Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide

Streamlining Replenishment

Like the fulfillment process described in Chapter 7, replenishment has become increasingly complex over the years, producing corresponding increases in the time, cost, and errors associated with the process. These problems, in turn, often lead people within a company to try to beat the system by speeding up their own orders, usually at the expense of other orders that may be equally urgent. In addition to slowing down the replenishment process as a whole, these expediting battles lead to extra work and may also incur surcharges for rush orders.

As in the case of fulfillment, the solution is not to bypass the fulfillment system but to improve it, and radical change in this system may produce better results than attempts ...