What’s the difference between creating a dashboard you want and the one you need? Focus and productivity. Here are few planning system dashboard tips to help increase productivity.

I experienced first-hand the limitations of automating out of stock alerts using Excel. Here’s a real-life example of the out of stock process that I created.

Who should take ownership of the demand management process within the organization? Is it Sales and Marketing?

Here’s a quick look at how to identify and fix errors in planning execution systems.

Do others challenge your expanding portfolio or complicated offering? Need a portfolio pruning process or policy to keep a manageable inventory? Want to take the drama out of keeping or deleting products?

Do others challenge your safety stock selections? Are you in need of a safety stock process or policy? Want to take the drama out of your safety stocks? Use this collaborative six-step process to demystify your safety stock process and a create buy-in.

Make your obsolete inventory more visible with these simple phase-in phase-out planning techniques.

In an ideal world, your products would have on-shelf availability whenever your customer needs them. However, this is often not the case for many businesses. It’s also essential to note that, not all stock outs or out-of-stock(OOS) carry the same severity levels or require the same form of actions. In this blog post, we’ll discuss a simple coding system using descriptive analytics that can help you easily identify different severity levels for your stock out.

Using descriptive statistics, you can improve data visibility by creating a snapshot of your product volume, variability, and velocity. Here’s how.

A look at some of the S&OP implementation best practices for managing your data. Now I’m not going to say, “Ask not what your data can do for you, but ask what you can do for your data.” In the past, I was under the impression that going through a system implementation process of setting up product hierarchies would mark the end of the process. I must now say, there’s more to the story.  

I mean who suffers directly when finished product inventory runs amuck by level, mix, or availability? Well, we all do, don’t we? After all, if we made it and can’t sell it, what have we done? Or, what if we promised it to customers but haven’t made it? Until we give finished goods velocity, no profits roll into the business meaning, no revenue (assuming when it sells, it gains velocity). Just think of the other side of the coin when it goes to the scrap heap for a write off (terminal velocity).

In this guest blog series titled: “Memoirs of a Black Belt,” Stephen Boyd a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and 30-year supply chain veteran, shares his insights on achieving higher levels of performance using data from existing systems. All opinions expressed in guest authors may not reflect Arkieva’s view on the subject.