Cupertino, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/12/2014 -- Chad Smith, a Supply Chain expert and co-founder of the Demand Driven Institute, presented a webinar recently sponsored by Ultriva about consumption-based replenishment.

Smith argued that forecast error is on the rise and that supply chain complexity and volatility are increasing; he also noted that legacy planning tactics and tools are breaking down. Co-presented with Narayan Laksham, founder of Ultriva, Smith noted during the webinar, “Worldwide there are more complex planning and supply scenarios than ever – the past is not a predictor for the future.”

The “New Normal” in the supply chain includes global sourcing and demand, shorter product life cycles, shorter customer tolerance times, and more product complexity and customization. Smith said, “Pressure for leaner inventories are on the rise and the cost of inaccurate forecasts combined with more product variety and long lead time for parts and components has changed the landscape of the supply chain.”

“The world is a much different place then when MRP was conceived and codified.” Smith insisted, “We have more complex planning and supply scenarios than ever and conventional planning can no longer handle it. We have reached the point of diminishing returns. Companies that keeping applying and optimizing old rules and tools, will put more in and get less back.”

Smith also shared that flow is the intersection of prevailing improvement methods, namely Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints (ToC.) The primary objective of lean is to eliminate waste, where Six Sigma’s primary objective is reducing variability; ToC to improve throughput.

Chad Smith is the co-author of the third edition of Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning 3/E (Ptak and Smith, McGraw-Hill, 2011) and the co-author of Demand Driven Performance – Using Smart Metrics (Smith and Smith, McGraw-Hill, 2013).

For more information about the webinar, go to: http://info.ultriva.com/supply-chain-webinar-demand-driven-mrp.

About Ultriva
Ultriva’s (http://www.ultriva.com) cloud-based platform leverages and seamlessly integrates with leading ERP and MRP systems, to deliver an end to end pull based replenishment solution. Ultriva, based in Cupertino, CA, implements a global demand driven manufacturing model by providing full visibility, scheduling, and sequencing of production of customer orders. Ultriva was named one of the Great Supply Chain Projects of 2014 by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine. The company’s global footprint is increasing rapidly with implementations in wide variety of industry sectors and enterprises such as Magellan Aerospace, CareFusion, Emerson, Ingersoll Rand, McKesson, Triumph Group, Regal Beloit, Thermo Fisher and more. Follow Ultriva on Twitter at @Ultriva.

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