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If you’re managing inventory with spreadsheets , you’re not alone—but you might be falling behind. While Excel has long been a go-to for planners, the landscape has changed. In this dynamic environment, inventory management powered by spreadsheets is no longer a viable strategy. But familiarity doesn’t equal effectiveness.
Molex implemented a multi-enterprise supply chain network platform from SAP called SAP Business Network. Molexs story is interesting because they excelled at overcoming these cultural issues. The most common form of trading partner collaboration is purchase order collaboration. But getting there was not easy.
” Traditional planning models optimize functional processes to improve cost and customer service. In today’s architectures and functional metrics, value optimization does not exist. The goal is to use functional optimization to improve reliability while aligning all process and performance outcomes to a balanced scorecard.
Probabilistic forecasting is revolutionizing demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventoryoptimization 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.
If so, optimizing your inventory management strategy can be a game-changer. This method offers a solution to various inventory and shipping challenges for businesses just like yours. Below, we outline three ways blind shipping can help optimize your logistics, keep inventories healthy and save you money!
At the session, we discussed why companies have not made more progress on inventory management. In most value networks, downstream partners have progressively pushed costs and waste backwards in the extended supply chain. Days of Inventory Pre and Post-Recession. IT View of the Current State of Inventory. There are many.
The industry has had little value from digital transformation and business networks. Most of the business networks were hollowed out by venture capitalists or purchased by opportunists. The business network market is in need of innovation.) The big data architectures are often present in the current “AI offerings.”
But between rising costs, complex logistics, and the constant struggle to optimize space and labor, staying ahead can feel like an uphill battle. That’s where warehouse optimization comes in. Here’s what you can expect: A clear definition of warehouse optimization and its core components. Ready to get started?
The Omni-Channel Fulfillment Network with Esther Kestenbaum Prozan. Esther Kestenbaum Prozan and Joe Lynch discuss the omni-channel fulfillment network. Esther is the Chief Revenue Officer at Flowspace , an ecommerce fulfillment platform that helps brands meet their customers’ post-purchase expectations.
You’re juggling production schedules, managing inventory, keeping an eye on finances, and making sure everything runs smoothly on the shop floor. Think of it as the central nervous system of your operation, connecting everything from production planning and inventory control to supply chain management and financial reporting.
I am currently doing research on inventory management. In the research, I ask inventory planners to define resilience. Of the twenty companies interviewed, only one can answer the question, “Do you have a good inventory plan?” No technology in the market measures inventory health. Build a network of networks.
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. Orbit Chart for L’Oréal at the Intersection of Inventory Turns and Operating Margin.
Despite two decades of advancement in supply chain technologies, companies are struggling to gain balance at the intersection of operating margin, inventory turns and case fulfillment. The network design technologies have changed a lot in the last decade. (I And optimization, as well as simulation, can now be done together.
In the process, there is a fine line between marketing hype and overpromising, making buying difficult. On the website, there is no definition, but the implementations focus on a deeper optimization using traditional APS taxonomies in a Graph database. Digital Supply Networks. Who has the best approach? What is a digital brain?
Consumers want to shop anywhere, and buy in the way that they want to buy. Share Data Freely and Openly through a Private Network. The most effective way to share data is through a private network. Today only 3% of retailers are using private networks for data sharing. Current State of Perpetual Inventory.
Optimization engines to improve functional metric performance resulted in an exploding number of planners. I would prefer for companies to invest in the building of outside-in processes, supply chain design capabilities, and network automation. Rolling up a perpetual inventory signal takes eleven hours. On average, it takes 2.8
The basic frame of supply chain planning–functional taxonomies for optimization on a relational database–must be redesigned before supply chain leaders can reap the benefit of deep learning, neural networks, and evolving forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Graph architectures also use different optimization technologies.
If S&OP efforts were that effective, don’t you think that we would have made more progress against inventory levels, margin, and growth? The issues are largely rooted in politics and the lack of clarity on supply chain excellence. Or planned orders to purchase orders?) I don’t know.
As companies across industries have discovered, a well-optimized supply chain can drive significant improvements throughout their operations. In the automotive sector, manufacturers are simultaneously reducing inventory costs and delivery times. Technology integration: Leveraging digital tools to enhance visibility and decision-making.
The classical approach involves functional silos, sequential decisions, and Excel and people to render a plan executable. CPG companies that utilize an autonomous supply chain technology see a reduction in their inventory and cost and an increase in revenue. each with discrete plans generated typically in sequential batch runs.
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. Companies adopt planning to optimize the organization’s response from the customer’s customer to the supplier’s supplier.
Millions of shoppers, like my Dad, are not going back to their old habits because there are now faster and more convenient ways for buying daily household needs. It excels on a union of E-Commerce mobile apps and last-mile delivery innovations. InventoryOptimization. Supply Chain Digitalization & Autonomous Planning.
In recent years, BT Supply Chain underwent a transformation to provide its services to businesses using the company’s existing network. We spoke with David Mackenzie , Transformation & Inventory Director at BT, to learn more about this shift and the role AIMMS has played in enabling it. How is your team currently using AIMMS?
Or agreement on the definition of supply chain excellence. As a result, functional excellence anchors action. The focus is on digitization—automating today’s processes—versus rethinking process excellence based on the art of the possible. In this case, the metrics are operating margin and inventory turns. to 11.5%.
But companies often have diverging incentives and interests from their supply chain partners, so when they independently strive to optimize their individual objectives, the expected result can be compromised. ”. However, no company in this chart is on a linear path towards improving both margin and inventory turns. What can we learn?
From harvest to hands, the food & beverage (F&B) industry leaves no room for guesswork, especially without supply chain optimization software. This reality is compelling F&B companies to rethink their strategies and approach to supply chain optimization and demand planning.
In May 2025, one in seven home-purchase agreements fell through resulting in the cancellation of 56,000 purchase contracts. The concept was that managing trade-offs and optimizing the whole to drive business outcomes would improve value. A negative FVA increases cost, inventory, and risk. The ripple effects are pervasive.
Nick Lynch is the Global Excellence Manager at Shell Lubricants, a division of Shell Global. The Company implemented SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO) including the standard functionality of Demand Planning (DP), Supply Network Planning (SNP), and Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PPDS), yet many planners also used Excel.
The market for network design tools was growing at a moderate rate, and most of the market had invested in technologies from either i2 Technologies (then termed i2 Strategist) or Logictools. It could no longer be just about inventory levels. As labor costs in China increased, the network needed to be more flexible. The reason?
When it comes to the management of inventory in value chains, frustration abounds. Executive, after executive, lament, “They have purchased many technologies and sponsored many projects to reduce inventories, but they are not seeing results.” Inventory is the culmination of many business decisions.
It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. I strongly feel that a blind focus on functional excellence will cause the supply chain to become out of balance. One that is going to eat you up! In part one of this blog series, I started the saga of the supply chain fairy tale.
Supplier problems will cause a cascade of problems up and down the value stream, leading to supply order delays that cause inventory shortages, production disruptions, missed shipments and lost revenue. Establishing real-time shared visibility and processes with supply chain partners facilitates identification and resolution of issues.
At the summit, it will be great to network with old friends, and share insights, but there will be no play for me this weekend. We feel so strongly about this that we do not have an inventory planning role.” His feeling was that inventory is an asset to manage. Inventory is both. A heated debate ensued. My Insights.
Q: Is it only inventory disrupting the agility resulting from inaccurate forecasts by S&OP? There are seven primary agility levers: Analysis of Form and Function of Inventory: Form of inventory is the decision of what form to hold the inventory in: raw material, semi-finished good or finished good. Is it S&OP?
As an analyst in the supply chain market for 15 years, I have written many articles on best-of-breed technology companies purchased by a larger company. In 2007-2014 Terra added inventory management, multi-tier demand sensing, transportation forecasting, and long-term forecasting. History of E2open. The Company has a checkered past.
At Dow, Mr. Baker had Purchasing experience in raw materials, and logistics for their plastics supply chain. S&OP is the key process in effectively balancing supply – what can be made – with demand – what customers want to buy. Palo Alto Networks Implements Anaplan. This replaced an Excel based, part-by-part approach.
<Bear with me… > Here I share a nine-step process in an attempt to help companies unravel the process for buying supply chain planning software. They center on how to make a good decision in the purchase of supply chain planning solutions. Most have purchased software, but are dependent on Excel spreadsheets.
So, the parking spots are getting more and more occupied with drop trailers, meaning lot capacity shrinks while finding the trailer with the highest-priority inventory becomes even harder. Create a facilities “Center of Excellence.” There’s also a bigger-picture environmental benefit to yard optimization.
Inventory, in this time of uncertainty, is the organization’s most important buffer to protect against variability. However, organizations are not good at managing inventory. Cash-to-cash is a compound metric: (Days of Receivables+Days of Inventory)-Days of Payables=Cash Conversion Cycle. Inventory. My takeaway?
Managing spare parts inventory has always been a delicate balancing actexcess inventory ties up capital, while shortages risk costly downtime and production delays. Thats why a growing number of organizations are turning to AI software for spare parts inventory management. What is Spare Parts Inventory Management?
The implementations were longer, the purchase costs were higher, and the functionality was less robust and lacking flexibility. In addition, with over 30% of manufacturing and 55% of logistics outsourced, it is now a business network, not an enterprise, planning problem. I did not see it. Yet, the positive market perception continued.
Too much inventory in your distribution network? Inventory costs too high? These are all pervasive issues for supply chain operators worldwide—and are classic symptoms of suboptimal inventory performance. But what exactly does inventory optimisation mean, and what obstacles must first be broken down to achieve it?
Excess inventory – it’s taking up your warehouse space, tying up working capital, and limiting your planning team’s range of motion. It’s time to Marie Kondo your supply chain by eliminating excess inventory and learning how to avoid it in the first place. Let’s talk about: What Excess Inventory Is. What Causes Excess Inventory.
From the most basic to the most advanced organization, InventoryOptimization is a critical goal and one which underpins the effectiveness of the supply chain operation. InventoryOptimization requires an organization to sustain and maintain the right mix of cost versus service.
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