Articles

The Lean Supply Chain

Paul A. Myerson

Changing the Shape of Supply and Demand

Demand sensing and demand shaping have become important strategies when considering customer collaboration and downstream visibility to improve supply chain efficiency. Demand sensing refers to forecasting methods that use mathematical techniques and real-time information to create more accurate demand forecasts (a variety of supply chain analytics), while demand shaping is the act of influencing demand […]

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Saving Green While Going Green

While good for the environment, supply chain sustainability can also be good for the bottom line if incorporated into a company’s supply chain strategy. In the past, most companies were concerned primarily with forward logistics processes, and, to some degree, returning product to suppliers. Today, companies also focus on reverse logistics processes, not only from […]

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Paul A. Myerson

RFID: More Than Just a Better Barcode

Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) offers a multitude of benefits that can significantly reduce and eliminate waste in the extended supply chain. RFID, an automatic identification method using electronic tags that have a microchip and printed antenna, is a lot more than just a small improvement from barcode technology. Barcodes offer a status report at […]

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Paul A. Myerson

Measuring to Manage or Barely Managing to Measure

Respondents to a Bain & Company survey say they run their supply chains only half as efficiently as top supply chain performers such as Toyota, Dell, and Home Depot. In fact, top-quartile performers spend just 4.2 percent of revenue on supply chain costs, compared to almost 10 percent for average performers in the same industry. […]

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Paul A. Myerson

Procurement and Purchasing: Buying into Lean

While supply chain costs, primarily procurement and transportation, can range from 50 to 70 percent of sales, some companies place too much emphasis on the traditional focus of reducing material costs in supply processes. Applying Lean principles to procurement and purchasing processes can identify non-traditional sources of waste, in some cases creating a paradigm shift […]

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Paul A. Myerson

How to Cut Seven Non-Traditional Wastes

In my first column for Inbound Logistics in 2012, I covered the seven traditional wastes identified in Lean thinking: Transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, and defects, more commonly known by the acronym TIM WOOD. But there are other wastes to consider in your supply chain and logistics functions. Let’s examine the following seven non-traditional […]

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Paul A. Myerson

How Location Decisions Impact a Lean Strategy

Companies often don’t consider the location decision to be a Lean concept, but they should. Moving goods efficiently from raw material sites to processing facilities, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers is critical to remaining competitive in today’s global economy. When manufacturers make location decisions, their priority is to minimize cost. Retailers look to maximize revenue […]

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Paul A. Myerson

Designing a New Strategy for a New Year

With the New Year upon us, retailers and manufacturers need to rethink their supply chains and find new ways to work together, according to the 2016 Future Supply Chain, a report from the Global Commerce Initiative and Capgemini. Here’s a look at some external and internal industry trends from a Lean perspective. It’s not hard […]

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Paul A. Myerson

A Lean and Agile Supply Chain: Not an Option, But a Necessity

In today’s global, dynamic economy, it is beneficial for companies to operate a supply chain that is both Lean and agile. Using Lean and agile in combination is known as having a hybrid supply chain strategy. A hybrid supply chain strategy may be appropriate for a company attempting to become a "mass customizer"—producing progressively smaller […]

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