VISUALIZATION

APS in simple terms is being able to visualize your busi­ness (supply chain) from different perspectives. The fu­ture of APS lies in how sophisticated technology can be employed to provide insights on how well a business is performing and could perform given changes to the supply chain. The purpose of this talk is to paint a mo­saic of perspectives about APS. It will provide practitio­ners with a list of features they should be looking for in the tools they select and enhancements they should ex­pect in the coming years.

INTRODUCTION-SOLVING A BUSINESS PROBLEM

The central business problem is making better decisions, [f we diagnose the decision-making process, it is a simple process—gathering information, making decisions, and execution. The deployment of APS fundamentally pur­ports to improve each of these steps in different ways, but primarily the second step.

Automating a decision is really a misnomer. Rather, there are typically thousands of options on how to ad­dress various business issues. APS strives to help ana­lyze many more options than could be manually performed. Automating the analysis process (making it easier and faster) provides the opportunity to expand the scope of the available options and find even better answers.

SUPPLY CHAIN VISION

At the highest levels, businesses should know precisely how much resources are required, all along their supply chain, to meet the projected market demand. Further, they should know their current physical capability with existing resources.

SPEED AND AUTOMATION

Of course, the balance between required and existing resources is a dynamic situation. Market conditions can change rapidly. The supply chain can also suffer reli­ability issues. Business has to be able to plan for pre­dictable and unplanned situations. The truth is business should be watching the trends and impact of changes, more closely than they do today. The primary reason they don't is the difficulty of the task and the perceived value-added for the time spent.

Clearer visibility of physical capability includes hav­ing an acute understanding about the lead times for making critical changes to the supply chain. If a deci­sion to adjust resources is made within the lead time of a resource, then the business is behind the curve and will miss opportunities. The business that seizes more opportunities, by definition, is the industry leader.

The natural conclusion is that speed is key—watch­ing the situation closer (more often) and having the ability to analyze more situations faster.

Continued

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