Ted Schaefer is Retiring After Twelve Amazing Years at Profit Point. It’s December 31, 2019, the eve of a new decade and the eve of a new chapter in my life. Tomorrow will be the first day of my retirement after 39 and ½ years. It has been a nice ride, and I have been …
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All posts by Ted Schaefer
If you love the outdoors as I do, you probably had a similar reaction to the study published in the September issue of the journal, Science. This study of standardized bird surveys, augmented by radar observations of migrating birds, showed a roughly 30% reduction in the population of wild birds in the continental US and …
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Our Idea of fun is making supply chain heroes. It’s why Fortune 500 companies trust us to solve their biggest problems. Listen to John Cutler, Ted Schafer, and Dr. Alan Kosansky discuss our approach to listening to our clients.
Over the weekend I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about two subjects that don’t normally come up in the same conversation: chocolate and operations research. Everyone knows about chocolate and many of us enjoy it as a tasty treat whenever we can. However, when I refer to operations research (OR) in a …
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How you get from the bottom to the top is often considered as important as getting to the top at all. To climb solo is risky business. Using supply chain network modeling software without assistance can also be risky. Before starting your next venture, ask Profit Point to collaborate with you and your team as …
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I recently read an e-book published last month by Llamasoft, a large supply chain network design software provider, suggesting that companies build their own internal supply chain design (SCND) competency (using the authors’ software, of course). Without a doubt SCND is critical to a well-functioning cost-efficient supply chain and is an integral part of the …
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New management wanted a ten-year plan to optimize the manufacturing and distribution footprint to reduce costs. Profit Point engaged with the client to determine the best way to operate the current network in light of some recent manufacturing improvements, and to develop recommendations for a future network that would maintain customer service levels while reducing future costs.
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In this case study, our client wanted to optimize the supply chain from the purchase of raw milk from the farms through to the delivery of finished goods to its retail customers. We engaged with the customer in a two-phased project to first optimize the raw milk procurement/manufacturing footprint and then to determine the optimal national distribution network for the future.
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In the wake of the recent election, there has been a lot of talk about the types of changes we’ll be facing over the next few years. The continuing analysis of the election and a recent plane ride have given me a good refresher course on some of the critical factors that enable a successful …
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Add Total Delivered Cost Variances to Manage Your Supply Chain It is often said that you can only improve what you measure. To that end, there has been a lot of progress in performance tracking and activity-based costing over the past 10 years. With the advent of better activity-based costing, leading companies generate monthly manufacturing …
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Over the past week I’ve had two experiences that made me think about what’s required for a successful Organizational Change. The first was our CSCMP Roundtable tour of a family-owned food distribution company that had built a large, successful regional business by leveraging their founder’s focus on customer satisfaction and valuing his employees as cornerstone …
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Profit Point’s recent article in Industry Today, “The Future of Supply Chain Network Design,” describes how to fully leverage the new advances in a traditional supply chain optimization process to include not only your internal supply chain, but the supply chains of your competitors, as well. Supply chain network design optimization tools have become well …
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