Before we change, improve, or build our supply chains, we must first have a vision. We must first agree with our partners what we want our supply chains to become. Envisioning is not an activity of a single individual or enterprise when it comes to transforming our supply chains. It requires consensus between stakeholders ofContinue reading “Thirteen (13) Do’s & Don’ts in Supply Chain Envisioning”
Tag Archives: supply chains
Envisioning: The First Step to Building Supply Chains
Supply chains are big, long, comprehensive, and complicated. Managing them means dealing with multiple customers, vendors & service providers. We buy and deliver from and to distant places or just next-door. We sell many types of products and handle much more in raw & packaging materials and in-process inventories. We move merchandise via elaborate sea,Continue reading “Envisioning: The First Step to Building Supply Chains”
Relationships are What Makes Our Supply Chains
Supply chains are models of the relationships within and between enterprises which govern the flow of merchandise and services from their sources to end-users. We build our supply chains based on these relationships. The systems and structures of our organisations and with the enterprises we do business with stem from strategies and policies resulting fromContinue reading “Relationships are What Makes Our Supply Chains”
We Need Engineers to Solve Supply Chain Problems, Not Managers
We encounter lots of problems with supply chains. But how serious are these problems? How do we as managers prioritise which problems we will put most of our time and resources into? When the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020, governments immediately restricted the movements of people and merchandise. Continue reading “We Need Engineers to Solve Supply Chain Problems, Not Managers”
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”
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”
Attaining Flow via Systems & Platforms
We complain how little time we have. Or we complain about how long we have to wait. Either time is too short or too long. We lose track of time when we’re engrossed in a task. But we use a lot of it when we distract ourselves from our jobs. Time is an intangible resourceContinue reading “Attaining Flow via Systems & Platforms”
Developing the Right Demand Fulfilment Strategy
A large fast-food chain hired executives from a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) multinational. The owners of the fast-food chain wanted the best and the brightest and they thought that the former executives from the multinational FMCG would best meet their expectations. They were almost right. The former executives spent a lot of time revamping theContinue reading “Developing the Right Demand Fulfilment Strategy”
Ellery's Essays 