Focus your supply chain organisation. The overall objective of your supply chains is to ‘satisfy customer needs’. To achieve this requires ‘the time-related positioning of internal and external resources to provide availability of goods and services for customers at the lowest total cost’. This answers the question from senior management concerning ‘What will be gained from the supply chain organisation?’ … Read More
Altering your supply network can be a big exercise
Supply chains are more than cost. The recent US presidential campaign shone the light on bringing jobs back to America – sometimes called on-shoring or re-shoring. Although Apple has been the target company, the possibility is there for many other businesses. But while the rhetoric and comments have mainly focused on costs and price, little discussion has occurred about the … Read More
Demand is amplified as it goes through supply chains
Pioneer work in supply networks. The concepts and rules by which Logistics functions within organisations are much like a wheel. At the hub are the foundations by which the discipline and associated IT applications work and at the rim of the wheel are ‘new’ discoveries. These are often adaptations of established concepts, typically with a different name. One of those … Read More
Logistics and Sales together for commercial advantage
Buyer power tested in court. Business relationships are not about ‘partnership’ but about exercising power to gain commercial advantage. This has again been shown in a current court case in Australia, where a major retailer is charged with ‘unconscionable conduct’. That conduct was to ‘ask’ tier B suppliers to provide cash (up to $1.4m each, with four days to pay), … Read More
Flexibility in Logistics needs control of customer orders
Placing the order decoupling point. Being flexible and agile does not mean ‘free for all’. There must be control at that point which separates satisfying customer orders from planning operations. This is where customer orders are accepted and reserved; final product specifications are defined and the last point from which inventory is released. The objective is to provide flexibility for … Read More