MUNICH, GERMANY--(Marketwired - May 13, 2014) - The book "LEAN Supply Chain Planning -- The New Supply Chain Management Paradigm for Process Industries to Master Today's VUCA World" introduces a new and innovative approach to managing variability, uncertainty, and complexity in today's planning processes and systems. Presenting a cutting-edge supply chain management concept that addresses current problems in the process industry's supply chains, it introduces powerful methods developed by leading research institutes, process industry champions, and supply chain experts. It explains how companies can adapt their current supply chain practices to achieve higher cost efficiency while maintaining agility and resilience to withstand today's turbulent business environment.

"Many global supply chains in process industries are neither equipped nor orchestrated to cope effectively with the challenges of the new VUCA world we are facing. The VUCA world describes the conditions of increasing variability and uncertainty of demand, and the complexity and ambiguity of product portfolios and supply chain networks," states Dr. Josef Packowski, CEO at the CAMELOT Consulting Group, who worked jointly with leading research institutes and key global industry players like Novartis, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and PCI/ BASF, to come up with "LEAN Supply Chain Planning - The New Supply Chain Management Planning Paradigm to Master Today's VUCA World."

To effectively align planning processes in process industries with the requirements of the VUCA world, three planning and management concepts are particularly emphasized which also form the key elements of LEAN Supply Chain Planning:

• Cyclic planning with "Rhythm Wheels:" To reduce inventory and increase the utilization of capital-intensive manufacturing assets, an increasing number of companies rely on "Rhythm Wheels." These planning models make it possible to efficiently plan a variety of products at a plant or production asset -- based on a pull-logic according to existing stocks and customer orders -- while at the same time smoothing capacity load to avoid costly production peaks.
  
  
• End-to-end Synchronization along the supply chain: Value chains in the process industries comprise several production stages and are often spread over several plants around the world. But the reliability of supply is the highest principle. To ensure reliable supply of products, LEAN Supply Chain Planning introduces a "global takt" for synchronization along the global supply chain. This guaranties stable supply of products whenever and wherever they are needed which is crucial for lifesaving pharmaceutical products.
  
  
• Effective variability management: High inventories and poor asset utilization are only few of the results due to insufficient variability management. With the new two-sided approach demand variability is actively managed on manufacturing capacities and in inventory. Furthermore, it leads to significant reductions in working capital through actionable supply chain analytics on variability and risk allocation of stocks across the end-to-end supply network.
  
  

Many planning concepts don't consider organizational structures, processes and people within. The LEAN Supply Chain Planning paradigm, however, offers a holistic guide and overcomes these shortcomings with a unique LEAN SCM transformation program: First, it provides guidelines for transformation to get the necessary management buy-in and leadership commitment to avoid one time exercises with less benefit. Second, it shows how to tailor performance management to LEAN Supply Chain Planning to effectively manage volatility and establish a synchronized and consumption-driven supply chain. Third, it is shown how to leverage past IT investments and make planning systems fully supportive of LEAN Supply Chain Planning.

To make it even more practical and valuable for your own reflection, the book LEAN Supply Chain Planning enriches all topics with relevant industry cases. You can order a copy of "LEAN Supply Chain Planning: The New Supply Chain Management Paradigm for Process Industries to Master Today's VUCA World" at: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781482205336. For further information about the book and the concept, we recommend to visit our homepage regarding LEAN Supply Chain Planning: www.leansupplychainplanning.com. If you want to obtain current information about the CAMELOT Managements Consultants AG, please subscribe to our free Newsletter at
http://www.camelot-mc.com/en-t/contact/newsletter-registration/.

CAMELOT Management Consultants is a Strategy and Organizational Consultancy within the international CAMELOT Group. The company is one of the world's leading management consultancies for the optimization of value-adding and supply chains with a focus on the Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Goods sectors. The CAMELOT Group employs more than 1400 consultants worldwide, including around 200 in Germany and Switzerland. Through an integrated consulting approach and close cooperation with numerous renowned technology specialists, CAMELOT Management Consultants guarantees project success across all consulting phases: from strategic decision-making all the way to organizational and technological implementation.