In the Supply Chain, we worry about service, inventory, and execution.  Do we have the right products, in the right place in the right quantities at the right time?  Are we doing it at the right cost?  Lastly, we are we relentlessly trying to lower costs, lead times, and inventories. Our general management and finance [...]

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The press seems to have a surge in articles about the slowing recovery, the stalling recovery, or the recovery that is beginning to look recessionary all of a sudden. Some pundits and economists think we are headed for a double-dip recession. Others, the majority it seems, believe we are in for a long and bumpy [...]

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On February 4, 2010, we posted a blog piece, Statistical Thinking Part 1 http://blog.demandcaster.com/2010/02/04/thinking-part-1-statistical-thinking/. It is funny, we debated whether the topic was important and relevant in today’s business environment. We believed it was or the piece would neither have been written nor posted. In the last week of June, I got the latest issue [...]

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Last week, we posted a blog re-introducing Deming’s concept of tampering.  This week we will explore the how tampering creeps into demand and inventory planning. In the case of demand planning, tampering occurs when we simply think they are smarter than a well crafted statistical forecast.  A statistical forecast uses past history and gives more [...]

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Tampering is concept that W. Edwards Deming popularized and used often in his lectures.  It is an important and yet subtle concept that many Supply Chain professionals and general managers still do not fully get.   Tampering is basically trying to make adjustments to a finer degree than the normal fluctuation of that which you are [...]

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