Supply Chain Planning

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Seasonal Inventory and 7 Ways to Manage It Effectively

25 October 2022

My eight-year-old self counted down the days to October 1 – the day my mother finally let me bedeck her spotless house with cobwebs and window clings of ghosts and goblins. It never occurred to me then that someone had[...]

What Caused the Baby Formula Shortage + 7 Ways Consumers and Companies are Coping

When it comes to defining “the essentials,” few products are as vital as baby formula. In the face of baby formula shortages, parents who depend on it are currently facing challenges full of anger, frustration, and tears. To understand the[...]

2 December 2021

Success Strategies for Demand Forecasting in Supply Chain

There’s been a lot of change in how we view supply chain demand forecasting: we moved from a focus on supply—what and how much to supply or replenish—to the demand-driven supply chain, which placed too much emphasis on the intermediate[...]

23 November 2021

7 Ways Businesses Can Manage Supply Chain Shortages in 2022

With 2021's holiday shopping season behind us, supply delays, logistics constraints, and inflation loomed over shoppers and retailers—and the manufacturers and distributors who keep them in supply. The supply chain shortages from 2021 remain the story of our lives today,[...]

12 October 2021

Five Key Supply Chain Planning Capabilities for Fashion Products

As supply chains continue to grapple with volatility and disruption post-pandemic, fashion brands, who faced increased risks during the pandemic because of lockdown, are now turning to better supply chain planning for fashion strategies with the end goal of achieving[...]

Here’s How to Measure Inventory Health

Looking for a relatively quick way to measure inventory health? It all starts with a demand-driven approach. Even though we’re talking about inventory, we first have to understand customer buying behavior—and how that then translates into inventory requirements. As a[...]

A Tale of Two Industries: Surprising Demand Spikes amid Supply Chain Disruption

Levent Ozsahin, Managing Partner at Advancetics B.V. It’s human nature to miscalculate how best to respond to supply chain disruptions--either over- or under-steering in anticipation of a crisis. Optimists often delay preparing for supply chain disruption for fear that contingency[...]

Probabilistic Planning and Forecasting Demystified

This post was originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/primer-probabilistic-planning-forecasting-stefan-de-kok/ I have been blogging and advocating for the past 15 years on probabilistic approaches to planning and forecasting, and am happy to see in the last few years it has finally started gaining[...]

Fashion Industry Challenges Require Elegant Demand Planning

When you’re perusing luxury handbags online, or testing which cocktail dress suits you the best, you probably don’t pause to consider all the supply chain complexities and analytics required to ensure the fashion items you’re craving are in-stock. While sophisticated[...]

23 February 2021

Inventory Planning vs. Inventory Optimization: What’s the Difference?

What’s the difference between traditional inventory planning and inventory optimization? Anyone can come up with a plan. The real challenge is making sure it’s a good plan. Optimizing your inventory is a different beast than simply planning your inventory. If[...]

4 September 2019

With Brexit Looming, New Supply Chain Requirements Emerge

On October 31st, the United Kingdom will leave the EU, with or without an exit deal. This, combined with the 2019 EU election results that changed the political landscape, opens speculation regarding this alternative reality, and what requirements it would[...]

Supply Chain Planning BPO: What’s Driving It and Should You Get On Board?

You know that great feeling you get when you have an expert getting the job done? More and more businesses are hopping on the outsourcing bus and letting the experts take the wheel to drive supply chain planning processes. Several[...]

Robots in the Building: The Positive Influence of AI for Supply Chain Planners

Have you looked at a job listing for a supply chain planner recently? The planner’s role has expanded to include a combination of technical skills and communications and interpersonal skills. A recent, typical job ad for a demand planner lists[...]

Five Things You Need to Know about Inventory Optimization in the Digital Age

With all the buzz around digital transformation, someone peering in from outside supply chain may assume most businesses have already digitized essential tasks like inventory planning. The reality is that this transformation takes time and a change of mindset. It’s[...]

Points to Ponder from the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference…and One Unanswerable Question

“What was once considered disruption now becomes strategy”. This line from the opening keynote got me thinking about the continuous evolution of markets and customer expectations. What seemed like a breakthrough just a few years ago is now mainstream. Keep[...]

The Absolut Company: Balancing Service and Inventory Creates a Delicious Mix

The world’s #2 selling vodka brand leaves nothing to chance when it comes to quality and sustainability. Here’s how they teamed up with ToolsGroup partner Optilon for a seamless supply chain planning process. With continuously shifting consumer preferences and brands[...]

How to Make Supply Chain Complexity Work to Your Advantage

With supply chain complexity increasing at an unprecedented rate, perhaps the biggest challenge for businesses is figuring out how to navigate this uncertainty to deliver service profitably. Amazon sells more than 3 billion products through 11 different country marketplaces globally.[...]

Should You Outsource Demand Planning?

Outsourcing non-core business processes has been a time-tested way to cut costs while improving performance. Initially companies focused on functions like Finance and HR. But now they have started outsourcing supply chain business processes like demand planning, allowing them to[...]

How Supply Chain Planning Can Create Profit in a Declining Market

When a business finds itself in a declining market, failing to stay in lock step with customer demand poses an existential threat. Trends and other market forces that impact commercial opportunities need to appear on the planning radar. Therefore, traditional[...]

Supply Chain Planning in Emerging Markets: Four Points to Remember

Supply chain planning in emerging markets is different. And while each market can be unique, we found a few repeating themes in our own experience and from sources including Gartner and our customers Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Cipla Medpro.[...]

19 February 2019

Improvements to Mid-Market Supply Chain Planning

Is the latest technology enabling some mid-market companies to leapfrog supply chain planning (SCP) stages of maturity? The evidence suggests that it is. Publicly, analysts are still cautioning mid-market companies not to aim too high. But in interviewing a number of[...]

22 January 2019

Which Supply Chain Planning Processes Should We Automate?

Now that more companies are embracing supply chain planning productivity and automation, many firms are asking which processes they should automate. Let's first address that question and then look at where this trend is heading in the future. Gartner says that the attitude towards supply[...]

18 December 2018

The Three “Habits” for Successful IoT Implementations

In Lora Cecere’s Supply Chain 2020 study, the Internet of Things (IoT) was considered one of two disruptive technologies with the greatest potential impact on supply chain effectiveness, above technologies such as 3D printing and robotics. The other disruptor was advanced[...]

4 December 2018

Supply Chain Planning for Direct-To-Consumer

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) presents special supply chain planning challenges for both smaller microbrands (e.g., eyeglass brand Warby Parker or mattress seller Casper) and much larger consumer goods incumbents, but the planning challenges are different depending on which type of company you[...]

27 November 2018

What’s Your Forecast Accuracy Target?

It seems as if everyone is looking to improve their forecasting performance. Companies are seeking to implement (or re-implement) planning technology solutions, tune and optimize existing methodologies towards tighter variances, and integrate more accurate information into their planning processes. Unsurprisingly,[...]

6 November 2018

How the P&G Supply Chain Thrives on Supply Chain Complexity

The Procter & Gamble (P&G) supply chain is known for best-in-class supply chain planning. Speaking at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in London, P&G’s product supply director Onofrio Caradonna reveals how the company is applying planning capabilities to its[...]

30 October 2018

Three Mega Trends Driving Gartner Stage 5 Supply Chain Planning

Gartner says that clients are increasingly asking, “What will the future of supply chain planning look like?” and in a recent report (Technology Reference Model for Stage 5 Maturity Supply Chain Planning, June 2018) they see three “mega trends” driving[...]

23 October 2018

Gartner Questions Supply Chain “Control Towers”

Gartner's recent research report entitled Don’t Believe the Control Tower Hype — Buyer Beware(August 2018) questions vendor messages that are “loaded with marketing hype”. It describes a disconnect between promise and reality, limitations not addressed by vendors, and their opinion on[...]

16 October 2018

Probabilistic Forecasting – a Primer

At ToolsGroup we have been big advocates of probabilistic forecasting (sometimes also known as stochastic forecasting). Understanding and employing this relatively simple principle can take your forecasting and supply chain planning from "good" to "great." This primer explains how. Single-Number[...]

The Nine Top Supply Chain Planning User Concerns

Gartner’s most recent Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record (21 August 2018, Amber Salley, Tim Payne, and Alex Pradha) calls out the concerns most often cited by users. These are the nine top supply chain planning concerns users want[...]

18 September 2018

Gartner’s Top Ten User-Rated Supply Chain Planning Capabilities

Gartner Research recently released its new Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record (SCP SOR) in which 485 user companies identified their top ten rated planning capabilities for delivering SCP goals. They are: Ability to provide an integrated planning environment that[...]

4 September 2018

Gartner Releases New Supply Chain Planning Magic Quadrant

Gartner Research just released its new Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record (SCP SOR). There have been significant vendor position changes since the last Magic Quadrant because some vendors are taking advantage of technology advancements reflecting “changing[...]

Overcoming a Shortage of Supply Chain Talent

There is a shortage of supply chain talent. Supply Chain Insights reports that more than half of all companies are seeing an increase in employee turnover and experiencing unfilled job openings. In certain areas the problem is much worse. One senior manager at[...]

How a Changed Business Model Initiated a New Supply Chain Planning Approach

This is a story about how a changing market environment and a business model that was adapting to the changes created the need for a new approach to supply chain planning. The telecom provider business model was traditionally about delivering networked voice and[...]

Here come the Response Networks

As competition heats up to meet consumer fulfillment expectations, the analyst community has worked to define a supply chain model that can dynamically and rapidly respond to changing market needs, sometimes called "Response Networks". Gartner calls their version “Respond Planning”.[...]

Supply Chains that Push and Pull Different Products

Push-driven supply chains have been around forever whereas pull-driven supply chains have become increasingly popular and in most cases arguably better. But what about employing push and pull for different products in a single supply chain or distribution network? The[...]

Two Kinds of Supply Chain Risk and How to Prepare for Them

When most people think of supply chain risk, they often think about the impact of major unforeseen “headline grabbing” events - like the tsunami in Japan impacting automotive supply chains or horse meat making its way into British beef supplies.[...]

Modeling Supply Chains with “Digital Twins”

The growing momentum around systems-based thinking in supply chain planning has given rise to a new concept called the “digital twin”. There has been a lot of discussion around this topic lately and I wanted to offer a few insights,[...]

Want to Disrupt Your Supply Chain? Check Out this New Analytical Tool

Brad Householder, Founder and CEO of b2i, spoke at the ToolsGroup TG18 user conference recently and presented an innovative approach to strategically analyze your value chain to focus digital investments. Brad, by the way, comes from a great pedigree. Prior to founding b2i,[...]

Digital Transformation of Supply Chain Planning at SKF

“Digital transformation” is tough for any firm, but when you are $9 billion industrial manufacturer, it is a sizable undertaking. At last week’s TG18 ToolsGroup user event, global bearing manufacturer SKF laid out an impressive review of their transformation to “Integrated[...]

Blockchain’s Potential to Authenticate Supply Chain Planning Data

Blockchain and supply chain have great potential to work together, and blockchain has the potential to have a significant impact on supply chain planning. With all the hype around Bitcoins, you’ve probably at least heard of the distributed database technology[...]

New Findings from the Gartner Supply Chain Users Wants and Needs Study

The annual Gartner Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Study is one of the most comprehensive studies of supply chain users. The most recent survey included more than 473 people spanning the globe. We have written on this study before,[...]

12 December 2017

Probabilistic Forecasting Can Extend the Life of SAP APO

Since the beginning of time – OK, since the beginning of demand forecasting --- the standard approach has been a single number forecast that works relatively well with stable high volume demand. Traditional forecasting tools such as SAP APO, designed 25 years[...]

7 November 2017

How to Attain “Stage 4” Supply Chain Planning Maturity

Gartner has identified five stages of supply chain planning maturity and they say that 70-80% of companies plan to increase their supply chain planning (SCP) technology spend over the next two years to climb to the next level. In their[...]

17 October 2017

Is Your Supply Chain Planning Ready for the “Experience Economy”?

Gartner says we are entering what they call the ‘Experience Economy”, where personalization, speed, agility and the ability to predict consumer trends before they happen will separate the winners from losers (Aspire, Challenge and Transform in a Disruptive World, 27[...]

Aligning Your Supply Chain Planning Message with Your CEO

"Growth and new products have spiked as the top priorities for CEOs and supply chain intensive industries when compared to 2016" [caption id="attachment_3375" align="aligncenter" width="618"] Attention to business growth has ballooned, becoming a top priority for 57% of CEO respondents[/caption][...]

26 September 2017

What Will a Supply Chain Planning Job Look Like in the Future?

We have tackled the question of automation before, but his time I want to focus specifically on what automation will mean to the job of the supply chain planner. There is a saying that the best forecasts come from having[...]

13 September 2017

What’s Wrong with your Supply Chain Planning System: Twelve Symptoms

The right SCP technology avoids key symptoms that reduce planner productivity, plan timeliness and plan usability. Doctors look for specific symptoms when diagnosing what’s wrong with a patient. Now with Gartner’s help, supply chain execs can do something similar with their[...]

Gartner’s Five-Stage Maturity Model for Supply Chain Analytics

There are supply chain and demand analytics models that describe the type of analytics being deployed (e.g., descriptive, prescriptive, etc.). Now Gartner has created a different look at the issue by creating a five-stage maturity model for assessing the overall maturity level of your[...]

The Best Way to Set Inventory Targets?

Gartner’s insights are quite good and it’s not often that I disagree, but on the topic of setting inventory targets I have to differ with the conclusions of a recent report, “Cover Considerations — How to Optimize Retail and Consumer[...]

Demand-Driven Supply Chain Planning in a Push Business

A question we hear often is “How can I have demand-driven supply chain planning in a push business? Demand-driven seems more appropriate to a pull strategy, the opposite of a push strategy. How can they coexist?” To answer the question[...]

Gartner’s Six Levels of Supply Chain Planning Autonomy

Business is moving fast and there is so much new data now speeding through the pipes that Gartner says it’s not possible to plan a supply chain without some level of automation. So they now offer a scale (a maturity curve)[...]

Gartner’s Five Stages of Supply Chain Planning Technology Maturity

In any business or trade you need the right tools for the job, and supply chain planning is no different - you need the right technology for the job at hand. At every level of supply chain expertise and competitive[...]

Industry 4.0 Impact on Supply Chain Planning

Industry 4.0 is an initiative for digitizing the industrial economy. The “4” refers to a fourth industrial revolution, following steam power, mass production, and then IT and robotic automation. The German government kicked off the initiative with a focus on[...]

21 February 2017

Right and Left Brain Thinking for Improving Supply Chain Planning ROI

There are two kinds of thinking, left brained and right brained, and each processes information and makes decisions very differently. As shown in the image above, the left brain is the logical, ordered, rational and analytical hemisphere. It’s the ROI[...]

17 January 2017

Transforming Your Supply Chain Planning, Transforming Your Business

Last week we described how attitudes towards improving supply chain planning productivity are changing. Large enterprises ask, “What’s wrong with my process that I need armies of planners?” Growing mid-market companies ask, “Why do I need to keep adding so much[...]

20 December 2016

Supply Chain Planning with Microsoft Dynamics AX

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a powerful mid-market ERP platform with the capacity for medium-size companies to expand and transform their businesses. But growth poses supply chain planning (SCP) challenges. Expanding your business creates increasingly complex demand forecasting, and you are[...]

28 September 2016

Supply Chain Complexity and the Need for Disruptive Technology

The keynote address at the always enlightening Supply Chain Insights Global Summit was given by Lora Cecere, and she used it to focus on the problem of growing supply chain planning complexity and how disruptive supply chain technology can fix[...]

A Different Solution to the Supply Chain Talent Shortage

“78% of respondents to Gartner’s most recent Chief Supply Chain Officer Survey identify talent as the No. 1 long-term supply chain risk” There is a lot of documented evidence of a shortage in supply chain talent. Why is it happening?[...]

Four Tips on Pitching Supply Chain Initiatives to the C-Suite

If you have to sell your ideas about how to strengthen the supply chain to executives that control the purse, here are four tips from experts on pitching supply chain initiatives to the C-Suite. 1. Play to the C-Suite strategic[...]

How Gartner Sees the Future of Supply Chain Planning

[caption id="attachment_7767" align="aligncenter" width="627"] Source: Algorithmic Supply Chain Planning: The Future of SCP, Amber Salley, May 2016[/caption] Gartner has taken a look at the future and sees lots of algorithms. The analyst firm says algorithms “are now feasting on the[...]

What’s Wrong with Aftermarket Parts Supply Chain Planning?

This is actually a trick question. What’s wrong with aftermarket supply chain planning really has nothing to do with planning, but with management expectations. This is a case of management not expecting enough from their business. There is a reoccurring conversation in[...]

An Example of Outstanding Change Management

Managing change or "change management" at the individual level is essential to realize benefits across the organization. Companies pick supply chain planning software based on the benefits to the business. But they install the software successfully—and realize the gains—when they[...]

23 February 2016

A Detailed Look at What’s Driving Disruptive Innovation in Supply Chain Planning

Last week offered an overview of how disruptive innovation is changing the supply chain planning vendor landscape. We mentioned that Gartner said that this significant disruption was driven by end users’ changing priorities and needs. Today examine those drivers in more[...]

16 February 2016

What’s Driving Disruptive Innovation in Supply Chain Planning?

Disruptive innovation is changing the supply chain planning vendor space. Later we will investigate why, but first let’s look at what’s happening, starting with the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record (SOR). In the latest Magic[...]

9 February 2016

A Hierarchy of Needs for Supply Chain Planning

Abraham Maslow created his magnum opus “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” by studying the best performing humans and their needs. While reading more about his theory, I realized that best performing supply chain systems also possess certain hierarchical needs. Similarly to[...]

Should I Outsource Supply Chain Planning?

Should you manage your own planning processes or outsource supply chain planning? We will describe how to choose a planning partner, but first let’s take a look at why to consider outsourcing at all. In an economy where only the[...]

20 October 2015

How Supply Chain Innovation Builds Award-Winning Supply Chains

What does it take to create an award-winning supply chain? Supply chain innovation. Last month, Lennox Residential was runner-up in the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Supply Chain Innovation competition, arguably the top supply chain award in North America.[...]

Supply Chain Priorities: Seven Things That Matter Most

A recent Gartner study, conducted annually, sheds some light on what matters most to top executives in supply chain technology. I attended the Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Study delivered by Dwight Klappich at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference[...]

1 September 2015

Inventory Obsolescence: It Can Get Complicated

It’s hard to get around inventory obsolescence. Derived from the Latin verb obsolesere—to grow old—most products in the marketplace grow “long in the tooth” at some juncture in their life cycle. Shorter innovation cycles, multi-channel complexity, and long-tail stock-keeping units[...]

Why SAP APO Can’t Forecast Demand in Complex Environments

Manoranjith Pathekkara, managing director at LogicaMatrix (www.logicamatrix.com), writes on the inherent limitations of SAP APO that prevent it from accurately forecasting in complex supply chain environments. What’s changed? Most of today’s supply chains are far more complex than when planning systems like[...]

Will Your Team’s Skills be Ready for Supply Chain Planning in 2025?

What will supply chain planning look like 10 years from now? It’s a tough question, but Gartner analysts Tom Enright and Matthew Spooner took on the challenge in their presentation Supply Chain Planning 2025 at the recent Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference[...]

The Role of Inventory Optimization in a Market-Driven Supply Chain

It’s time to rethink inventory. For years it’s been portrayed as a place where working capital goes to die. But in today’s market-driven supply chain, inventory optimization is gaining increased purpose and meaning. Getting inventory right means thinking of it in a[...]

Reduced Latency – Gartner on “Sense and Respond” Supply Chain Planning

Gartner says supply chain planning needs to move to more of a "sense and respond" model—reducing the latency between sensing demand and execution response. The research and advisory firm says that supply chains need to profitably respond to demand changes by executing[...]

Reducing Latency in Supply Chain Planning – Seven Ways to Get Started

Last week we focused on reducing latency in supply chain planning by moving closer to real-time execution via continuous re-planning. One form of this new strategy is called “Predictive Commerce”. It connects upstream demand sensing with downstream supply chain planning and execution in[...]

The Evolution of Forecasting

You don’t want to be on the left side of the above forecasting evolution chart -- which represents the leaps that have netted big advances in supply chain KPIs. Early forecasting hominids were purely reactive or assumed that whatever happened[...]

27 January 2015

Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization and Fast Time-to-Benefit

Multi-echelon inventory optimization (MEIO) may sound like a mouthful, but the concept is simple—create the best strategy, across the multiple stages of your supply chain, to fill demand in a way that optimizes working capital, margin attainment or some other[...]

Best-of-Breed vs ERP Supply Chain Planning

Using quantitative data to support conclusions that formerly were in the realm of conjecture and opinion is changing the business world. And now data is transforming a decades-old debate over best-of-breed vs. ERP suite-based supply chain planning software. In the past,[...]

18 November 2014

“When Worlds Collide”: Technology Drives a Convergence in Supply Chain Planning and Execution

A recent Supply Chain Digest benchmarking study showed that most supply chain executives (83%) believe that planning cycles will accelerate and move towards a more real-time paradigm. They viewed the convergence between supply chain planning and execution as a major opportunity for[...]