After our introductory post  on Network Strategy, many people reached out to us asking about the distance formula that we used to calculate the distance between two points. Distances between plants, DCs and customers are the key things that impact supply chain design and customer service levels. So, we have …Read More »

Hola! Detectives. With the previous series of articles on inventory and service levels, it is time now to jump onto realms of some serious strategy stuff! Yes, I am talking about Supply Chain Network Strategy. Believe it or not, majority of supply chain costs are locked at the time of fixing our network. …Read More »

Have I landed on a wrong blog by mistake? Why the heck we are talking about finance on a supply chain blog?If you are thinking that, consider this harsh fact – supply chain is a cost center. Supply chain doesn’t sell anything. Heck, supply chain folks are often found in …Read More »

Our previous article on Simulation, unexpectedly, became the most popular post on this blog. Thanks for your love, fellow SCDs.We also received several e-mails on the topic and they can be broadly classified into two groups. One group’s feedback went something like –“I loved your post on simulation. However, I …Read More »

Whenever you pick-up that joystick for shooting aliens, running through cross-dimensional portals or hopping Italian plumbers through the obstacles to save make-believe princesses, you are running a simulation. Examples of simulations go well beyond video games – armies across the world use simulation to train their soldiers; trainee pilots are first …Read More »

Life is replete with trade-offs. Whenever we take any decision we have to think about all positives and negatives.Shall I live closer to the city to save on commute OR live on the countryside to save on rent?Shall I buy a smaller quantity to save on my inventory costs OR …Read More »

Welcome back SCD! I believe you are still basking in glory after creating an  awesome warehouse requirement model much to the pleasure of your boss. But you know what, we are just getting started– and you’ll soon find yourself encountering much more complicated problems. But don’t you worry; the five-step process …Read More »

You can be the best thing that has happened to the mankind since sliced bread, but if you don’t have proper skills to make sense of the data you might as well be a potato sitting on your boss’s chair.(Don’t you love it when someone strings random analogies together and …Read More »

This is one of the most contentious questions that is often raised in review meetings especially during months of high inventory. We’ve all been there - where all the inventory indicators are in red, warehouses are overflowing with stuff, several leaning Towers of Pisa in the DCs are a common …Read More »

Hello Detectives! Now that you’ve learned the EOQ and its complex variations in part 1 and part 2 of this article, you are ready to use your new super power and save millions of dollars for your company. But before you knock on the corner office of your CEO or …Read More »

Good to see that you have made to part-II of this article. If you have not done so yet, I strongly recommend you to check-out the first part where we derived this deceptively simple EOQ formula. Where, Q is Economic Order Quantity D is Annual demand (in units) K is …Read More »

If you asked any CEO, Sales Executive or Marketing head what is the customer service level they desire in the organization they’d invariably say 100%. And hearing that answer the Supply Chain VP will invariably shake their heads and flee the room before you could ask them the same question.But …Read More »

All you supply chain zombies (SCZs), who are now vying for the blood of the crackpot who wrote such a blasphemy as the title of this post, take a deep breath, cool down a bit and think back at the time when you last implemented the EOQ formula in its …Read More »