Dr. Ken Fordyce is Arkieva's Solutions Director of Semiconductors and Analytics. Before joining Arkieva, he had a very successful 36-year career with IBM, much of it in all aspects of supply chain (to use Intel's Karl Kempf's preferred term – demand supply networks) for IBM Microelectronics Division (MD). During this time period, MD was a fortune 100-size firm by itself. Fordyce was part of the teams that altered the landscape of best-practices – receiving three IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, AAAI Innovative Application Award, and INFORMS Edelman Finalist (twice) and Wagner (winner). He writes and speaks often about the "ongoing challenge," both to practitioners and academics. He is a long-time colleague Dr. Harpal Singh, founder and CEO of Arkieva. They first met in 1997 when Arkieva did the original demand planning application for IBM that set the standard for best-practices.
Most of us have had some exposure to the “AI Awakening” wave that has emerged over the past few years, with regular headlines such as: “Can A.I. Release Us from the Nightmare of Expense Reports? “The World Bank’s latest tool for fighting famine: Artificial intelligence” Of particular interest to supply chain, though, is how…
In the first installment on this topic of this blog, we talked a lot about the challenges of intermittent demand. Now, we need to turn to the nuts and bolts of creating a demand estimate in the face of intermittent demand. Looking at the why The demand estimate has three primary purposes, including the…
It has been estimated as many as 50% of products and services have demand patterns with “lots of zeroes,” which creates special challenges for demand estimation. The failure to handle those “lots of zeroes” correctly can cripple the effectiveness of an operational process from semiconductors to cell phones. However, this is not an insurmountable problem.…
LONDON—Broad component supplier Würth Elektronik eiSos GmbH & Co. KG has acquired fellow German company Amber Wireless GmbH for an undisclosed sum. Amber, founded in 1998, specialises in the design and manufacture of short-range RF modules for implementation of cable-free data links as well as home automation and automatic meter reading solutions. Through the acquisition,…
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a continuous business process that enables firms from hospitals to electronic component manufacturers to respond to emerging situations in an intelligent manner that maintains a balance between demand and supply. The intelligence is achieved by collaboration and alignment throughout the organization supported by software across five major activities. The…
Used properly, analytics, predictive analytics, data science, and machine learning can get beyond being just buzzwords, and be leveraged as critical tools in sales and operations planning (S&OP) in the supply chain. S&OP is a continuous business process that enables firms of all types, from electronics OEMs hospitals, and from auto makers to chemical firms,…
Supply chain planning is a continuous business process that enables firms from electronics OEMs to hospitals to chemical makers to respond to emerging situations in an intelligent manner in order to maintain a balance between demand and supply. In the end, intelligent response is achieved by collaboration and alignment throughout the organization supported by software…
Supply Chain Planning (SCP) is a business process that helps keep demand and supply in balance. This balance is achieved by collaboration and alignment throughout the various departments of an organization. All SCP or central planning processes created to manage an organization's demand/supply network consists of three primary activities, as well as two secondary activities.…