Global Supply Chain Plan - Maximizing availability across geographies
It is important to determine the region that has the maximum users, most complexity and needs the system up for the most part of their day. Once that is determined, the whole cycle needs to be scheduled around that geography. In case of my client, the decision was easier with 70+ planners in the North America region, 10+ in EMEA and about 5 in the APAC region. Also, the NA region had more complex planning processes as it has 4 out of 5 manufacturing plants and also deploys goods to other geographies.
Next step is to determine the time by which all of the North America users are out of the system and any other system processes are over. We determined 8 pm Pacific Time as the time when we can make the plan unavailable for the users and launch the plan run cycle. The complete planning cycle (data collections, custom programs, plan run and reports) takes 6 hours which means it starts at 8 pm and completes at 2 am pacific time and the system is up and the plan with latest data is available. It is like 10 am in EMEA and they have the system available for most part of their day. For APAC region it is past their mid-day. They get the new plan for about last 3 hours in their day. As their planning processes are not so complex, it is just enough time for them.
It is very important to improve the whole cycle performance as much as possible. Every minute saved adds to the system availability for EMEA and APAC users. Steps taken to improve the performance is the topic for some other day.
Finally, change management was the most crucial part and needs to be handled well. We explained the whole approach to VP of Global Supply chain and got his buy in. He then communicated this to regional leaders. This way we had the consent of all the regions.
