After 5 excellent, but sleep deprived days (and nights) in Las Vegas attending the ASCM 2019 conference, my big take away is that we (and by we, I am referring to the broader Demand Driven community) have a unique challenge to overcome in order to win over the American market. The challenge is to convince a very sceptical over-sold-to market that just because DDMRP seems simple, it does not mean it won’t be a game changer. In fact, it is because it is so simple that it will be.
Since I started on my demand driven journey 3 years ago, it is now very common for our clients to report at conferences a “66% reduction in time to market”. And then just as George W Plossl 1st law of Supply Chain Management states, all the benefits start flowing. Inventory levels come tumbling down, service levels increase, expedites disappear and even top line turnovers increase. And in all cases, this is achieved with the same planners that for years have struggled to turn the company’s supply chain into a competitive weapon.
“Really?”, “How is that possible from something that does not use AI or Deep Analytics to improve the demand signal?”, “ Where are the ML techniques to optimize the parameters and replace the need for a human in the process?”, “But the math is not even that complex, my 6th grade daughter could do that” are just some of the comments that dominated our conversations at booth 208!
So I apologise for the fact that there is no Gartner magic quadrant for DDMRP applications yet, and I am sorry DDMRP is so simple and does not require an army of demand planners. But the facts are the facts, if you are prepared to change: DDMRP works, and it works extremely well! This concept has taken over France and Columbia and is rapidly accelerating across Mexico, the rest of Europe, Asia and down into Africa. On Monday I fly to Australia to start a major global DDMRP transformation project there.
In my opinion, DDMRP is coming to America, and it will be a game changer. All it needs are a few high-profile success stories and because it is so simple, is exactly why it will spread like wildfire across America.
Variability controlled!
I cannot wait for ASCM 2020 in New Orleans. My goal is to present one ‘All America DDMRP’ case study at this conference and hopefully one or two of my many new friends that I made in the last couple of days, will be on that stage right beside me!