11 Posts Found

1. Are you able to break down your operating inventory into the three major categories when reporting levels—safety, replenishment and excess or obsolete stock?
2. Is your company using the most effective method to calculate your safety stock levels? Are you using statistical formulas that incorporate the accuracy of sales forecasts, required production lead times, manufacturing schedule adherence and service-level data for each SKU? Or are

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Authors: Francois Faelli, Pratap Mukharji, Raymond Tsang, Sam Israelit, Thierry Catfolis | Source: Inventory management: 10 questions to diagnose your inventory health | Subject: Operations Questions

1. Are you able to break down your operating inventory into the three major categories when reporting levels-safety, replenishment and excess or obsolete stock?
2. Is your company using the most effective method to calculate your safety stock levels?
3. Do you recalculate safety stock levels on a regular basis to ensure they are up to date?
4. Who decides key inventory-related policy such as striking the right balance between customer service

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Subject: Operations Questions

The following list of questions about supply chain characteristics can be used as a beginning benchmark of how well your company is progressing with supply chain management.

• We clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of our current supply chain sub-processes and have developed action plans for improvement?
• We have defined our supply chain improvement objectives and have unwavering management commitment to achieve superior

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Subject: Operations Questions

Consider these questions in the context of your overall company, business units, and IT department. Do you have: 

• A focused approach to managing alliances?
• A formal process for creating service strategies?
• A formal process for maximizing sourcing and distribution?
• A new-product development process that considers standard components and processes, and includes suppliers and customers?
• A way to incorporate changing customer needs and new technologies in your processes and

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Subject: Operations Questions

Ask the supplier to respond to the following questions with a rating from one (lowest) to 10 (highest):

• Do you enjoy doing business with us?
• Do you feel we treat you as a vendor or as a business partner?
• Do our employees treat you courteously?
• Are we a larger or a smaller customer for you (10=largest)?
• Do we supply you with enough information

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Subject: Operations Questions

• How do our existing manufacturing capabilities limit or constrain product design? What portion of these constraints is truly unchangeable and what portion is bureaucratic, procedural, cultural, and/or political?
• Will our next-generation (or generation-after-next) products require radically new materials or processes? If so, what are we doing now to prepare our manufacturing organization to incorporate those new materials or procedures?
• How much do our product

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Subject: Operations Questions

• If we were freed from the tasks we are doing today, what could we do to increase the shareholder value (in other words, the competitive advantage) of our company?
• What tasks are we doing today that we would be willing to surrender, as long as we were sure they would be handled correctly?

Source:
Directions in Collaborative Commerce: Managing the Extended Enterprise
by … [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions

1. Which value chain issues are most troublesome for your company (e.g., customer retention)?
2. Which pain points do you have with key trade partners that hurt your revenue potential or increase your costs? Or impede your competitiveness?
3. Which competitive capabilities do you believe your competitors are better at? How critical are these to your business?
4. Do you have visibility of demand, inventory, and/ or product availability

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Subject: Operations Questions

1. Every product has a well-defined service, manufacturing and inventory deployment strategy?
2. We have a comprehensive and effective sales and operations planning process that is management’s throttle on sales, production, inventory and lead-time?
3. We have agreements with key vendors for short cycle deliveries and mutually agreed upon goals for continuous improvement?
4. Will improved supply chain management performance give us the leverage to transform ourselves into market place leaders?
5. Have

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Subject: Operations Questions

1. Do your suppliers have lower operating costs than yours, and do you get low prices from suppliers?
2. Do your suppliers provide you with product or process innovations?
3. Do your suppliers have products and processes of the best quality?
4. Do your suppliers reduce your costs and risk in product launches?
5. Are your suppliers financially healthy?
6. Do you formulate unique plans for each supplier to help you build competitive advantage?
7. Does your supplier

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Subject: Operations Questions

1. What aspects of your supply chain have the most influence on your brand promise and your customers’ buying experience?
2. Is your brand promise aligned with your current supply chain capabilities?
3. How can you ensure that marketing executives know your supply chain’s capabilities and limitations while supply chain executives know the brand promise and their role in fulfilling it?

Source:
How Your Supply Chain … [ Read more ]

Subject: Operations Questions