Supply Chain Performance Insights | PerformanSC

As the world of AI generated content evolves at a rapid pace, we found ourselves in recent weeks testing the capabilities of ChatGPT for supply chain related content.  Our searches were initially at the high-level, fun end of the spectrum (ChatGPT – write a Valentine’s Day rhyme about supply chain), but we also dug deeper to […]

It has always been an ongoing challenge to manage costs across the supply chain.  Outsourcing to a 3PL is a big ticket item, but the benefits to your business can optimise service and cost while you focus on driving your business, product development, growth, and expansion plans.  Ongoing management of these costs, however, hangs over […]

Whether you are an advocate of New Year’s resolutions or not, some quiet time over the holiday period presents an opportunity to reflect on the year past and to consider changes that you would like to make in the following 12 months.   In the supply chain world, we are never short of a crisis to […]

Sourcing and Shoring Global supply chains have been strained by unprecedented demand and limited effective logistical capacity.  A global supply chain is core to the organisation’s competitiveness, and its success depends on the synchronisation of relations, activities, and agreements in order to be flexible, dynamic, high quality, and cost effective for customers. Firms are extremely […]

For many companies, particularly those with high eCommerce volumes, we are in the final countdown to peak season.   With a disproportionate level of revenue dependent on the coming weeks, it is important to ensure that operations can scale to the task.  To give fulfilment operations the best chance to succeed, there are a few tips that […]

Following last month’s post, I’ll discuss the merits of selecting the best planning policies and review the concept and value of economic metrics. Clearly, all inventory systems contain many uncertainties, and these require a probability distribution of demand for items that can be replenished at either a certain level or point in time.  Actually, it […]

Traditionally, it was believed that a high level of stock guaranteed a successful service performance for a company. Nowadays, we have seen consumer demand influenced by many factors (environmental conditions, economic, social, etc.), consequently making supply chains more dynamic than ever. Furthermore, supply chain practitioners are now acutely aware that either over or under-stocking is […]

There was a time when you could go to the darkest corner of most warehouses and find a bone pile of wrapped pallets of returns.    Returns were the inconvenient afterthought of supply chains and the chore that was left until the pile could no longer be ignored.  Along with the task of sorting through […]

Tackling inflation in our supply chains For the first time in over 30 years, inflation is a concern faced by many western economies.  Academics will debate how we got here – concerns over fuel supply, expansionary economic policies, recovery post-pandemic, geo-political instability, logistics congestion, additional non-trade barriers – but supply chain professionals have been feeling […]

Operations Research: A Supply Chain Perspective In this final introduction to OR in the supply chain, we discuss facility location choices, and the common techniques that are used to geographically position plants and DCs, in order to provide demanded services.  These methods are essential to the optimal design of network structures.  They are widely applied, […]