Professionals today at high growth technology companies are asking themselves, “How can my supply chain react quicker to customer demand fluctuation?” The answer is simple, adopt a demand-driven planning process. Sound simple enough? Well unfortunately it’s not that simple but below are some simple steps you can take to start to transform your supply chain to better support consumer demand fluctuation.

A make versus buy cost analysis involves comparing all of the costs associated with fulfilling a supply need (making) a good or service in-house against the cost of fulfilling a supply need (buying) a good or service from an outside supply partner. The common factors that companies consider in a make versus buy decision include proprietary knowledge, capabilities, quality, capacity, labor, volume, timing, and cost.

In today’s business environment, actions tend to be driven based on the results of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and this is especially true in the manufacturing space. The typical organization develops KPI’s to enable them to holistically measure Quality, Delivery, and Total Cost of products they are supplying to their customers.

This blog post is the continuation of our Identifying the Factors for Successfully Managing Supply Chain Risks - Factor 3 – Process Management (Part 3 of 5) research post. Our recent study to better understand supply chain risks focused on the structure, implementation, and maintenance of a formal system for managing risks in the supply chain.

Talented product designers and engineers today do a wonderful job painstakingly uncovering customer needs by spending countless hours interviewing potential customers about their biggest pains. Tech entrepreneurs then successfully develop painkiller products that address these customers’ needs.