Creating a lean supply chain

Traditional supply chain management (SCM) strives to achieve, within the limits of extant basic conditions (for instance, capacities and flexibilities of plants and suppliers), consistent optimization of the value-added chain through deterministic planning. This often involves investing significant resources in IT and planning systems in order to manage complexity. In practice, this means that SCM is in many ways equivalent to IT and to inventory and transportation management.

A lean supply chain, on the other hand, means not accepting restrictions as a given but instead rigorously attempting to avoid complexity and thus waste. The well-known lean principles – permitting only those process steps that add value, implementing the flow and pull principles as far as (reasonably) possible, avoiding defects, and achieving customer satisfaction – can also be successfully applied to the supply chain.

ROI Consulting can draw upon an extensive toolkit with time-tested lean principles for designing an optimal supply chain. In every project, the choice of the lean tools to be applied is made on the basis of the individual basic conditions and objectives, with these tools being customized where necessary. Thus, on the one hand, best practices are put into effect and, on the other, the approach is tailored to the company's situation.

You can find an overview of our entire spectrum of services in this area under Supply Chain Management (SCM).