What are supply chain professionals using to make network decisions?
Part I in our series on assessing your network design’s maturity
How does your network design compare to others? We recently created a quiz to help supply chain professionals answer this question. Our goal was to help you identify potential improvement opportunities by answering a few questions and get a temperature check on the current landscape of network design solutions. We had quiz takers from 23 countries and across industries – from chemicals to manufacturing, metals, telecom, cosmetics, consumer goods, transportation and food. It’s great to see the enthusiasm for this interactive tool.
Modeling brewing capacity to drive cost savings at HEINEKEN
Heineken is one of the world’s best-known beers. But for HEINEKEN International, the famed lager is only one of its products. The company owns more than 165 breweries around the world. It operates in 70 countries with a workforce of 80,000, producing over 300 specialty beers and ciders at international, regional and local levels. Planning such a large operation efficiently is no doubt a challenge, but HEINEKEN’s quest for efficiency started in the company’s early years. In 1966, HEINEKEN became one of the first Dutch companies to adopt container shipping. Decades later, they would debut a climate-efficient shipping route between their brewery and the port of Rotterdam. Today, the company is betting on prescriptive analytics to plan its operations more efficiently and prevent lost sales in a constantly changing market. AIMMS has been a crucial partner in this journey. To learn more about these efforts, we spoke with Wilko Sierksma, HEINEKEN’s manager for Network Design and Global S&OP.
How advanced is your supply chain network design? Take our quiz to find out
Today’s most profitable companies have built their success on an effective and responsive supply chain network. But maintaining this is easier said than done. Supply chain networks are becoming increasingly complex, serving multiple SKUs in hundreds if not thousands of locations. Building agility and resilience into your network is more important than ever, with trade disputes and natural disasters posing a constant threat. Achieving this can be difficult if your technology is not flexible enough. Too often, firefighting becomes the norm.
We’ve developed a quiz to help supply chain professionals find out how their network design stacks up against others. The quiz is also a handy resource to identify improvement areas. For instance, did you know that while most companies use spreadsheets for network design, close to 90% of all spreadsheets contain errors? It may be time to revisit your tooling. Take the quiz below to find out how you score and how you can improve!
Key learnings from Supply Chain Insights’ Global Summit
It was a pleasure to attend this month’s Supply Chain Insights Summit in Philadelphia. The conference, organized by Supply Chain Shaman Lora Cecere and her team, was structured around a compelling theme: “imagine the supply chain of 2030.” In this blog post, I’ll summarize some key learnings I drew from the event and share some insights on Demand Driven supply chains and the industry’s technology landscape.
How Peapod drives supply chain innovation and efficiency with analytics
An interview with Daniël van Gool at Peapod
It’s an exciting era for retail as companies continue to focus on creating and providing a great experience for their customers, while driving innovation and market share. There’s no doubt that the role of data, technology and analytics in retail decision-making is growing, and that this trend will further heat up over the next few years. I spoke with Daniël van Gool, Director of Supply Chain Development at Peapod, a leading U.S. online grocer who serves the East Coast and Mid-West, to hear about how he views the role of analytics and technology in driving supply chain innovation at his company.
Advanced analytics meets social good: how Angel Flight West optimizes flight routes for families in need
There are many great examples where advanced analytics have contributed to social good. North Star Alliance, for instance, uses optimization to find optimal locations for its mobile HIV-AIDS clinics in Africa. The Dutch Delta Program Commissioner used analytics to prevent flooding and was recognized with the 2013 Edelman Award. Most recently, we encountered Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization that is using AIMMS-based optimization to plan flights for families in need.
Angel Flight West (AFW) arranges free, non-emergency air travel for children and adults with serious medical conditions and other compelling needs. The organization’s network of 2,000+ volunteer pilots donate their aircraft, piloting skills, and all flying costs to help families receive vital treatment that might otherwise be inaccessible because of financial, medical, or geographic limitations. In the summer months, they also run around 500 flights to transport children to summer camps like Camp Kindle (a camp for kids affected by HIV/AIDS), Champ Camp (a camp for burn survivors) and The Painted Turtle (a camp for children with serious medical conditions), among others.
We spoke with AFW’s Stephan Fopeano to learn more about their work.
Summer Reading 2018: Top 6 Blogs on Supply Chain Analytics
Want to avoid summer stagnation? To help you stay informed during the summer months and close the year with impact, we prepared a list of our most popular content for your reading and viewing pleasure. The list includes trending blog posts, our latest webinar and a brand-new Buyer’s Guide for S&OP. Read on to get all the goodies.
From import tariffs to the next tsunami: how Prescriptive Analytics can help you build agility and resilience into your Supply Chain Network
In a world full of turmoil, change has become the new normal. New import tariffs being introduced across the globe, extreme weather events, Brexit… The list goes on and on. What can Supply Chain leaders do to mitigate the risks that these disruptions bring to the Supply Chain? Businesses are constantly reminded that they need to be more agile and resilient in order to survive. But what does this mean when it comes to Supply Chain Network Design?
How to make S&OP meetings a highlight in your team’s calendar
Sales and Operations Planning has become a standard process to improve business performance, collaboration and predictability. In fact, it’s become internalized to a degree that companies often have several (competing) S&OP processes in different geographies & business units. Why is it that despite its popularity, only 42% of companies rate their S&OP process as effective?
Optimizing the food industry: a conversation with UniSoma’s Luis Pinto
The food supply chain is complex and challenging. Changing consumer preferences, rising competition and new technologies are compelling food companies to rethink their approach to supply chain management. AIMMS formed a partnership with CAT Squared and UniSoma to help companies in the food industry tackle these challenges. The first product of this partnership is TacticalOps, a Planning & Optimization solution for Food Manufacturers. I spoke with Luis Pinto, Partner at UniSoma, to understand the need for new planning and optimization solutions in the global food supply chain.
