It’s All about FLOW in Your Supply Chain

As I write this, the 4th of July weekend is approaching. There will be lots of folks hitting the road to go various places. Most of them will be taking freeways, the Interstate system, and major highways wherever possible on their journey.

Why is that?

It's all about FLOW!

Where we are intent on getting to our destination, what is relevant to us is one KPI (key performance indicator): the number of miles we can cover in the shortest amount of time.

We avoid things that disrupt the FLOW!

We avoid stoplights like the plague. THROUGHPUT is what matters to us. How many miles pass beneath the wheels of our vehicle in pursuit of our goal (read: destination).

Even our mileage improves!

We know that, even though we are not paying that much attention to our efficiencies (that is, miles-per-gallon), we have this knowledge that when FLOW is increased (that is, average miles-per-hour) and when blockages to FLOW are decreased (that is, stop signals and the like), our net efficiency is dramatically improved.

Almost without our thinking about it, as we focus on FLOW and avoid disruptions to FLOW, our efficiencies are improved.

The same is true in your supply chain!

By the way, precisely the same thing is true in your supply chain.

If you will focus on FLOW, two things tend to happen auto-magically:

1. More of your GOAL is achieved (you will make more money, cash flows improve, customers are happier)
   and
2. Your EFFICIENCIES improve (when properly measured in terms of system Throughput/Operating Expenses)