Archive for Supply Chain Planning – Page 3

Gob was a self-educated turkey. He studied statistics for fun. His quarters were a bit tight at the farm, but the upside was that for 140 days straight he had been fed a nice grain meal. And as he got older, the meals got bigger. Based on this history and his statistical models, Gob had very high expectations of receiving another nice meal tomorrow from Farmer Joe, who obviously had… Continue reading

Last summer, I wrote a posting highlighting the “white spaces” of transportation management—i.e., existing opportunities for companies and software vendors to innovate the way transportation is planned and executed. In many cases, these opportunities are not new, but either the technology hasn’t existed to enable them very well or companies have simply chosen to focus on other priorities.

One positive effect of the recession is that it has… Continue reading

I received a press release earlier this month from AspenTech (an ARC client) claiming that its customer Samsung Total Petrochemicals expects more than $5 million in annual savings after implementing one of its solutions. This claim caught my eye not only because of the size of the savings, but also because it’s rare for supply chain software vendors to make specific savings claims in their press releases… Continue reading

Supply chain best practices preach the benefits of end-to-end, integrated business processes. We regularly hear analysts and industry experts tell companies, “Your supply chain is fragmented and you must connect it.” And while some traditionally silo-based groups are doing better at sharing information and connecting their supply chain, most organizations are not planning and executing across functional domains to create a truly interconnected and collaborative supply chain. 

Demand planning… Continue reading

The Unbiased Forecast

I’ve been interviewing supply chain executives at consumer goods manufacturers to learn how they are using downstream data. A key focus area for these executives is using this data to improve the accuracy of their demand forecasts.

A couple of the executives I interviewed raised an interesting point about forecasting that I don’t remember coming across before: the importance of having an unbiased forecast. Forecasts, by their very nature… Continue reading

Categories : Supply Chain Planning
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