Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

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…

Some time ago I looked at the often dreadful customer service offered by FMCG and Telecoms companies in CEE. Of course, this avoidable malaise is not restricted to that part of the world. After being in UK for a few weeks I have experienced really…

Amongst the many variables in running a Supply Chain, the one certainty in FMCG, Pharmaceutical and Agri businesses is that inventory is solely in the eye of the beholder. Nobody else but Supply Chain actually sees the full unedited and excuse-free…

I speak to many FMCG companies who tell me they do not need Sales & Operational Planning in their businesses. As a formal process they may not be operating to S&OP norms but if they are getting their products onto shelves then some form of S&OP must…

I recently had a lengthy discussion with someone from the UK Armed Forces who was preparing to lead his men into a dangerous part of the world. I enquired about the logistics of delivering people, arms, ammunition and machines to the right place at…

Ebenezer Bruise is a miserly, cold-hearted FMCG CEO, who continues to berate his Supply Chain people even as Christmas approaches. As far as Bruise is concerned every problem in the company is caused by Supply Chain. He rejects a Christmas dinner…

Christmas is coming around quickly so who better than Noddy Holder and Slade to suggest you give a Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) process to your business as a present. This Christmas song has been heard at Christmas every year since 1973! If…

Did you know that the Christmas season originally ran from December 25th to January 6th which was in turn popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas? Christmas is becoming like old age; it slowly creeps up on you without you really noticing. I can…

My aging Toyota Land Cruiser is about to clock up an impressive 300,000km on roads that are of variable and low quality. Luckily, the car is built like a tank and comes with bull bars on the front or what I like to call a “Dacia Catcher”. (Dacia as…

I am often asked which job in the extended Supply Chain is the most important. For FMCG producers this may be the demand planner while for retail partners the key role could be innovation planning. I do have a view on this so park the question and…

I am not going to pretend I wrote this blog once again but when I came to sit down and look at the last quarter of the year I could not really see any difference from last year. The same challenges are clearly there and what is astonishing is that…

The summer of 2004. It was 3 weeks after I had changed the job and the company. It was a new (Supply Chain) position in an FMCG company with many people speaking native French. At that time, the mayor of Bucharest- the future Romanian president…

The municipality in Voluntari near Bucharest is not noted for its town planning excellence. Our local Silicone Valley of Str Erou Iancu Nicolae contains at least 11 education establishments. There should be no surprise at all that twice per day…

I have travelled quite a lot over the years and tried to add one new country each year until I stumbled at 45. Many were holidays but a majority were on business with very few opportunities available to actually see the place. “Oh, you must be so…

The 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil is fast approaching, yes it is football not soccer. As a kid you played “footy” where I grew up and if you said anything like “soccy” you would need to be a fast runner. The England team has completed missing…