What’s the difference between supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain engineering (SCE)? Supply chain management is the management of people, structures, & systems that underlie the relationships of functions which enable the flow of merchandise & services from their sources to their destinations and users. SCMs work with existing systems & structures as theyContinue reading “Comparing Supply Chain Management versus Supply Chain Engineering”
Category Archives: The Supply Chain Engineer
Managing Performance
We as supply chain managers typically oversee the following: Demand Inventories Performance 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 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’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: Our customers expect we do it perfectly; Our superiors expect we do itContinue reading “We’re Expected to be Perfect & Productive in Demand Fulfilment”
What Should We Do When There’s Clamour?
In November 2022, this happened: The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster crash. Ticketmaster, an online ticket sales platform, cancelled ticket sales for popular singer Taylor Swift’s 2023 United States concert tour after its online ticket purchasing system crashed. The company cited “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.” Investigations and numerous complaints followedContinue 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”
Three (3) Real-Life Cases of Demand Fulfilment
We fulfil demand in different ways. For instance, we make products available such as at store shelves. Another example is we customise and deliver based on what our customers order. We encounter challenges in fulfilling demand, however. And we sometimes don’t know we do. The Case of the Missing Dumpling I went to aContinue reading “Three (3) Real-Life Cases of Demand Fulfilment”
Demand Fulfilment Begins Before the Order, Not After
As managers of our enterprises. we entice our customers to select our products & services. Once our customers show interest in the items we are selling, the demand creation process comes closer to ending, and the demand fulfilment comes closer to beginning. Hence, we don’t wait for customers to order when we start the fulfilmentContinue reading “Demand Fulfilment Begins Before the Order, Not After”
