CGS is concerned with ensuring that efficient processes and networks are in place to facilitate the logistics of getting material to the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity.We’re here to help you do just that by providing expert support in all aspects of your supply chain planning. Find out how CGS will make your organization faster, more flexible, more granular, more accurate, and more efficient.
Supply chain management is not just logistics, it is a wide and varied requirement that includes procurement, supply and demand planning, forecasting, network design and inventory control. Due both to the cross-functional nature and breadth of activities required, supply chains can be hugely complex. With this complexity comes risk; from risk associated with upstream service disruption to the risks that fluctuating demand downstream can create. The number of variables to deal with, and constraints, even in relatively short supply chains can make its management a very difficult task that requires detailed planning. Our CGS has excess to broad network of supply chain in their fields and can support your business with both planning and delivering improvements.
CGS supports its clients for all their immediate needs.Our Supply Chain expert partners optimise your overall supply chain through logistics network design, inbound/outbound logistics and supply chain execution, operational planning, risk management and supply chain sustainability.
Supply chain planning can be complex but our expertise will guide you through.
Supply chain planning are a complex network of companies, people, resources, systems and information. The potential for disconnects and sub-optimisation between all of these different elements is significant, and efficient supply chain planning is a necessity. We are here to ensure your supply chain is optimised and efficient.
Supply chain planning covers the interrelation of functions at a strategic, tactical and operational level. These functions include customer service, order processing, warehousing, transportation, and inventory whilst the supply chain processes that make the interrelation include forecasting, supply scheduling, capacity planning, production scheduling, inventory management and logistics network design.
In many enterprises the Supply Chain evolves over time due to many incremental decisions and influences. The Supply Chain is configured opportunistically as issues rise. By doing so a company is missing important optimization and integration aspects in terms of customer service and efficiency.
The Supply Chain Strategy needs to be (re)aligned to the company’s strategy and will benefit most from a well-through Supply Chain Strategy.
Companies can typically be confronted with the following issues:
Due to inefficiencies in the supply chain planning process it appears that several of the symptoms occur at the same time. By changing the planning methods and optimizing their use the company can get a grip on the operations.We help build supply chain infrastructure that responds to consumer demand, protects capital and enables world-class operations.
Planning is the drum beat of manufacturing and we’re here to get the timing right.
Production planning is a critical process to ensure efficient manufacturing operations. The process of production planning, when effectively deployed, aligns both material and resource requirements and enables a manufacturing operation to produce products in accordance with demand signals.
Production planning must recognise all demand signals, from external finished goods requirements down through to the intermediate components and raw materials identified within the bill of materials.
Traditionally, production planning focused solely on material requirements planning (referred to as MRP), but has now evolved to include materials and resources (referred to as MRPII). MRPII is often supported within some of the major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms which look to advance MRPII further by integrating the planning process with other business functions, such as finance and customer service.
An effective S&OP process is a powerful tool that our consultants can deliver for your business. S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) is a process that harmonises the supply and demand plans of a business over the mid-to-long term horizon. In addition to bridging the supply and demand plans, S&OP also focuses on integrating financial reporting as well as encompassing market planning, new product development and business strategy. S&OP is certainly not a new concept. S&OP as a business process has been widely deployed since the 1980’s. Whilst the original concept of S&OP focused on balancing supply and demand, i.e. sales and operations, it has now rightfully developed into a more comprehensive business-wide process incorporating financial planning and strategic direction and is now sometimes also referred to as IBP (Integrated Business Planning). The best S&OP processes are designed from the ground up; they are designed by working alongside the stakeholders with consideration given to all the varying functional nuances of the business. It’s important to remember that S&OP is not about buying the right system as a first step and then designing a process around that system. An effective S&OP process is about having a platform that’s bespoke to your business needs. Systems support can only become useful once the design has been deployed and tested and then the systems solution can be configured to that process. It should never be the other way around. To summarize,, the short-term benefits of integrated business planning will include many improvements.
So what are the gains? In the longer-term the infrastructure provided by the inventory management and demand planning process is extremely potent. It can be used for powerful business modelling and “what-if” analyses.
We have the expertise to optimise inventory, reduce cost and improve service.
Inventory is a requirement to protect supply and is one of the most important assets of any supply chain. Inventory ensures continuity of supply and service requirements during procurement or manufacturing lead times. It also serves to protect against unplanned variations to demand and supply within those lead times.
All inventory levels must be justified and minimised. Every business needs to have a clear inventory management policy that ensures inventory levels are bridged with required service levels. ‘Just in case’ and ‘x-weeks of supply’ approaches are wholly inefficient and risk, not just higher inventory investment, but also poorer customer service levels, higher warehouse operating costs and stock obsolescence.
Principally inventory targets should be comprised of two elements: cycle stock and safety stock. Cycle stock is there to cover the normal expected demand during the replenishment lead time, whilst safety stock is an additional buffer to protect against unexpected demand and supply variations.
The assessment and calculation of cycle stock and safety stock can be complex, requiring a detailed understanding of probability and statistics. The is where our inventory consultants excel; we not only bring the knowledge and methodology for inventory optimisation, but we also combine this with our real-world experience of supply chain operations.
We can design and deliver the inventory management policy your business needs.
Inventory management is the science of efficiently balancing inventory cost with product availability. There are a host of reasons why businesses have to hold inventory. Typically, most businesses hold inventory to ensure continued supply where demand and supply rates differ (known as a decoupling point).
There are, of course, other reasons to hold inventory including counteracting seasonal production cycles, servicing non-forecast demand and securing bulk purchase discounts. Regardless of the reason for holding inventory, the basic principle of inventory management is to balance the level of stock held with the level of service required; in essence, inventory costs money and should be minimised wherever possible.
How our inventory consultants can help your business achieve its goals.
Inventory management is very much a science. However, there are still many businesses that use rules of thumb to calculate inventory targets, such as holding a number of weeks average supply, or allowing arbitrary ‘just in case’ stock to be held.
We have significant experience in inventory management, from forecasting demand and aligning the inventory policy through to stock location, handling and storage decisions. We can help clients understand the optimal level of inventory for their business, and how that inventory can be stored, retrieved and replenished in the most cost and service efficient manner. Areas where our inventory management expert partners can support clients include:
The areas of inventory management we can help with include:
We can help you design and deliver an exceptional demand forecasting process.
Demand forecasting is a critical business requirement to support a range of business functions, including logistics, production and finance. It is only with an agreed and considered forecast that functions can adequately plan capacity, inventory, labour and cash-flow.
When forecasting demand, it is key that all elements that can impact sales are identified, assessed and incorporated. Consequently, demand forecasting is not only a statistical exercise, but also requires cross-functional input from teams including sales, supply chain, finance and production.
Many businesses fail to have a cross-functional forecasting process, and often rely only on statistics. This can lead to a lack of business confidence in the forecast and it is not uncommon to find different departments developing their own isolated forecasts; sales, supply chain, production and finance will often see the future very differently!
So what IT do you currently have in place in the supply chain?How do these IT applications rate in comparison to alternatives available in the market?Are these systems sufficiently integrated?Are there key functionality gaps?
Health Check of the existing IT environment.
Digital and Analytics
We understand that each supply chain is digital and only runs due to the systems and data it is using. We help our clients to better understand which data can be used where, how to gather more valuable data, how to (better) connect data sources and systems and how to make all this into valuable insights and tangible improvements. This is what we call the digital supply chain.
Master Data Management(MDM)
Consistency in master data management strategy is at the forefront of a businesses success. Disparate systems in your environment have different names, thus you will get a variety of results when you’re looking for the same thing. Even though you may have a workaround now, over time this won’t stick and will result in lost business opportunities. Data isn’t just a nice to have in business anymore, it’s your competitive advantage.
To circumvent data inconsistencies you need to identify a single version of truth in your data. The unified source of data will allow you to ask questions and have confidence in the answers your queries provide. Through Master Data Management (MDM) you can have a single view of customers, products, suppliers, inventory, employees and any other variables that are important to you.
Our MDM consultants can help with:
Tool selection
We take pride into identifying pragmatic tools that do exactly that what our clients need. Many times this is not SAP or Oracle, but much easy-to-use and easy-to-implement tools that are readily available.
Benefits
Supply Chain performance can have a significant financial impact on an organization’s market share and profitability. Improving performance is driven in large part by implementing improved processes. These improved processes should be in line with and enable the business and functional strategies.
At CGS, our total focus is on improving your operating efficiency.CGS helps you to review and improve your business process based on the business and functional strategies. We also assist you to align and set up the right information systems and organization.
To achieve this we analyse all costs, all benefits and, most importantly, the risks as well.Our commercial solutions will make the best use of your existing resources and capital.We identify cost savings in existing operations – so that means “Quick Wins”
Our team will help our clients improve customer service. So as a result, you will get improved customer service scores. Ultimately this translates into more retained business.
We also focus on creating a network strategy that delivers measurable improvements to your performance.Finally, we advise in the sourcing of suppliers, managing tenders and help with the final implementation.
Global Trade compliance is the process by which goods enter/import into a country in conformance with all import laws and regulations of that country. It is also the process by which goods exit/export out of a country in conformance with all export laws and regulations. Faster import clearance, duty savings, predictable costs, reduced regulatory oversight, and competitive advantage are all reasons to ensure that your business is compliant with international trade regulations.
Effective trade compliance ensures that goods are classified correctly, origin, and valuation of goods are accurately declared in accordance with the laws and regulations and that the appropriate duties and taxes are paid. However, this is only a small part of the bigger picture.