Saturday, January 24, 2009

Beating your rivals through supply chain management strategies

By Larry Emsweller

Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric and management guru, made it clear, "You can't beat your rivals by [following] the old rules." Yet many supply chain managers continue to use the rules of the past. These rules require an enterprise system to determine where orders should load from, where stock should be transferred to and when, and then hand-off to TMS (Transportation Management System) and WMS (Warehouse Management System) to make it happen. It is just like throwing information over the wall. Where is the coordination between production and distribution? The old rules don't optimize distribution.

The new rules: distribution-scheduling software.

The key is coordinating production and distribution along with the timing of events. You have to be able to manage these. DMS is the process that helps achieve this. It understands the process. It will tell you:

1. How to determine where each order ships from. DMS defines dock schedules to minimize handling. As an example, it can schedule a shipment as the product is being made because it knows which production line it is on and places it directly into a truck or when it can be cross-docked.

2. Determine when to bring product into each site - maximize Direct Plant Shipping (DPS). If a plant has multiple outside warehouses, DMS determines where product should be put as it comes off the line (most WMS only determine where in the building each product should be stored)

3. Provide insight to where there will be stock-outs or other failures in the system, for planners to start remedial action

4. Save time on pallet handling.

Procter & Gamble uses AutoScheduler - Distribution Master Scheduling software - from Transportation l Warehouse Optimization [www.TransportationOptimization.com] in its largest operation around the world to maximize supply chain management strategies. It is sophisticated software that manages the data and maximizes optimized scheduling.

One P & G site reported a 33% reduction in WMS transactions after installing AutoScheduler. This optimizer is very effective in reducing supply chain management effort and costs while increasing customer service.

Using this Distribution Master Scheduling software makes the task of beating your rivals much easier. Playing by the new rules and throwing out the old make a lot of sense.

Test your skills and see how efficient you are at managing costs by loading a truck or a warehouse. Visit www.TransportationOptimization.com. While there, request a call back from one of the premier transportation consultants in the industry, Thomas Moore and his associates at Transportation | Warehouse Optimization. Working for many companies in the top Fortune 50 like Procter & Gamble and BP, they understand your unique problems and know how to solve them. Transportation l Warehouse Optimization - Solutions that work. Solutions that save. - 15485

About the Author: