Aug
10
Why Vlookup formula is so useful to Supply Chain Profesionals
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We recently posted on our twitter account (do follow us at @supplychainmech)
vlookup….possibly THE most useful excel formula for supply chain proffesionals
— supplychain mechanic (@supplychainmech) August 9, 2016
So why is it so useful?
Firstly let’s take a look at what the VLOOKUP formula does.
Check out the following link, courtesy of those friendly people at office.com the ins and outs of the formula – if you don’t know what it does pop on over and take a look, but be sure to come back afterwards 🙂
Why vlookup formula is so useful for Supply Chain professionals.
OK – Back? Good.
I find as a Supply Chain professional I need to analyse data sets at various times and to help with various processes for example:
• BOMs (Bills of material),
• Orders,
• Quotes,
• Planning records,
• Supplier reports –
I’m bombarded with data sets from different people in different formats all day long.
Using Excel, Vlookup let’s me join data sets together and allows me to take information from one and populate it in another –
Still not sold? Here’s 3 everyday examples of just how useful it is:
1/ Using a suppliers purchase order list I use VLookup against the part number in the a separate BOM sheet to pull in the drawing version allowing me to check the suppliers working to the latest design.
2/ Using the Purchase Order number I use Vlookup to pull in the delivery date from a delivery promise sheet to compare against the original requirement in my outstanding PO list.
3/ Using Vlookup I can investigate a suppliers outstanding invoice list against my own list to investigate current status.
Of course VLookup is just a formula – it’s the broader context behind it that’s important.
Supply Chain professionals as data warriors
Of course while VLOOKUP is great, it’s not the complete point. In today’s world supply chain professionals are expected to have the skill sets that can analyze and interpret data. Of course Excel is just one tool (and perhaps a blunt one at that) but the point is if you don’t have the skills to understand and analyse data in a function like supply chain your sunk.
- Want to Profile Category spend information?
- Need to understand the demand plan?
- Need to research suppliers?
- Need to analyse cost structures?
- Need to deliver logistics optimization?
All of these common tasks (and more) need data analysis skills. And as such knowing your way around those tools that you have on your PC is crucial. We all know that skills like negotiation, interpersonal skills etc are important but we mustn’t forget the skill of analysis is fundamental to the job.
So we love Vlookup, what about you?
Aug
8
S&OP benefits – the business case for pulling together.
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One of the biggest problems for many medium to large sized business is to wrestle the differing objectives from the variety of functions within the organization. These may not all have the same end goals.
This can be a significant issue, which results in various challenges (getting multiple buy-ins and various stages of the supply chain pricess often individually and dealing with statements such as “I would never have agreed to that had I known”. So how does S&OP help?
Firstly let’s take a step back and look at some of the functions of a typical business, these generally include various silos of skills such as :
- Finance
- Human Resources
- Manufacturing
- Sales
- Information Technology
- Logistcs
- Procurement
Let’s consider each function for a moment. What would Finance’s objectives be regarding say that stalwart of supply chain – inventory? Inventory as we all know is one of the fundemental elements of a business and if your involved in physical product there’s not much you can do without (at least a minimal) amount of it.
So it’s really important right?
So what might the finance department make of Inventory?
Most Finance teams want to minimise inventory as it ties up capital which might be spent (or stored) elsewhere. Is that likely to be the objective of everyone in the company?
Manufacturing might have a different opinion – there prime objective is to make product, and you can’t get far without parts right? And there’s always the risk of stock outs and other issues to mitigate.
So manufacturing will likely pull to have plenty of inventory. That’s different from Finance right? So what do you do?
Each of the departments above will have their own opinion. And there’s the rub.
Supply Chain straddles an organisation and helps steer it towards its objectives based on a set of signals (demand, capacity, risk etc). Somewhat surprisingly many companies miss this and leave one or more of these functions within the organization to set a plan and execute it (often without the correct signals Supply chain will try and set the objectives (big mistake!) often as not it’s the finance team).
Key S&OP Inputs
However, without a centralised set of objectives though this is usually doomed to failure. Whilst a business needs a supply chain team it needs to centralise its objectives if it’s going to be successful and agree on a negotiated shared view within the company that satisfies the combined needs of everyone. Getting this wrong can cause various problems, not least severely hampering efficiency.
The good news is that there are proven methodologies such S&OP, or SIOP as it is sometimes referred to, which bring an organisation together to share and then mutually agree objectives and actions on a routine basis (usually monthly) to deliver them.
It may come as a surprise but these steps really can be bought off by consensus from all functions. The key is that you need a well understood process, clear rationale data based logic behind the resulting inventory levels and they that can balance and satisfy all of the needs of the business.
Mastering this results in the business marching together as one and is one of the first steps most businesses need to take in taming their supply chain.
