People

Having the right people with the right skills is a key part of any business success, whatever the function. Supply Chain Consulting can help you by:

• Identifying the right organisational structure for your supply chain operation
• Writing the job descriptions and highlighting the skills required for each role
• Identifying skills gaps in your existing team and designing and delivering training to help bridge these gaps
• Mentoring members of your team to help them develop as supply chain professionals
• Acting as a sounding board to the leadership team on supply chain issues in relation to the business strategy
• Providing additional resource and a safe pair of hands where there are short-term operational gaps in the business

Measuring and Improving Performance

A good set of performance indicators can help you keep your finger on the pulse and identify issues and opportunities for improvement. Supply Chain Consulting can help you:

• Identify the right KPIs (key performance indicators) for your supply chain
• Develop automated reports which measure your KPIs and display them visually
• Build in drill down capabilities in the reports that allow you to identify the root cause of any problems
• Work with your teams to address the problems and improve the overall performance of your supply chain

• A Few Examples:
  • Customer Service
  • Forecast Accuracy/ Bias
  • Production Conformance to Plan
  • Stock Holding
  • Dashboards

Systems and Tools

Having the right systems and tools in place can save you a lot of time, give you more control of your business and turn vast amounts of data into useful information to help you make the right decisions. Supply Chain Consulting can help you by:

• Getting the most out of your current systems (ensuring the available functionality is used effectively and that the data is accurate)
• Writing the specification for new systems and supporting the implementation through user acceptance testing, documentation and training
• Developing support tools that supplement existing systems where there are gaps in the functionality required to support your business e.g. capacity planning tools, scenario planning, visual data representation, KPI reporting
• For smaller businesses that cannot yet justify more complex systems solutions, automated tools can be developed in Excel to help you manage your supply chain

Processes

Is your team constantly fire fighting and spending time and energy expediting things to keep the show on the road? Or do you find yourself constrained by the rigidity of a process which does not allow you to focus on delivering what the wider business needs and your customers expect? There are a number of well recognised processes that can help you run an efficient supply chain. The trick is adapting these in a way that is appropriate to the size and nature of your business.

Supply Chain Consulting can help you refine existing processes or define and implement new ones. This includes engaging and training your teams so that the new process is successfully embedded.

Examples:

• S&OP and IBP
• Capacity Planning
• Production Scheduling
• Materials Ordering
• New Product Development
• Customer Order Processing