Lean is a concept of continous improvement, arguin...

2009-11-08T01:02:51.173+05:30

Lean is a concept of continous improvement, arguing that there is no need to improve forecasting is not a lean attitute. Forecast can be improved it is not merely an educated guess. In my previous organization we have improved the demand management processing several ways.

1)Demand planning specialist scrutinize demand and all the manufacturing parameters-- yield, lead time, BOM,... They look for EC level to ensure proper cut over and ensure they reflect current and projected reality.

2)Demand has been classified and prioritized trough a set of rules. For example an order is more important than a forecast in production scheduling. A sample order has priority over a regular order because it addresses business development. Some orders have priority over others because of current contracts or business relationship. By defining who gets priority, MPS is more efficient.

3)Building a supply chain network through which clients will provide they own forecast will improve accuracy and reduce the internal guessing, the human time effort for guessing.
The customers forecast will be directly uploaded in the planning system.

4)Demand projected revenue output will be sized against revenue projection and expectation. Demand planning will explain the dynamic of the suppply process to the S&OP team that will decide on actions to be taken.

The primary concept Quality of demand = Quality of supply still true. This does not however precludes lean efforts in other areas of supply
such as improving capacity planning, overall leadtime, inventory, ect....

Jean Luc MAGRE

I tend to go with the thought of attacking both th...

2009-11-01T08:23:28.509+05:30

I tend to go with the thought of attacking both the sides in equal manner. While correct forecasting is still a potent weapon to fine tune your supply chain but importance of lead time reduction is more than ever now as inventory carrying costs are hitting the enterprises in many ways these days.

Thanks for the initiative of compiling the thoughts of industry experts on this subject. Love your blog!

Comments on InfoVerto: SCM and ERP Notes: Strategy: Catalysts to achieve your Lean Objective...

Lean is a concept of continous improvement, arguin...

I tend to go with the thought of attacking both th...