Feb 6, 2019
Data lakes are data storage technologies intended for bulk reads and bulk writes. They are particularly well suited to address supply chain challenges, because many situations require an inspection of the company's entire history of orders and stock movements.
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Jan 30, 2019
Supply chains are complex systems made of many moving parts: goods, people, machines. POCs (Proofs of Concept) routinely fail when attempting Quantitative Supply Chain initiatives because problems get displaced instead of getting solved.
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Jan 24, 2019
Keep up with the latest changes in the Supply Chain industry.
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Jan 16, 2019
The relevant amount of historical data when considering large supply chains frequently exceeds one terabyte. As a result, inventory control requires two distinct flavors of software: transactional software (e.g. an ERP) to manage the resources, and predictive software (e.g. Lokad) to optimize the resources.
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Jan 9, 2019
Safety stocks are an inventory optimization method that enforces an extra quantity of stock beyond the expected demand in order to maintain a target service level. This method relies on key statistical assumptions about the demand forecast, most notably that the error is normally found in the distribution.
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Dec 12, 2018
Machine learning is an umbrella term that includes diverse algorithmic approaches. In supply chain, the historical way of doing machine learning was time-series forecasting. However, this approach has been superseded by a series of superior forecasting approaches.
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Nov 21, 2018
The lead time is the total amount of time, typically counted in days, associated with the inventory replenishment cycle. The amount of stocks that a supply chain needs to operate tends to be roughly proportional to its lead times. Accurately estimating future lead times is critical for accurately estimating the amount of inventory needed to fulfill future demand. However, it is a fundamental factor that is often overlooked by companies, with a far greater importance being placed on forecasting.
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Nov 14, 2018
In supply chain, the service level defines the probability of not hitting a stock-out during the next ordering cycle. However, the fill rate defines the fraction of the customer demand that will be properly served. Service levels and fill rates are distinct, and should not be confused.
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Nov 8, 2018
The Min/Max inventory method defines two stock levels: first, a replenishment threshold, referred to as the 'min', and second, a replenishment target, referred to as the 'max'. Yet, despite its popularity, this method is not suitable for most modern supply chains.
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Oct 3, 2018
Growth, and more generally trends, needs to be taken into account in order to deliver accurate demand forecasts. However, growth; as a statistical pattern, proves to be more difficult and more elusive to capture than other well-known patterns such as seasonality.
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Sep 19, 2018
Seasonality is one of the major cyclical patterns that can be used to improve forecasting accuracy. Most supply chain processes tend to be seasonal to some degree. Not only because of demand, but also lead times.
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Sep 12, 2018
The ABC analysis is a widespread inventory categorization method used in many supply chains. Its intent is to prioritize management's attention to where it matters most. Yet, this method has many flaws, and can no longer be considered as state-of-the-art.
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