After the first round The results of your first round of the Fresh connection simulation have been calculated. Here are a couple of tips that you might want to focus on in the next round: Supply chain performance issues 1. Check the percentage of obsolete finished products and the associated monetary value (cost). If you have obsolescence issues, this could be because: 1. 1. your promised shelf life is too high (Sales), 2. the lead time from bottling to physical delivery to customers is too long because: 2. Operations are not well organized: quality problems, failures, long production batches (Operations, Supply Chain Management, Purchasing), 3. Excess inventory on hand: safety stock levels, batch size, … (Supply Chain Management). 4. Compare the actual service levels with the contractual service levels promised and make adjustments as required to minimize the associated financial penalties (Finance). After the second round We are getting into the depths of the Fresh connection game. The results of round 2 have been calculated, which means it is officially the start of round 3. Here are a couple of hints that might help you get good results. Supply chain performance issues 1. Check the percentage of obsolete finished products and the associated monetary value (cost). If you have obsolescence issues, this could be because: 1. 1. your promised shelf life is too high (Sales), 2. the lead time from bottling to physical delivery to customers is too long because: 1. Operations are not well organized: quality problems, failures, long production batches (Operations, Supply Chain Management, Purchasing), 2. Excess inventory: safety stock, batch size (Supply Chain Management). 2. Compare the actual service levels with the contractual service levels promised and make the adjustments required to minimize the associated potential penalties (Finance). If this approach is not impactful, you may need to address the following issues: 1. 1. Inappropriate inventory level (Supply Chain Management), 2. Insufficient production plan adherence caused by: 1. Supplier quality issues (Purchasing) and/or lack of incoming goods inspection (Operations), 2. Component stockouts linked to unreliable supplier deliveries (Purchasing) or insufficient inventory levels (Supply Chain Management). 3. Check Material Utilization (Operations), including inbound/outbound warehouses and machines. Excess capacity yields additional expenses. In contrast, insufficient capacity will cause you to resort to overtime and/or subcontracting, which are both expensive. 4. Check Manpower Utilization (Operations), including inbound/outbound warehouses and the production factory. If the flexible manpower cost is too high, you need to adjust your permanent workforce accordingly. Issues related to supply chain objectives 1. Check the service level promised to each client for each product type (Sales): some clients are less sensitive to service level changes than others. The promised service level chosen could be too high/low and may need to be adjusted per the sensitivity of each client in terms of the contract price to the promised service level. 2. Check the shelf life promised to each customer (Sales) and make informed sensitivitybased decisions similar to what has been done above regarding service levels. After the third round The third round of the FC competition is now complete. Moving forward to the fourth round, you might want to consider the following: First-order issues and parameters Supply chain performance issues 1. Check the percentage of obsolete finished products and the associated monetary value (cost). If you have obsolescence issues, this could be because: 1. your promised shelf life is too high (Sales), 2. the lead time from bottling to physical delivery to customers is too long because: 1. Operations are not well organized: quality problems, failures, long production batches (Operations, Supply Chain Management, Purchasing), 2. Excess inventory: safety stock, batch size (Supply Chain Management). 2. Compare the actual service levels with the contractual service levels promised and make the adjustments required to minimize the associated potential penalties (Finance). If this approach is not impactful, you need to address the following issues: 1. 1. Inappropriate inventory level (Supply Chain Management), 2. Insufficient production plan adherence caused by: 1. Supplier quality issues (Purchasing) and/or lack of incoming goods inspection (Operations), 2. Component stockouts linked to unreliable supplier deliveries (Purchasing) or insufficient inventory levels (Supply Chain Management). 3. Check Material Utilization (Operations), including inbound/outbound warehouses and machines. Excess capacity yields additional expenses. In contrast, insufficient capacity will cause you to resort to overtime and/or subcontracting, which are both expensive. 4. Check Manpower Utilization (Operations), including inbound/outbound warehouses and the production factory. If the flexible manpower cost is too high, you need to adjust your permanent manpower accordingly. Issues related to supply chain objectives 1. Check the service level promised to each client for each product type (Sales): some clients are less sensitive to service level changes than others. The promised service level chosen could be too high/low and may need to be adjusted per the client's sensitivity in terms of the contract price to the promised service level. 2. Check the shelf life promised to each customer (Sales) and make informed sensitivitybased decisions similar to what has been done above regarding service levels. Second-order issues and parameters 1. Fine-tune your contractual negotiations with clients (Sales). You can reduce the contractual shelf life and/or service level for the customer(s) that are less pricesensitive to shelf-life/service level. Alternatively, you can increase the negotiated performance indicators for customers that are more price sensitive. 2. Shortage rule (Sales): for example, you can set customer priority based on their service level sensitivity. In general, you may want to give priority to those customers that are more sensitive to shortages. 3. You can select more performant or cost-effective suppliers from the market (Purchasing) and negotiate optimal contractual parameters. 4. You can analyze the investments made (Finance) and try to reduce the overall amount by taking action on the detailed cost components. 5. You can optimize and fine-tune resource capacity (Operations) and inventory levels (Supply Chain Management). This includes setting the right level of usage of expensive external resources. You can also implement inventory cost reduction actions (for the cyclical inventory and/or for the safety inventory) while ensuring that you deliver the promised service levels. After the fourth round Round 5 of the FC game starts. Here are some key points that you might want to consider as you move forward for the last two rounds: Impact of CO2 emissions Clients are price sensitive to CO2 emissions associated with the activities of the Fresh Connection. This mandates appropriate changes and/or amplifies some issues on the company's bottom line. Issues related to supply chain objectives 1. It is now necessary to negotiate the promised CO2 level with each customer (Sales). Again, it can be observed that some customers are more pricesensitive to CO2 emissions than others. Supply chain performance issues 1. When considering CO2 emission levels, the percentage of obsolete finished products becomes even more critical than in rounds 1 to 3. This percentage has to be decreased as much as possible. 2. You can check the various suppliers' emission indexes and the associated transportation modes to make informed decisions (Purchasing) on how you can lower your CO2 emissions. 3. Specific technical actions can be implemented in the factory (Operations) to lower CO2 emissions. 4. Most Operations and Supply Chain Management decisions have an impact on CO2 emissions; they have to be carefully reconsidered.
