Friday, January 23, 2009

Supply Chain Management strategies for Beating your Rivals

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.

Distribution Master Scheduling (DMS) software is the major component in the new rules.

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. Determine where every order should be shipped from. It establishes dock schedules to minimize handling. For example, schedule shipments when product is being made on the line and can be put 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. This is proactive because it can offer insight and foresee stock-outs or failures in the system and provide alternative action.

4. Minimize pallet handling

Distribution Master Scheduling systems manage all the data and create an optimized distribution schedule. This requires a sophisticated scheduling system. One such system - AutoScheduler from Transportation l Warehouse Optimization [www.TransportationOptimization.com] is used by Procter & Gamble in its largest operations around the world maximizing supply chain management strategies.

DMS is such an effective optimizer in reducing supply chain management effort and costs while increasing customer service, that Procter & Gamble actually reported at one site a 33% reduction after installing AutoScheduler.

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.

Tom Moore along with his associates have worked with the best of the best. Procter & Gamble, and other top Fortune 50 companies are among their client list - P & G is a long-term client since 1992. TlWO has saved P & G millions of dollars with transportation consulting solutions. Taking a long-term view, they understand the industry, the market place and like good consultants do, keep the client as the top priority. Contact them at www.TransportationOptimization.com for your free consultation today. Also TEST YOUR SKILLS and see how well you manage your costs. Load a truck and see how efficient you are. Transportation l Warehouse Optimization - Solutions that work. Solutions that save. - 16036

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