InPhroNeSys
Where Supply Chain Meets Data Science.
Real-world methods for procurement, inventory, and operations professionals who want to go beyond Excel — with reproducible code, realistic datasets, and techniques you can apply today.
Newest Entries
-
The $50,000 Prompt: How McKinsey Frameworks Turn AI Into Your Best Supply Chain Consultant
Most supply chain managers ask AI vague questions and get vague answers. McKinsey consultants have spent 100 years perfecting structured thinking frameworks — and those same frameworks transform AI prompts from mediocre to boardroom-ready. Here…
-
Prompting Just Split Into 4 Different Skills — Here’s How to Master Each One
Prompt engineering is dead. In its place, four distinct disciplines have emerged — Prompt…
-
Stop the Madness: Why Your MRP Keeps Changing Its Mind (and How Time Fences Fix It)
Your MRP system reschedules 300 orders before lunch. Your shop floor ignores half of…
bottleneck-analysis bupaR career-development cost analysis data-analysis data-science data-visualization data management data quality data visualization DDMRP demand-driven efficiency ERP Excel Forecasting ggplot2 inventory-management inventory management lead-time lean LLM machine-learning manufacturing master data MRP open-source operations-management process-map process-mining procurement prompt engineering pull-system Python R R programming sales analysis seasonal plots Shiny supply-chain supply chain analytics throughput-time time-series visualization waffle charts
-
The $50,000 Prompt: How McKinsey Frameworks Turn AI Into Your Best Supply Chain Consultant
Most supply chain managers ask AI vague questions and get vague answers. McKinsey consultants have spent 100 years perfecting structured thinking frameworks — and those same frameworks transform AI prompts from mediocre to boardroom-ready. Here are 6 frameworks, 12 before/after examples, and the data to prove it.
-
Prompting Just Split Into 4 Different Skills — Here’s How to Master Each One
Prompt engineering is dead. In its place, four distinct disciplines have emerged — Prompt Craft, Context Engineering, Intent Engineering, and Specification Engineering. This post breaks down the framework, shows where Klarna’s $40M AI bet went wrong, and gives you a concrete path to mastery.
-
Stop the Madness: Why Your MRP Keeps Changing Its Mind (and How Time Fences Fix It)
Your MRP system reschedules 300 orders before lunch. Your shop floor ignores half of them. Your suppliers stopped trusting your forecasts two quarters ago. Time fences are the fix — and the math shows exactly where to set them.
-
The $2,700 Post-It Note: How a 1913 Formula Still Beats Your ERP
A procurement manager discovers she’s been wasting $2,700 per year on a single component — and the fix fits on a Post-it note. We use R to show why a 1913 formula still outperforms gut-feel ordering, when it breaks, and what to do about it.
-
Quantity Discount Analysis: The Hidden Trap in Supplier Pricing That Most Buyers Miss
A supplier offers lower prices for larger orders — sounds great, right? Quantity Discount Analysis reveals that many discount schedules actually charge you more per incremental unit as volumes rise. Learn to spot this hidden trap with R.
-
The Bullwhip Effect: Why a 10% Demand Blip Becomes a 400% Supply Chain Earthquake
A small wobble in customer demand can snowball into chaos upstream. We quantify the bullwhip effect with R, simulate a 4-tier supply chain, and show why cutting lead time is the single most powerful lever you have.
-
Time Series Analysis for Supply Chain Management: Reading the Rhythm of Demand
Your demand data is trying to tell you something. We use STL decomposition, seasonal diagnostics, and ETS/ARIMA models to extract trend, seasonality, and noise from ice cream sales data — then honestly discuss where these methods break down.
-
How Dynamic Buffer Management Works in DDMRP
DDMRP replaces static safety stock with dynamic, color-coded buffers that expand and contract with actual demand. This post explains the math, the logic, and the R code behind buffer sizing, net flow position, and demand-driven replenishment.
-
Don’t Push Your Suppliers — Pull Them!
How implementing Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP) transformed supplier lead times, reduced on-hand inventory, and brought lean pull principles to life in our supply chain.