A NOTE FROM RIGHTCHAIN'S CEO
I am often asked why I founded the Supply Chain and Logistics programs at Georgia Tech, authored the Supply Chain Management Library with McGraw-Hill, and launched RightChain™. The reason is the same for all three - I observed from our interaction with supply chain executives, and from our research, that only a minority of supply chain initiatives, and supply chains themselves, are successful. I also noticed that if benefits were achieved during an initial project push, they were rarely sustained. As I researched deeper, the primary cause for the lack of success was and is the growing gap between supply chain complexity and supply chain capability.
Supply chain complexity is proliferating, and supply chain capability is lagging behind. The greater the gap, the greater the excess supply chain costs, poorly utilized infrastructure, under performing inventory, habitual delays, frequent errors, high lost sales, and declining competitiveness. As our client and research work continued, we were eventually able to map and quantify the components of the complexity, and to develop a greatly enhanced supply chain capability model and arsenal of supply chain transformation and optimization enablers.
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1. Lagging Supply Chain Execution Systems vs Supply Chain Artificial Intelligence in the Cloud. The marketplace for ERP-based and best-of-breed supply chain execution systems (SCES), including transportation management systems (TMS), warehouse management systems (WMS), and inventory management systems (IMS) – as well as for 3PLs and 4PLs - has grown significantly. However, the supply chains they operate have not improved accordingly. The capability and usability of the software and services is simply not keeping up with the complexity of modern-day supply chain scenarios. In contrast, RightChain™ has synthesized, codified, and integrated the world’s most powerful supply chain optimization algorithms, the world’s most successful supply chain methodology, and the world’s most extensive supply chain knowledgebase into a supply chain artificial intelligence platform - RightChain.ai. RightChain.ai is a software-as-a-service offering employed autonomously via API connectivity to existing ERP, SCP, TMS, and/or WMS and/or semi-autonomously via GUI interface and data uploads.
2. Disintegrated, Sub-Optimized Supply Chains vs Integrated, Self Optimizing Supply Chains. Most supply chains are still disconnected from and misaligned with the businesses they serve. They are also dis-integrated and sub-optimized within themselves; with inventory, production, sourcing, transportation, and warehousing all beating to different drums. The cost of those disconnections, misalignments, and sub-optimizations is on the order of 1% to 4% of sales. RightChain.ai and its underlying RightChain™ Methodology co-optimize the supply chain’s contribution to enterprise financial, service, operational, and competitive performance; while also integrating the strategies and tactics in inventory, production, sourcing, transportation, and warehousing.
3. Out-Dated Supply Chain Education and Methodology vs Advanced, Contemporary Supply Chain Methodology and Education. The large majority of supply chain decision makers operate without guiding supply chain methodologies, and they have no formal education in supply chain management. Those that do, typically have outdated supply chain education. Most curriculums lack the understanding of supply chain’s elevated role in enterprise performance, new dynamics related to omni-channel operations, and complex analytics inherent to the interdependencies in modern supply chain management. In stark contrast, the RightChain™ Institute, and its RightChain™ Curriculum, have been continuously updated for more than 30 years; covering the latest advances in marketplace dynamics, analytics, financials, interdependencies; and taught by authentic supply chain thought leaders.
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RightChain’s unprecedented supply chain transformation and optimization program, combines breakthrough, CloudAI decision technology; successful, industry-proven methodology; and elite professional services to yield higher gross margins, increased return-on-invested-capital, and enhanced marketplace competitiveness. The supply chains at BP, Carrier, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Disney, General Mills, Home Depot, Honda, Kraft Heinz, P&G, Pratt & Whitney, among many others, have all taken advantage of our offering, and leverage that success as a part of their enterprise excellence and competitiveness. We would welcome an invitation to explore your supply chain transformation and continuous optimization opportunities. Thank you for considering our offering.
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Edward H. Frazelle, Ph.D.
Founder, President, and CEO
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