Santa Supply Chain – An Example of Perfection

Santa. He is the man of the season. There are songs, stories, mythology, pictures, you name it about the guy. But what we’re interested in is the fact that he’s got a killer supply chain. Don’t believe me? The evidence is right in front of you:

Order prediction (Santa Claus is Coming to Town)
Exceptional shipment tracking (Here Comes Santa Claus)
Loyal, satisfied workforce (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)

Which is why we really want to look at Santa’s Supply Chain and make our own wish list of things we wish we had magic for.

Santa’s Supply Chain Magic

#1 – 100% accurate customer database. Everyone gets what they want and no junk mail or RTS.
#2 – Delivers 7 billion+ orders within 24 hours (technically 31 hours leveraging time zones). That’s free overnight delivery… on everything. And it’s always on time. He also uses air freight without the fuel costs, creating a big zero on the carbon footprint.
#3 – One currency for every country. Milk and cookies.

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#4 – No customer service issues. If a customer is rude, obnoxious or grumpy they get a rotten egg and a lump of coal, no ifs, ands, or buts.
#5 -Uses a single manufacturing facility that easily fulfills all orders
#6 – No labor costs… except for room and board.

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#7 – Though using an analog order processing system (letters and face-to-face), it never glitches or has errors and nothing gets lost.
#8 – Exactly matches supply to demand with no overages in inventory and no need for sales. It’s a perfect lean system.
#9 – And of course, Santa’s system has perfect track and trace for the delivery vehicle

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If only every supply chain system could meet this wishlist of perfection. In the meantime, MHI is your facilitator to finding supply chain solutions that solve for that x-factor that Santa has. See you in the new year, and good luck with all your deliveries, Santa.

 

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