Gartner recently polled both users and vendors on which types of supply chain planning (SCP) applications were employing machine learning technology. In three different analysis, demand planning and demand forecasting came out on top of the list. With years of experience now in the rear view mirror, machine learning has matured as a SCP technology. “Early adopters” have […]

Project & Objectives When an internal analysis at Mitsubishi Electric Europe revealed that one of its spare parts businesses was doubling obsolete stock nearly every two years in order to achieve 87 percent service levels, it knew there must be room for improvement. But by how much? The company needed to get inventory levels back […]

Project & Objectives Rebecca Roberts, Director of Supply Chain Planning, realized that the business scenario called for a flexible, self-adjusting system with comprehensive statistical forecasting that could set stocking targets at an SKU-Location level based on demand variability, service levels, costs and other parameters. Solution The goal was straightforward enough: improve service levels and optimize […]

Editor’s Note: Microsoft’s Colin Masson, Global Industry Director of Manufacturing Solutions, sat down with me to discuss how manufacturers optimize their inventories. You can see a longer version of the interview on the Microsoft website or my slightly abridged version below. Colin: What are some of the global trends currently impacting demand modeling, supply chain […]

If you’ve been in supply chain for any length time, you might be wondering what caused demand forecasting to develop so many different ‘personalities’ over the years, such as demand forecasting, demand planning, demand sensing, and demand shaping. What’s going on? It’s easy to ignore all these as buzzwords, but that would be overlooking the […]

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. These are big, important and often unpredictable risks. But there is another kind of supply […]

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, including around the importance of the data model in high-quality decision making using digital twins. You […]

Using the Gartner Demand Planning five stage maturity scale, analyst Mike Griswold estimated on a recent call that retailers as a group averaged just 2.3 out of 5.0, leaving money on the table due to poor inventory performance. In a competitive vertical with thin margins, leaving any money on the table can have big performance […]

For firms with Advanced Analytics or Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their future, Gartner has just published a useful report with three findings that clarify the difference between the two technologies and offers insight on employing them for augmenting versus automating supply chain decision making. 1. Advanced Analytics is broader than Artificial Intelligence People often use these two terms interchangeably, but Gartner says that […]

Editor’s Note: Last year ToolsGroup became Microsoft’s partner for Multi-echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO) in Industrial accounts. Microsoft’s Bill Moffett and I collaborated on an introductory blog on MEIO for manufacturing businesses. You can see Bill’s version here on the Microsoft website and my slightly abridged version below. Imagine a worker sitting in a convenience store, reading a […]

Trade promotion forecasting is difficult: getting it right involves factoring in many variables. Marketing people, who are often responsible for it, may excel at creating and running promotions. Forecasting demand data, not so much. This can leave supply chain professionals the tough job planning for, and responding to, promotions. To do this, the first hurdle is […]

Grocery stores, long thought to be immune to the “Amazon Effect”, were shaken in August of 2017 when Amazon acquired Whole Foods. While companies like Instascart and Peapod have provided home delivery for years, this acquisition was like a shot across the bow for many grocers. About 40 million homes are within 5 miles of […]