Email
sinha.rk.dr@gmail.com
Is your quest for perfection delaying certain decisions?
Supply Chain professionals need to take two types of decisions in their role.
The first type requires committing substantial resources, and the decision is difficult to reverse or modify. Examples include setting up a major factory, investing in physical distribution infrastructure, long term contract with vendor for a critical input material like semiconductor, etc. We should spend enough time and deliberate before taking such calls. Certain optimization models also come in handy for these types of decisions.
The second type are repetitive decisions in supply chain execution. These are daily decisions and should be taken fast using the information readily available. Speed and agility matter in these decisions. Even if something goes wrong, it can be easily corrected the next day.
While the above looks quite obvious, you may be surprised when you have a relook at your supply chain operations. Take input material procurement, production scheduling, distribution planning as examples. Using optimizers for these decisions and running them once a month is far less efficient and effective than using heuristics and a fast feedback loop on daily basis.