ChainSequence
Simplifying Supply Chain and S&OP

William Mrzlak, with over 25 years of experience in the supply chain technology arena, observes that while there are many larger, more generalist consulting companies in the marketplace, it’s been his experience that specialty consultants have greater impact on business transformations. Mrzlak co-founded ChainSequence, which solely concentrates on Supply Chain and Sales and Operations (S&OP) Planning, based on this understanding. Mrzlak says these disciplines, while not rocket science, per se, are incredibly complex with many moving parts, especially for larger or global organizations. Whether the problem is forecast inaccuracy, poor supply visibility throughout the entire Supply Chain network, low on-time delivery, or poor responsiveness, enterprises that persistently suffer from these issues will end up rather the worse for wear. Launched in 2009, ChainSequence leaders already possessed over 15 years of expertise in supply chain planning, diagnosing and solving a vast array of client challenges with best-practice solutions to guide them forward.

Explaining the philosophy behind the firm’s central focus on Supply Chain and S&OP Planning, Mrzlak, the President of the company says, “We believe in concentrating in one crucial area, and doing it better than anyone else.” The strength of this unique methodology emanates from the company’s pragmatic, educational approach to help customers 1) address issues in their supply chain; 2) re-engineer processes that will boost supply chain functionality and profitability; 3) strengthen Supply Chain’s relationship with S&OP. ChainSequence also guides client teams in selecting technology solutions that yield maximum improvement in the shortest time, although Mrzlak cautions that selecting absolution is only half the battle. Once a solution has been determined, Mrzlak’s emphasizes maintaining the integrity of the new process definition though constructive deployment is key. Addressing this successfully lays a strong foundation for agility and better planning in the future.

The company has a sterling reputation for on-site guidance and well-defined solutions that provide clear instructions, outline required data inputs and outputs, and use achievable milestones to meet goals.

ChainSequence injects a vital principle of simplification into its client’s enterprise processes, ensuring the integration of an end-to-end, best-practice solution that–– apart from streamlining supply chain processes—also provides meaningful insights toward improving workflow.

We believe in concentrating in one crucial area and doing it better than anyone else

In many cases, unnecessary touchpoints and bottlenecks in legacy business processes are also effectively identified and removed, improving operations and sales channels that, in turn, increase their customer satisfaction rates, from initial customer interaction through on-time delivery.

Mrzlak recalls a client once compared ChainSequence leaders to ‘plumbers,’ meaning they have the rare ability to both engage strategically with senior client leadership to architect solutions, and then “lay the pipes” to deploy solutions alongside client teams at an operational level.

Numerous clients have benefited from ChainSequence’s exceptional services. One such client was an international supplier of semiconductors that decided to expand beyond their internal business to the external market. During this large endeavor, ChainSequence completely re-engineered the client’s entire supply chain––from demand planning to order fulfillment with a proactive end-to-end planning model that maximized worldwide resources, balanced automation and human intervention, reduced previously elongated administrative cycle times, and increased customer responsiveness.

ChainSequence’s core services include in-house education/workshop programs within-site assessments for organizations that require provable business cases before embarking on an improvement initiative. Moreover, ChainSequence also provides staff training in Supply Chain planning and S&OP. In the months to come, Mrzlak says, “ChainSequence will continue to pursue opportunities to develop significantly nimbler business processes, and research new technologies that can better respond to fluctuating market drivers and more accurately align complex supply chains with customer demand.”