Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Extra SKUs sneak onto price lists when nobody is looking. Sales & Marketing colleagues prefer new launches with lengthy SKU lists different flavours, different sizes, different colours, new packaging etc. How many shelf facings do they want? How do…

The Challenge A leading global FMCG company undertook an aggressive supply chain improvement programme across 150 markets. The objective was 100% alignment of worldwide operational activities with company strategy and objectives. Not an…

This process can be straight forward but a little extra care and knowledge will ensure you achieve the best warehousing and/or transport solution for your business. Just a quick reality check, do you need to outsource? Before embarking on a…

Have you ever “hunkered down”? I remember being asked to hunker down during a supply chain training course many years ago and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Eventually I had to ask as failing to follow the hunker downwards request appeared…

Senior Management has been on quite a shopping spree over the last few months taking advantage of various big name high street stores that have lost their lustre and even their premises in some cases. The demise of these familiar UK brands has…

I recently peeped outside of the FMCG and Pharmaceutical world and took a look at the amount of empty beds in the National Health Service in UK and how a little alternative thinking plus basic demand and supply planning expertise could improve bed…

Romania has not yet bought into online FMCG supermarket retailing in a big way. There have been some trials, tribulations and a few errors but online retailing here is this nothing like on the scale seen in UK, for example. As a tourist in…

Once upon a time there was an FMCG company that I will refer to as “Foresight”. “Foresight” had spent many years and many Euros creating an acknowledged slick Supply Chain. Top class regional and global buying Flexible and cost effective factory…

The Rugby World Cup is upon us once more and this time it is in the northern hemisphere and in UK. Therefore rain can be expected throughout the tournament. Rugby is a strange sport in some ways. The forwards are the incredibly big blokes (yes, and…

The English dictionary lists the definition of complexity as “the state or quality of being intricate or complicated: an issue of great complexity”. Wikipedia defines complexity in great detail and starts with “In general usage, complexity tends to…

A sweeping generalisation I know, but generally Supply Chain Directors who serve International Key Account (IKA) customers are small in stature. This is not by way of genetics or natural selection; it is just the simple physical result of being…

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein How many of you will be reaching for an electric cigarette or giving up smoking altogether for the New Year? How long will it be before visits to the…

We hadn’t seen R. in the last three years. Now this happened in the middle of the street and after the kisses and hugs, the usual ‘how do you do’ followed. People were pushing us angrily, a clear sign that we had to continue this conversation…

No, I’m not suggesting we should start printing Supply Chain bank notes but if these were ever introduced, they would certainly need to contain the phrase above. Or just imagine introducing a new KPI: the trust level inside your Supply Chain, a…

Just returned from a holiday in Spain. Thinking about it, our trips to UK do not really count as holidays as they inevitably involve moving heavy boxes up and downstairs as the heiress (click here for unashamed plug of heiress art work) changes…