Communication - Key to Supply Chain

When it comes to cooperating with staff in other departments, many procurement professionals admit it is very difficult. If communication is limited, so is the ability of the procurement department to influence the end to end procurement process.

Steps To Improving Communications For Supply Chain Success

Don’t be scared to over-communicate, make sure they are regularly updated even if it’s just a quick summary email. With suppliers it’s also important to regularly asses how you can improve your relationship from both sides, and offer constructive feedback to the supplier as well as asking for it yourself. This way, you are giving the stakeholders some influence and aren’t taking the decision out of their hands, making them feel they have status. When it comes to the communication method itself, you should assess which method best suits the situation and will deliver the optimum results for supply chain success.

Use The Right Communication Tool

This may sound like an obvious basic principle, but it’s vital to make sure the ‘narrative’ of the proposal comes across so stakeholders understand and are excited by what you are proposing. Consider the stakeholders you are addressing and tailor it to show how you will tackle their own individual concerns. Often with stakeholders, it’s more beneficial to give them a call or pay a quick visit than to send less direct communication such as emails.

With the right steps taken and changes applied it is possible to turn around poor communication and ensure supply chain success.If you are interested in learning more about communications in procurement and supply, then you may be interested in the CIPS Diploma in Procurement and Supply. The qualification is designed to equip an aspiring procurement professional with the skills and knowledge to perform in a junior role and progress in their procurement career.

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe

Sales Forecasting

Sales Mindset

Sales people want to sell. With pressure from Stakeholders to show revenue growth, and to demonstrate the value of the Sales team they will work to create forecasts for new accounts they hope to win and speculate how much business that will entail. Given their unbridled enthusiasm Sales teams will almost always be highly optimistic in their estimates on prospects for future growth and new business wins which makes unchecked sales forecasting problematic. And you want your Sales team to be pumped up and enthusiastic for sure.

A Sales Forecast Gone Badly Wrong

The revenue plan was made up of a combination of existing business , newly won business , and business that hadn't yet been won but were in some stage of the Sales cycle. With intense pressure from the Board and CEO to grow the business the Sales forecast became the revenue plan for the year, upon which all budgets, expenses, capacity and investment plans were made. This was even though a significant portion of that forecast included business that hadn't even been won yet. To underscore the problem any attempts to scrutinize the revenue plan were squashed.

We were to trust the Sales team to pull it off. But given Sales' enthusiastic nature the revenue forecast was highly optimistic in all respects. Projections from existing customers came from the customer's Sales teams, who were also bullish. And most importantly the inclusion of business not yet won in the base revenue forecast meant that we were basically counting on winning all of that business with complete certainty.

Sales dismissed the pessimism with the promise that they were going to win all of that new business. In the meantime they fell short of revenue plans, and cash flow and profit projections. New business wins didn't materialize. If we did win any new business it would not be sufficient to recover the lost revenue and lost profitability. We now had to take severe restructuring action to adjust the infrastructure and size of the organization to restore some semblance of profitability and viability.

Conclusion

Any new business included in business plans should undergo deep scrutiny, with some level of judgement applied to de-risk the numbers. All key functions in an organization should be a part of reviewing and agreeing on forecasts, with full transparency as to how these forecasts were created. Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Operations, Human Resources, I/T, and more will all have input that, if taken into consideration, will result in better forecasts and increased ability to “Under commit and over deliver”. If you accept the fact that sales forecasting will never be perfect than the next step is to figure out how to create a Supply Chain that acknowledges that reality.

2020 Trends for Supply Chain

World's biggest economies ramp up their emissionsOne of the benefits of GSCM strategies is the power to appeal to both environment-oriented and business-oriented executives. So, the new perspective doesn't seem to be so frightening and, in fact, reveals endless opportunities.

The functions of 3PL companies 

The aim of any company's logistics strategy is to minimize freight costs and provide a highly efficient service. Within international markets, businesses are trying to find partners that use innovative digital alternatives, which can help them to seek new opportunities. With the significant impact of innovative technologies and disruptive approaches on the industry, companies have to keep up with the changes and adjust their business strategies, taking into account all market fluctuations.

Summing up the Benefits of SCM Trends for 2020

Our professional can help you imagine, deliver, and run your supply networks to address tomorrow's challenges and opportunities. Whether you need a platform for generating critical insights, optimizing business processes, or automating supply chain activities across your value chain, you are in the right place.

How to Connect Shippers and Transportation Providers in Third-Party Logistics

Over the last few years, the logistics industry has seen significant evolution. According to TechNavio, the global logistics market share will increase to $357.5 billion by 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of 7%. To streamline the overall supply chain management and make it cost-effective, many small and mid-size e-commerce businesses have already started partnering with third-party logistics services.

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe

LEAGILE - Lean & Agile

A key characteristic of an agile supply chain is flexibility. Agility is the ability of an organisation to respond rapidly to changes in demand both in terms of volume and variety. To be agile a supply chain must be able to read and respond to demand. This requires the organisation to move from a forecast driven environment where inventory is pushed through the supply chain to an order driven environment where inventory is pulled through the supply chain.

A lean supply chain would benefit an environment where there are high volumes and predictable demand. An agile supply chain would benefit an environment where there is a wider range or variety of items in smaller volumes.

Applying A Lean Supply Chain, Agile or Leagile

From a procurement perspective the application of lean, agile or leagile creates a number of strategic and tactical decisions to ensure that the approach is viable. These range from the overall strategic objective of the procurement and supply function, through types of relationship actions, to the supporting philosophy behind the approach. In an environment of low variety and low volume the procurement and supply function must ensure that the flow of product and information is provided by a robust supply chain. In an environment that consists of high variety and low volume the emphasis for the procurement and supply function is to ensure it can satisfy demand in an agile manner. In an environment where there is high volume it will be necessary to reduce waste and reduce costs to develop a lean supply chain.

To achieve this the procurement function would implement Early Buyer

Involvement to ensure their expertise is used on a consultancy basis to advise the organisation on the best way to reduce waste. Involvement bringing together the expertise of buyers, suppliers and other stakeholders to achieve a lean and agile environment. If you want to find out about developing a lean, agile or leagile supply chain, you may be interested in a CIPS Diploma in Procurement and Supply.

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe

Agile Supply Chain Ecosystem

Incorporating Agility

So being agile is being quick at sensing and responding to changes. This means that an agile supply chain should be demand-driven and not forecast driven.

Origins

Agile thinking has come from software developers. Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer problems. An agile team offers work in small, but consumable, workable, increments. So agile teams have a natural reflex for responding to change quickly.

Agile software development is more than practices such as pair programming, test-driven development, stand- up planning sessions, and sprints. Agile software development is an umbrella term for a set of frameworks and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and the 12 Principles behind it.

The Agile Method

The Agile Method is an alternative project management technique that designs a process that is inherently more aligned to customer needs. If it is desired to create an agile supply chain ecosystem, this system will require a higher level of integration between internal operational processes, such as sales, forecasting, production planning, sourcing, and delivery. So, every market player must be agile to deliver or manufacture something to market or another market player.

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe

Suppy Chain Strategies to manage Volatile Demand

Supply buffer management includes the use of various buffers to manage the volatility in demand. These include inventory buffers and capacity buffers. If you have a high enough stock of inventory, all fluctuations in demand are absorbed within the inventory. This was the traditional approach maintained by companies wherein sufficient stock was built ahead of time.

But, building up high inventory levels takes up supply chain resources, cost and time, and is not feasible in today's environment. The situation becomes even more complex in cases where products have very short lifecycles and there are high obsolescence costs such as in the High Tech industry. In such cases, maintaining high inventory levels can be disastrous for companies. While maintaining high levels of inventory can be expensive and retaining low inventory levels can negatively impact customer service, a middle ground can be found by building carefully planned inventory levels.

This right balance of planned inventory buffers can be designed to cushion most of the shocks from the volatility in demand. The challenge is determining the right level of the supply chain at which safety stock should be maintained, the right locations at which to maintain inventory and the right quantities. By planning these effectively, companies can significantly improve their ability to respond to volatile demand in a cost-effective way. Several companies are embarking on implementations of inventory optimization solutions which analyze a company's demand patterns and supply chain processes and determine the appropriate inventory levels to maintain across various locations of the supply chain.

Lean manufacturing initiatives have been proven to help companies reduce cycle times by eliminating non-value added activities in the supply chain. Use of constraint based planning approaches, which are embedded in most advanced planning solutions, can help companies identify and resolve bottlenecks ahead of time thus helping reduce cycle time. Such a shift enables a company to be more flexible and better respond to changes in demand. Companies across several industries are already evaluating such a shift as part of their overall supply chain strategy.

However, a shift from MTS to ATO strategy may not be the right strategy for all companies. The decision to implement a postponement strategy should be based on careful consideration of a company's supply chain characteristics such as commonality of sub-assembly products, length of production cycle times, customer lead time expectations etc. While such a strategy shift can significantly improve a supply chain's performance in its ability to respond to changes in demand faster, implementation costs could be a deterrent. Shifting a company's strategy from Make-to-Stock to Assemble-to-Order can be very costly to implement since it requires changes to supply chain activities , processes and enabling systems. Visibility to supply chain events can be transferred to all supply chain partners, thus helping them all work together to achieve the goals of efficiently meeting customer demand.

In conclusion, while demand volatility is a reality faced by companies across many industries, by employing the right supply chain strategies companies can efficiently handle volatile demand. Key supply chain strategies required to manage volatile demand are outlined in this article.

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe

Video Swadeshi Mandi 2020 | NITIE

In my first blog, I presented the Swadesh Mandi 2020 Poster with my friend Vedant Saraf. We are yet again inspired by Prof. T Prasad to take this campaign forward and bring to you the video presentation to promote and support the initiative of Local for Vocal. 

Business is a skill that needs to be practiced. We should have a purpose and passion for the promotion of business. We promote the local by making it our focal in a vocal way.

Local - Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh

Focal - Marble Art

As Jabalpur is known for stunning ghats, waterfalls, historical and cultural richness and relevance, and its marble art, we start the video with pictures of the scenic beauty of Dhauladhar Falls which is a major tourist attraction in the city of Jabalpur. We extract our raw material from the huge glowing marble rocks that surround this waterfall. Then we promote the local shops by adding their pictures as these shops with highly skilled laborers surround this tourist attraction. Then we finally portray their art with beautiful pictures of marble sculptures. They sell a variety of marble sculptures right from ideals of gods and goddesses to finely carved seven wonder monuments. Their art involves so much intricacy that you can even get your name engraved on a single rice grain in their shops.  

Thankyou!

Trisha Dhawe