Customers, not available inventory, determine demand. Tompkins International’s new paper, Demand-Driven Supply Chains: Getting It Right For True Value, shares strategies for companies to respond in real time and meet today’s market and multi-channel challenges.
“It’s about a prompt response to true customer demand,” says Gene Tyndall, EVP, Tompkins International and author of the paper. “In the past, with outdated technologies and a reliance on consensus sales forecasts to determine supply and demand actions, supply chain managers often worried more about supply than demand. Now, demand-driven processes are turning the focus back toward the customer.”
Demand-Driven Supply Chains (DDSCs) allow companies to formulate their operating strategies to meet actual demand as close to 100% as practical.
However, the necessity for real-time planning and execution requires innovative technologies and processes. Tompkins and One Network Enterprises – a company that provides cloud-based technologies which operate on near real-time demand data throughout the entire supply chain – have formed a partnership to equip clients with rapid implementation strategies and technologies in an on-demand environment.
Adopting demand-driven processes, along with training and enabling effective technologies, helps businesses achieve dramatically higher levels of performance.
In the new paper, Tyndall outlines a three-step process:
1. Prepare the operation for a pilot test. The objective in this first step is to streamline the strategy and business processes such that a pilot test can be conducted, likely for a product category or a supply chain;
2. Conduct the pilot test; and
3. Roll out to other product categories and trading partners.
“This is a transformational strategy because it changes the way organizations think about the marketplace and their customers,” Tyndall adds. “Companies now have to consider how to replenish the end-to-end supply chain to meet actual demand, which in turn drives higher operating margins and value creation.”
Read more in the Demand-Driven Supply Chains paper, or on the Supply Chain and Logistics Blog, Inventory or Customer Demand: Which One Is Guiding Your Supply Chain?
About Tompkins International
Tompkins International transforms supply chains to help create value for all organizations. For more than 35 years, Tompkins has provided end-to-end solutions on a global scale, helping clients align business and supply chain strategies through operations planning, design and implementation. The company delivers leading-edge business and supply chain solutions by optimizing the Mega Processes of PLAN-BUY-MAKE-MOVE-STORE-SELL. Tompkins supports clients in achieving profitable growth in all areas of global supply chain and market growth strategy, organization, operations, process improvement, technology implementation, material handling integration, and benchmarking and best practices. Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, USA, Tompkins has offices throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. For more information, visitwww.tompkinsinc.com.
“It’s about a prompt response to true customer demand,” says Gene Tyndall, EVP, Tompkins International and author of the paper. “In the past, with outdated technologies and a reliance on consensus sales forecasts to determine supply and demand actions, supply chain managers often worried more about supply than demand. Now, demand-driven processes are turning the focus back toward the customer.”
Demand-Driven Supply Chains (DDSCs) allow companies to formulate their operating strategies to meet actual demand as close to 100% as practical.
However, the necessity for real-time planning and execution requires innovative technologies and processes. Tompkins and One Network Enterprises – a company that provides cloud-based technologies which operate on near real-time demand data throughout the entire supply chain – have formed a partnership to equip clients with rapid implementation strategies and technologies in an on-demand environment.
Adopting demand-driven processes, along with training and enabling effective technologies, helps businesses achieve dramatically higher levels of performance.
In the new paper, Tyndall outlines a three-step process:
1. Prepare the operation for a pilot test. The objective in this first step is to streamline the strategy and business processes such that a pilot test can be conducted, likely for a product category or a supply chain;
2. Conduct the pilot test; and
3. Roll out to other product categories and trading partners.
“This is a transformational strategy because it changes the way organizations think about the marketplace and their customers,” Tyndall adds. “Companies now have to consider how to replenish the end-to-end supply chain to meet actual demand, which in turn drives higher operating margins and value creation.”
Read more in the Demand-Driven Supply Chains paper, or on the Supply Chain and Logistics Blog, Inventory or Customer Demand: Which One Is Guiding Your Supply Chain?
About Tompkins International
Tompkins International transforms supply chains to help create value for all organizations. For more than 35 years, Tompkins has provided end-to-end solutions on a global scale, helping clients align business and supply chain strategies through operations planning, design and implementation. The company delivers leading-edge business and supply chain solutions by optimizing the Mega Processes of PLAN-BUY-MAKE-MOVE-STORE-SELL. Tompkins supports clients in achieving profitable growth in all areas of global supply chain and market growth strategy, organization, operations, process improvement, technology implementation, material handling integration, and benchmarking and best practices. Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, USA, Tompkins has offices throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. For more information, visitwww.tompkinsinc.com.
