Role
Supply chain
Whose desk does the question "why did the goods not arrive on time" end up on? Usually yours - even though the cause lies with a supplier, with a carrier, or in a forecast you did not build.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
Whose desk does a disruption in a delivery end up on?
You are accountable for an outcome made up of several links outside your control. The question is whether you at least have visibility of what is happening in those links.
When is the decision to move a delivery or change the transport mode made?
If it is on the day the problem surfaces, you choose between several bad options. A day earlier there are more options and they are cheaper.
What do you do when the sales forecast and the production plan say different things?
That happens regularly and is usually settled in a conversation. The question is whether anything is recorded after that conversation - and whether at the next disagreement you start again.
What do you not do, even though you know you should?
Usually: the review after the period. How the forecast turned out, where the disruptions arose, what could have been seen earlier. Without it every quarter is the first.
We take over collecting statuses, you keep the decisions about the flow
Collecting information about deliveries in transit, comparing plan with delivery and flagging disruptions can be taken off the desk. Decisions about priorities, transport mode and reallocation stay with a person.
- Visibility instead of phone calls. - Delivery status collected from what suppliers and carriers make available - instead of from a round of calls before every operations meeting.
- A disruption is flagged, not resolved. - What to do about a delay - move production, pay for urgent transport, tell the client - is a decision with consequences and it stays with you.
- The forecast and its accuracy are recorded. - Not in order to hold sales to account, but so that you know by how much and in which direction to correct next time.
Scope
What can be taken off supply chain work
Twenty example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your process.
The forecast and its inputs
- Collecting the forecast from sales in one form, with the author and the date
- Comparing the forecast with what happened in previous periods
- Pointing out lines where the forecast systematically deviates (correction: the specialist)
- Detecting a disagreement between the forecast and the production plan
- A register of what was agreed between sales and production
The flow plan
- Calculating the transport and warehouse needs from the plan
- Pointing out the bottlenecks in the planned flow
- Scenarios for a change of volume (choice: the specialist)
- Checking the plan against the capacity available
- A delivery schedule with the critical items marked
Visibility of deliveries in transit
- Collecting delivery statuses from suppliers and carriers
- A signal when a delivery has had no status update for longer than usual
- Comparing the planned date with the currently forecast one
- Pointing out deliveries at risk against the production plan
- A summary of deliveries needing customs clearance or special documents
Disruptions and review
- An alert about an event affecting deliveries (decision on how to react: the specialist)
- A summary of the response options with their effect on timing
- A register of disruptions with the cause and the action taken
- The review after the period: forecast accuracy, timeliness, the cost of urgent deliveries
- Suppliers and carriers summarised by reliability
A day's work
Today
- Before the operations meeting you phone round suppliers and carriers
- You get the forecast in a spreadsheet where it is not clear what changed
- You learn about a delay when the goods do not arrive
- At a disruption you choose quickly, because there are few options left
- You do the review after the period when somebody asks
- Knowledge of which supplier is unreliable is informal
With AI assistance
- You have delivery statuses without calling, and a missing update is a signal
- The forecast arrives in one form, with a history of changes
- A delivery at risk reports itself before it becomes a fact
- At a disruption you see the options and their effect on timing
- The review after the period assembles itself, you write the conclusions
- Supplier reliability is calculated, not sensed
- Plan accuracy
corrections rest on history, not on the last quarter
forecast accuracy is measured and recorded
- Visibility in transit
it is known where the deliveries are, without a round of calls
statuses are collected from what suppliers make available
- Time to react to a disruption
the decision is made while there are still several options
a risk is flagged before the date, not after
- The cost of urgent deliveries
less emergency transport
reacting earlier allows the cheaper option
We start with visibility of deliveries, not with rebuilding the planning.
- Step 1
We measure what you cannot see
How many deliveries have a status, how many need a phone call, how many are invisible until they arrive. That number usually surprises.
- Step 2
Collecting statuses
From what suppliers and carriers already make available. It asks nothing new of them and removes most of the calls.
- Step 3
Risk signals
Comparing the planned date with the forecast one, with a materiality threshold. An alert with no threshold teaches the team to ignore it.
- Step 4
The forecast and the review after the period
Collecting the forecast in one form and measuring its accuracy. Last, because it needs sales to cooperate - and that is easier to get once the earlier steps are working.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Planning flows is not a high-risk use. The point to watch is data from partners: information about deliveries and terms is often covered by confidentiality agreements, so it has to be settled what may be kept and for how long.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How many phone calls does it take to know where this week's deliveries are?
We will show you what working on the flow looks like when the status collects itself and a delivery at risk reports itself before the date.