Category Archive

A different structure When will the next major disruption to your organisation’s supply chains occur? And what will be the cause – climate, conflict, pandemic, financial? For each of these questions there is not an answer, although many predictions. But if supply chain professionals wait until a disruption occurs before responding, then it may be too late for the business. … Read More

Cost to Serve for your customers If sales are made to customers without knowing the total cost of the business relationship, there are two major risks. The first is selling products to a customer that is thought to be profitable, but is not. The second is to negotiate increased sales or higher levels of service with customers that already incur an … Read More

Effectiveness or efficiency The previous blogpost discussed the benefits from reducing the number of stock keeping units (SKUs) offered for businesses operating in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer product goods (CPG) sector. Alternatively, there can be the necessity of adapting operations to an increase in the number of SKUs. A recent report, published by the consulting firm … Read More

Consumer facing businesses A consumer facing business is identified as either FMCG ‘fast moving consumer goods) or CPG (consumer packaged goods – governed by ‘use by’ dates). The previous blogpost identified that for these types of business, the Supply Chains group should have a product line elimination process as part of inventory management. Consumer facing businesses have the perceived need to … Read More

Can the future be forecast? The amount of complexity within the planning and scheduling of supply chains has enabled software suppliers to promote ‘solutions’ that provide answers to planning questions to four decimal places. But is this required? Think of yourself; you know more about you than anyone else. How far into the future (by week) can you forecast your … Read More