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Two concepts that I would like to have considered are outside-in planning and self-service planning (redefining work and the planning function). To build an outside-in model, and use new forms of analytics, we must start the discussion with the question of, “what drives value?” You are right.
AI in supply chain automation is gradually reshaping how core functions operate, particularly in procurement, warehousing, and logistics. Key Insight: The use of AI in supply chain automation is producing tangible benefits across procurement, warehousing, and logistics.
In follow-up qualitative interviews, one of the largest issues with organizational alignment was metric definition and a clear definition of supply chain excellence. In my post Mea Culpa, I reference my work with the Gartner Supply Chain Hierarchy of Metrics. Error is error, but is it the most important metric? My answer is no.
Advanced supply chain planning is being transformed by probabilistic forecasting , which revolutionizes demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization. Enhancing Inventory with Probabilistic Forecasting A supply chain is a complex ecosystem influenced by dynamic variables. The result?
Probabilistic forecasting is revolutionizing demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization by significantly improving forecast accuracy and decision-making across distribution networks. Enhancing Inventory with Probabilistic Forecasting A supply chain is a complex ecosystem influenced by dynamic variables.
Returns Management and Integration With 35% of online purchases being returned, predominantly to physical stores, retailers are grappling with the ripple effects on inventory management. Early adopters of these integrated platforms report significant improvements in inventory turnover and reduction in stockouts.
Reason #6 Not effectively managing inventory. Reason #9 Relentless pursuit of one supply chain metric at the expense of other metrics. Imagine that your child brings home their report card and it’s a mix of good and fair grades. One example that I’ve seen several times is around inventory targets.
Traditionally, procurement has been a process weighed down by manual tasks, fragmented systems, and endless paperwork. Today, procurement is undergoing a transformation. While procurement teams have long worked to add strategic value, Artificial Intelligence (AI) amplifies their impact.
At each company, there is a relationship between the metrics of growth, margin, inventory, customerservice, and asset strategy. For the purpose of this article, I will use Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) as the proxy metric to discuss asset utilization.) Understanding this relationship requires modeling. (A
In supply chain management, it is widely accepted that holding enough finished goods inventory to fulfill every order is just too costly. The thinking goes that at some point, improving service levels means you are not adding inventory in a linear manner but rather exponentially. Ipsen also need to reduce their lead times.
. “When I ask my team about customerservice, I get high-five reviews. When I meet with my customers, I get thumbs-down feedback. I find the measurement of customerservice to be one of the most difficult.” Interview for Metrics That Matter. ” Supply Chain Leader.
Decoding the Procurement Department: A Comprehensive Guide to Roles and Responsibilities This supply chain article provides a comprehensive overview of the procurement department within an organization. Read In Detail About Procurement Department Here 2.
As an old gal, with over forty-years of supply chain experience, writing this report for ten years taught me many lessons. I find in the orbit chart analysis that 45% of companies in the report are unconsciously incompetent. An average margin of 21% with inventory turns of 1.58 I admit it. Lora was as well.
Here’s your two-minute guide to understanding and selecting the right descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics for use across your supply chain. Looking at all the analytic options can be a daunting task. However, luckily these analytic options can be categorized at a high level into three distinct types.
In May 2025, one in seven home-purchase agreements fell through resulting in the cancellation of 56,000 purchase contracts. Ask a procurement or transportation professional if they have a good demand signal and expect a laugh. A negative FVA increases cost, inventory, and risk. The ripple effects are pervasive.
I see a preponderance of reports and white papers that have lots of pages but say little. Optimization engines to improve functional metric performance resulted in an exploding number of planners. Each is customized and runs on separate servers. Rolling up a perpetual inventory signal takes eleven hours. Back to John.
How aligned do you believe your organization is to drive these metrics? P&G did not appreciate the work Gilette accomplished on form and function of inventory and using market signals. As a result, the company’s performance at the intersection of margin and inventory turns was circular for the past decade.
I know that your primary focus is procurement. If S&OP efforts were that effective, don’t you think that we would have made more progress against inventory levels, margin, and growth? In part, this results in increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in consumer demand as one moves further up the supply chain.
The consulting team pitches a theme–vision of supply chain best practices, big data analytics, or demand-driven value networks– to the executive team, and a new project is initiated. It was also the preference of the consulting partners because the projects were longer, more costly and better aligned with the consulting model.
Automotive distributors play a vital role in the automotive supply chain by procuring parts, warehousing them, and then supplying them to OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), retailers or end consumers. The data can be used to identify inefficiencies in the supply chain, improve inventory management, and streamline operations.
Companies are stuck at the intersection of inventory turns and operating margin. In companies, there is no standard model for demand processes. New forms of analytics make new capabilities possible. Let’s start with these: Demand Sensing: The reduction of time to sense purchase and channel takeaway. It is evolving.
We have been taught, as supply chain leaders, that over the last decade supply chain processes have improved costs, shortened cycle times, improved customerservice and decreased inventory. Most organizations are stuck on their ability to drive improvements in operating margin and inventory cycles.
The past few years have created a lasting impact on the way business is conducted, driving many companies to analytics to gain the visibility they need to control and optimize key processes. The Basics of Procurement KPIs. To accomplish this, our clients rely on the built-in data hub of our Stratum reporting application.
The ability of an organization to deliver reliable and consistent results for revenue, margin, customerservice, and quality in the face of demand and supply variability. I am currently doing research on inventory management. In the research, I ask inventory planners to define resilience. We are not clear on definition.
By maximizing space utilization, improving inventory control , and boosting workflow efficiency, you can unlock significant cost savings and elevate your customerservice game. Data-Driven Decision Making : Using analytics to continuously refine operations.
Warehouse Metrics to Track to Improve Profitability and Operations : Today’s warehouse managers often accrue massive amounts of performance data, but sometimes find they can apply little of it toward making productivity gains or customerservice improvements. Read the Full Post. Download the Webinar Replay. Read the Full Post.
Sure, supply chain cost reduction is important in reducing the cost of goods sold (COGS) and increasing profit, but there are other measurements which should not be forgotten. 3 Key Metrics for Measuring Supply Chain Performance Beyond Cost Reduction. Review Inventory turns and Return on Assets. Read more. .
The CFO believes that the supply chain should be efficient, the CIO wants to standardize on fewer applications, and the Chief Operating Officer wants to improve customer reliability, but the team does not realize that their leadership puts the supply chain leader in the crosshairs of the executive team. Let’s focus first on John.
Data analytics can be applied to virtually any supply chain process, and analytics hold great value in managing retail supply chains. Retail supply chains have the added complications of needing to offer both in-store and online customer experiences, and they must continue to try to beat Amazonian prices.
If I had done due diligence, I’d have seen the warnings – the retailer had pretty pictures on their website, but their supply chain failed them, creating an eleven-month saga and unhappy customer. The issue wasn’t poor planning – they had the inventory. Supply chain orchestration failure – a table fable What happened?
Get Good at Having a Real-time Perpetual Inventory Signal. Foundational for ecommerce is a real-time perpetual inventory (PI) signal. If you are going to be excellent at ecommerce fulfillment, you need to have great perpetual inventory capabilities. When a customer places an order, be sure that you can guarantee delivery.
The way they customize Shopify for operational effectiveness bridges gaps between marketing, customerservice, and logistics and converts stand-alone silos into end-to-end digital ecosystems. Check out SCMDOJO’s Inventory Optimization Tool , and enhance your inventory management capabilities!
I wrote my first report on Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) while sitting on the floor in the Atlanta airport in 2005 when I was an AMR Research analyst. I wrote many reports on airport floors in those days–electrical plugs were just too scarce.) Sales and Operations Maturity Model from 2005-2008. Mistake #3.
According to Randy Strang of Supply Chain 24/7, a survey of the most important parts of a shopping experience found customers’ expectations are more than meets the eye. Up to 62 percent want to purchase online and have the option of returning it in-store, and 47 percent want promotions and coupons available through their smartphone.
The company’s customersreport that the ETAs provided by these FourKites are more accurate, timely and easier to access than those provided by carriers. And at last week’s FourKites Visibility user conference, the tech pioneer reported investment in a different form of artificial intelligence, Generative AI.
Retail returns occur when a customer returns the purchased items to a seller in exchange for a refund, store credit, or a similar product. Returns come with plenty of challenges around logistics, inventory, and predicting volatile sales trends. 84% of buyers read the return policy before making an online purchase.
The award, based on beating the industry peer group on rate of improvement on the key metrics of growth, operating margin, inventory turns, and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) while outperforming their peer group, is tough to achieve. The orbit chart below illustrates L’Oréal’s performance at the intersection of two metrics.
With the purchase of i2 by JDA, and Logictools by IBM, manufacturing companies serious about network design started looking for a company, with a well-established community, that was more serious about network design. There are seven reasons: CustomerService. It could no longer be just about inventory levels.
It is making use of inventory that is the easiest/fastest to get to the customer, no matter through which channel the order was placed. Numerous supply chain disruptions affected the ability to get inventory in time – or at all – and now that the backlog caught up, many organizations are experiencing a surplus of inventory.
Throughout the supply chain, the use of metrics to track and understand processes provides an invaluable resource for ensuring increased production and customer satisfaction. What Distribution Center Metrics Need Tracking? However, the most important metrics can be categorized into the following eight areas.
CPG companies that utilize an autonomous supply chain technology see a reduction in their inventory and cost and an increase in revenue. Many innovative CPG companies also collaborate with their internal and external suppliers on net requirements planning for the factory and Purchase Orders (PO) for components and OEMs.
The number one question that I am asked today by manufacturers across all industries is “How can I improve customerservice?” Nine times out of ten improving customerservice requires different management of the budget cycle and a rethinking of financial planning. Background. Time horizon. Bias and error. The takeaway?
We were discussing the results of the planning benchmarking work that we have just finished, and I was sharing some insights on inventory management when one of the panelists emphatically stated, “Inventory is a waste to manage. We feel so strongly about this that we do not have an inventory planning role.”
I am a big believer in procurement getting involved as early as possible in new product development based on all the market knowledge available. The worst-case scenario is product engineering developing a new product, selecting a supplier and then telling procurement to get on with negotiation. How often do your purchase orders change?
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