Supply Chain Planning Newsletter

December, 2013

Lead Article:
How Do You Evaluate Your Supply Chain Strategy?

This is not an easy question to answer. We recently surveyed a randomly selected sample of companies and the responses were mostly subjective and capricious. A few compared themselves with their peer groups in their industry, a few others pointed to their progress in certain KPI's such as inventory turns and on-time delivery performance and some others simply pointed out that we are making good progress but a lot more needs to be done!  

 

Most companies and industry analysts point to KPI's as a way of measuring the effectiveness of supply chain strategies. This is good way to do it, however it does not show how much better you can be; especially if you are one of the leading companies in your industry. Some of the usual measures are cash-to-cash cycle, inventory indices, delivery performance, Return-on-Capital, Cycle time and market share increase. We strongly believe in the old adage that if it is not measured then it is not addressed. To this end, we suggest that every year, a new goal has to be set by the company to reach the desired KPI's, which may vary from company to company. For example for certain products, profitability may not be as important as market share! Once the KPI's, no more than 5, are defined and agreed on how to be measured, then decide as to how it can be related to changes that may be needed to your supply chain strategy. For example, "delivery performance" has a direct relationship to company response time, planning time, inventory policy, supplier performance, capacity availability, etc. For each of these decide how it can be measured and what the target goal should be in order to get to the KPI that was set as your final Supply Chain strategy goal. As you can see, in certain cases, processes must change and people have to be held accountable to achieve these goals. As another example, "Market Share" is one that directly relates to on-time delivery performance, although product quality and functionality as well as marketing & sales strategies all have to be there to achieve your goal. Assume these are given and someone else's challenge in the company. Hence your supply chain strategy can be isolated and improved year over year regardless of how all the other measures, outside of your control, are performing.

 

As you can see the process is simple but not easy! It requires focus and discipline.

 


How Green Is Your Supply Chain?

Is your supply chain "green"? A Green supply chain strategy is focused on continuous reduction of its carbon and energy footprint. There are many industry and government regulations and/or trends that require measurement and reduction of energy usage and efficiency of your supply chain. Companies like Walmart already require their suppliers to comply with their green policies. How Green is your supply chain?  

 

Adexa, as the leader in supply chain technology, is now offering both consulting services as well as related technologies to address your company's concerns regarding a more efficient usage of your resources. You would be surprised that there is a lot of savings to be made at little cost. As an example, Adexa can plan your high energy usage products when the energy costs are at their lowest! How "cool" is that? For more information, contact [email protected], with the word "Green" in the subject line

 

 


Adexa Wins!

We are pleased to announce two new partnerships with two of the world's largest companies in electronics and apparel manufacturing, respectively. We would like to welcome our new clients, and thank them for entrusting their global supply chain to Adexa. For nearly 20 years Adexa has gained the confidence of some of the world's most well-known and innovative companies, in almost every industry sector, and we have done so by delivering top-line and bottom-line value to every client.


Adexa Trivia

Adexa knows how much beer you will be drinking in the October Fest!  

 

Now, you can't run out of beer in October Fest! Seriously! That is because Adexa plans the production of some of your favorite beers from the largest brewery in Bavaria. Prost!

 

Adexa plans 50% of the world electronics!

 

Did you know that at least one component out of every 2 electronic devices that you are using is planned for production by Adexa?

 

Adexa's can move the earth...

 

Did you know that heavy construction equipment and machinery in 120 countries are planned & scheduled for production by Adexa?


Supply Chain Trends
From Gartner

The following article, published by Gartner, discusses the recent trends in supply chain strategies, and where the companies are heading given the recent advances in technology. We invite you to click on the link below for a free download of the article.

 

Understanding the Drivers, Terminology and Context for Supply Chain Visibility

 


Happy Holidays from all of us at Adexa...



 


For more information contact us at any time:

Ron Wilson

Marketing Director

888-300-7692 (Ext. 3)

[email protected]