Are you not satisfied with the performance of your supply chain?
- Too much stock that is not where it is needed,
- Too many breaks,
- Unreliable lead times,
- Delays that are too long
- Heavy management on a daily basis, etc.
In short, you are spending a lot of energy in exchange of insufficient results. You wish to modify the organisation of the supply chain. How to achieve it?
First, and this is the main mistake not to make, you should not go looking for a tool, a piece of software. We met a number of companies that had approached the transformation project by looking for a tool that would solve everything. In 99% of the cases, these companies spent energy and money for nothing. The software that was supposed to solve everything has brought no benefit and is no longer used after one to two years.
This project should be approached like all company projects. The first step consists of an inventory in order to have a clear picture of the organisation in place and its effectiveness:
- How is the need of our customers expressed?
- How is planning and scheduling organised?
- How are the workshops organised (visual management, Kanban, etc.)?
- How does our purchasing/supply department work?
- What are our industrial constraints?
- Bottlenecks, changeover times,
- Storage spaces (stores, work in progress)
- What is the performance of our organisation
- Stock,
- Lead times,
- Service rate,
- Productivity.
The second stage is intended to define the objectives of the future organisation:
- What are the policies of commercial deadlines:
- What is the market expecting in terms of lead times and service rates?
- What is our lead time policy for:
- Customer loyalty,
- Taking on new markets.
- What is the level of overall stock in the company?
On this basis, depending on industrial constraints and the type of products, it will then be possible to lay the foundations for the future organisation. Let us cite two exaggerated examples:
- A commercial lead time of 1 day involves managing a stock of finished products,
- A product assembled within 8 days with a commercial lead time of 10 days implies that its components are managed from stock,
The second step therefore consists in making trade-offs between commercial objectives and risks (stock). Once these two steps have been taken, it is then possible to build the supply chain management organisation adapted to the company and its performance objectives.
