SCMDOJO

26/05/2026

Your warehouse is full. Your cash flow is not.

Obsolete inventory is one of the most overlooked cash traps in supply chain. It sits on your shelves, takes up space, ties up working capital, and nobody talks about it until the auditors do.

In this 60-second video, I break down how to identify obsolete inventory and what you can actually do about it, whether it is liquidating, repurposing, or discontinuing stock that is costing you more to hold than it is worth.

This applies whether you are in manufacturing, retail, pharma, or distribution. The principle is the same.

Watch this and tell me: what percentage of your inventory do you think is truly obsolete right now?

20/05/2026

Outsourcing in the supply chain is one of the most consequential decisions a leadership team makes.

Get it right, and you unlock cost efficiency, specialist capability, and scalability. Get it wrong, and you hand control of a critical function to a third party and spend the next three years trying to claw it back.

Most organisations get it wrong because they treat outsourcing as a cost decision rather than a strategic one. This week's edition gives you everything you need to approach it correctly.

In this week's newsletter, I am sharing the strategic guide, two courses, a video debate, and an AI tool to help you decide.

Hi Folks, Outsourcing in supply chain is one of the most consequential decisions a leadership team makes. Get it right and you unlock cost efficiency, specialist capability, and scalability.

20/05/2026

AI is here, but where do you start & apply it in the supply chain?

Supply Chain leaders & managers are under pressure from C-level to deploy AI in their daily work, but where do you start?

Here are 5 use cases where you can start seeing the benefits of AI immediately:

ASK: Grounded Q&A from the knowledge base. Answers supply chain questions the way a 20-year practitioner would, not the way ChatGPT hallucinates.

DIAGNOSTICS: 22 live maturity assessments across logistics, procurement, inventory, 3PL, warehouse operations and more. Structured scoring, gap analysis, prioritised roadmap. In minutes.

AGENTIC WORKFLOWS: Multi-step autonomous workflows: Freight Spend Diagnostic, Inventory Health Check, Spend Analytics, Sourcing RFPs end-to-end, Contract Red Flag Review. Complex sequenced operations with minimal manual input.

DRAFT: 24 DOCX templates live today. SOPs, category strategies, negotiation playbooks, and KPI scorecards are generated and downloadable instantly.

ANALYSE: Upload Excel or CSV data. Freight cost variance by lane and carrier, inventory optimisation, and supplier spend categorisation. Root cause analysis without an analyst. No schema mapping required! Data secured in Google Cloud, fully encrypted.

So what is the difference vs a generic LLM chatbot?

It's a RAG-powered, domain-specific AI supply chain consultant, trained exclusively on SCMDOJO's four-year knowledge corpus: 82 expert courses, 700 practitioner videos, 450+ research articles/blogs, 41 toolkits across 25 SCM domains.

Not fine-tuned on the internet.

Trained on verified practitioner knowledge.

Let me know what you think. Your take would be worth hearing.

07/05/2026

Most logistics and supply chain leaders I speak to are fighting the same losing battle.

They renegotiate carrier rates. Costs climb anyway. They renegotiate again. Same result.

The problem isn't the rates. It's the inputs that shape them — load optimisation, network design, mode selection, consolidation. Fix those, and the rates take care of themselves.

This week, everything we've published connects to that one idea.

Hi Folks, Most logistics and supply chain leaders I speak to are fighting the same losing battle. They renegotiate carrier rates.

24/04/2026

Stakeholders assume demand follows a steady, predictable pattern, with the same quantity ordered every period. This is the idealized, textbook scenario that simplifies forecasting and planning.

Actual demand fluctuates unpredictably across periods, even when underlying customer consumption remains relatively stable. Some months spike, others drop, creating planning chaos.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

When supply chain teams assume "consistent demand," they:

- Over-build safety stock in low periods

- Scramble for expedited production in high periods

- Create excess inventory that ties up working capital

- Miss opportunities to right-size procurement strategies

𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁.

- Different products, customer segments, channels, and geographies display different variability patterns.

- One-size-fits-all demand planning fails because:

- SKU-level volatility ≠ category-level volatility

- Channel demand patterns differ (B2B vs. retail vs. direct)

- Regional seasonality varies

- Customer tier ordering behavior differs (large accounts vs. spot buys)

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Consistent monthly demand.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Volatile order patterns masking relatively stable consumption.

This is why demand segmentation isn't optional; it's foundational.

Without it, you're planning blind.

Understand your demand variability, and you unlock efficiency, capital, and service excellence.

15/04/2026

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Richard Wilding OBE (Professor) and enjoyed the PROF, RICHARD CURRY.

The main reason for me was to pick up expert insights from the leading authority in Supply Chain Risk and Resilience, given the High Risk ⚠️ Supply Chain scenarios we are dealing with.

In episode 89 of The Supply Chain Show™, we break down what’s really happening behind the scenes and what it means for supply chain professionals worldwide to create an Anti-fragile Supply Chain.

💡 Learn how disruptions ripple across industries—from oil to food

💡 Discover the 3Rs → 4Rs framework for building resilient systems

💡 Understand why “antifragile” supply chains are the future

💡 Get practical strategies like multi-shoring, route diversification, and smarter decision-making

This isn’t just theory—this is what supply chain leaders are dealing with right now.

Watch full episode here 👉

Supply chains are under pressure like never before. From rising shipping costs to global disruptions, the game has changed and is changing fast. In this epis...

14/04/2026

Happy to share that I'll be speaking at Procurement and Supply Chain in Wartime: Challenges and Lessons ! Make sure to attend it on April 24.

Thanks to procurement expert Maryna Trepova and IPSM Procurement team for organising this webinar on a very pertinent topic.

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12/04/2026

What does the future of supply chain actually look like, and are businesses ready for it?

I had a fascinating conversation with Deborah Dull, a global authority on circular supply chains, and the insights were eye-opening. We're not just talking about recycling. We're talking about a fundamental rethinking of how products are designed, returned, repaired, and redeployed at scale, profitably, and with AI at the centre of it all.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Critical raw materials like gold and silver have less than 50 years of known reserves, circular supply chains aren't optional, they're inevitable.

Repairs and refurbishment can be faster and cheaper than traditional linear manufacturing.

Product returns are a business asset when you build the capability to capture their value.

AI and automated disassembly are already transforming how companies like Moly and GXO operate.

The future belongs to ecosystems of providers, not single IT systems.

Watch the full episode and let me know, is your organisation thinking circularly yet?

09/04/2026

09/04/2026

Designing for Success: The Supply Chain Triad
Building a Supply Chain Information System (SCIS) is about more than just technology; it requires a strategic framework to ensure you are capturing the right data to manage your business effectively. To achieve this, we use a philosophy known as the Supply Chain Triad.

The Triad consists of three equally important pillars that must work in harmony:

Supply Chain Planning: Developing plans to ensure ex*****on delivers on business and financial goals.

Supply Chain Ex*****on: Monitoring how the supply chain is performing against the prescribed plan.

Supply Chain Analytics: The visualization layer (your SCIS) that measures real-time performance and allows you to understand how ex*****on is meeting the plan.

An essential, though often understated, fourth element is talent. You need a capable pool of managers and analysts who are adept at using tools like WMS, TMS, and ERP to build and manage this analytics layer.

Pillar 1: Planning and the S&OP Connection
Your SCIS must be the heartbeat of your Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process. It should provide critical inputs and capture agreed-upon outcomes to link supply chain activities to financial objectives.

Key data flows between your SCIS and S&OP include:

Forecasts: Numbers by month, quarter, and SKU, including all underlying assumptions.

Capacities: Real-time data on manufacturing and distribution limits.

Inventory Status: Current levels of finished goods, raw materials, and work in progress.

Scenario Modeling: The ability to test different outcomes during the planning phase.

Pillar 2: Real-Time Ex*****on
A plan is only as good as its ex*****on. Your SCIS must monitor performance in real time by exchanging data with your WMS, TMS, and ERP systems.

To remain agile, you cannot rely on data from last month or even last week. You need to see how you are performing right now. This includes real-time tracking of:

Customer Metrics: Fill rate, Perfect Order Index (POI), and on-time delivery.

Operational Flow: Order fulfillment rates and shipment status by the hour.

Inventory Accuracy: Current levels versus the planned stock.

By visualizing this data as it happens, your team can pivot instantly based on up-to-date information rather than reacting to historical errors.

Question for the network:
Is your SCIS truly integrated into your S&OP process, or is there a gap between your planning and your real-time analytics? Let us start a conversation in the comments.

*****oniseverything

08/04/2026

Beyond the Spreadsheet: Why Visualization is the Cockpit of Your Supply Chain
It is not enough to simply collect data from sources like a WMS, TMS, or ERP. If you cannot transform that raw data into information, the collection process serves little purpose. Modern supply chain management requires high-level visualization to keep complex systems running efficiently. Think of it like an aircraft cockpit: a pilot cannot wait four or five steps to check their altitude; they need that information instantly to make safe decisions.

Why Many Organizations Fail
Building a successful Supply Chain Information System (SCIS) is difficult, and many companies fall short in three specific areas:

Relying Solely on ERP Data: An ERP is excellent for internal financial tracking, but it does not provide the broad, end-to-end view needed for total supply chain decision-making.

The Financial vs. Operational Gap: Supply chains move units, cartons, and pallets, yet many companies only track dollars per week. Failing to convert financial data into operational units leads to major reporting and planning errors.

Fragmented Data Silos: Information is often trapped in disconnected spreadsheets or departmental databases that were never built for visibility. This fractured storage prevents a true end-to-end understanding of the chain.

The Modern Solution: Low-Code and No-Code Tools
The last five to seven years have introduced powerful tools that allow us to join disparate data layers and visualize massive pools of information. Platforms like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Google Data Studio, and Python allow for consistent, real-time reporting.

These modern tools offer features that were previously unavailable:

AI and Machine Learning: These enable complex scenario modeling and predictive planning.

Easy Access via APIs: You can now seamlessly port data from multiple sources into a single visualization tool.

Data Mining: The ability to mine large databases is essential for analyzing overall supply chain performance.

An effective SCIS is not a single off-the-shelf product. It is a custom-built solution that pulls from various sources and uses a visualization layer to measure the specific metrics your organization needs to thrive.

Question for the network:
Is your team still stuck in the "Financial Data" trap, or have you successfully translated your metrics into operational units like pallets and truckloads? Let us start a conversation in the comments.