Replan

✨Pithy Planning 19: Welcome to this week's edition! 📉 Article: Pick your partners well... the next few years could be rocky for China Manufacturing! China’s manufacturers are facing turbulent times. As noted in The Economist, the July meeting of China’s politburo emphasised filtering out weaker producers and bolstering the stronger ones. While this may lead to a more robust manufacturing sector, the road ahead is fraught with challenges. How will this shake-up impact your supply chain strategy, or to paraphrase the Economist, are your Chinese suppliers going broke already? Many of the customers I speak to source long lead time items from China via sea freight. Their challenge is to look 16-20 weeks ahead and decide if they need to start dual sourcing sooner rather than later. https://lnkd.in/dDGRgXpg 🎯 Article: What is the Theory of Constraints and how to put it into practice One of excellent partners, Majaco, offers a concise summary of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and how it relates to your manufacturing operations, outlining five critical steps for applying it. We’ve seen businesses struggle with constant challenges, but TOC focuses on optimising the weakest link, enhancing performance, and driving continuous improvement. This approach can unlock your business's true potential, regardless of industry. I still remember the first time I read Dr. Goldratt's book many years ago! https://lnkd.in/dfvvjYjR 📈 Article: Data-driven inventory management is key to reducing cancellations and transforming your business Rob Shaw of Fluent Commerce emphasises the critical role of data-driven inventory management. With nearly 40% of retailers canceling at least 10% of orders due to overselling, it's clear that accurate, real-time inventory data is crucial. Leading retailers who update inventory every five minutes are seeing fewer cancellations and enhanced customer trust. https://lnkd.in/dhDeJCXV 🌍 Article: Have you ever wondered what happens to your plastic waste? Trifol Resources has pioneered a process to turn old plastic into sustainable fuels and wax. Their innovative pyrolysis technology at the Littleton plant could revolutionise waste management and significantly reduce plastic pollution. With major oil companies already on board, this could redefine global plastic waste handling. https://lnkd.in/dttj3HC5 🤖 Something Fun: Unhelpful AI - The rise of the AI companion When we think of AI, we usually envision tools that boost productivity and process data quickly. However, Avi Schiffmann's "Friend" pendant reimagines AI as a companion. Designed to combat loneliness, this $99 AI pendant offers constant companionship, potentially shaping a future where people find solace in AI rather than in human interactions. https://lnkd.in/d_EDKPCu

🚨 Save the Date: industry expert virtual panel on September 4th, 2024 🚨 Get ready to supercharge your labour planning strategies! Join 50+ manufacturers and supply chain leaders for the best 30 minutes you'll invest this September. Where the spotlight will be on cutting-edge solutions for the F&B industry. Kicking off the event we'll have James Watson, Partner at Argon & Co, and Toby Parnell, Managing Director at Majaco. Both industry experts will share game-changing insights on labour planning in the F&B sector. This is your chance to gain powerful insights and stay ahead in the industry. Don’t miss out—secure your spot today: https://lnkd.in/dk92wNtw

In conversations with customers, we've encountered some big questions 👥 What is labour planning? 💼 Why is it crucial for business? 📊How does it impact operational efficiency? 🛠️What tools are planners using? Today, we're diving in to provide answers to these crucial questions!

🚀 Overcoming today’s supply chain challenges requires an ecosystem of partnership and collaboration. 🤝 Our partner program is designed to enable and equip you to deliver success to your customers, and ignite your growth objectives. 🔍 Learn more about our partnership program today https://lnkd.in/dQE-8RWd #PartnershipOpportunity #CollaborativeSuccess #SupplyChainExcellence 📈

Pithy Planning no 18::: LOGISTICS VC, LABOUR PLANNING & TERRIBLE CHARTS ✨ Welcome to this weeks edition of Pithy Planning! 🐄🍨 The VC landscape in Logistics and Supply Chain is always of interest to readers of this newsletter. 📝 ARTICLE: McKinsey & Company on Logistics start-up funding: The investor pullback continues As the title suggests this article focused on recent data since the pandemic that logistics startup funding as fallen sharply in recently months https://lnkd.in/d5UxVBU9 There is interesting followup commentary from Eric Johnson at S&P on the impact of long sales cycles on interest in the segment https://lnkd.in/djvkwGYs And further by Anthony Miller who focuses on the questionable use of funds by some well known logistics startup plays: https://lnkd.in/dpFDda4s Our Perspective on this (as a VC backed business!) ☑️ VC funding in all segments have suffered since rate cycle changed ☑️ GenAI as an outlier has hoovered up an eye-watering amount of available capital ☑️ Logistics, Manufacturing, IOT, Supply Chain, Heavy Tech, Procurement Tech are well covered by a handful of very focused VCs but post pandemic there were definitely some VC tourists playing across these segments ☑️ YES! Sales cycles are long, customers are hellishly demanding and the problems are hard. Sounds like fun to us! 📢 EVENT: Join this Expert Panel on Labour Planning F&B manufacturers, with tight margins, focus on efficient labour use. Cost-cutting is essential for these low-margin businesses. Join this panel discussion on Wednesday September 4th with experts from Argon & Co and others to discuss current best practice and process around labour optimisation. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dmqPRpDe 🏭 ARTICLE: Palantir's big vision for the American Manufacturer From article in The Stack by Edward Targett https://lnkd.in/dAxiFgDd "Warp Speed, we conceived of it as an operating system for the modern American manufacturer. It touches not just ERP but also MES, PLM, PLCs, so it's interacting with the factory floor" Our Take: We love this ambition by Palantir and it's a nice expansion from their Government and defence work. But, that's a hell of a lot of use cases to cover in any depth! Will they lean on vertical SAAS vendors for support around the edges? Are they going for something more composable - it's a brave manufacturer that rips out all those core systems and places their operations in the hands of on a single vendor relatively new to the space. We'd love thoughts from product leaders at Palantir like Manik Sharma 🎙️Podcast: Automation in Action Podcast - a great example of automation in planning from Ken Carpenter at Blue Ridge. Well worth checking out. https://lnkd.in/dd9WYPPK 📉😁🤔 Something Funny: Ok, we get that data visualisation is tricky sometime but surely a publication as august as the Irish Times could do better than this chart.... hat tip to Greg Freeman for spotting it! https://bit.ly/3Xcr0Ai

Big problems often hide in plain sight. (And they can cost manufacturers a lot without them even noticing.) I’ll be talking about labour planning soon with the Replan team—a key area where small mistakes can have a big impact. Looking forward to sharing some simple strategies to fix this and improve operations.

🔍 Labour scheduling headaches? You’re not alone! Join us on our industry expert virtual panel on September 4th, 2024, 📅 where we’ll unlock the secrets to agile labour planning. Hear from industry experts on the latest strategies that can transform how your team manages labour—no more juggling schedules and scrambling for solutions. Don’t miss out—secure your spot today: https://lnkd.in/dFsad2-c #AgencyLabour #ExcelWoes #PartnerEvent #ReplanRescue

📆✨ Stay up to date with the latest industry trends and insights delivered straight to your inbox every week with Pithy Planning: our weekly summary of valuable stories, articles, and insights that most manufacturers miss. Don't miss out—sign up for our newsletter today: Pithy Planning Newsletter https://lnkd.in/dKfmA_fT 👩💻 #PithyPlanning #Newsletter #FoodAndBeverage #StayInformed

Pithy planning No. 17::: FREEZERS, NIKE'S S&OP REVIEW & EU MEAT Welcome to this week's newsletter ✉️ Post: Excellent to see how Nomad Foods are trialling if frozen foods can be stored at -15 rather than -18 degrees, reducing energy consumption by 10% ❄️🍖 https://lnkd.in/d_PPTqgn 📖 Further Reading: We are looking forward to reading Nicola Twilley's exploration of the history of refrigeration in the supply chain. Really interesting to see Nomad's efforts to optimise their products within that overall system. Check out the book review here in the FT https://lnkd.in/dxB2yhgW 👟 Article: Nike: An Epic Saga of Value Destruction An interesting article from Nike's former CMO pointing to some of the challenges faced by Nike's leadership - a must read for all supply chain folk! https://lnkd.in/daWd-9RT We can just imagine the S&OP review meeting - so we underestimated the drop off in demand in the move to DTC. This just blew our tiny minds: "As announced by the quarterly earnings releases, the inventory level on May 31st, 2021, was 6.5bn $. On May 31st, 2022, it was 8.5bn $. On November 30th, 2022, it reached 10bn $." 📄 Vendor News: Congratulations to Blue Yonder for completing their acquisition of One Network. Both vendors are peers of ours in the world of supply chain planning technology and we look forward to seeing their innovations in the market https://lnkd.in/dkQXfenj ❓Our strategic take: BY's bold decision to focus on re-platforming on top of Snowflake's Data Cloud has clear long term customer benefits. Focusing on a single data model approach when many of their competitors are rushing GenAI chatbots to market (to be fair given the size of this decision BY were likely evaluating this back-end update long before ChatGPT made it's big splash). By adding OneNetworks control tower and supply chain monitoring, BY are pushing the envelope on end-to-end supply chain capabilities for large Enterprise. 🥩 Article: Key Risks facing the European Meat Industry We've been keeping a close eye on Meat Borsa's progress via their great Linkedin updates. We spotted this article which looks at the key risks facing the European meat industry. Well researched and worth a good study. https://lnkd.in/d6VDC2Jx 🗼 Something Fun: Lighthouse Day - we didn't know that Lighthouse Day is a thing but turns out it is! https://lnkd.in/d2BKyyZ7

📅 Panel Event on Labour Planning agility! 🎺 Replan's Q3 Global Event is happening September 4th, 2024 Learn from our industry experts about the latest strategies to help your supply planners manage labour more effectively. Save your spot today: https://lnkd.in/ddukiTKw #PartnerEvent #ReplanToTheRescue #SupplyChainPlanning