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Technology can change or even improve work. Companies today making a fundamental mistake: they are attempting to automate current processes with AI versus challenging and redefining work. What’s missing? A recognition of the reality of the current state. We are not designing work with the human factor in mind. The goal of human factor process design is to make it easy for employees to do the right thing (and hard to do the wrong thing).
This week, I began teaching a new round of outside-in planning classes. These classes are designed for networking and exploring outside-in models in a safe environment. This is my fourth year of teaching the class and I want to build a guiding coalition for people to think differently and improve value. My goal is to build a guiding coalition for change.
Shifting sands. War. Tariffs. Shortages. Price increases. Ocean booking cancellations. Tightening of pocketbooks: changing demand patterns. Decline in consumer confidence. Companies are delaying hiring. Many are laying-off employees. The Global Pressure Index published monthly is rising, but we are still operating in a period of low variability. The larger uncertainty lies ahead.
Self-congratulations notes abounded this week as vendor-after-vendor shared their rankings on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning. For me, it was a big sigh. I believe that the Gartner Magic Quadrant is a barrier to progress in supply chain planning, and that vendors that rally in support have a false sense of superiority. Reflection Let me start with some history.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Industry 4.0. Drip Big Data. Drip. The Connected Supply Chain. Drip Digital Supply Chain. Drip. Autonomous Supply Chain Planning. Drip. Self-Healing Supply Chains. Drip. Touchless Supply Chains. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Many messages to the market, but where is the value? I have developed an allergy for word speak and hollow promises.
Thirteen years. 600 posts. Where does time go? For over a decade, since founding Supply Chain Insights in 2012, I have pounded the keyboard, asking business leaders to think more holistically about the impact of supply chain decisions on the firm’s value, the improvement of a value chain, and the impact on the environment. If written today, my gravestone would read, “Here lies Lora.
This week, I feel like a bobble-head. My head is wobbling with announcements, late-night Friday press releases, company name changes, and executive turnover in the supply chain planning market. Is it musical chairs? Or a Merry-Go-Round? I am not sure, but it does not feel good. Here, I give my take. Noodle.AI Renames the Company Daybreak. No doubt that the company, Noodle.ai, needed a fresh start after burning through $107M in capital of five rounds of financing.
Traditional supply chain planning was defined by the theory of constraints and the Deming Wheel of Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) philosophies. The PDCA cycle, advocated by Deming in the 1950s, is based on the scientific method of proposing a change in a process, implementing the change, measuring the results, and taking appropriate action. This is the world of best practices.
I laugh when business leaders tell me that they are going to replace their current supply chain planning technologies with “AI.” I agree that the market is a bit of a mess. Each supply chain planning technology at the end of 2024, went through disruption–change in CEO, business model shift, layoffs, re-platforming and acquisitions.
Global supply chains are built on three assumptions: rational government policy, availability of transportation resources, and low variability. The pandemic taught us many lessons that we are quickly forgetting. Compliance, sanctions, and tariffs loom. Supply chain leaders have little history to use as a guide to prepare. Before the pandemic, supply chain leaders experienced relatively free trade across borders in 2017.
The booths at the National Retail Federation (NRF) on January 12 th -14 th will shine brightly with AI plastered everywhere. However, based on my discussions with the technologists, the real improvements to drive value will be few and far between. Venture capitalists are high on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and over-exuberant professors with shiny new models are jockeying into position to get rich.
This week, I was introduced by phone to a marketing leader new to supply chain planning. I listened in amazement when she said, “My marketing plan is based on the fact that supply chain planning is an old technology nearing the end of its lifecycle.” I could not help myself. I started to react. I love this picture from the Paris Olympics.
This morning, the New York Times pushed me an article by Peter S. Goodman titled “ The Supply Chain, Reconfigured.” His narrative centers on the evolution of the global supply chain evolving with a focus on labor arbitration ignoring geographic distance and shipping issues. His belief is that the internet, container shipping, and global banking shrunk the supply chain.
How should a global manufacturer make a decision? And how can supply chain planning help? Reflection A month has passed since my last post. As the weeks, and days passed, I dug in my garden throwing five pallets of mulch in what has turned out to be a hot summer. My goal was to think harder about how to best implement Advanced Planning before I wrote my next post.
Driving a supply chain transformation? Want to be data-driven? Prepare for the journey by redefining your relationship with data. And encourage your organization to do the same. Data has a cycle as described by this quote from Techtarget.com. Most organizations only focus on usage. To be demand-driven, own the cycle. D ata management is the process of ingesting, storing, organizing, and maintaining the data created and collected by an organization.
This week, I attended the Consumer Goods Forum in Chicago. The networking was great. My takeaway is a serious concern by attendees on the impact of SAP RISE on global supply chains. Here I share observations and take aways. Definition: “The RISE with SAP offering includes an AI-powered cloud ERP that’s managed and optimized by SAP. It provides services and tools built on the clean core approach by SAP, so you can migrate on-premise systems, transform business processes, drive contin
Waves of hype pass through supply chain narratives. Thought leaders push concepts. Tech companies rally. Without tangible results, the concepts evaporate over time. Each has a cycle, typically a large investment, but leaves no fairy dust residue. As an old gal attending multiple conferences (more than I would like at times), I have listened to speakers waft eloquently about the value of concepts like networks, big data, industry 4.0, and digital supply chains.
Pattern recognition is the ability to discern patterns in data and use the insights for further analysis. Wikipedia In 2014, I was exploring methods to publish what is now the Supply Chains To Admire report. Fortuitously, I hired a bright summer intern named Alex that introduced me to orbit charts. The use of orbit charts allowed me to see the patterns of performance at the intersection of metrics over time.
My LinkedIn news feed is full of congratulatory notes for companies listed on the Gartner Top 25 released yesterday. Tech companies celebrate their companies on the list, consultants give themselves pats on the back, and the companies making the list congratulate their employees. My issue is that the Gartner methodology celebrates underperformers. The lack of clarity and discipline in the methodology gives the industry a false signal to define supply chain excellence.
In 2016, we finished a study on continuous improvement. When I started this research project, I was busy. The survey was one of many, and I found the project relatively nondescript, bordering on boring. One of my lessons learned in completing survey-based research over the past twelve years, is that projects are full of surprises. The hypothesis that seems so right are often wrong, and surprises lay in each nook and cranny.
In my recent Mea Culpa post, I mentioned my prior work on Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), and the importance of leadership. Sounds easy, right? Leadership and S&OP? Shouldn’t it be like peanut butter and jelly? If you have walked in the shoes of the supply chain leader, you are probably laughing by now. What sounds so easy is very difficult.
Over the past two years, I taught over 600 students the principles of outside-in processes. I also taught five technology companies. Some attendees express interest and then state, “Interesting Lora, but no one is asking for this functionality.” I bite my tongue wanting to reply, “Did anyone ask Henry Ford to build a car? Or the Wright Brothers to fly at Kitty Hawk?
Let me start with why I selected a baby with ears for this post. I find that most companies’ understanding of supply chain planning is immature, and that next week, at the Gartner Supply Chain Summit in Orlando, that many will don their Mickey ears to discuss what I consider outdated supply chain planning models. The investment in these outdated concepts is an opportunity cost to improve outcomes.
The supply network–shipments and production of trading partners–represents over 70% of the environmental impact of supply chain decisions. Despite the importance, the investment in networks to automate the information flow between trading partners remains low. Networks take three forms–demand, design, and supply. Here I share insights on the sharing of supply data.
Last week, I published an article on outside-in planning. The article introduced the concept of self-service planning and challenged companies to rethink the concepts of supply chain planning. For me, the concepts of outside-in and self-service planning are intertwined. Let’s start with definitions: Self Service Planning: Decision support technologies designed for business leaders to use analytic techniques on a collaborative platform to improve business planning.
I take supply chain management seriously. My focus is writing research for the business leader that is an early adopter attempting to drive first-mover advantage. I am also known for telling it like it is. This blog post on my take of the On March 29 th , Blue Yonder announced a binding agreement to acquire One Network for approximately $839 Million.
During the 1980s, I was on a management team for a large manufacturer. My job was redesigning work to improve effectiveness. The plant was 24 acres under one roof. The concept was a factory with many factories in a common facility. The Company was attempting to gain economies of scale by grouping manufacturing technologies within a common infrastructure to reap the benefits of a co-generation facility, a centralized warehouse, and a talented administrative team.
On Friday, I presented an overview of outside-in planning to a consulting group. I love the questions when I present. The reason? The dialogue helps me to think more deeply to explain the concepts. Today, I am again teaching an open class on outside-in planning concept s. Over the next five weeks, seventy business/technology and consulting leaders will complete the course.
We are in the middle of a hype cycle. The acronym for artificial intelligence (AI) is seemingly everywhere, but the value proposition is nowhere. Like any hype cycle, the market will overheat being over-hyped, then fall. The question in my mind is, “Will we drive substantial improvement in outcomes? Or transform work?” What I see today, I find disappointing.
On February 2, in a small town in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Gobbler’s Knob, an unsuspecting furry Groundhog is plucked from a burrow to predict the weather for the rest of the winter. When the groundhog sees his shadow, the belief is that North America will experience an additional six weeks of winter. In contrast, if the groundhog does not see his shadow, the forecasts is for an early spring.
I try to post weekly on this blog. As I do, there is a guy on LinkedIn– let’s call him John– that replies to most of my posts. His comments are the same–he feels that I identify problems but do not adequately define the solutions. He wants answers. Fair enough I say… I do as well. However, getting there is not easy. When I read his comments, I feel beat up, but I try to shake it off.
Another call. Same story. As my client explains that they are delaying their project to build network interoperability due to complications with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) upgrade, I tap my foot and sigh. I hear this story a lot. The ERP upgrade cycle holds many of my clients hostage. While the desire to improve network interoperability is high, the organization’s mindset is focused on transactional efficiency.
Today, we published The Supply Chains to Admire for 2023. Congratulations to the 34 winners. (For a more detailed analysis, check out the Power point summary.) The companies that outperformed industry sector performance while driving improvement and sustaining value are: Apple, Assa Abloy AB, BorgWarner, CCL Industries, Celanese, Cummins Engine, CF Industry, Decker Outdoors, Gilead Sciences, Intuitive Surgical, Hubble, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Leggett & Platt, Lockheed Martin Corporati
This weekend, I edited the Supply Chains to Admire report. The report was scheduled to publish in the summer of 2023, but life got in the way. The full report publishes this week. I laugh that writing the report is like a root canal. An analysis of improvement, performance, and value of over 500 public companies in 28 industries over a decade. (I posted my working summary.
Today is a writing day. My last post was December 7th, 2023. The month of December was my longest writing respite since I started this blog in January 2010. Posting the first blog seems like yesterday, but thirteen years and over 540 blogs later, taking a pause from a weekly deadline was badly needed. I give thanks for all my readers, but I relished the break.
Today, I speak at the North American Manufacturing Association, Manufacturing Leadership Conference, in Nashville on the use of data to improve supply chain resilience. This follows the recent announcement by the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience launching 30 proposed actions to strengthen America’s supply chains and the ASCM recent publication on resilience.
When I was a teenager, I spent afternoons after school with my dad. As he lost his vision to macular degeneration, he taught me to play chess. He loved chess, and I was a reluctant participant. I played because I loved my dad, but I never was good at the game. The continual lesson to me was never underestimate the power of the pawn. Pawn Definition: “A chess piece of the smallest size and value.
Supply management. Supply chain management. Supply chain planning. Are these terms the same? They sound similar, but do they describe similar capabilities? The answer is no. What do they have in common? Not much. When deploying enterprise decision support applications, there are many implementations and lots of hype but few clear and consistent definitions.
In my writing, I try to get clear on definitions. The supply chain space is heavily laden with acronyms, gobbledygook, false narratives, and over-hyped, fast-talking technology sales teams. Let’s take an example. This is a post from LinkedIn today. “At the Digital Supply Chain event at SAP. First great insight from John McNiff: digital mature companies have lower DIO, IBP supports them!
Rodanthe is one of my favorite beaches. During the summers when I lived in Atlanta, I would pack my bikes on top of the car and head to this wonderful, and what was then a remote beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In the mornings, I would bike to a wonderful bakery, eat an Apple Ugly (an amazing pastry) and sit and drink coffee while staring at the ocean.
The journey for S&OP is a road with many ruts and potholes. In my opinion, the road is tougher today because it is paved with good intentions but creating ruts. I am also amazed. In my twenty years of following the progression of S&OP as an analyst, I am amazed at the number of “experts” with so little expertise. Let me start by saying that t he process is not a panacea to solve all supply chain ills.
Paradox: A statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory. Definition Anomaly: something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. Definition As I follow the evolution of supply chain technology, I am struck by what I see as a stream of paradox and anomaly, and the tendency of supply chain leaders to cling to convention.
In a recent blog post, I was challenged by Anna. She wrote, “I have been working in the supply chain for 35 years, and we are still trying to solve the “demand” issue. Solving from a supply side seems to work for many companies I work with. Given your expertise, I’d love to hear what alternatives you recommend for better demand forecasting and real-time visibility beyond what’s commonly adopted today.” Anna, this blog post is for you.
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