The large consumer goods company where I used to work as shipping manager had a central warehouse which served customers via distributors in different regions of the country. My former boss boasted then that the company saved plenty of money from not having depots. A company that sells laptops & printers utilises a 3rd partyContinue reading “How Many Depots Does Your Business Need?”
Tag Archives: enterprise
Seeking Success from Order-to-Delivery Systems
There I was. The shipping manager of a multinational consumer goods corporation. Pending orders were piling up. Sales & marketing managers were calling, asking, and following up why shipments weren’t arriving at stores. The manufacturing lines were running. The warehouse was full. The shipping department was loading trucks. Why weren’t orders being served? There wasContinue reading “Seeking Success from Order-to-Delivery Systems”
What is the Aim of Serving Orders?
The CEO of the consumer goods multinational put me on the hot seat. “Why aren’t we serving these pending orders?” He pointed to the pages of computer printouts on the conference room table. I didn’t understand why I was the only one there. Where was the chief supply chain officer or the logistics director? ItContinue reading “What is the Aim of Serving Orders?”
Solving Urgent Problems in Supply Chains
A shipping manager of a medium-sized consumer goods company is dispatching deliveries one morning. One of the company’s trucks unfortunately won’t start. The driver says the battery is dead. The truck is loaded with products a customer ordered and is waiting to receive. The truck is twenty (20) years old, and the manager already securedContinue reading “Solving Urgent Problems in Supply Chains”
How Do Supply Chains Fit into Your Firm’s Priorities? (Wrong Question)
Supply chains are the lifelines of the products & services of enterprises. Hence, executives should manage their enterprises’ supply chains to ensure they will meet strategic goals. Nice answer. Wrong question. Supply chains don’t fit into the priorities of enterprises. It’s the other way around. Enterprises must fit into the supply chains they are linkedContinue reading “How Do Supply Chains Fit into Your Firm’s Priorities? (Wrong Question)”
Lost Opportunities are Unsolved Problems
A company was stuck in a vicious cycle. The company delivered orders late. Customers did not pay right away for deliveries received, citing the tardy arrivals of their orders. The ensuing tight cashflow caused delays in purchasing and importing critical raw materials. Manufacturing could not make products on schedule. Logistics, therefore, could not deliver pendingContinue reading “Lost Opportunities are Unsolved Problems”
Inventory Record Accuracy: A Step to Supply Chain Improvement
Managers of a large food condiments manufacturer bragged that their finished products Inventory Record Accuracy (IRA) was 99%. They added that they met this level constantly, not just when I as a consultant was there auditing the manufacturer’s supply chain operations. How do you compute the IRA? I asked the warehouse manager. The warehouse officeContinue reading “Inventory Record Accuracy: A Step to Supply Chain Improvement”
What Do You Want from Supply Chains?
There is no straightforward answer to this question. Supply chains have multiple stakeholders. These stakeholders consist of individuals and enterprises which serve as the links of the supply chains. Every enterprise also has an internal supply chain, which makes the people of the enterprise stakeholders to the larger supply chain. Stakeholders, therefore, would differ onContinue reading “What Do You Want from Supply Chains?”
What’s the Metric for Resilience?
Many executives insist their organisations need to be resilient. Given all the adversities and disruptions businesses had experienced, it’s understandable to believe resilience is vital. Resilience is “an organization’s ability to adapt to and recover from disruptions, such as natural disasters or market shifts, while maintaining core operations and continuing to function.” But how doesContinue reading “What’s the Metric for Resilience?”
What the Supply Chain Must Be
There are many things we like supply chains to be. Popular examples are resilient, sustainable, and agile. For some of those at the end of the chain, they’d simply want them to be dependable or on time, especially when it comes to deliveries. And for many supply chain professionals, they’d want vendor supplies to beContinue reading “What the Supply Chain Must Be”
Ellery's Essays 