Social media awash with pictures of supply chain professionals attending the Lady Gaga event at SAP’s Sapphire, celebrating with drinks at the Gartner event, or rocking to the ZZ Top performance at JDA’s Icon conference trumpeted excitement. Meanwhile, in my travels, supply chain discussions are moving to main street. CNN political pundit panels debate supply chain while the impacts proliferate in our personal lives. Shortening Supply Chains. MORE

What is supply chain optimization? Supply chain optimization is a key component of the manufacturing supply chain process, helping companies control their input costs to be able to provide effective goods or services to their customers. It goes beyond just maximizing the overall supply chain performance in terms of material delivery excellence. What does supply chain optimization involve? Transportation planning. MORE

Our look at the Top 25 (plus 4) Supply Chains of 2018 examines how the best companies in the world excel at managing their global supply chains. One of the most popular articles we’ve ever done is our look at analyst group Gartner’s annual ranking of the Top 25 Supply Chains. billion over the next five years to overhaul its supply chain. Department of Transportation to ban the product from air transportation. MORE

Most of the Integrated Supply Chain Planning Projects Generate Rubbish. At each location, the team wrung their hands as they told me their stories of “ Integrated Supply Chain Planning.” I can count the number of companies that are good at supply chain planning on one hand. Each are good at localized planning within a focused area of demand, supply, network design, transportation planning, material sourcing or finite scheduling. MORE

Interested in understanding how supply chain transparency could benefit your business? Since the 1990s, China has supplied the lion’s share of the world’s demand for REEs. Nevertheless, over the last few decades the world largely relied on Chinese REE supply. A move that led to international concerns around supply security and the political motivation behind China’s export restrictions. Illegal mining and opaque value chains. MORE

What is Supply Chain Optimization? Supply chain optimization is a key component of the manufacturing supply chain process, helping companies control their input costs to be able to provide effective goods or services to their customers. It goes beyond just maximizing the overall supply chain performance in terms of material delivery excellence. What does supply chain optimization involve? Transportation planning. MORE

Technology can have a significant impact on supply chains, but supply chain digitization still lags behind digitization of other areas of business across many industries. According to research from McKinsey & Company , the supply chain dimension has the lowest level of digitization (43%) compared to other dimensions, including products and services, marketing and distribution channels, business processes, and new entrants at the ecosystem level. MORE

Functional silos define today’s supply chain organization. I did not understand warehousing and transportation until reassignment to a logistics role in 1985. I cut my teeth on early forms of supply chain planning. Like me, the traditio nal supply chain leader, grew-up believing in functional excellence and inside-out processes. This is also true of many of the organizations within supply chain. Supply Chain 2030. MORE

Human rights abuses are not rare exceptions – they are endemic, fueled by rising inequalities and the ready supply of vulnerable migrant labour, throughout society, business and supply chains, both in the developed and the developing world,” says Rosey Hurst, founder and CEO of Impactt, a UK-based ethical trade consultancy. In addition, the latest EcoVadis Barometer indicates increased awareness of human rights issues among procurement executives at large multinationals. MORE

Luckily, the current movers and shakers of the logistics and supply chain world are all too happy to dole out sage advice in the form of blog posts, interviews, podcasts — you name it. The tips below cover everything from unified supply chains to automated collaboration integration and beyond. Click on a category below to jump to the section that fits your interests best: Planning tips to unify supply chains. Planning tips to unify supply chains. MORE

I will also pen my 95th report for this week’s Supply Chain Insight’s newsletter. We now reach 23,000 supply chain leaders globally with our newsletter and have over 50,000 views/month on Slideshare. Frustrated that my upcoming Supply Chain Insights Global Summit was in Phoenix, he asked if I ever came to Europe. We reviewed the orbit charts and progress of the recent Supply Chains to Admire Analysis for 2016. Supply Chain 2030. MORE

The VP of Supply Chain and Logistics at our house (aka my wife) has been out of the country this week. So, while I count the days and hours and minutes until she gets back, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week: American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) Activates For Latest Major Hurricane Of 2018. Apple Tells Congress That Global Supply Chain Wasn’t Compromised (Bloomberg). MORE

The hard-hitting new report from the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC) is titled, “ Logistics 2030: Navigating a Disruptive Decade, Year 1 – Freight Transportation ” and it is full of powerful conclusions about what shippers are facing in the coming decade as the pace of technological advancement and change continues to accelerate. A whopping 87% of respondents believe next-gen tech will have transformative effect on transportation operations. MORE

In 2006, lithium-ion batteries consumed only 20% of the global cobalt supply. As a finite but clearly valuable resource locked mostly in countries with difficult-to-track labor standards, cobalt’s supply chain has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent months, and companies are rushing to get their share. million metric tons (or 60% of the world’s supply). Cobalt demand will exceed supply by 42% in 2025 and 170% in 2030. MORE

Rated by the coverage and magnitude of impact, hereunder are four initiatives that are considered as major milestones of Hong Kong’s sustainability effort : Climate Action Plan 2030+, ESG Reporting as a Listing Rule under Stock Exchange Hong Kong (SEHK), Green Procurement Initiative by the Hong Kong Government, and. Climate Action Plan 2030+. Green Procurement Initiative by the Hong Kong Government. MORE

The Supply Chain Insights Global Summit is over, but we hope the energy to define Supply Chain 2030 is just beginning. Today only 12% of supply chain teams are driving improvement, performing better than their competitors and driving value (as determined by Price to Tangible Book Value). As companies prepare for Supply Chain 2030, we think that it is time to rethink the basics. 2030 is 14 years in the future. MORE

In 2006, lithium-ion batteries consumed only 20% of the global cobalt supply. As a finite but clearly valuable resource locked mostly in countries with difficult-to-track labor standards, cobalt’s supply chain has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent months, and companies are rushing to get their share. million metric tons (or 60% of the world’s supply). Cobalt demand will exceed supply by 42% in 2025 and 170% in 2030. MORE