How do you face uncertainty in your supply chain? According to Mike Hegedus, vice president of supply chain management at Trinity Rail, one of the most difficult things a supply chain manager faces is uncertainty in the supply chain. In their business, there are so many different possibilities of train cars that can be built. And among those different car types, they're customized in many ways for each customer – making it nearly impossible to forecast what the customer's going to require. Realizing that "the forecast is always wrong," Trinity Rail opts instead to focus on creating a "sense-and-respond" supply chain, to deal with real-world developments in demand for transportation equipment. In this video, Mike Hegedus explains how their ability to quickly satisfy those customer demands has improved since moving to a sense-and-respond operating model: “we get our executives from sales, operations, finance, and supply chain together on a weekly basis. And we review the demand situation to make decisions; very important decisions about how to handle these orders.” Having supply planning technology in place to have a flexible supply chain is an important component to make it possible to deliver on their business strategy.
Watch now: Trinity Rail - Building a Sense-and-Respond Supply Chain
If you’re interested in learning how other supply chain leaders are adapting to face different challenges, we’ve created a video series. Hear supply chain leaders from Merck, Trinity Rail, Schneider Electric, Amgen, and Anritsu share their insights on top supply chain management priorities and initiatives.
Check out the other videos in this supply chain interview series:
Video: How Roland DG Corp. Is Building a Customer-Centric Company
Video: Anritsu Forges a Proactive Supply Chain
Video: Merck's End-to-End Supply Chain Vision
Video: What's Driving Change in Supply-Chain Planning?
Video: Amgen Transforms Its Supply-Chain Planning
Video: Schneider Electric Charts an End-to-End Supply Chain Roadmap
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos in this supply chain leadership interview series:
Video: First Solar - Challenging the Norm in Supply-Chain Management
Additional Resources
- Supply chain management frequently asked questions
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