Supply Chain Know-How 

Inventory freezes capital, often a lot, of which could be more useful in an-other investment. Inventory also costs money, and often enough more than the company had bargained for.

We have 13 tips for you.

The results of your supply chain processes are insufficient, you have implemented a whole range of measures, but success did
not come as expected. You probably did not work on the core causes, because these are often difficult to find.

What is possible at the technological forefront of supply chain optimisation today, what the efficient optimisation of logistics and supply chain management has to do with the crash test of car bodies and why a digital twin helps to optimise your logistics business model.

In inventory optimisation projects, questions of material efficiency often have to be left out, because they go much further than the project envisages.

Nevertheless, it is important to address material efficiency as well, because that way you can do the right thing even better.

If a company is producing at the limits of its capacity, there are constant tensions between the requirements of sales and the possibilities of production. Balancing these and finding the best possible compromise between the requirements of all areas is the task of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).

The following 21 design tips, condensed from many projects, may help you to build an effective and cost-efficient S&OP process.

The market is picking up and delivery capacity takes a nosedive! Could there be a clearer sign of unrealistic sales forecasts in many companies?

Companies with sales forecasting that works - we know a whole range of them and have helped many of them ourselves to achieve a reliable sales forecast - responded faster at both the start of the recession and when the market bounced back again.

Many, if not practically all, companies are constantly struggling with the consequences of the "CZ explosion":

the diversity of variants in their product portfolios is blowing up in their faces, inventories are rising despite declining service level, margins are eroding. In most companies, variant diversity is still seen as the solution to all sales problems.

What successful companies are doing on the logistics and supply chain management side to get a grip on variant diversity is presented in more detail below.

Scheduling and production control represent the heart of the company:

They virtually pump the entire value and material flow through the company and the supply chain. Yet in many companies there is so little understanding of this central task that they are constantly suffering from cardiovascular problems - without even knowing it.

A series of basic principles and best practice building blocks are designed to help you get your circulation going again.

Economic parameters suggest that the economy will struggle more in the coming months. So it may be time to take a look at the inventories again.

These not only tie up a lot of capital that might be urgently needed elsewhere in the company in worse times, but also cause high running costs.

The implementation of a smart factory concept requires automatic scheduling (Smart Scheduling). 

Two management experts explain that this term does not just describe a vision but is a reality already. 

In the best case, the extra revenue from this essential exercise can finance a company’s digitalization strategy.

Surveys show that almost every company uses Kanban as a control solution.

 However, if you take a closer look, you will find that most companies only use Kanban for replenishing assembly material from the warehouse. Usually, a two-bin solution is used there:

one bin is being refilled while the assembly parts are being taken from the second bin. The refill container is back in time before the contents of the second container are used up.

Economic lot-sizing procedures for the total cost reduction of warehousing and procurement or setup costs offer a large, mostly unused potential for cost reduction.

In practice, users see the major problem all in the determination of input costs. The real challenge yet is usually overlooked. In order to fully exploit the potential, users must be familiar with the principles and limits of the economic batch sizing methods and know which pitfalls have to be avoided.