Ellery

Managing Performance

We as supply chain managers typically oversee the following: It’s all part of our job to be perfect in serving customers and productive in meeting the standards of our superiors. We manage demand to synchronise supply. We manage inventories to make available products & services and make sure we don’t have too much (or tooContinue reading “Managing Performance”

Managing Inventory

One common priority we have as supply chain managers is managing inventories. We make items available when needed but at the same time make sure we don’t have too much that ties up our enterprises’ money. Sometimes, inventory management takes so much of our time that it dominates our job more than anything else. InventoryContinue reading “Managing Inventory”

Managing Demand

Supply chains had been under a lot of pressure. Since year 2020, supply chain managers had to deal with shortages in merchandise and rising costs for reasons traced to the coronavirus pandemic, natural disasters, deteriorating trade relations between countries, and military conflicts. The need for supply chain engineering was mentioned repeatedly as a newContinue reading “Managing Demand”

We Should Be Grateful to People We Don’t See

We say ‘thank you’ when people send us a gift, open a door for us, or treated us to lunch. We thank people we see. But how about people we don’t see? When we eat at a restaurant, we thank the waiter. But do we thank the chef, his assistants, the dishwashers, and the administrativeContinue reading “We Should Be Grateful to People We Don’t See”

We’re Expected to be Perfect & Productive in Demand Fulfilment

Supply chains encompass most, if not all, of what we use in our daily lives. And for those of us who work in them, the supply chain professionals, we only have one basic task: Fulfil Demand And when we do that task: They expect nothing less. We can’t afford to be less than perfect andContinue reading “We’re Expected to be Perfect & Productive in Demand Fulfilment”

What Should We Do When There’s Clamour?

In November 2022, this happened: One month earlier, in Manila, Philippines (and similarly in other places around the world), this also happened: And from mid-year 2022 to April 2023, as demand for travel spiked after many countries lifted three (3) years of coronavirus pandemic restrictions: When demand for products & services and enterprises are unableContinue reading “What Should We Do When There’s Clamour?”

What Our Superiors Expect

Customers expect perfection in service. But what do our superiors expect? For those among us who are supply chain professionals or managers, we answer to our employers, our superiors or bosses, the owners and executives who rule the enterprises we work for. And as much as customers expect us to be perfect in serving them,Continue reading “What Our Superiors Expect”

What Our Customers Expect

What do our customers expect from us? The Total Quality movement from the 1980’s preached that the people we work with are either “suppliers” or “customers.” We played the role of either one. The idea of TQM was to do the right thing right the first time when we, as “suppliers,” serve our “customers.” WeContinue reading “What Our Customers Expect”

Two Kinds of Customers

Two (2) occupants of two (2) condominium residences were refusing to pay their share of association and water bills. They, in fact, haven’t paid for over a year despite repeated follow-ups from the condominium’s treasurer. The rationale of both occupants (who happen to be sisters, by the way) was that the condominium association wasn’t legal,Continue reading “Two Kinds of Customers”

We are Consumers in a Take-It-or-Leave-It World

I’ll never fly, Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, ever again. At least I’ll avoid it as much as I could. The Emirates flight I took from Manila to Dubai was horrible. I had a economy seat in which I could not get the in-flight entertainment system to work. The flight attendants ignored my requests for assistance. Continue reading “We are Consumers in a Take-It-or-Leave-It World”