18d • Logistically Speaking
High-impact prompt set specifically designed for supply chain and logistics professionals
A. Last Year: Supply Chain Performance Retrospective (What results did we produce?)
These prompts extract measurable outcomes across cost, service, capacity, and resilience.
1) Service, reliability, and customer outcomes
- “Summarize last year’s service performance: OTIF, on-time delivery, order cycle time, and fill rate. What moved and why?”
- “Where did customers feel pain most often (late, short, damaged, incorrect, missing ASN/invoice)? Quantify frequency and impact.”
- “Which accounts or product lines consumed the most expediting, exceptions, and manual intervention? Why?”
- “Where did we over-deliver service relative to value (gold-plating)? What can be standardized this year?”
2) Cost performance and cost-to-serve
- “Break down our cost-to-serve shifts: transportation, warehousing, labor, packaging, accessorials, demurrage/detention. What were the drivers?”
- “Which lanes, modes, carriers, or customer delivery requirements drove the most cost overrun? Identify root causes.”
- “List our top 10 operational cost leaks last year (rework, expedites, claims, returns, idle time, premium freight). Which are structurally fixable?”
- “Where did we spend money to mask process problems (manual workarounds, urgent shipments, repeated corrections)?”
3) Inventory, working capital, and demand-shaping
- “How did inventory perform: turns, DOH, backorders, aged inventory, write-offs, and stockouts? What changed?”
- “What was the cost of uncertainty last year (buffer inventory, premium freight, overtime, lost sales)? Quantify where possible.”
- “Which SKUs consistently created stockouts or excess? What patterns exist (MOQ, lead time, forecast bias, substitution gaps)?”
- “Where could we have reduced inventory without hurting service if our planning or execution had been better?”
4) Capacity, throughput, and constraints
- “What constrained us most often: labor, dock space, carrier capacity, container availability, system limitations, supplier lead time, customs?”
- “Where did throughput break down: picking/packing, receiving, putaway, staging, appointment scheduling, labeling, documentation?”
- “What were the highest-frequency reasons for holds or delays (quality, compliance, documentation, missing data)?”
- “Where did small operational issues create big downstream delays? Identify the recurring chain reactions.”
B. Root Cause & Resilience Review (Why did issues repeat?)
These prompts help you identify systemic issues vs. one-time volatility.
5) Repeat failures & preventability
- “List the top 10 recurring exceptions from last year (late carrier arrivals, appointment no-shows, shortage, chargebacks, wrong docs). Rank by frequency and impact.”
- “For each recurring exception, what is the true root cause: process, system, people, data, vendor, upstream behavior?”
- “Which issues were truly unavoidable (force majeure) vs. preventable with better planning, governance, or process design?”
- “Where are we relying on heroics (a few people manually saving the day)? What would it take to remove that dependency?”
6) Network and risk posture
- “What were the biggest sources of volatility: demand swings, supplier delays, port congestion, weather, regulatory changes? Which are trending upward?”
- “Which parts of our network are fragile (single-source suppliers, single port, single carrier, single system)? What are risk-reduction options?”
- “What was the financial and service impact of disruptions last year? Where did resiliency investments pay off?”
- “Where do we need contingency playbooks: alternate routing, inventory rebalancing, mode shifts, expedited approvals?”
C. Supplier, Carrier & Partner Performance (Who helped or hurt execution?)
These prompts support vendor evaluation, governance, and contract improvements.
7) Supplier reliability & inbound performance
- “Rank suppliers by performance: on-time, in-full, quality, lead time stability. What corrective actions are needed by supplier tier?”
- “Which supplier behaviors drove internal cost: MOQ volatility, late ASNs, poor packaging, documentation errors, incomplete shipments?”
- “What suppliers should be developed, replaced, or dual-sourced this year—and what is the ROI of doing so?”
8) Carrier performance & transportation reliability
- “Rank carriers and 3PLs by on-time pickup/delivery, claims, communication, and billing accuracy.”
- “Which carrier issues caused the most operational disruption: appointment scheduling, no-shows, accessorial disputes, equipment shortages?”
- “Where did our internal behaviors create carrier failure (late tenders, missed appointments, poor packaging, wrong requirements)?”
- “Which contracts, rate structures, or SLAs need to change this year to protect service and cost?”
9) Customer compliance, chargebacks, and execution friction
- “Which customer requirements created disproportionate friction: labeling, packaging, appointments, ASN timing, routing guides, compliance programs?”
- “Where did we incur chargebacks, deductions, or disputes—and what percentage were preventable with better controls?”
- “Which customers should be renegotiated due to cost-to-serve mismatch?”
D. Systems, Data & Digital Performance (How did our tech stack help or hurt?)
These are designed for supply chain teams driving visibility, automation, and process standardization.
10) Visibility and data quality
- “Where did poor data cause operational failure: wrong master data, missing lead times, bad weights/dims, inconsistent order statuses?”
- “Which key events lacked visibility: in-transit status, container milestones, yard movements, customs clearance, POD?”
- “What were our highest-value data improvements last year (and which still aren’t trusted)?”
11) Automation, integration, and exception handling
- “Which processes are still manual that should not be (order entry, appointment booking, invoice matching, carrier tendering, document validation)?”
- “Where did integration failures (EDI/API errors, mapping issues, missing updates) impact service or costs? Quantify the impact.”
- “What are the top 5 exception types we should auto-detect and route (e.g., missing ASN, late tender, incomplete shipment, documentation mismatch)?”
- “What automation or workflow improvements produced measurable gains, and how can we scale them?”
E. Leadership, Execution & Governance (How did we run the business?)
These prompts directly improve operating rhythm, accountability, and execution predictability.
12) Execution and planning rigor
- “Which planning assumptions failed: forecast, lead time, supplier capacity, labor plans, seasonal patterns? What should be updated?”
- “Where did we suffer from unclear ownership: handoffs, escalation paths, approvals, exception resolution?”
- “What meetings created value vs. noise? Which decisions did we delay because governance was unclear?”
- “Where did we lose time due to misalignment between operations, planning, procurement, customer service, and IT?”
13) Team capability and performance
- “Where did our team’s skill gaps show up: compliance, analytics, systems usage, carrier negotiations, process design?”
- “Which key roles are overloaded (planners, schedulers, coordinators, analysts)? What must change to protect them?”
- “What operating behaviors do we need to reinforce this year: discipline, root cause ownership, standard work, escalation timing?”
F. This Year: Strategic Supply Chain Priorities (What will we optimize?)
These prompts define a clear strategy with measurable outcomes.
14) Year goals aligned to business priorities
- “Define the 3 supply chain outcomes that would most improve business performance this year (cost, service, working capital, resiliency).”
- “What is the single best ‘constraint removal’ project that will unlock throughput or service?”
- “What is the top cost-to-serve improvement initiative, and what must be true to realize it?”
- “What is our working capital improvement plan (inventory reductions, lead time improvements, supplier performance), and how will we measure it?”
15) Network, process, and capability priorities
- “If we redesigned our network for today’s demand and constraints, what 2–3 changes would create the biggest impact?”
- “Which operations should be standardized vs. customized, and what is the tradeoff?”
- “What processes should be redesigned end-to-end this year (order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, plan-to-fulfill, returns)?”
- “Which analytics and visibility capabilities should be built next: predictive ETAs, labor forecasting, inventory risk scoring, capacity planning?”
16) Risk and resilience planning
- “List the top risks to service and cost this year (supplier, carrier, weather, geopolitical, regulatory). For each: leading indicator, mitigation, contingency plan.”
- “Which single points of failure should be removed (supplier, system, carrier, port)? Prioritize by risk-weighted impact.”
- “What playbooks must exist and be trained: port disruption, carrier strike, product recall, customs delays, IT outage?”
G. Execution Plan: Turn Strategy into a 90-Day and Weekly Operating Rhythm
Use these prompts to turn reflection into practical execution.
17) 90-day plan
- “Based on the top priorities, build a 90-day plan with outcomes, owners, milestones, risks, and measurement.”
- “What are the top 5 leading indicators we should monitor weekly to prevent exceptions before they occur?”
- “What must be true by day 30 to ensure the year succeeds?”
18) Governance and cadence
- “Design a weekly supply chain operating cadence: meeting rhythm, escalation triggers, KPI review structure, and exception resolution rules.”
- “Define decision rights: who can approve expediting, inventory builds, mode shifts, supplier changes, service exceptions?”
- “What standards should we enforce across teams: naming conventions, process steps, documentation expectations, master data rules?”
H. “Too Many Initiatives” Prompts for Supply Chain Leaders
These are designed to prevent initiative overload and help you choose what matters.
- “List every improvement initiative we could run this year. Score each by ROI, effort, risk, time-to-value, and dependency complexity. Then choose only 3.”
- “If we were forced to reduce work by 30% tomorrow, what would we stop and what would we protect?”
- “What is the smallest version of each priority that still materially improves cost or service?”
- “Where are we building solutions that won’t be adopted operationally? What adoption conditions must exist first?”
- “Which initiatives fail if one key person leaves—and how do we remove that fragility?”
The fastest high-value exercise (Supply Chain Edition)
If you want a short but powerful review and plan:
Step 1 — Last Year (30–45 minutes)
Answer: 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 20, 35, 42
Step 2 — This Year (30–45 minutes)
Answer: 49, 50, 51, 57, 60, 63, 66
Step 3 — Ask ChatGPT to synthesize
Use this:
“Using my answers, create: (1) top 5 insights, (2) top 5 root causes, (3) top 5 opportunities, (4) a 90-day plan with owners and KPIs, and (5) a weekly operating cadence. Make it realistic, measurable, and designed to reduce operational firefighting.”
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High-impact prompt set specifically designed for supply chain and logistics professionals
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