Practical perspectives on supply chains, smarter operations, and building a business that’s ready for what’s next.
Here’s a number worth calculating for your own operation: take a typical order’s total elapsed time from release to completion,…
Read article : How to Cut Production Lead Times Without Adding Headcount
Most manufacturers settle into one mode and apply it broadly. Make-to-order businesses make everything to order; make-to-stock businesses stock everything.…
Read article : Make-to-Order vs. Make-to-Stock: Letting AI Decide the Right Mix
There’s a version of every manufacturing business where the shop floor and the board are describing different companies. The floor…
Read article : Shop Floor to Top Floor: Connecting Production Data Across the Business
Scrap and rework occupy an odd position in manufacturing accounts. They’re measured, reported, and largely tolerated — treated as a…
Read article : Reducing Scrap and Rework With Predictive Quality Analytics
Consignment sounds close to free money. The supplier’s stock sits in your warehouse, you pay only as you consume, and…
Read article : Consignment Inventory: When It Helps and When It Hurts
Inventory turnover is the metric most likely to be quoted with confidence and understood poorly. Someone finds an industry average,…
Read article : Inventory Turnover Ratio: Benchmarks by Manufacturing Segment
Materials with a shelf life break the ordinary logic of inventory management. Normal stock has a carrying cost. Perishable stock…
Read article : Shelf Life and Batch Expiry: Managing Perishable Raw Materials
Reorder points have a particular way of going wrong. Someone calculates them carefully at implementation, they’re correct for perhaps six…
Read article : How AI Sets Reorder Points That Adapt to Real Demand
Ask what it costs to hold inventory and the usual answer references warehousing and the interest on the money tied…
Read article : The True Cost of Carrying Inventory (It’s More Than You Think)
The annual stocktake is one of those practices that survives more on tradition than merit. It shuts the plant, consumes…
Read article : Cycle Counting vs. Annual Stocktake: Making the Switch