A little structure goes a long way.
Supply Chain High Level and Segments View:
High level views will be used to explain process flows will few details with a hope to understand the entire picture. We use this starting point to imagine you are in a hot air balloon and are looking down on your business and can only see major facilities or customers served. This approach also helps to identify the significant metrics needed to monitor the business. As the balloon drops in altitude will add more detail to our process maps and analysis in 2nd or 3rd level views.
Supply chains are made up of many connected sub processes. Changes or improvements in one sub process can help or hurt the overall performance of the Supply Chain. It has become popular to focus on one part of the Supply Chain process and apply new technology to standardize and optimize performance. These solutions can provide the support to scale output or reduce overall costs. No one technology platform can support the entire chain. Efficient data and signals are needed to connect each segment. This blog will identify specific parts of the supply chain and the methods to improve each sub process while keeping potential impacts on the whole chain in mind.
Combinations of these segments have been linked to provide ways to improve business performance and manage cash flows. Internal facing combinations of segment steps are can be linked when considering Procure to Pay improvements. How are Procurement, Purchasing, Warehousing (Receipt) and Payments related within the business? When are suppliers or vendors paid for goods or services? Principles of Taiichi Ohno's, Order to Cash (O2C) can be applied to this Supply Chain view as the time it takes from when a Customer places an order to when the business is paid for the order.
Difficulty Levels:
Not every business or Supply Chain is created equally. Different approaches and levels of experience are needed at different times to make improvements. Easy Supply Chain will organize these levels of difficulty in each blog by the following labels or tags to help you find the right content at the right time.
Just Starting Out
Getting Good
Supply Chain Master
Tools
This section will help provide the tools used in the blog. Links to websites, software or sample files will be added to this section. Links could include Affiliate links, but we will always call attention to these types of relationships with Easy Supply Chain.
Reference
Specific links for referenced concepts or sources of more information will be listed here. Here is a link to Ohno's book via Amazon: Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production - Order to Cash - Ohno
Tips
Look for "Pro Tips" or other words of wisdom in this section.
Please leave us a comment on the questions and issues you are having with your business and supply chain. We will use your feedback to create future posts based on your feedback. Reach out if you need help!
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