How a Simple High School Equation Can Help Mitigate Supply Chain Disruption

This past week the Vinyl Institute hosted a webinar entitled Vinyl Supply Chain Solutions: Leveraging the links in your Supply Chain. This webinar featured supply chain expert, Major General Vinny Boles, who discussed actionable tips and information to help build a more resilient supply chain. Major General Boles served in the United States Army as a skilled logistician and had experience managing one of the largest and most complex supply chains. He believes that the current supply chain disruptions can be solved with a simple high school equation: momentum = mass x velocity.
 

The perception of the current supply chain disruption is being viewed as stock availability. According to Boles, stock availability is not the correct measurement for supply chain effectiveness. Supply chain effectiveness is when the product is in the hands of the people that need it, not the amount of stock one has of a specific product. The value chain is based on “How responsive is your system to give the people the readiness they need?” This is where the equation comes into play. To have a supply chain function smoothly, Boles believes momentum = mass x velocity must be understood and put into practice. 

• Momentum stands for at what rate does your customer need to get things done and accomplished?
• Mass stands for how much of a certain product do you need to meet the momentum of the consumer?  
• Velocity is how fast you can move the product around. It allows you the visibility to see where things are and how to move things around effectively so you can do what you need to get done.  

The first step in supply chain effectiveness is identifying the momentum at which the consumers need things accomplished. Momentum can be achieved through continuous process improvement or CPI. Boles raised the questions as to who is your “C” in your CPI. Your company’s “C” is the person who is doing continuous work to get feedback so that your company can continuously improve your process. By frequently checking in with your customers, you can better gauge what their needs and timing are. This will help you focus on what your momentum metric is. Boles says the main three questions to ask to help supply chain distribution are   

1. What are you working on? 
2. How is it going? 
3. How can I help? 

By asking these questions you will learn a lot as to what the pain points in the system are, but also what is going well and what you should put more time and energy into. The last question “How can I help” You may need to ask 3 or 4 times before getting an actionable response. These three questions need to be asked consistently. “Nothing opens your eyes like seeing things from somebody else’s perspective. I found that the biggest thing I did as a leader is I tried to take excuses away, and I tried to make sure folks knew how they fit in the bigger picture. It’s not about you, it’s about how you help others.” 

 

When looking at the equation, the one consistent variable is making sure you have the right metrics. To quote Boles “Then metrics matter, but the right metrics really matter.” For the supply chain to run effectively, the right metrics need to be identified at every stage of the equation not just for your part of the supply chain but the downstream and upstream members. If the resin producers understand the metrics of the formulators, manufacturers, and compounders they can better shift their mass and velocity to meet their needs and vice versa. Looking at the impact of your metric will bring more clarity to the value chain.  

 

In Boles’ closing remarks he emphasized the importance of finding the correct metrics to help focus on what the most important variables are. He states “If you do not invest in the velocity and visibility system to see where things are and move them around, then you are going to invest in more mass to maintain the momentum you want to maintain. If you want to invest in the visibility to move things around quickly then you do not need to invest in mass because you can move those things around. Know what your customer wants to do, know what you want to do, and then identify how much mass you need to assimilate what you need to accomplish. Where do I need to move it in order to make that happen? Momentum equals mass times velocity.”