A CEO’s ‘inner sanctum’ At a recent industry event, a panel member whose consulting business advises companies on Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), spoke about the ‘inner sanctum’ of CEOs. This selected group of executives meets when there is a situation that requires decisions that can seriously affect the business. The panel member’s experience was that only in about 20 … Read More
Business Plan requires Supply Chain inventory inputs
Inventory budget approach by Finance The Business Planning process, which includes budgets is typically controlled by Finance. How does Finance calculate the average value of inventory which the business can support? Is the Supply Chains group (Procurement, Operations Planning and Logistics) able to identify whether the figure provided by Finance is achievable? The Business Planning process is discussed in the … Read More
Select and Implement AI not different in Supply Chains
An announcement about AI The more general use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) became a step closer with the recent announcement by Microsoft of Copilot for Office 365. However, does this mean the beginning of the Peak of inflated expectations (from the Gartner Hype Cycle)? This is when the hype of the new technology, its multiple uses and ease of implement … Read More
Which items are critical (or not) in your supply chains?
Are tomatoes a critical item? Recent alarm in the UK concerning a shortage of tomatoes highlights the question for your organisation’s supply chains. Which items are identified as critical for finished products? The BBC reported that UK authorities said the tomato shortage would last a few weeks and was due to cold weather in Spain and North Africa, which was … Read More
Define Supply Chains Design with a description of Flows
Effectiveness for supply chains There remains too much of a focus in business on efficiency of the organisation’s many silos (teams, departments, groups etc). However, your customers’ concern is how the organisation’s supply chains are able to satisfy their needs – how effective is your business? So, a critical aspect of your organisation’s supply chains is not the efficiency of … Read More