Rebooting the Blog - Hello Again! ;-)

Well hello again, it has been a while since my last post :-) I've been enjoying life so much that I've not thought much about posting. However, summer is ending and I'm self-inflicting some new misery on myself by developing some new software to deal with a little problem that always bugs me: empty shelves.  Not just any old shelves, but I mean shelves that should have things on them, usually things that I want, and they don't. Being empty in the age of Big Data (current leading trend word in the logistics world, slightly ahead "in the Cloud") is simply unacceptable although understandable: Big Data is basically dependent on a slow, analytic process of trending future market events.

Data collection this way almost never happens in real time (usually in scripted collections during off-peak hours), and this is why it may take a day, 2 days, or even more for your favorite goodies to reappear back on the shelves.  Even systems that work in "real-time" don't work in real-time.  Some more agile systems (usually in smaller stores with more agile POS systems) don't collect the data until an item is sold.  What if you remove the last item off of a shelf and then keep shopping for another hour?  A few more people will miss getting what they want and the store will lose another sale.


How can this be solved then?  Simple: By tracking product movements at the shelf-level.  This type of tech has been on the radar of big players like Walmart for years, betting on RFID to help do it, but because of continued RFID tag costs and the extensive labor needed to implement and maintain, it hasn't come to fruition. Thus, stores like Walmart openly say that they have a 90-95% in-stock level.  More so, it seems the items aren't out-of-stock, they're just sitting in the stock room.  In Walmart's case, that 5-10% "out of stock gap" is worth billions alone.  Hmm.

Anyway, back to me. :P  I'm making some simple, agile software that will send alerts when stock is getting low and/or empty, so stock people know exactly where and what to re-stock.  I'm currently targeting VMI vendors, so they get an alert when to re-stock the shelves in the buyer's location (or can keep pressure on the buyer to keep their goodies stocked).  It'll be a good performance management tool to measure a product's popularity (time/dates they move off shelf, location, etc..), how fast the buyer re-stocks (if they're responsible) or if the vendor is responsible it will help them organize their supply-chain/human resources, on a real-time basis, in order to keep their goods on shelves for sale.

So the next time you go shopping at any FMCG store, see how many stock gaps you can find and then see how long it takes for them to be filled. You'll be amazed.

"Lean Manufacturing" in software ...

The term Lean Manufacturing has been around for a while, but it seems that it has been re-discovered by a few marketing teams in a few of the larger ERP systems (I hate this term ERP, but I'll use it for reference) solution providers, and I'm getting spammed about how to "make my business 'leaner'".
I have no intention to drill deep into Fordism at this point, as it is a really exhaustive topic (and well worth researching if you're unfamiliar with it) and not really suitable for an ad hoc blog post. What I will say (and to really water it down and simplify it) is that in terms of software solutions for logistics/production companies, is that the goal of any information system you implement should aim to reduce the amount of manaual work employees perform or remove the need for any manual work altogether.

The great majority of systems (ERP, SCM, MM, IS, --> insert acroynm here) capture information well (including the system the company I work for implements), but they do a poor job of automating processes or removing the "decision time" process. In other words, you collect a plethora of information about, say, what items are in your warehouse, but very few of these systems are ordering supplies for themselves (ie... when a store's shelf is empty or the supply depot is almost exhausted, very few outfits have automated re-ordering of goods in demand, and still depend upon shop assistants and students to do "inventory" or "by-site" management of goods ordering).

There are a few systems out there (not being fully used by most of their customers), that automat the sourcing process, including the contracting process, ordering process (by Demand), etc ... but for the most part, especially in this part of Europe, product chain management is extremly poor. The local giant Tesco or Hypernova or Albert should NEVER run out of something (unless it's seasonal), but they do all the time. For example, items I buy all of the time seem to run out, and isn't replaced for days, sometimes even weeks -- even when their other stores on the other side of town have a shelf full of the same goods. "Real Time" analysis and movement of items by demand shouldn't be some rare function of an information system and a comapany's procurement organization, it should be the norm.

The point is, if you are a manager of a large company needing an information system to help you capture AND improve your current production/procurement processes, just don't follow the other sheep and invest in "popular" tools (especially those subsidized by a government, cough, cough ...) ... try doing a bit more research first, and if you're completely lost, contact a professional outside of those companies to help you garner your proper requirements (it doesn't have to be me! :P) ... you'll be glad you did.