NEW IN SUPPLY CHAIN (TOP 5)

New in Supply Chain (Top 5)

This is again a blog in which your opinions are very important as they are the key building blocks for improvement.

This is to be a series of blogs that will all link together in order to find what is most important, the most intriguing topics will be carried forward to open up a new discussion.

So let’s start it off as simply as we can. I would like everyone to list the most problematic issues you can thing of, come across, have to deal with, are aware of in the supply chain environment.

From this we can get an idea of what are people’s biggest issues and work together to propose solutions and ideas on how to improvement. Whether it be a solution out there now or ones we all need.

If you have any comments on others issues/problems them please make them heard.

I will start the ball rolling on this topic by noting my issues, please comment and contribute.

Issues I see in supply chain.

1. If people have read my blogs before they will understand this on, communication in supply chain. The problem of fully understanding the needs of the other parties in the supply chain. Changes are made all the time in the chain, it is a living system and by limiting this to one window normally at the end of the day to project forecast and drop its figures is not enough.

2. Promotions can be a tricky affair often removing an entire buffer, which again has knock on effects. This can be cause by little warning from retailers.

3. Unforeseen errors cause for stock being held up or undelivered, when other
products need to be rushed in, when will these two areas become merged? Allowing me to allocate stock at the last minute, saving me stock out issues and increasing my revenue.

4. Trawling through data sent in by the retailer often in excel format, this colossal amount of information (balance on hand, store forecast etc...) always has data I do not need, want or require in order to do the job. I would like something that would show me where problems lie, what differences there are in comparison to other periods in time, how the sales have effected stock levels throughout the chain.

5. Getting poor performing suppliers to improve their system.

I would like to hear about your issues, I will comment on all. Please have fun with this.