An Exercise in Precision
Because precision is, um, well, precise, you now have a different starting point for your journey’s second leg. Which means all the future plans you made will need changing.
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Because precision is, um, well, precise, you now have a different starting point for your journey’s second leg. Which means all the future plans you made will need changing.
Today’s buzzword is Visibility. Every business leader says that we need better visibility. Therefore, the rest of us run off searching for better visibility.
In traditional MRP, we start with a prediction of demand called a forecast, which is typically a range. We are forced to choose one single number to represent that range which we then input into a complex calculator.
I asked a group of supply chain purchasing and planning professionals a simple question. I asked them how they decide just when to place an order and just how much.
It’s time for a change. Recruiting means you are actively “selling” your company to the prospective candidate.
Reduce Inventory, they said. And they’re still saying it. We’ve been working on the same things for decades. How is it possible that we are chasing the right things, but not achieving the goal?
If you have product available, then sales will result. You will only maintain that level of sales if you have the capability to produce to the customer demand. And if you produce only what the customer is buying, then you will have the money to pay bills, including worker salary.
When trying to implement a culture change or a lifestyle change or any kind of a change, you need to be intentional.
Typically, your family uses three eggs per day, so you set a safety stock level of six (two days worth). This means you never intend to have less than six eggs. That way, you should not have to rush to the grocery store just because of eggs.
Sometimes Supply Chain feels harder than Mission Impossible. Is five seconds really enough warning prior to something self-destructing?
What will be the company measures in the future? That remains to be seen. But here’s a couple ideas, that I think (hope) will become mainstream in the future.
Today, we find Julie, Matt and two other members of their team attending a Demand Driven Planner workshop. There is a certification possible, but right now Julie and Matt just want to evaluate if this methodology is as promising as it seems. We catch up with them during a break in the class.
Aligning for Agility. Where is the Disconnect?
What is the purpose of starting a Sales and Operations Planning process? For many, S&OP is a process to get information to flow between various parts of the business, the most obvious being Sales and Operations (hence the name). The premise, I believe, is that if Operations knows what is happening in Sales, then they will be able to respond. Great starting point. At some point, perhaps it worked well.
I was mapping what I thought my own Work-Life balance should include, based on one current methodology. Physical, Emotional, … and then I went off the rails. Because I started thinking about the viewpoint of the company and how aligning the company’s Work-Life balance offering with the individual’s Work-Life balance requirements will make a huge difference in achieving that balance.
What do we use in our lives that hasn’t appreciably changed in 20 to 50 years? And how much duct tape or band-aids have we applied so we can keep using the same old items or methods?
Few, if any, follow recommendations of their traditional MRP system unquestioned. That gives a clue.
So, as we slowly spin into chaos, we have to finally admit that trying to use a tool based on precision and exactness creates a challenge as our world becomes more and more imprecise.
