How a supply chain is actually steered
Six principles. A twelve step planning process, from the supply model through S&OP, MPS, MRP and capacity planning to the shop floor. And the operating model around it: systems, policies, roles, measurement and proof. Select anything to open its definition, a worked example and a question to test yourself against.
Layer 1 · Principles
Layer 2 · The planning process
Layer 3 · The operating model
Twenty steps, in dependency order
This is not the order the process runs in. It is the order the model is easiest to learn in: start with the outcome, then what controls it, then what has to be true first, then the machinery.
Move the input, watch the system answer
Each model is illustrative and deliberately simple. The point is the direction and the shape of the response, not a forecast of your own numbers.
Show the numbers
The working vocabulary
The working vocabulary of planning and control, as practitioners use it. Where a term is contested, the entry says which reading is used here and why it matters.
What each KPI measures, and how it is counted
These are diagnostic instruments. Each entry gives the definition, how it is counted, and the thing that most often makes the number lie. Read the set as a stack: master data feeds plan performance, plan performance feeds execution, and execution feeds customer service.
It rarely fails through missing documents
It fails through design decisions nobody was asked to make, or made once and never revisited. Each pattern breaks one of the six principles, which is what lets you diagnose it rather than just regret it.