supply chain planning

De sidste 3 år har virksomheder oplevet, at forstyrrelser i de globale forsyningskæder har påvirket deres performance. Podcasten handler om at styrke virksomheders robusthed overfor forstyrrelser i forsyningskæden ved at bruge et software, der arbejder med realtidsbaserede data om forecast, lager og indkøb. Det kan også danne grundlag for en S&OP-proces.

As the world continues to face challenges from pandemic-related disruptions to potential global recessions, it is now more important than ever to equip supply chain planners with the tools and knowledge they need to respond to crisis. Blaine Fitzgerald, Chief Financial Officer at Kinaxis, and Jim Bralsford, Sr. Director of Industry and Solutions Marketing at Kinaxis, discuss the benefits of long-term planning, diversifying costs and minimizing financial impact to business while preparing for the future.

Blaine states that while some geographies such as US, Japan and parts of Europe have gone in and out of recession, there are other financial indicators such as the inverted yield curve that could imply that the recession isn’t over yet. This means organizations still need to take proactive measures to reduce the impact of recession and inflationary pressures on supply chains. To help companies accelerate out of a slow-growth period, Blaine recommends thinking of the supply chain as a strategy center and not just as a cost center; investing in digitalized planning solutions; engaging in short-term vs long-term supply chain planning and diversification of cost. [5:53]

Blaine also talks about the independent academic research that analyzed the financial performance of about 700 companies (including Kinaxis customers) across different industries over the last 3 years. The results showed that financial metrics improved in companies that used a digital supply chain planning solution, with average growth revenue of 3.62%, vs peers that didn’t use a supply chain planning solution, where growth shrunk by 5.77% on revenue. The results of this study have solidified and elevated the rank of supply chains as a strategic function with direct impact on financial success, in the eyes of boards and executives. This pivotal shift is a key learning from the pandemic and recession that CFOs and CEOs cannot overlook going into future business planning. [10:37]

To learn more about Blaine Fitzgerald, Chief Financial Officer, Kinaxis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-fitzgerald-71a07972, Twitter: @Blaine_Fitz

To learn more about Jim Bralsford, Sr. Director, Industry and Solutions Marketing, Kinaxis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbralsford/

Join Tariq Farooq, former SVP Global Supply Chain at Sanofi, as he speaks with Matt Spooner, Industry Thought Leader at Kinaxis, about how the COVID pandemic and subsequent shortages have caused boards and executives to re-evaluate the importance of the supply chain. They discuss why the supply chain has risen to the top of the corporate agenda, and why it is now essential not just to think about tradeoffs in terms of cost, cash and service, but also to include resilience and environmental impact in the equation.

Summary points:

Recent supply chain disruptions that have stemmed from the pandemic have changed the way that boards and executive teams look at and consider the supply chain. According to Tariq, many consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies, as well as high-tech companies are beginning to recognize the important role that the supply chain plays. As a result, C-suite executives are bringing more supply chain topics to the table. (2:00) 

The perception of the importance of the supply chain hasn’t grown just among C-suites, but also among the average person as consumers aren’t seeing what they want on shelves. Supply chain disruption has become a challenge across many industries. 

Some supply chain leaders insist that resilience is important – but that it must also be cost neutral. Tariq states that, while cost is important at any time, there has never been a higher need for resilience than now. While many organizations were previously cutting down on costs by doing things like mono-sourcing, in an age of disruption, many companies, especially large-scale ones, are forced to multi-source to maintain efficiency. Tariq states, “The challenge really becomes how do you shift from where you have been, where cost efficiency might have been the primary objective to being in a situation which is more balanced as we move ahead. […] I think increasingly what they'll be doing is leveraging some of the efficiencies that come because of digitalization, because of automation, because of all the great talent that's been developed across supply chains and the supply chain networks that they establish to offset some of those incremental risks.” (8:00) 

In the past, supply chain professionals were focused on trying to balance the triangle of service, cost and cash. Tariq states that as we move forward, this triangle will look more like a pentagon where you’re trying to balance service, cost, cash, environmental impact and resilience. (8:50)

Click here to follow or know more about the speakers:

1. Tariq Farooq - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tariqfarooq/
2. Matt Spooner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spoonermatthew/

Sustainability has become an increasingly important area of focus for corporations over the last 20 years. So, what role does supply chain planning play in improving it and reducing CO2 emissions? In this podcast, Stefano Picasso, former VP of Integrated Supply Chain at Carlsberg and Matt Spooner, Industry Thought Leader at Kinaxis,talk about building a more sustainable future.

Managing Director of the Ferrari Consulting and Research group, Bob Ferrari, joins Alexa Cheater, Director of Product Marketing at Kinaxis in this episode to discuss the current shortage of supply chain talent. Watch now to see how the effects of these shortages have been felt critically, especially when it comes to companies struggling to transform digitally and employees shifting their priorities. Learn how to find and retain top supply chain talent in our latest video podcast.

You can learn more about Bob Ferrari and the Ferrari Consulting and Research group here: https://theferrarigroup.com/

Summary points:

• Bob noted that the signs of the supply chain talent shortages started before the pandemic, though COVID did exacerbate the effects. In addition, the advancement of cloud-based technology and the need for more digitally inclined staff contributed to these shortages.
• The last three years have been full of nonstop disruptions, causing businesses to pivot their business models and product strategies.
• Millions of employees voluntarily exited the workforce over the past 3 years due to shifting priorities for reasons like work-life balance, dual income, childcare, and more. Additionally, baby boomers retired, taking institutional knowledge with them.
• Bob emphasized the need to hire based on skills-based dimensions starting, “we want people with skill sets that could change when the jobs change, that have certain traits that we know are akin to these kinds of roles, you know, and hard skills and collaboration skills and soft skills, all of those dimensions.” 
• Bob stated that workers seek a sense of purpose in their work, family, and communities based on their values such as climate change, sustainability, and diversity – and that businesses and managers should seek to humanize their workforce by making these needs a priority.
• Bob stated that automating mundane, inefficient, and redundant tasks can help improve employee satisfaction so there is more time for managers to help their employees grow their analytical, team leading, collaboration, and communication skills.

Paul Giamberardino has over 20 years in supply chain management for industries like consumer-packaged goods, healthcare and now telecommunications. 

In this episode, Paul says he’s pleased that in recent years, supply chain is no longer just “a cost center to move equipment around” but “we've really tried to change that to be a competitive advantage, an area that adds value for the organization,” he says.

Regarding “technology enablers” for the supply chain: Whether it's IoT, Blockchain, 5G, Paul says they're going to enable supply chain practitioners to get better at what they do and help supply chain move past pure execution of orders to more end-to-end orchestration.

Adapting to new processes over past few years: Change management, building trust in new tools has been a big lift. People were used to ingrained ways of doing things and now have to trust that new systems will give them the outcomes they’re used to. 

“Can’t run a supply chain staring at a computer”: Rogers has  a mix of office and logistics/distribution employees. “We’ve gotten away from touching and feeling the supply chain like we used to.” He says there’s no substitute for seeing the operations and through the lens of the customer. 

Evolution of supply chain becoming a strategic differentiator: Rogers has introduced new services like weekend deliveries , creating a competitive supply chain advantage. This has driven more corporate investment in talent, systems, facilities.

Learn more about Paul here. 

As a spin-off enterprise of Novartis, Sandoz aims to become a competitive, global generic pharmaceutical company. Kevin Cook, Sandoz VP of Supply Chain North America, explains that Sandoz is seeking to be an independent entity by the third quarter of 2023 and to get to that point, it needed advanced supply chain planning to match its productivity and delivery goals. The company has been undergoing a digital transformation using RapidResponse from Kinaxis for the past few years. Allen Jacques and Kevin Cook discussed how the planning process is evolving for Sandoz.

Key quotes from Cook: 

“…we look really for efficiencies, productivity opportunities internally on how do we automate our processes better, how do we bring information and analytics to be more of as a DIY application than having to rely on IT…” 

“And now we're kind of on this journey of how we actually start to link to our suppliers and our customers on a more of an end-to-end basis, and how do we unlock the value of the entire supply chain from us as manufacturers to ultimately our patients and providers. How do we go about that journey of bringing information about our supply into the broader supply chain world, making the supply chain run better, making it more real resilient, more visible, and at a lower cost, while at the same time meeting patient needs in a better way.”

“The beauty of a tool at Kinaxis is that it's separated from SAP, we have freedom to basically adjust parameters around capacity and demand and supply chain nodes, and basically run lots of what-if scenarios that are interconnected across all of our nodes.”

Other points:

• Sandoz is focused on understanding who all its digital partners are and what their needs are, and building stronger, connected relationships from end-to -end. 
• Novartis has 17 instances of SAP, whereas Sandoz has one planning solution that sits on top of all of them: RapidResponse. It “helps us communicate and see things on a real-time basis,” says Cook. 
• Sandoz hopes to leverage these newer technologies to further develop its serialization and track-and-trace capabilities, which will open up visibility and new ways to see demand, plan and create better access to its products in the markets.
• Cook says he would hope to counter any fears that giving a distributor full visibility of its supply chain could risk losing that distributor; rather, he would ideally see it used to build trust by demonstrating reliability and enabling collaboration to see issues earlier than ever to resolve challenges.
• On the predictive side, Sandoz is using models based on historical data on stock-out trends, financial/economic info in certain markets and more to determine probability of being awarded future tenders. Cook says they are starting to see trends of outages than can be responded to now with inventory builds, and planning. 

• Mohan Sodhi conducted a survey project to determine what mid-to-senior level supply chain managers are expecting from three of the most popular new emerging technologies mentioned in the Gartner Hype Cycle: artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. 
• Sodhi expected to learn that each technology had unique constraints and questions from the supply chain managers. Instead, he learned that supply chain managers saw all three as “indistinguishable” on the survey. 
• Supply chain managers aren’t certain what these emerging technologies will do for their supply chain, based on their expectations and priorities. Each technology goes through a path of discovery to “a peak of inflated expectations” before landing in the “trough of disillusionment.”
• Sodhi says true learning begins after this “disillusionment” phase as supply chain managers learn more about what each technology can do. 
• To accelerate through the inflated expectations and disillusionment stages, managers can make a list of requirements and what they want from their supply chains, and what they cannot currently do, and share that with consultants and vendors to help distinguish which technologies best meet those needs, thereby moderating expectations.
• Sodhi recommends sharing information within your supply chain about what you’re actually expecting from this new technology and the mutual benefits that may go beyond your own company and help your market sector. 
• Robinson recommends companies interested in starting a supply chain planning transformation learn as much as possible from consultants and vendors through activities like customer conference calls to learn which technologies are the best fit for problems you’re trying to solve. 
• Sodhi says his top concern for supply chain transformation going forward is planning for survival in the next 10 to 20 years given global warming and other factors. This will mean sharing critical information with others in the industry, even competitors, to help supply chains as a whole survive whatever comes next. 
• Link to visit Professor Sodhi’s report: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/poms.13694

• Global disruptions have led to critical changes in inventory management
• The importance of agility in becoming less dependent on unreliable plans
• Economic growth driven by inventory build-ups
• Impact of the bullwhip effect

Infosys held a customer roundtable earlier this year where they invited customers, partners, and industry analysts to talk about the issues facing supply chains today.

It was a really interesting event with some fascinating learnings, so I invited Infosys executives Ramesh J Chougule, and Srinivas Krishnamoorthy to come on the podcast to share what they heard.

We had a fascinating conversation discussing overcoming the pandemic's effects on inventory, risk management, and demand shifts amongst other topics. I learned loads. I hope you do too.

If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).

If you want to learn more about supply chain semiconductor shortages, don't forget to check out SAP's recently published Point of View paper on the topic, as well as my podcast with the author of the paper Jeff Howell.

And don't forget to also check out the 2021 MPI research on Industry 4.0 to find out how to increase productivity, revenues, and profitability for your operations. This global study examines the extent to which manufacturers deploy Industry 4.0 in their business and the benefits it brings.

And if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane! 

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters:

• Lorcan Sheehan
• Krishna Kumar
• Olivier Brusle
• Alicia Farag
• Joël VANDI
• Luis Olavarria
• Alvaro Aguilar

And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:
If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

Please Read Before Listening

GET READY TO DIG IN! 
Your own company’s distribution network is the focus of this episode and we have a content upgrade for you!

In this 6th episode, Howard Coleman, Principal of MCA Associates, offers a “listen and read” approach while offering a different view of “inventory and supply chain planning, management, and optimization”. The objective? – develop insights that can drive positive action - and a way to counter demand uncertainty. During these periods of “short supply”, all it takes is a willingness to think differently about the challenge – and a willingness to re-learn the importance of your “inventory drivers”.

So, we’re going to depart, somewhat, from our usual podcast format - by using the free resource we routinely provide in every episode - to enhance your podcast listening experience. So, take note of the 3-steps below. It’s the only thing I’ll ask of you.

First: For this episode, just click on: Articles / White Papers - MCA ASSOCIATES. 

Second: Print out the white paper - in its entirety. Give it a quick read for its “flavor” and general thought content…then:

Third: If you are now open to “digging in”, there are some very revealing graphics in this white paper! Suggestion: Use the graphics as your guide through-out this podcast. We’ll explain each one!

Host: Howard W. Coleman, Principal of MCA Associates

To contact podcast host; email hcoleman@mcaassociates.com 
or call  203-732-0603.

And thanks to our great sponsors:

6 River Systems – https://www.6river.com

MindHarbor – https://www.mindharbor.com

The Wholesaler Magazine – https://www.phcppros.com

Cost Analysts – https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/chuckmoyer

Unified Payments Group- https://www.gounified.com/p21IntegratedDemo/

I'm participating in a 5-part Design to Operate:Live livestream series which streams on LinkedIn Live and Twitter on Wednesdays. I will be co-hosting the next one with my colleague David Vallejo on Wednesday February 17th on the topic of Planning as a Critical Part of a Resilient, Sustainable #SupplyChain.

David is the Global Head of Digital Business Planning at SAP, so I thought it would be good to have him here on the podcast to have a chat about Supply Chain planning, how covid has changed organisation's planning practices, some f the technologies impacting planning, and where to from here with planning in a post-covid world

As you will see listening to this, we had a great time making this episode. I hope you enjoy listening to it.

If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).

To learn more about how Industry 4.0 technologies can help your organisation read the 2020 global research study 'The Power of change from Industry 4.0 in manufacturing' (https://www.sap.com/cmp/dg/industry4-manufacturing/index.html)

And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Digital Supply Chain solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/digitalsupplychain and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters:

• Lorcan Sheehan
• Krishna Kumar
• Olivier Brusle
• Alicia Farag
• Joël VANDI
• Luis Olavarria
• Alvaro Aguilar

And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:
If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

Planning is a fundamental part of supply chains, and while I have had some customers on the podcast who refer to their use of planning, I haven't had an episode dedicated to the topic of planning, and how it is needing to go more realtime in these disrupted times.

Consequently, I invited David Vallejo (@SAPVallejo on Twitter) to come on the podcast to have a deep dive into planning - where it is today, and how the requirements to be more nimble means supply chain planning is rapidly needing to go to cloud, and integrate with other functions, and organisations.

This new vision of planning is called Synchronised Planning - and you heard about it here first folks ;)

David and I had a great chat, and as ever, I learned loads. I hope you did too

If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).

For more information, do check out the 2020 global research study "How to drive agility and productivity in Manufacturing with Industry 4.0"

And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Digital Supply Chain solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/digitalsupplychain and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters:

• Lorcan Sheehan
• Krishna Kumar
• Olivier Brusle
• Alicia Farag
• Joël VANDI
• Luis Olavarria
• Alvaro Aguilar

And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:
If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

I am giving the opening keynote at the SAP Supply Chain Resilience Conference this coming Tuesday October 6th. Unlike previous years, this years event is a virtual conference, for obvious reasons, which means anyone from any part of the globe can participate!

Giving the closing keynote at the event is McKinsey partner Knut Alicke. McKinsey recently published the results of a survey of 60 senior supply chain executives on "the impact of the pandemic on their operations and their future plans to make supply chains far more flexible and agile"as well as their McKinsey Global Institute report on Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains which Knut will discuss in his closing keynote.

So, I reached out to Knut to invite him to come on the podcast to discuss these and other topics around pandemic responses and the future of supply chains, and we had a really fascinating conversation, I think.

I really enjoyed putting this podcast together, I hope you enjoy listening to it. If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).

For more information, do check out the 2020 SAP EHS and Product Compliance Annual Conference website.

And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Digital Supply Chain solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/digitalsupplychain and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters:

• Lorcan Sheehan
• Krishna Kumar
• Olivier Brusle
• Alicia Farag
• Joël VANDI
• Luis Olavarria
• Alvaro Aguilar

And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:
If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

Video: Reliable planning for life-saving products with Ipsen

Part 3 in digital transformation series: Death, taxes and change management with Hilary Horn, Managing Director, at Deloitte