The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges around the world. In the midst of the seeming chaos many brilliant minds have been working in overdrive to develop innovative solutions to many of obstacles that lie in our way. Abbot recently announced a new method for fast, accurate, point-of-care testing devices to deliver results in minutes instead of days. …
Covid-19 (Coronavirus): Where do we go from here?
Everyone is working hard to figure out how to stay safe, what is going on, how to minimize the impact to our personal lives and the companies we work for, and to plan for the future. Over the last few weeks, I have spoken with several of our customers as well as industry analysts from ChainLink Research, Gartner and IDC to gain some additional perspective on how the supply …
Forecasting and Demand Planning for a Better, Unified Future
Year after year, survey after survey, forecast accuracy continues to be one of the top metrics for measuring supply chain performance. There is a lot of pressure on planners to improve this important metric and while no plan will ever be 100 percent accurate (that would be an order after all), it is important to get as close as we can to help synchronize the supply chain and …
From Advanced Analytics Laggard to Leader
Logility in collaboration with Peerless Research released the report, The Keys to Creating and Leveraging Actionable Information, which highlighted feedback from executives on the opportunities, challenges and use of advanced analytics across their supply chain. As a result, an interesting statistic surfaced: “Only 22% of companies have implemented an advanced analytics …
The Best Part of My Job
As we wrapped up our 2019 Velocity Conference in Orlando last week, I was reminded how lucky we are to be in supply chain. For three days we had the opportunity to listen to some of the top supply chain leaders and visionaries discuss their challenges and how, through people, process, technology and data, they are able to transform their operations to create faster, more …
A Re ‘Tale’ as Old as Time – Part 1
You have the place and you have the merchandise. But, do you have your merchandise in the right place, at the right time to serve your customers? This is a tale as old as time, yet retailers continue to struggle on a daily basis. The ability to properly align available merchandise at the time and point of demand will determine how well you compete in this dynamic market. …
How to Design a Successful Apparel Supply Chain
Apparel is an exciting and rapidly changing industry. Planners need to contend with inconsistent consumer buying behavior, the need to satisfy multiple channels, complex sourcing options and proliferating “sub-seasons,” collections and assortments. These are just a few of the challenges apparel manufacturers and retailers must overcome to operate at peak performance and compete …
Common Forecasting Myths Debunked – Part 3 – How Much History is Enough History?
If you were to take a guess, how many years of sales history do you think you need to create a forecast? Five years? Ten years? The answer may surprise you. Myth #3: You need several years of data to create a forecast. For most levels of management within an organization, aggregated demand history acts as a baseline for effectively product demand and is a great predictor …
5 Steps to Building a Champion Retailer
The art of retail is to delight and serve a specific consumer demographic. Managing a successful retail business is combining this art with the science of excellent business strategies and objectives. Want to merge the art and science of retail planning to compete in this marketplace? The following 5 steps will help you become more agile and responsive to fast-changing …
Common Forecasting Myths Debunked – Part 2 – Overcoming Lumpy Demand
This is the second post in a series of common myths around forecasting. Here we explore how forecasts can be created for even the most volatile demand patterns. Myth: You cannot create an accurate forecast for products whose demand histories contain lumpy or intermittent demand patterns. Demand planners may think creating a unique forecast for products whose demand …
