Supply Chain Optimization by Industry

October 19, 2011

Background Different industries have different propensities to implement certain solutions over others. This is highlighted by the quote below: Clients in companies which have a strong history in mathematical optimization….. Refineries Metal Industry Chemical Industry …do not easily trust black box optimization models. They expect a high approximation quality to their “real world.” SAP as a company [...]

Read the full article →

Dated Supply Chain Planning Techniques which are No Longer Necessary Due to Advancements in Computers

October 3, 2011

Many supply chain software companies are selling antiquated approaches to solving problems. This is because the software was developed for one hardware level, and gradually, computing power has increased, leaving these methods obsolete. Background I have come across a number of techniques that are still used and taught that are no longer necessary. However, many [...]

Read the full article →

How MPS Changed Through Time

October 2, 2011

Background The Master Production Schedule or MPS was always a problematic term. Firstly it never restricted its area of control to just production, an secondly, the term master seems to imply it is all encompassing, when in fact it was actually meant to mean the highest level type of analysis (only critical materials, no BOM explosion). However, [...]

Read the full article →

InfoWeek Loves Monopoly Software Vendors

November 10, 2010

Background In an earlier article I discussed how so many periodicals that cover information technology are compliant to large monopoly vendors. http://www.scmfocus.com/scmhistory/2010/06/anti-competitive-behavior-in-supply-chain-software-goes-unnoticed/ At that time I used an example of the lauding of monopoly actions by Information Week magazine. At the time, I did not think too much about Information Week as I am not [...]

Read the full article →

How Analysts Got Everything Wrong on Marketplaces

July 8, 2010

A popular title at the peak of the boom in marketplaces, published by MIT Press. Advanced Planning 2.0? Very quickly after APO was introduced, the market, which was extremely prominent at least partially due to an extreme stock bubble that had formed around technology companies, began focusing on electronic collaboration through the concept of an [...]

Read the full article →

The Surprising Story on the Returns of Supply Chain Software

July 3, 2010

The Actual Numbers of Supply Chain IT Success Ratio I was shocked when I found this story when doing research for my book. I knew that many supply chain implementations failed to meet expectations, but the numbers below really surprised me. Supply-chain software, such as order-management, inventory-management, demand-planning, and logistics applications, has been around since [...]

Read the full article →

The History of APO and the Influence of i2 Technologies

July 2, 2010

i2′s Influence on advanced planning was extremely important. i2 was eventually done in with “irrational exuberance” and an inability to execute its vision, however, many of its ideas persist in both JDA (the company that purchased them) and SAP SCM. Introduction In order to understand SAP Supply Chain Management‘s (SCM) design, its important to understand [...]

Read the full article →

The Rise and Decline of Supply Chain Cost Based Optimization

July 2, 2010

Optimization has proven much more tricky to implement that originally thought. Optimization where the company must agree internally in order to set costs, is far more difficult to implement than where the optimization is essentially a black box. Optimization: A Solution That Drove an Industry In its early years, APO was sold on its ability [...]

Read the full article →

What To Do About the Success Rate of Supply Chain Projects

June 26, 2010

Feeling Confident…For No Reason Most supply chain IT projects I am familiar with start off very optimistically, with the team and management believing that their project is going to be successful. However, the research demonstrates that only between 25 to 35% of supply chain projects are successful. This is roughly the survival rate of U-Boats [...]

Read the full article →

Anti Competitive Behavior in Supply Chain Software Goes Unnoticed

June 26, 2010

The supply chain software market is characterized by unfair competition between the big firms and the smaller firms. This reduces quality, increases prices and results in oligopolistic competition. Mergers and acquisitions and the co-option of advisory firms by the major vendors are major factors which allow this inefficient market to continue in its current state. [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries