Recently, Modern Materials Handling magazine published a case study of a pet supply company struggling with inventory. Warehouse workers had to physically bring the inventory to a computer to scan it, then send it on to the destination.  The process was “cumbersome and inefficient.” The problem was solved by adding mobile workstations with scanning capabilities. There was a definite, measureable ROI, productivity increased by 40%, with the added benefit of freeing up workers. Warehouse employees now dedicate less time to product movement.  Workers also use the mobile carts as label makers for pallets to save time instead of walking across the warehouse to the workstation to print. 

A cost-effective supply chain collaboration between manufacturer and suppliers is paramount.  Without that constraint addressed, all other benefits are pointless. Let us stipulate that cost-effective collaboration starts with electronic Kanban, or eKanban. 

The medical technology industry employs over 500,000 workers according to the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA.)  The industry supports approximately 1.4 million additional jobs, for 1.9 million high-paying positions, and generated $113 billion in payroll, with an average salary over $84,000.  According to Ernst and Young, the average earning for public med-tech companies is 6%.

Nowadays most companies are asking their suppliers to hold inventory from which they can pull at a moment’s notice. In my fifteen years of service as a Senior Application Consultant for Ultriva, I have noticed a trend of towards Consignment/Vendor Managed Inventories/Supplier Owned Managed inventories. The reality is whether the company carries the inventory or the supplier carries the inventory, inventory is an inventory.  At the end of the day manufacturing companies are committed to acquiring this inventory. 

Recently, Digital Supply Chain magazine reported that while new technologies are critical, they are not the only requirements for an advanced demand-driven supply chain, according to experts at The Boston Consulting Group.

Start with Customer Relationship Management

Current supply chain management systems often lack the tools necessary to quickly and cost effectively react to the constant stream of changes in customer demand, production schedules, and supply deficiencies common in global markets. Relying on different systems with multiple tools is often expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient. The best technology solutions must support true collaboration and execution between manufacturers and supply chain partners to enable seamless performance and increase revenue.

Kanban is at the core of many solutions, including Ultriva.  That tells only a small part of the story which is about solutions that enhance the process and automates them across the value chain.  Beyond kanban is an execution platform which sets up the pull process from the point of consumption to point of production.  It means scheduling the production based on actual demand, real orders or pull signals.

Lean quality concepts constantly reference continuous improvement.  After a kaizen event and several months pass, there is often fatigue because the notion of continuously looking for better practices (en route to best-practices) is exhausting.

The Gartner IT Glossary explains that, “Demand forecasting applications incorporate historical and predictive customer demand information into production line and sales quotas.”  Sounds simple enough…not really.  Matters become more complex when extending the definition to an end-to-end pull process…still trickier when sensing customer demand and synchronizing supply.