The two (2) managers of the large multinational consumer goods corporation coined it steady-stream. Both managers, one from sales and the other in charge of orders processing, agreed that the constant volume rushes every month-end were not acceptable. It would be more beneficial to have a smooth flow of supply rather than a spike atContinue reading “The Pros & Cons of Steady-Stream Supply Chains”
Tag Archives: production
Three (3) Questions Supply Chain Managers Always Need to Answer
When it comes right down to it, supply chain managers have three (3) questions to answer: How do we get what we need when we need it? How do we make available what whoever needs them at when they need them? How do we deliver to whomever wants them when they need them? When supplyContinue reading “Three (3) Questions Supply Chain Managers Always Need to Answer”
Appreciating the Value of Veteran Employees
When I was a young industrial engineer at the food production division of a multinational company, the accounting department asked me to find out why there was a large reported loss of refined coconut oil. They’re the ones we always look for when we need something. I went to the production manager and he toldContinue reading “Appreciating the Value of Veteran Employees”
Behold The PSI: A Basic Tool for Supply Chain Planning
The PSI or Production-Sales-Inventory is a basic spreadsheet template for supply chain planners. It looks like this: The PSI has three sections: production, sales, and inventories. Production represents the in-flow of an item or what’s going into inventory. A basic example is finished goods input coming from a manufacturing operation’s output. We can also callContinue reading “Behold The PSI: A Basic Tool for Supply Chain Planning”
Balancing Unstoppable Production and Benefiting from It
I used to work in a flat glass factory. The flat glass factory I worked at used float technology. It starts with a furnace that melts raw materials such as silica (sand), soda ash, dolomite, and limestone. Molten glass flows from the furnace to a tin bath, a chamber of molten tin, in which theContinue reading “Balancing Unstoppable Production and Benefiting from It”
Ellery's Essays 