Supply Chain Planning
- Overview
Are you ready for growth?
It's coming...... fast! Let us help you prepare for the upsurge of new demand in a fundamentally different world order.
To enable growth, companies must be internally aligned across functions, and functional strategies must be aligned with overall business strategy. For many organizations, this may also mean understanding the integration of an e-commerce strategy into their business strategy.
Planning for growth means taking a holistic approach to business planning, and ensuring the different components are in place across all functions to enable the business strategy to be implemented. To this end, we work across functions, understanding their contribution to the growth equation, and ensure that the different moving pieces are synchronized with other functions.
Supply chain engagements with Design Systems, Inc.'s Supply Chain Consulting Group are led by veteran industry, process and subject matter experts, supported by a world-class infrastructure, rich knowledge base of best-practice methodologies, and a far-reaching global leadership network. Our clients get customized solutions – nothing “off-the-shelf”.
Design Systems, Inc. has worked with an impressive list of Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients for over 35 years to align their supply chains with business objectives, drive innovation and achieve functional excellence. We work with our clients across a broad range of industries to address key business issues: enabling growth, reducing complexity, and leveraging digital technologies to generate competitive advantage.
Why not contact us, at no obligation, to learn more about how we can help your firm improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your supply chain?
Our Portfolio of Supply Chain Consulting Services:
Supply Chain Planning
Distribution and Warehouse Operations
Supply Chain Network Design and Optimization
Material Flow and Manufacturing Operations
- Opportunity Assessment
Supply Chain Opportunity Assessment
To continually perform at maximum efficiency, supply chains must adapt to changing business demands and take advantage of new or improved technologies. “What can't be measured can't be improved”. Supply chain transformation begins with a comprehensive supply chain diagnostic - objective, quantitative, and actionable.
Design Systems, Inc.'s Supply Chain Assessment consists of an appraisal, review, evaluation and actionable analyses of your supply chain processes – both strategic and tactical:
- Operations strategy
- Organizational effectiveness (structure, talent / skills base, and related)
- Functional processes and practices (distribution / warehousing, transportation practices, procurement, etc.)
- Network design
- Performance measures
Few organizations have standardized, ongoing programs to achieve continual improvement. Most depend on initiatives within individual operational groups. By continually performing supply chain assessments, you minimize or avoid “cost creep” and performance drift, as well as ensure timely identification of cost-effective measures that will help you maintain your competitive advantage.
Design Systems, Inc.'s Supply Chain Assessment offers an excellent way to establish or clarify supply chain metrics, practices and technologies with the goal to identify performance gaps and strengths.
Take a look at our top 4 tips for a successful supply chain assessment:
- Operations Strategy Supports the Business Strategy: The key to a well-designed supply chain is ensuring there is a vision of how the operations strategy is aligned to support the overall business strategy. This is a foundational element for the assessment. You have to know where the business is headed before you can assess if your supply chain can achieve the goals.
- Approaching the Assessment: Ask yourself, “What is the scope and how extensive of a mandate does the assessment team have?” An assessment needs to be approached like any project with objectives, scope, deliverables, and a timeline. There needs to be acknowledgement from the participants, and accountability for each of the components that are part of the assessment.
- Align Internal and External Perspectives: Assessments should have an internal and external perspective in order to provide meaningful results. An internal focus is needed to understand how to create standardized processes across the company. Alternatively, an external focus is crucial so that best practices and metrics being evaluated are relevant to your customer (and in beating your competition). The use of both internal and external context provides the most accurate roadmap for future improvement.
- Actionable Roadmap: The end game for a supply chain assessment is an actionable path to future goals with specific recommendations for short, medium, and longer term steps enhancing the end-to-end operation of your supply chain.
Ready to take your operations to the next level? Give us a call or Contact us and find out more about our services which include a no risk assessment of your current operations.
- Outsourcing and 3PL Strategy
Outsourcing and 3PL Strategy
Business leaders are under constant pressure to reduce costs, increase flexibility and manage risk. All this at the same time they are operating facilities, managing day to day activities and making capital expenditure decisions.
Design Systems, Inc. is a leader in 3PL consulting. We provide clients with expertise in outsourcing strategy services, whether you are considering outsourcing or already have a 3PL provider.
We begin our approach to outsourcing by considering the whole-of-business context: alignment of supply chain strategic and tactical goals to stated business strategy. We uncover the hidden factors underlying to your business and identify which activities a business can outsource and those that are truly “mission critical” and should stay in-house. We challenge the “uniqueness” myth and help firms recognize their perceived challenges may actually be common among industries or processes, with proven solutions to mitigate these issues.
Ready to get started? Take the first step and talk to a consultant today!
- Strategy Development
Supply Chain Strategy Development
A company’s supply chain is complex, requiring careful coordination of its many moving parts in alignment with the company’s business model and competitive positioning. Design Systems, Inc.’s Supply Chain strategy team helps senior executives align supply chain capabilities and operating models with business strategies.
We take an integrated view of supply chain, unlocking hidden value in the connection points between functions and value chain partners. This approach incorporates process, organization, technology, and performance measurement to help executives understand trade-offs between cost and flexibility in response to challenges they may be facing.
Improve top-line growth and lower costs
Design Systems, Inc.’s Supply Chain practice is a leader in integrating business strategy with supply chain initiatives to drive operational excellence. Our deep industry experience encompasses: material flow and inventory strategy, manufacturing footprint strategy and operations, distribution network and logistics optimization, and dynamic simulation. We employ programmatic approaches, leverage analytics capabilities, and offer managed services that can help improve top-line growth, lower costs, reduce response times and increase productivity.
Supply Chain Strategy Services
- Vision Alignment: Quickly assessing, evaluating, quantifying, and executing on critical operating model and structural changes needed to enable the broader business strategy.
- Risk and Resiliency: Identifying where important supply chain vulnerabilities lie and identifying strategies to address risk exposure.
- Operating Model Redesign: Aligning a company’s broader operating model and its supply chain strategy for improved efficiency across the value chain.
- Analytics and Performance Management: Using real-time data analytics, visualization software, and other resources to help understand cost to serve and facilitate informed supply chain decision-making.
- Global Footprint Strategy and Network Design: Aligning supply chain, supplier base, and customer footprints to meet current requirements and position for growth.
- Workshops: We help clients reach their full potential and explore their own solutions in more depth through our workshops and facilitated sessions. We create client forums such as subject matter round-tables, where business leaders and practitioners can share ideas and leading practices across different business verticals.
- Education: We provide training and educational programs in supply chain management through on staff APICS master instructors.
Contact our team to learn more about how we can help your firm develop a robust Supply Chain Strategy.
- Business Process Improvement
Business Process Improvement
For over 35 years, Design Systems Inc. consultants have provided world class, time-proven, data-driven process improvements, to companies –from start-ups to Fortune 500. By understanding your organization’s specific needs and overall goals, we help leverage technology to improve business processes that leads to sustainable long-term success.
Our techniques utilize industry methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, Operations Process Improvement, Continuous Improvement (CI), Business Process Improvement (BPI), and Business Process Management (BPM). Design Systems, Inc. can help you effectively answer these questions:
- Where and how can we leverage Lean principles in our operations?
- Are we effectively utilizing our workforce and equipment?
- Functional processes and practices (distribution / warehousing, transportation practices, procurement, etc.)
- Is there a better way to profile our inventory?
- How can we optimize our processes?
- Should we utilize a technology enabler (i.e. WMS) to improve our operations?
We design our process by performing deep analytics to uncover significant gaps. We then work on defining a series of guiding principles used during solution generation phase. Creating a future state vision of each process along with the roadmap to achieve near and long term results, allows us to eliminate waste, and ensuring process integrity.
What We Deliver:
- Benchmark Assessment
- Process Mapping
- Process Improvement / Optimization / Reengineering
- Six Sigma Certified Analysis
- Change Impact Analysis
- Organizational Structure Redesign
- Business Case and Return on Investment
- Continuous Process Improvement
Are you prepared to embark on a transformation journey? Have you considered what it will take to achieve a successful and sustainable outcome? Do you have the right metrics in place to measure your progress? Design Systems, Inc. consultants are your process improvement partner.
To learn more about how we can help your firm contact us today.
- KPI Development
Best In Class KPI Development
YOU CAN'T MANAGE WHAT YOU CAN'T MEASURE
KPI Best Practices: Gain Insight, Take Action
KPI’s are critical to success, but with data coming at you from every direction of the business, it’s tough to know which metrics to track. No matter how large or how small your organization, Design Systems, Inc. can help you to effectively develop a strategic balanced scorecard that quickly identifies underperforming areas..
Assess Performance - Fast And Objectively
Best-in-Class Supply Chains adopt and implement policies and KPIs to provide focus, guide behavior, drive accountability, enhance decision making process, and ensure Supply Chain performance supports organizational goals. Design Systems, Inc.’s team of consultants will focus your supply chain team on aligning metrics of customer service, cost control, planning and risk management, and supplier management to policy and organizational goals.
We can help you drive reliability, responsiveness, and agility in your supply chain, contact us for more information!
