7/27/2019 Reflexive Supply Chain

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Reflexive Supply chain-The Zenith of Agility

In an age where the market demand is highly dynamic the challenge for the companies is to respond

with innovative supply chain management. Reflexive supply chain is the answer to counter the

volatile markets. Traditional supply chains were first reactive which depended on forecasts and then

the evolution led to responsive supply chain where the dependence was no more on forecasting but

on actual market scenario. Reflexive supply chain is the highest order of evolution is the supply chain

history till date. Reflexive supply chain is modelled after the central nervous system of the human

body where human brain is the centre of all action and is responsible for all activities but in cases of

reflex action the information is not conveyed all the way to the brain but to the nearest node

present in the spinal cord thereby saving time and enabling a quick response .Similarly in reflexive

supply chains the variations in demand has to be taken care by the nearest node and not the main

distribution centre . In situations in which the demand is very fickle and highly variable it is

imperative that companies be ready for any kind of situation. The nearest node has to react at super

fast speed and the other places should get normal supplies. This presents a tremendous opportunity

for every company and which ever company reacts fastest ends up raking in major profits. All these

decisions are based on heuristics and doesnt involve and human intervention.

Reflexive supply chain works in the replenishment model where there is less use of forecast which

is used only for monitoring and not for stock supply replenishment. In replenishment principle the

action starts only when the consumer at the end of the line actually consumes the product . In

replenishment model capturing data from the retailers is the challenge .In india 30 days of

smoothening works best at distribution level and hence based in these data the figure needs to be

refreshed everyday. Everyday the buffer needs to be changed and if not done company loses out on

agility. All this is taken care by heuristics except for exceptional cases.

Three pillars of reflexive supply chain:

DRUM: What decides how supply chain works-in this case consumer demand.

Buffer: Shock Absorbers, stock nodes , dynamic- 3 lakh buffers

Rope:rope length of rm , finished good s wip should be looked cumulatively

Expedition: Zero pwh

Execution : Works like a clock work

Summing up : CNS vs reflex action , consumption based instead of forecase,line imbalancing , buffer

resizing