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Supply Chain agility separates winners from also-rans.

We are now in an era of unprecedented channel proliferation, increasing demand volatility and frequent supply disruptions. What really separates winners from also-rans in this context?

Winners sense demand shifts faster than their competitors.
Winners respond faster to these demand changes.
Winners have flexible supply network to do it repeatedly across various scenarios.

These are the characteristics of an Agile Supply Chain.

Do you want to be the winner or an also-ran?

The choice is yours…

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Improving Efficiency Of Supply Chain Processes? Be Careful...

When The Going Gets Tough...

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Impact Of ‘Leap Year’ Is Often Ignored In Supply Chain Planning

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Handle The ‘Fear Of Unknown’ Carefully In Supply Chain Transformation Projects

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Are You Planning A Major Investment In Supply Chain Planning Software?

Consumers Are Predictably Irrational... Are They?

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‘Inventory Days’ Can Be Misleading As An Indicator Of ‘Product Freshness’

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How Soon Can You Spot A Googly?

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Established FMCG Companies Face Significant Challenges In Adding D2C Channel To Their Supply Chain Network

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Cost Reduction Programs In Supply Chain Often Miss Out On Major Profit Improvement Opportunities

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Dynamic Supply Chains Work On Heuristics

Inertia In Demand Forecasting Leads To Higher Errors

Why Do FMCG Companies Struggle To Improve Both Availability And Freshness Together?

How To Make Your Supply Chain More Agile And Efficient?

Our Favourite Supply Chain Design Can Still Be Improved

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Simple Is Not Easy

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How Do You Know Your Supply Chain Is Better Than The Competition?

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‘Stocked Out’ Or ‘Sold Out’?

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Where Should You Prioritize Flexibility Improvement In Supply Chain?

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Is Your Supply Chain Initiative Removing A Significant Limitation For The Company?

Many Wrong Beliefs In Supply Chain Are Based On A Limited View Of The Reality

VMI Implementation In Supply Chain Often Falls Short Of The Promised Benefits

DDSC Works Best When ‘Measurements’ Are Changed Accordingly

Sales Team’s Alignment Is A Pre-Requisite For Moving To Demand Driven Supply Chain

Does The Word ‘Constraint’ Evoke A Positive Or A Negative Feeling In You?

Why Do Some Change Management Efforts In Supply Chain Fail To Deliver?

Does Your Supply Chain Execution Require Too Many Manual Interventions?

Does Intuition Play A Role In Supply Chain Improvements?

DDSC Impact On Production And Procurement Functions Must Be Carefully Calibrated

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How Should We Facilitate Change Management For Supply Chain Initiatives?

Never Say I Know

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Do You See Obstacles In Moving To Demand Driven Supply Chain?

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Fast Feedback Loops Are At The Heart Of An Agile Supply Chain Design

How Do We Know When The Current Supply Chain Processes Need A Review And Change?

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Should We Use Monthly Forecasts For Finished Goods Deployment?

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FOMO In Supply Chain!

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‘Replenish To Consumption’ Is Suboptimal In Certain Situations

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Do Vendors Prefer Monthly Or Weekly Rolling Orders?

How Frequently Should S&OE Give Feedback To S&OP?

How Does Your Demand Planning Tool Handle ‘False Positives’ In New Product Sales?

People Are Good, Improve The Process!

How Is Your Interface Between S&OP And S&OE?

Supply Chain Teams Often Suffer From Vendor Reliability Issues

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How Should Companies Improve Their Sales Forecast Accuracy?

Management Policies Often Come In The Way Of Breakthrough Improvements In Supply Chain!

What Catches Your Attention On Gemba Walks?

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Experimentation Culture In An Organisation Needs Guard Rails

Simplify The Customer Facing Processes

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Is Your Production Line Running At Full Capacity?

Technology Solutions Can Sometimes Turn Into A Disabler!

Benefits Of Improvement In Supply Chain Come In Several Layers

Go With The Flow

Are You Consciously Reducing The Improvement Latency In The Supply Chain?

How Is Our Knowledge To Assumption Ratio For Supply Chain Planning And Execution?

Demand Outlook Across Different Time Horizons Often Give Conflicting Signals

How Do You Handle An Unusually Large Order In An MTS Environment?

MTS In MTO Environment Is An Important Part Of Supply Chain Strategy

Focus On Asset Utilisation Often Has An Adverse Impact On Supply Chain Performance!

Collaboration In Supply Chain Is Key To Success!

Is The Annual Budgeting Exercise Affecting Your Supply Chain Execution?

If You Don’t Push, You Won’t Face Resistance!

Empower The Last Mile For Agility!

One Way Streets Are Such A Delight For Motorists!

When WIP is not work in progress!

Is OTIF An Integral Part Of Our Organisation Culture?

How To Approach Supply Chain Transformation Projects?

Murphy And Serendipity In Supply Chain Are Two Faces Of The Same Coin

Do Push Sales Really Work?

Dashboard Design Should Focus On The System Constraint

How Dynamic Is Your Supply Chain Dashboard Design?

‘Employee Of The Week’ Database Is Full Of Insights For Supply Chain Improvements

How Do We Develop Our Ability To Respond To Market Shifts?

Fast Feedback Loop On Supply Chain Improvement Projects Helps

TMM 2023 Was Quite A Unique Experience!

Let’s Keep Our Eyes Open To Emerging Demand Patterns In Supply Chain Planning And Execution

Supply Chain Is Not Rocket Science!

Exception Monitoring Is Fundamental To Sustained And Ongoing Improvements In Supply Chain

Profit Improvement Initiatives In Supply Chain Often Leave Out Some High Impact Areas

How Do We Know That We Have Identified The Right Actions For Supply Chain Improvement Initiatives?

‘Fear Of Success’ Is Often An Obstacle In Supply Chain Improvements!

New Year Resolutions Often Reflect A ‘Large Batch’ Mindset

Measurements In Supply Chain Have A Huge Impact On The Direction Of Improvement

How Frequently Do You Improve Your Supply Chain?

Large Scale Digital Transformation Of Supply Chains Often Fails To Deliver The Promised Benefits

How Should We Manage A Sudden Surge In Customer Waiting Times?

Who Should Mastermind The End-to-end Supply Chain Planning And Execution?

How Do We Create Harmony Among Supply Chain Partners?

The ‘Power Of One’ In Supply Chains Is Incredibly Powerful

Do Mass Customisations For Customers Increase Supply Chain Complexity?

Should You Improve The Flexibility Of Your Production Lines?

Supply Chains Have Inherent Simplicity

Why Do So Many Change Efforts In Supply Chain Fail To Deliver?

Why Do Vendors Offer Quantity Based Discounts?

How Do We Reduce Our Dependence On Sales Forecast For Supply Chain Planning And Execution?

Are Stockouts And Inventory Pileups In Supply Chain Caused By Poor Forecast Accuracy?

Do You Believe In The Weather Forecasts?

Should We Predict Demand At The Granular Level Or At An Aggregate Level?

Current Practices In The Apparel Industry Supply Chain Lead To Stockouts And Discounts

Assumptions Behind Prevailing Industry Practices In Supply Chain Must Be Questioned For Breakthrough Improvements

Is Your Supply Chain Designed For Resilience During Disruptions?

Do brand promotions perform uniformly across geographies and channels in your Supply Chain?

How Do We Deal With Conflicting Objectives In Supply Chain?

Are You Leveraging The Asymmetry In Cost Of Stockouts And Excess Inventory?

Are We Questioning The Various Assumptions Made In Supply Chain Design And Execution?

Chaos Theory Has Good Learnings For Supply Chain Leaders

Order And Chaos Are Like Yin And Yang In Supply Chains

Are We Imposing Certainty On Uncertain Events?

Adaptability Of Supply Chains Is The Key To Sustained Excellence

Move Beyond The Comfort Zones To Excel In Your Supply Chain Performance

Are Functional KPIs Preventing Your Supply Chain To Become More Flexible?

Are We Aligned With Our Customers On Key Business Performance Metrics?

Fast And Reliable Delivery Does Command A Premium!

How Should You Design Your Supply Chain To Improve Its Effectiveness?

Vendors Are More Flexible Than We Assume

Should The Safety Stocks Built In Supply Chain Inventory Buffers Be Based On Demand Variability?

What Lies At The Root Of Frequent Firefighting In Supply Chains?

How Assorted Are Your Supply Chain Distribution Consignments?

How Should We Deal With Variations In Supply Chain?

How Do You View Variations In Various Supply Chain Processes?

Are You Still Searching For The Perfect Supply Chain Planning Solution?

How Soon Do You See The Impact Of Your Supply Chain Improvement Initiatives?

How Should You Prioritise The Supply Chain Improvement Initiatives?

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How Insightful Is Your Root Cause Analysis Of The Performance Gaps In Supply Chain?

Supply Chains Must Adapt To The Changing Business Realities

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Why Do Supply Chain Functions Resist Frequent Forecast Changes?

The Primary Objective Of Operations Is To Improve Flow In The Supply Chain

Are You Aiming For 100% Utilization Of Your Supply Chain Resources?

Give The Slow Movers In Your Supply Chain A Chance To Accelerate!

How To Spot Violation Of The Flow Principles In A Supply Chain?

Focus On Production Efficiency Often Leads To Lower Profits… Be Careful!

Benchmarking Efforts In Supply Chains Often Lead To Suboptimal Solutions

Capacity Constraints In Supply Chains Need ‘Flow’ Solutions

Only A Few Performance Measures Impact The Business Profits

How Rigid Is Your MTO-MTS Classification Of The Portfolio?

Profitability Improvement Projects Often Fail To Deliver Sustained Results

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Beauty Lies In Simplicity Of Supply Chains

Are We Launching ‘Minimum Viable Products’ For Early Experimentation?

Quantum Of Inventory Buffer Change In Supply Chains Is Key To Maintaining A Balance Between Stability And Responsiveness

How Frequently Should We Resize The Supply Chain Inventory Buffers?

What Should Be The Trigger For Buffer Changes?

Sizing Of Inventory Buffers Is A Key Parameter To Improve Both Availability As Well As Freshness

Is Your Current Inventory Buffer Management System Dynamic Enough To Reflect Market Reality?

Poor Response Is Often Caused By Ineffective Supply Chain Design

Should We Aim For Perfection?

How To Overcome Inertia For Major Supply Chain Improvement Initiatives?

Does Your Major Supply Chain Initiative Compromise Any KPI?

How Effective Is Your Company’s Biggest Initiative?

Why Do We Love Google Maps?

Consumer Messaging Must Be Clear, Unambiguous, And Non-Conflicting

Customer Fulfilment Issues Are Systemic, Not Functional

Teams Learning Together Perform Better

Are You Stressed During Consumer Promotions?

Who Stole My Precious Semiconductor Chips?

At What Level Of Granularity Should You Predict Demand?

Who Is Stealing Your Critical Production Capacity?

Capacity Shortages Don’t Need Fresh Investments!

How Do You Respond To Surprises In Your Supply Chain?

At What Granularity Should We Plan Various Supply Chain Activities?

Are Your Supply Chain Improvements Focused On The Major Impact Areas?

Selecting Vendors On Least Cost Basis Is A Costly Affair!

Does Intuition Play A Role In Supply Chain Execution?

Supply Chains Have A Lot Of Grey Areas

Root Causes Of Various Supply Chain Symptoms Converge!

Is Product Freshness Important Only For Perishables?

How Should You Handle The Noise In Demand Signals?

Why Do We Resist Frequent Forecast Changes?

Improving Teamwork Amongst The Supply Chain Members Needs A Fundamental Rethink

Do You Have A Cost Reduction Target Next Year?

Less Is More In Supply Chains

Is Your Production Plan Truly Demand Driven?

Tweaking The Planning Frequency Can Result In A Substantial Improvement In Supply Chain Performance

Cost Of Stockouts Is Often The Biggest Cost In Supply Chains

OTIF In Conversations Is Important For Supply Chain Excellence

Do You Classify Your Product Portfolio As ABC?

How Should We Set The Supply Chain Improvement Targets?

Is Your Supply Chain Getting Increasingly Complex?

Should You Segment Your Supply Chain?

For Eliminating Bullwhip Effect In Supply Chains, Transparency Of Demand Is Necessary But Not Sufficient

Is Your Supply Chain Cost Cutting Project Hurting Your Customers?

How High Are Your Supply Chain Ambitions?

Reliability Of Supply Chains Is Often Affected By Seemingly Innocuous Hygiene Factors

When Should You Allocate Stocks To Various Customer Channels?

Production Targets And Inventory Targets Have An Inherent Conflict

Do You Compromise On Flexibility To Gain A Reliable Supply Chain Performance?

Do You Witness A Gap Between Your Supply Chain Planning And Execution?

Do You Know The Short-Term Demand?

Is Your Supply Chain Stressed During New Product Introductions?

Have You Tried To Move Out Of Your Comfort Zone For Supply Chain Improvements?

Work Expands To Fill The Lead Time Available

Can Your Supply Chain Handle Grey Swan Events?

Where Should You Start Your Supply Chain Transformation Journey?

The Most Powerful Supply Chain Solutions Are Based On Inherent Simplicity

Is Your Supply Chain On A Continuous Improvement Path?

Should FMCG Companies Switch From Primary To Secondary Sales For Demand Predictions?

When Should You Relook At The Design Of Your Supply Chain?

New Year Resolutions – Why Some Of Them Stick While Others Don’t?

Challenges In 2021 Pushed The Boundaries Of Agility Even Further

How Should The Q-Commerce Companies Look At Assortment And Availability?

Is Consumers’ Purchase Intention Influenced By Product Freshness?

Pushing Extra Stocks To Your Channel Partners Is A Win-Lose Strategy

Refrain From Jumping Straight Into The Optimization Models!

Agility Of A Supply Chain Is Tested During Consumer Promotions

Give Your New Products A Chance To Succeed

Is Your Distribution Network Optimized For Agility? Or Cost?

How You Share The Value Surplus With Your Customers Is Key To Maximizing Your Throughput

Is Your Solution Customized To Solve Specific Pain Area Of The Customer?

Should We Perform ABC Analysis On Emerging Trends?

How Do You Navigate Speed Breakers?

Who Is Your Most Demanding Customer?

Who Should Publish A Company’s Supply Chain Scorecard?

Can Quantum Theory Provide A Solution To Multitasking?

Success In Q-commerce Requires The Highest Level Of Supply Chain Agility

Embrace Uncertainty

Good Habits Die Hard

Handling Diverse Functions Early In The Career Helps Supply Chain Professionals In Developing A Broader Perspective

Transparency Across The Value Chain Is Important For Faster Response

Thank You, Murphy For Making Our Supply Chains More Robust

Company Policies Often Come In The Way Of Faster Response

Replenishment Orders Are Often Understated

How Do You Make Your Supply Chain More Responsive?

How Should You Balance A Serial Production Line?

How Effective Is Your Exception Monitoring Process?

Are You Comfortable In Sharing Your KPIs With Consumers?

Do Supply Chains Suffer From Murphy’s Law?

Supply Chain Improvement Projects Yield Benefits With A Time Lag

Supply Chain Excellence Requires Managing By Exception

Why Should We Forecast Consumer Demand?

A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step

How Do You Break A Brick With Your Palm?

How do we internalize OTIF?

Are You Succeeding Too Often?

Is Your Supply Chain Designed For Concurrent Response To A Demand Shift?

Some Of Your Customers May Ask For Difficult Commitments

Customers Love Consistency Of Your Delivery

Constraints Are Useful

Would You Help Your Sales Team With A Disruptive Offering?

Is Your Quest For Perfection Delaying Certain Decisions?

Do We Need Segmentation In Supply Chain?

The Third Step Of A Change Management Effort Is The Key For Teams Buy-In

Resisting Change Is Like Holding Your Breath!

Does Your Supply Chain Focus Toggle Between Conflicting Priorities?

Can A System Operate Without Constraints?

When The Demand Patterns Change, Who Walks Away With The Additional Demand?

In Case Of A Sudden Demand Surge, Fast Response May Not Be Sufficient

How Do We Improve Flexibility In Logistics, Production And Procurement?

Are You Struggling With Too Many Initiatives?

Is Your Supply Chain Designed To Win At The Marketplace?

Agile Supply Chain Helps In Meeting Your Customers’ Ever Tightening Requirements

A Major Cause Of Supply Chain Issues Is The Rigidity In Forecasting

Tell-Tale Signs Of A Real Capacity Shortage Are Easy To Spot

Have You Identified The Right System Constraint?

What’s Holding You Back From Achieving More Of Your Goal?

Should We Motivate The Supply Chain Team For Excellence?

Excess Inventory Causing Stockouts?

What’s The Thread Connecting Your Integrated Planning Process?

Have You Created Inter-dependence With Your Supply Chain Partners?

Are You Leveraging The Power Of PDCA In Supply Chain Improvement?

How Much Inventory Should You Push Close To Consumers?

Do You Monitor Stockouts Over The Weekends As Well?

Are You Affected By The Shiny Object Syndrome?

Replenishment Process Creates Harmony Between Sales And Operations

How Quickly Can You Decipher A Shift In Demand Pattern?

MTS / MTO Classification Should Be Dynamic

Are We Managing The Current Chip Shortage As Per Toc Principles?

How Transparent Are Our Vendor Relations?

What’s Common In The Goals Of Your Supply Chain Team Members?

Production Scheduling Holds The Key To Product Availability And Freshness

Maharashtra’s Unlock Policy Is A Good Lesson In Segmentation

Do You Remember Little’s Law?

Are You Externalizing The Cause Of Supply Chain Underperformance?

People Are Good, Question The Process!

Believing Is Seeing!

Véjà Du - Open The Doors To Unlimited Improvements

Forecast Accuracy Continues To Be A Pain Point

Are You Visiting The Gemba Often?

Do You Encourage Multitasking?

How do we define product availability?

Are We Living With Compromises?

Flow Principles Would Help In Improving The Vaccination Experience

Problem Definition In Supply Chain Improvements Is Often Too Narrow

Rated Capacity Of An Equipment Is Often An Obstacle In Releasing More Capacity

Pharma Companies Should Improve Their Production Flexibility To Serve Better During The Pandemic

JIT In Supply Chain Works Only Under Certain Specific Conditions

Quality Is Not Free

Stepping Into Your Customers’ Shoes Is Often Sub-Optimal

Improvement Efforts Need To Be Directed And Targeted In Constraint Areas

Do You Face Occasional Shortage Of Components On Assembly Lines?

Why Is OTIF Such An Important Measure?

Quality Inspections Are Often Error Prone

Cutting Lead Times Actually Accelerates The Business

Improvement Is An Ongoing Process

Is Your Team Stressed At The Year End Today?

Do Demand Disruptions Cause Chaos In Your Supply Chain?

High Inventory Norms At CFAs Could Hamper The Service Level

Setup Times Can Be Reduced

Impact Of Adding Regional Warehouses On The Overall Inventory Is Positive

Good Supply Chain Solutions Look Simplistic ‘In Hindsight’

Do You Worry About Slips Between Supply Planning And Execution?

Are Your Freight Contracts Agile?

How Do You Measure Lost Sales?

Does Nature Buffer All Our Critical Requirements?

Does Nature Keep Inventory Buffers?

Convergence And Divergence Points Serve As Good Nodes For Inventory Buffer

Inventory Nodes In The Distribution Network Should Be Properly Defined To Get Agility Benefits

Inventory Compensates For Our Agility Gap

Frequency Of Execution Planning Is A Key Determinant Of Supply Chain Agility

Concept Of ‘Month’ Is Detrimental To Supply Chain Performance

‘Future Ready’ Initiatives Often Fail To Deliver The Intended Benefits

Focus On Functional Excellence Often Leads To Supply Chain Underperformance

‘Stockouts And Obsolescence Are Caused By Poor Forecast Accuracy’ Is An Erroneous Assumption

Erroneous Assumptions Can Make Your Supply Chain Look Very Complex

Supply Chain Transformation Is An Art

How Should We Implement Large Scale Supply Chain Transformation Projects?

There Are Two Distinct Needs To Improve Supply Chain Performance

Should We Improve Everything That Can Be Improved?

What Do Companies Do With The Rich Stream Of Data On Customer Orders?

Agile Supply Chains Help In Brand Building

Full Negative Impact Of Stockouts Is Rarely Understood

Lag Between Actual Demand Shift And The Requisite Supply Actions Is A Major Reason For Inventory Mismatch

Is Your Team Aligned On The Direction Of Solution?

Are You Settling For Mediocrity?

Demand Driven Supply Chains Also Experience Bullwhip Effect Due To Company’s Policies And Incentives

Bullwhip Effect Is Quite Prevalent In Most Supply Chains

Successful Supply Chain Transformation Projects Strive For Matching Employee Skills With The Technical And Process Skill Requirements

Demand Driven Supply Chains Help In Accelerating New Product Success

Demand Shaping Has Been Hyped, How About Supply Shaping?

Dashboards Should Be Actionable To Improve The Supply Chain Processes

Is Your Supply Chain Dashboard Too Cluttered?

Good News Travels Faster Than Bad News

Fast Feedback Loops Are Important To Control And Improve Supply Chains

We Need To Press The ‘Reset’ Button At Times For Major Supply Chain Paradigm Changes

How Do Your Conversations On Supply Chain Start?

Disruptions Are Good Opportunities To Make Our Supply Chains More Robust

Supply Chains Should Adapt To The Ever-changing Market...

IOT Will Help In Ensuring That Efficacy Of Covid 19...

Blockchain Technology Will Get Into The Mainstream With Covid 19 Vaccine Distribution

Implementing DDSC Solution Package Doesn’t Make A Company’s Supply Chain Demand Driven

Every Stockout Tells Us A Story

We Should Respect The Consumer Feedback

Cost Focus Can Be Detrimental To Your Business Profits

Frequency Of Planning Impacts Supply Chain Resilience

Supply Chain Problems Should Be Defined As Experienced By Consumers

SMED Must Be Internalized For Best Results

Extended Value Chains Should Be Designed For Harmony

Supply Chain Transformation Should Begin With Process Streamlining

Supply Chain Improvement Initiatives Should Be Simple...

Credit For Improvement In Customer Service Level Should Go To...

Supply Chain Improvements Should Move Us Closer To The Goal

Transparency Of Consumer Demand Helps In Building Resilience

Cost Benefit Analysis For Active Interventions In Supply

Supply Chains Are Getting A Lot Of Management Attention These Days

Copying Others’ Improvements Builds A Great Organizational Culture

Only A Few Supply Chain Improvement Models Are Sustainable

Quality Inspection Of Finished Goods Creates A Bottleneck...

EOQ Models Seem To Conflict With The Flow Principles

Most Factories Have Substantial Hidden Production Capacity

Frozen Period In Production Schedule Adversely Impacts Availability

Large Production Batches Negatively Affect Availability And Freshness

Weekly Closure Of Warehouses Disrupts Flow

Infrequent Supplies Could Potentially Cause Flow Disruption

Consumer Centric Supply Chains Focus On Flow Improvement

Supply Chains Need To Be Consumer Centric

Agile Supply Chains Thrive On Flexibility In Production

Optimisation Efforts In Supply Chains Are Mostly Sub-Optimal

Inventory Control Actions Are Often Misdirected

Synchronised Response Of The Entire Supply Chain Is Vital