Blogs | SupplyChainBrain

Blogs: Page 254

How Much Inventory Do You Really Need?

Inventory is evil. Inventory is essential. The two statements aren't necessarily contradictory. Not if companies can figure out a way to determine the absolute minimum amount of stock needed to keep customers happy, while maintaining a tight lid on costs.

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In Modern Retail Replenishment, Once a Day Isn't Enough

For retailers, the bar just keeps getting raised. Supply-chain excellence used to be about filling orders seasonally. Then weekly. Then daily. Now we hear of merchandise being replenished multiple times a day. Is there no end to the madness?

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What It Takes to Be a Great Demand Planner

Companies say they are in dire need of competent supply and demand planners, but the requirements of that position today are so varied that you wonder whether a single person exists who can do the job. It calls for strong math and statistical skills, obviously, but a good planner must also be able to communicate well across the multiple "silos" of an organization. The right candidate will have a deep understanding of the requirements of manufacturing, logistics, marketing, sales and finance. Then there's the necessity of reaching outside company walls to suppliers and customers, to ensure that all parties are in agreement about what the demand forecast should be. Who are these freakishly talented individuals? And where can they be found?

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There Is No Magic Number for Demand Forecasting

Take a close look at any supply chain - even a single entity within it - and you're likely to uncover a hodgepodge of disciplines, each with its own method for forecasting demand, and each convinced of its superiority over everyone else's. So it only makes sense that companies would dream of coming up with a single forecast upon which all departments could agree.

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Megaship Mania: Who Will Benefit?

It takes the giant Emma Maersk, which carries the equivalent of nearly 15,000 twenty-foot containers (TEUs), about three and a half miles to come to a dead stop. But there's no stopping the Triple-E, Maersk Line's even larger class of containership, from entering the liner trades over the next three years.

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Economics 101: Did Ocean Carriers Miss the Lecture?

Judging from their actions, ocean carriers would love to toss out those irritating economics textbooks, with their tedious lessons about supply and demand. Too much capacity? No pricing discipline? Sluggish volume growth? Forget about it. Why should any of that prevent them from raising freight rates?

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Washington's Transportation Policy: Dancing Through the Minefield

One could say that transportation faces multiple hurdles in the coming year, in the guise of new regulations and legislation that promise to have a serious impact on all modes. Me? I prefer to think of it as a minefield.

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Collaborative Purchasing, Revisited

So collaborative purchasing appears feasible for the restaurant industry. But what about other business sectors? Can different companies - even direct competitors - really band together to get better deals from their suppliers?

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Are Robots Taking Over the Warehouse?

It seems like a cruel joke. At the same time we hear about the return of manufacturing jobs from Asia to the U.S., we are inundated with stories about the growth of robotics, which threatens to take away those very jobs for good.

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Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Economists

Is it a waste of time to make economic forecasts? Even the most respected prognosticators are wrong as often as they're right. And the most sweeping changes? Hardly anyone ever sees them coming.

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Data Analysis Should Reflect Forward-Thinking

Change the way you utilize data so that it reflects a forward-thinking approach to business and marketing strategies.

Price Isn't Everything, But Supplier Auctions Still Make Sense

I've spent the last couple of posts urging procurement executives not to focus solely on price when they're choosing suppliers. Service, product quality, financial health, social responsibility and exposure to natural disasters and other potential disruptions are all elements that need to be factored into the mix. So you'd think this enlightened attitude would pretty much rule out the use of auctions for selecting vendors, right?

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