my! The blog post, What About Them Apples, raised a lot of heated discussion on LinkedIn. Quite the dust-up. Why? While I am advocating rethinking supply chain planning, for some consultants the only path forward is the adoption of DDRMP. The recommendation is a broad-brush approach. No matter what I write on demand planning, the response is to blindly deploy DDMRP. Note: DDMRP stands for Demand-Driven Material Requirements Planning, which was introduced…
Today, I got a quick email from Peggy Gulick. Peggy was a speaker at the Supply Chain Global Summit. She had some exciting news. AGCO was honored to receive the AME 2017 Excellence Award. Congrats to the Agco team. I loved Peggy’s presentation at the Summit. When her employees kept breaking their tablets on the production floor, Peggy used lean-production thought processes to innovate for new answers. While many employers would…
Today hurricane Nate’s north winds are pushing against the bayous of Louisiana. In offices across the United States, demand planners are scratching their heads. The impact of multiple hurricanes this season differ by commodity. What are they seeing? Shifting demand and rising prices for cotton and orange juice. Higher spikes for lumber and building supplies. Surprising demand in automotive for car replacement. A shortage of pharmaceuticals in Puerto Rico. One…
“We have too many planners. And even if we can afford the costs, we don’t get good answers with our current forecasting processes,” stated the supply chain leader on the phone. “I want to build outside-in processes, but I don’t know what this looks like. Can you tell me what you mean by this statement?” My question to her was “Do you have the courage to upend the apple cart?” The…
In manufacturing-based companies, 70-80% of costs are in the processes of source, make and deliver. Labor is an important input with 50-60% of company employees reporting through supply chain organizations. Is talent a cost or an asset? Most companies say employees are an asset, but treat it as a cost. Today, with companies having a keen-focus on costs, talent development often takes a back seat. In this post I argue…
Last week I spoke at the CLX Logistics Conference in Philadelphia on the future of Supply Chain Management. As I presented on Supply Chain 2030, I shared research on balance sheet performance, and provided insights on why I believe 90% of organizations failed in the delivery of supply chain excellence at the balance sheet level. My speech also focused on how current technologies are rapidly becoming obsolete due to market…
Headwinds: A force of resistance Tailwinds: A favorable force blowing in the same direction When I travel from company to company and discuss the future of business processes, the term “digital” is ubiquitous. A digital fever abounds. I liken it to the e-commerce frenzy of 2001 (when an “e” proceeded every strategy). Fear abounds. Growth is slowing. Amazon is expanding. Unlikely players are driving change. For example, Google and Tesla…
Mine sweeping is essential to warfare. Soldiers use special devices to detect underground mines and disarm them, keeping them from exploding before they cause harm. At Supply Chain Insights we have been actively working on our own mine sweeping project. Over the course of the last quarter, with help from Cloudera, we built a data lake with information from 1449 public companies (these are mainly North American-based manufacturers, distributors…
I was sitting with a representative from the United Nations on my way back from Colombia. As we took off from Bogota, we discussed the potential of blockchain to help her with feeding children in the highlands of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. I was surprised that she knew enough about blockchain to have a discussion, and I think that she was surprised to find someone who could help her to have…
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