“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

In NASCAR races, cars run counter-clockwise around an oval at speeds of 300km/h with typically 30+ drivers on the track at one time. Tens of thousands of die-hard fans show up for every race – and that’s just a fraction of the millions who watch on television.

High speed bullet trains, like Japan’s shinkansen, also travel at speeds in excess of 300km/h. They follow the landscape instead of a repetitive oval and carry hundreds of people at a time - but no fans, no merchandising and no television coverage.

What’s the deal? The train is faster, has a more challenging track and far more participants involved...

Obviously what’s missing is the element of surprise and danger. Each of the 30 drivers in a NASCAR race are working independently of each other. They all need to be anticipating the actions of all the other drivers.

To have a shot at winning, you need to follow close, lest you leave too much room for another driver to sneak in front of you. But not TOO close in case the guy you’re following slows down or veers unexpectedly.

Fans can expect to see a lot of bumping, tire smoking, brake squealing and spinning out – not to mention the occasional spectacular fiery crash...

...not unlike how many retailers run their supply chains.

Stores order goods independently based on their forecasts of what they think customers will buy.

The DC replenishers try to anticipate and respond to what they think the stores’ actions will be. They need to follow close behind to avoid excess inventory, but not too close that fill rate is compromised.

Suppliers generally bring up the rear trying to not only anticipate what the lead cars (customers and stores) will do, but also how those in the middle of the pack (DCs) will react.

Like a full field race at Talladega, the “every man for himself” mentality certainly brings its share of excitement to the lives of retail supply chain professionals.

In contrast, a bullet train relies on a single driver with hard linkages between the cars and a fixed track. The cars can still be inches apart at 300km/h, but without the risk of catastrophe.

Granted, this kind of predictability won’t get hearts racing or attract legions of spectators, but in many cases excitement and unpredictability are overrated.

Sometimes the most well run supply chain is also the most boring.

Posted by Jeff Harrop at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception. - Aldous Huxley

As a professional in supply chain management you’ll always have lots of questions. How can we change this process? How can we improve that? Why does this happen? What’s the root cause of this? How can we get buy-in?

You have oodles of questions, but what you really need is answers. The solutions to your quandaries and quagmires.

But the world of potential solutions is a world of unopened doors.

Of course, one of the most popular doors is labeled “Best Practices”. Many supply chain professionals open this door regularly. The logic and reasoning seems solid. “What are other companies doing”? “What results have they achieved?” “Let’s just copy what everyone else is doing.”

And what do they find? In many cases they discover that best practices often lead to mediocrity. After you’ve taken the time to implement them, today’s best practices can quickly become yesterday’s solutions.

And while this fact can disappointing, it’s hardly surprising. After all, the notion that the way one organization is doing something can be magically transferred to another is a little silly. It completely ignores critical factors such as culture, current processes and people.

Furthermore, why would you strive to achieve what someone else (probably a competitor) is already doing? In this day and age, it may not be wise to assume that the rest of the world will stand still while you catch up.

Have you ever thought about opening new doors? Doors that seem silly to open. Doors you walk by everyday.

What about opening the kaleidoscope of doors from other industries, other disciplines, and even Mother Nature herself? Do you ever wonder what you might find behind those doors?

Henry Ford opened doors. He developed the production line by opening the door to a meat slaughter house and learning how people did their job, then passed their work onto the next person in line.

Fred Smith has also opened a few weird doors. He got the idea for FedEx by opening the door to how banks processed and moved paperwork throughout their network.

Steve Sanger is another example. He paved the way to massive cycle time reductions at General Mills by opening the doors to the pit crew at a NASCAR event.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines has spent numerous hours watching and studying the pit crews of the Indy 500 to help them improve the turnaround times for planes.

To find solutions, it seems like you need to open different doors.

So, how do you know what doors to open?

It’s straightforward really. To open doors from other industries, processes, products, or disciplines, ask the following questions:

• What are the attributes of the problem you’re trying to solve?
• What is the problem like?
• Who else has to deal with a similar type problem?
• How did they solve it?
• Could you adapt their solution to your situation?

Then do it.

The answer to your problem lies behind a door somewhere.

Which ones are you opening?

Posted by Mike Doherty at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There is a distinct and critical difference between keeping things simple and oversimplifying (which actually results in unwanted complexity).

Click here for a fantastic series of articles in PDF format by Luke Tomkin of GRA (originally published in Logistics Magazine) - 14 pages of easy reading in all.

This gentleman obviously understands the Myth of Large Numbers.

Posted by Jeff Harrop at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)