Productivity tools are wonderful inventions used for their intended purpose, making writing, calculating, and presenting information much easier and faster. But things can get ugly quickly when people and organizations attempt to turn these tools into something they weren’t intended…
The food and beverage industry continues to encounter new challenges and compound those already unique to their world. Fertilizer shortages, rising prices, and other disruptions amid higher demand and high growth have made supply chain planning more complex. To address…
There’s more to a much-anticipated release of a new fashion line than the stroll down the catwalk. Thousands of details, a tremendous amount of market research, materials sourcing, production, and more, must all come together before the models make their…
Accurate demand forecasting is crucial to the success of any manufacturing company. It ensures companies have the right amount of stock and can respond promptly to changes in demand. In recent years, machine learning has become an essential component of…
Supply chain planning varies across industries. Differences in inputs, supplier distance, perishability, and other variables mean that each industry has its own needs and challenges in managing its supply chain. These issues are the impacts of several significant disruptions over…
Demand and supply planning was as much an art form as a science for many decades. The process was guided by human intuition, gut feeling, and experience and was aided by tools such as calculators and spreadsheets. These were all…
Recent events have spotlighted the critical importance of supply chains across the globe. Massive disruption, climate change, regional conflict, and more have introduced unprecedented uncertainty into supply chains. For many years, companies had become accustomed to ever-stabilizing supply lines where…
KPIs are critical to understanding and managing complex systems. They allow managers and other decision-makers to make informed and cost-effective business decisions. These decisions involve which materials to purchase, quantities, timing, and logistics costs. Having the right KPIs is one…
In manufacturing, a finished product may sometimes be out of spec. Perhaps it’s the wrong color or size, or perhaps the cuts and grinds are over or under tolerance. When this happens, additional labor may be required to rework it,…
Manufacturing has always been an expensive undertaking. But with today’s new reality of fragile supply chains, rising costs, and unprecedented disruption, producers have had to rethink their supply chain strategy. Companies today hold higher buffer stock, purchase from more expensive…