Supply Chain Diagnostic
Today’s complex, deeply interconnected supply chains present new challenges for businesses. Suppliers and customers span the globe. Compliance standards change often. Labor and materials shortages lead to sudden interruptions. Growth through M&A adds new challenges as companies struggle to unify disparate processes into a single, streamlined operation. Failure to understand your supply chain’s current strengths and weaknesses can lead to investment in the wrong areas or overlooking costly problems.
Uncover your true starting point.
This foundational supply chain consulting product is intended for clients new to benchmarking that have experienced recent growth organically or through M&A. The first part of the project is developing a current state assessment of your entire supply chain through competitive benchmarking, expert interviews, and performance data analysis. Once the current state has been established, we guide you toward a future-state roadmap that will help you take advantage of low-hanging fruit and longer-term initiatives needed to achieve your growth, cost, and service objectives.
Network Strategy & Design
The COVID era has created global supply chain shocks that have caused companies to increase their focus on this part of their business. Supply shortages, cost inflation, labor turnover, and unplanned facility shutdowns have become an industry norm. Even small imbalances can drive a bullwhip effect up and down the supply chain, causing inefficiencies that drive up costs and frustrate customers.
Reinforce your supply chain.
Turn to supply chain consulting experts when designing your operations network footprint requirements. Our first step is to develop a future-state network requirement based on your current performance, benchmarking insights, and relevant industry trends. Ducker Carlisle will then develop a future-state operations network footprint through complex supply chain modeling and “what-if” scenario simulations. The deliverable is an implementation roadmap that defines opening and closure requirements, as well as how each facility should be best operated.
Operations Assessment & Improvement Implementation
Inefficient operations are a challenge for every organization — one that is never solved overnight. For most businesses, the visible problems are usually symptoms of the issue, not the source. Knowing where to focus improvement efforts requires gaining a deeper understanding of the root causes, which are often not what was initially expected.
Specialists in standardization, facility layout & design, and automation.
We utilize a standard approach to assess your operational facility maturity and improvement opportunities. Our team of consultants has experience auditing and optimizing a wide range of operational facilities. Ducker Carlisle’s deep experience serving the automotive & transportation sector includes assessments for various points across the supply chain, such as warehousing, packaging centers, vehicle processing centers, and assembly & manufacturing facilities. Engagements typically start with a one-week current state facility assessment and can lead to longer-term implementation projects based on your unique needs.
Inventory Management
Lack of visibility, inefficient processes, aging technology, and inaccurate data are all debilitating to successful inventory management. Poor management creates a ripple effect that leads to myriad problems elsewhere in the business: rising costs, cash flow challenges, production interruptions, and fulfillment headaches. Proper inventory management is essential to the overall health of the organization.
Streamline complexity. Improve profitability.
We are experts in optimizing complex inventory holding and management decisions across the supply chain. Our typical client’s inventory business is extremely complex: hundreds of thousands of SKUs, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of inventory, and thousands of unique distribution points. Our core business ranges from supplier management to warehouse inventory forecasting and planning to retail inventory management solutions. We are equally comfortable working within and optimizing your current systems for short-term, easily implementable improvements, as well as working with our leading software vendor partners to implement cutting-edge solutions to help you reach your inventory management goals.
Transportation Optimization
The complexity of moving products across geographies or delivering to end-users has increased dramatically in recent years. Growing competition, tightening consumer demands for instant gratification, and shifting geo-political and social landscapes introduce uncertainty. Labor shortages, fluctuating fuel costs, aging infrastructure, and climate-related delays can all compromise the efficiency of your transportation network.
Increase your control over transportation logistics.
Work with our deep bench of supply chain experts to get ahead of transportation challenges. We specialize in developing leading inbound and last-mile distribution strategies for our customers. The backbone of this product is supported by our annual benchmarking and customer surveys, which give us a pulse on the detailed market transportation rates and carrier performance.
Logistics Network Design
Efficient product delivery impacts businesses on two fronts: customer perception and company profitability. Under this double squeeze, weaknesses in an enterprise’s logistic network have the capacity to slow response time and stifle productivity. But managing today’s myriad disruptions to supply chains, labor shortages, rising transportation costs, and increasing competition require a streamlined, reliable network. What’s at stake? The risk of falling perpetually short of profitability goals.
Design a flexible, responsive logistics network.
Let the experts at Ducker Carlisle help you design a distribution network that works for your business. We’ll help you identify gaps and weaknesses and then implement achievable plans for change. Our experienced advisors will help you define a more robust distribution network, maximize your logistics outsourcing strategy, optimize your warehouse operations, and ensure your transportation partners can live up to your expectations. We provide support as you adopt industry best practices, implement new technologies, and turn your logistics network into a competitive advantage that can withstand inevitable organizational and marketplace changes.
- Network design
- Vendor selection and support
- Transportation mode organization
- Freight rate benchmarking
Why Ducker Carlisle
Bring Certainty to Your Decisions. Improve Your Outcomes.
Leverage our uncompromising pursuit of knowledge to drive growth. Our rigorous approach helps you thoroughly understand markets, customers and competitors, uncovering essential intelligence that leads to new ideas and better decisions.
Let’s Talk
With decades of experience in global consulting, strategy, and Mu0026A support services in key industry sectors, we know what it takes to grow a business. Connect with us to discuss your goals.
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