We encounter lots of problems with supply chains. Customers complain about late and incomplete deliveries; Vendors charge higher prices for materials; Some products turned out defective; Manufacturing didn’t follow the production plan; Trucks didn’t show up to load for delivery; Expenses are running over budget; We don’t have enough skilled people for our operations. ButContinue reading “We Need Engineers to Solve Supply Chain Problems, Not Managers”
Tag Archives: logistics
Value Chains, Supply Chains, & Our Wrong Mindsets
Michael Porter introduced the Value Chain model in his seminal book, Competitive Advantage,1 in 1985. The value chain broke down activities of the firm (the enterprise) and how they collectively contribute to the value of products & services. How well activities perform and interrelate would manifest in the margins, which are the difference between valueContinue reading “Value Chains, Supply Chains, & Our Wrong Mindsets”
Comparing Supply Chain Management versus Supply Chain Engineering
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”
Starting with the Symptoms
We encounter frequent symptoms with our supply chains. One reason is our supply chains are large in scope. Supply chains start from the source (e.g. mining of raw materials, harvest of agricultural crops), pass through a multitude of activities that supposedly add value (e.g., procurement, storage, manufacturing, handling, dispatch, transport), and end with our targetContinue reading “Starting with the Symptoms”
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: 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?”
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”
