Positioning the right products at the right time and in the right place in a multi-level logistics network demands in-depth understanding of customer behavior at a local level and decision-support tools that can identify the needs.

The principle of the DRP (distribution requirement planning) process consists in collecting sales forecasts and deducing the supply needs of the warehouses on every level of the network in order to match these forecasts. DRP takes all the constraints applying to the supply chain into consideration (supply leadtimes, size of each logistics batch, stocks, etc.).

Argon Consulting helps its customers in:

• the identification of the challenges related to existing malfunctions and the estimate of the cost of overhauling the organizations and tools (business case),
• the overhaul of processes in line with best practices and the specifics of the company (products, customers) and in a manner that is coherent with its supply chain model,
• the clarification of the target organization in terms of skills and size, organization (central vs. local, by product line / factory or by market) and roles and responsibilities,
• the incorporation of the distribution plan in all the processes (demand planning, S&OP, MPS, etc.) that is coherent with the company’s supply chain model,
• the definition of the optimal stock parameters (security, anticipatory or revolving stock), while attempting to differentiate the management methods according to the product family, types of customer and period (dynamic management),
• the development of rules to optimize the transport constraints and costs,
• the implementation of alerts, KPIs and scorecards,
• the selection and implementation of tools to calculate resupply requirements and optimize deployment (authoring of the specifications, management of calls for tender, deployment strategy, implementation assistance, project management and risk management, etc.),
• deploying a plan for improvement (training, fine-tuning of models, etc.) and change management (changes in culture, behavior, skills and communication).