Winning Through Better Supply Chain Design

Many of the world’s best known companies’ supply chains grew from a series of historical accidents rather than intentional design.

Because of this, a simple activity like mapping and visualizing supply chain flows can often spark critical questions such as, “Why are materials sourced from Region A, produced in Region B, then air-shipped as finished product back to Region A?”

By creating living models of the corporate supply chain, companies can examine how their supply chains will perform under a wide range of market conditions and assumptions and analyze the trade-offs of cost, service and risk.

Many companies spend many millions of dollars on the implementation of ERP and advanced planning systems, yet continue to ignore the root of the problem.

Without a doubt, these applications can bring immense benefits: An ERP system can streamline financial operations, a transportation management system (TMS) can ensure on-time transportation and controlled costs, a warehouse management system (WMS) can enable optimal picking and placement of products, and an advanced planning and optimization (APO) application can balance demand and capacity for an efficient manufacturing process.

But that doesn’t change the fact that a suboptimal end-to-end supply chain operation can mean millions of dollars wasted on inefficient processes.