Supply chain network optimization is the process of finding the optimal combination of facilities, factories, suppliers, products, and distribution centers in the supply chain to ensure the company's supply chain objectives. It is the art and science of designing a quantitative, strategic, and holistic view of the organization’s end-to-end supply chain.
Some example questions that are commonly asked are:
- How do we design the company supply chain network to deliver the required service at the lowest possible cost?
- How can we get the highest level of service for customers at a minimal cost?
- Given a fixed network, how do we determine optimal product sourcing and inventory deployment rules to meet anticipated customer demand?
- Given a logistics network and a defined distribution strategy, how can we best use our available transportation resources?
The end goal is to create the most efficient network possible, meet the demand of customers, and ensure the lowest possible cost to serve your network. There are a number of pieces of information that need to be considered in supply chain network design:
- Demand
- Customer locations
- Supplier locations
- Facilities (both exsting and potential)
- Constraints
- Costs
- Time periods
- Transportation flows
- Inventory storages
- ...
Companies should frequently check the supply chain operation status, and keep watching the signal to trigger the supply chain network optimization. Such a signal could be:
- Acquisition and mergers
- Inventory change
- Operational inefficiencies
- Carbon footprint reduction
- Inability to keep up with diverse customer needs
- Growth and expansion
- Consolidation and Deconsolidation
- New markets
- Volatile markets
- Fragile supply chain network
- Formation of new customer segments
- Sourcing change
- New Product lines launch
Our supply chain optimization service helps to address those challenges with proven methodology and advanced math optimization tools, such as:
- Studying the market that company is in.
- Taking into consideration the strategic decision of company executives and future volume predictions.
- Modeling different variables and models, such as your distribution centers, store network, and possible routes to serve those stores, company products and offers, future volume predictions etc.
- Evaluating the model and assessment.
- The supply chain network design.
More information on our supply chain optimization, please contact us.