Operations and supply chain managers coming back from vacation

What did it feel like the last time you came back from vacation?

❓Who can relate to the feeling of the meme from after their last vacation?
Did this happen to you when you just started a new Operations / Supply Chain job?

Whenever I get a glimpse into the operations of another company, I try to set my expectations on the meme level. This way I don’t get too disappointed at least.

Only because I experienced this several times, I got the idea that “firefighting” operations issues as a consultant could be a possibility to work as a freelancer.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 “𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴” in terms of narrowing down, reducing, extinguishing and preventing “operations fires” in these 2 settings:

𝟭) 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲” 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 🔥:

👨🏻‍🚒 Be a quick and effective firefighter and 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 by
- Analyzing the root causes to identify the fire sources
- Defining and prioritizing the most effective extinguishing actions
- Supporting your team to reduce the fires quickly by managing projects; and with “ground support” if necessary
- Finding, testing and implementing more resilient systems with limited complexity based on my operations optimization approach 🛠️

(Usually, it’s not possible to fight all fires at the same time, so it’s important to address the riskiest ones first and with the most resources).

𝟮) 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 “𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲” 🧱 (e.g. before starting omnichannel sales):

🏛️ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 a reliable and efficient operations setup from the start, because it’s also much more comfortable for most companies and especially their operations employees


⚠️𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽, 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸:

• Getting surprised by unexpectedly low or high order volumes
• Not knowing with how much revenue and margin you should be able to plan with during the next months
• Running out-of-stock or out of shelf-life with different products and not understanding where the error is
• Paying penalty fees; or worse: losing retail customers; for delayed or missing deliveries
• Not finding or entering wrong product data in retailer’s article passes
• Needing large customer support efforts to find good solutions for problems, e.g. accidental webshop overselling
• Having to explain delayed deliveries to your B2C customers because your systems or fulfillment partners weren’t performing well enough

And if you have these signs, but don’t want to talk to me (yet), you should at least talk with your operations team to create a plan how to get the “fires” under control and secure the required resources without burning out your colleagues.

📚 Maybe the free to download “operations playbook for food start-ups” on my “Build” website can inspire you to do the right things.