Article

Supply Chain Practitioners: It's OK To Be Wrong (In A Simulation)

by Bill DuBois
Senior Business Consultant, Kinaxis,

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." - Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson is a world leading speaker on the topics of developing creativity, innovation and human resources in both education and business. His talks at the prestigious TED Conference have been viewed more than 25 million times all over the world. I was watching some of Sir Ken's videos in preparation for his talk at my company's upcoming Kinexions conference, and his take on creativity and finding your passion was truly inspiring.

Robinson likes to examine the inner workings of creative thinking. He compares mathematicians' approach to solving problems in formulas to the way musicians hear a symphony when they see notes on a page. Scientists and chemists make many mistakes in their creative process before they find a solution or cure. In these situations, being wrong doesn't mean failure, it means understanding what doesn't work. Of course my thoughts then turned to the supply chain. We're certainly a different group, facing unique challenges. There is no room for error; we're either right or wrong, and there is no time to "try things" in the middle of executing on your plans to get your products to your customers.

Traditionally, supply chain has been reactive in nature. You plan, execute, and when something changes, you react to course correct as best you can. That doesn't mean supply chain practitioners haven't thought about being proactive. Lean experts are certainly the role models for creativity when it comes to eliminating waste and driving value to the customer. It's just that in general, we don't have the time or the tools that allow ...

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About Bill DuBois

Bill DuBois has enjoyed over 12 years with Kinaxis in a number of roles including his current position as a business consultant providing pre-sales support to the Kinaxis Sales Team. In his other roles with Kinaxis, Bill was the manager of pre sales consulting and joined the company as an integration consultant.

Prior to joining Kinaxis, Bill gained 12 years of manufacturing, supply chain and lean experience while with Boeing of Canada. Bill is APICS CPIM certified. And as a qualified APICS instructor, Bill has developed and delivered APICS courses in material planning, master scheduling, capacity management and just-in-time. Bill has also developed and delivered Lean education and training packages for all levels of personnel. Bill studied Electronics Technology at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Learn more about how to leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment with RapidResponse at: kinaxis.com/microsoftdynamics

Companies that adopt RapidResponse to leverage their Dynamics ERP solution do so to:

  • gain new and agile supply chain planning and analytical capabilities not possible otherwise
  • increase flexibility to better support varying corporate, functional, and user specific needs
  • establish a platform that can scale with the organization over the long term
  • drive tangible business outcomes by both improving and accelerating planning and execution within and across supply chain functions
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