Wroclaw, September 2009

This week I am doing the same as last week in Budapest. It is the same holding, but a different local client; the business is the same, but somehow the 2 sites are completely different.

I am doing the audit - Supply Chain Planning, Supply Chain Operations, and the Distribution Centre.

What if...?

What can happen if the operations department does actually do the thinking job and decides for themselves?

- Operations people normally think big, which means, the bigger the batch/lot size, the better for the fixed costs degression.
- They are not enough informed about the market and should solely concentrate on production/operations efficiency.
- Being focused on short term production results, they tend to neglect to look at the long term when it comes to planning and forecasting.
- Too many interfaces (inside and outside communication) distracts them from their real job - an efficient operation and delivery on time and in full.

There are more reasons, but these are the most important ones.

And now for future reference, when I say 'operations' or 'SCO', that actually means Supply Chain Operations. This is the department in the supply chain which "does" things, and that can be usually production, distribution, etc...

The Brains and the Hands

Talking Supply Chain I'd like to start with the model. Like in many areas it is advisable to separate the "brains" from the "hands", which means, don't let the doers decide what they should do and how much. That never ends up at an optimum.

In a project I am always open for suggestions and agree happily on some alterations to the model and tools which I intend to implement, but on that issue I categorically stay tough: NEVER LET PRODUCTION DECIDE WHAT, HOW MUCH AND WHEN THEY HAVE TO PRODUCE SOMETHING!!!