Email
sinha.rk.dr@gmail.com
Impatience in getting Supply Chain results is a major cause of chaos.
Many Supply Chain teams, in their journey of improvement and transformation, often experience chaos from time to time. What could be the reasons?
In my opinion, there are two main reasons. The first one relates to the design of the supply chain, which must strike a fine balance between sensitivity and stability. Sensitivity refers to the relative weightage of recent trends, cyclicity and seasonality. If we care more for the recent trends, it could lead to volatility in supply plans, especially in the presence of cyclic factors like month-end, quarter-end and year-end. On the other hand, if we err on the side of stability, we may end up ignoring demand shifts.
The other reason is our impatience to get quick results after fine tuning the design parameters. The results often take time to show up. If we refuse to wait and get into a continuous tweaking mode in the meantime, we may ourselves induce chaos in the supply recommendations.
If you experience high volatility and chaos in supply plans, have a relook at the supply chain design and appreciate the reality of delayed response!