Supply Chain Shaman

AUGUST 21, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

AUGUST 12, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JULY 31, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JUNE 24, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JUNE 13, 2024

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

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Supply Chain Shaman

JUNE 3, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

MAY 25, 2024

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.

Eliminating Excel in Purchasing 385

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Supply Chain Shaman

MAY 24, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

MAY 21, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

MAY 13, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

MAY 6, 2024

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?

Modeling 372

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Supply Chain Shaman

APRIL 29, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

APRIL 19, 2024

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.

Supply Chain Network Software 375

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Supply Chain Shaman

APRIL 16, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

APRIL 4, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

MARCH 21, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

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.

Modeling 274

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Supply Chain Shaman

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JANUARY 25, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JANUARY 9, 2024

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

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Supply Chain Shaman

JANUARY 8, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JANUARY 2, 2024

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

DECEMBER 7, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

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!

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Supply Chain Shaman

OCTOBER 17, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

OCTOBER 16, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

OCTOBER 11, 2023

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.

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Supply Chain Shaman

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Seven pieces of advice for technologists making the current pivot for today’s technology.

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Supply Chain Shaman

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

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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Supply Chain Shaman

JULY 23, 2023

In 2012, I published an article on Sales and Operations Technology (S&OP) Maturity. (I never republished the report, because not enough has changed to warrant it.) The report centers on the concept of moving from inside-out to outside-in technologies. At the time, one of the people (let’s call him Noel) that I great respect for in the industry called me to say, “Lora, I don’t get it.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JULY 13, 2023

Does it resemble hip-hop? Jazz? A cha-cha? The slide? No one knows, but in my discussions, business leaders agree that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here, and the projected impact on supply chain technology looms large sending the industry into very different gyrations. How fast will it transform work, no one knows, but excitement reigns. Traditionally, supply chain technology providers evolve slowly, and business leaders move at an even-slower pace (glacier speed) to revise work practices.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JUNE 30, 2023

This week, I spoke to John. As a supply chain leader, he is struggling how to dance in the ring of fire. You may also be facing the same issue. Let me explain. What Is The Ring of Fire? The ring of fire is corporate politics at the executive level on supply chain performance. Each executive has a different perspective on the definition of supply chain excellence, but they are never discussed and aligned.

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Supply Chain Shaman

JUNE 21, 2023

Surgery is over. I am safely recuperating at home. Due to travel restrictions, I cannot attend many industry events, so I observe from home, watching webinars and remote broadcasts. As I process the content, I struggle. My mind questions, “How did we get here? ” I believe that the industry is stuck. My question is, “How do we break the conventional norms to drive breakthrough thinking?

Gartner 426

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