INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
Change is inevitable. Change also makes planners lives, at best, complicated and, at worst, miserable. Plans are static and remain applicable only if the status quo doesn’t change — but change is unrelenting. Dwight D. Eisenhower once observed, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Jason M. Girzadas ( @jgirzadas ), a Managing Principal at Deloitte, seems to agree with Eisenhower. MORE
Thirty years ago few people would have predicted a growing number of consumers would complete much of their shopping using a mobile phone. It was only 29 years ago Tim Berners-Lee invented hyperlinks which gave rise to web browsing and eventually led to e-commerce. MORE
The modern supply chain is mind-boggling. Multinational enterprises deal with a dizzying array of paperwork involving procurement deals, purchase orders, shipping data, etc. Much of that “paperwork” is now done electronically, which is why consultants are increasingly touting the benefits of the digital supply chain. Trevor Miles ( @milesahead ), Vice President of Thought Leadership at Kinaxis, reminds us, however, “Digitization is not the same as digital transformation.”[1] MORE
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has been around for three decades. In human terms, the process should be entering its golden, middle years of life. Many pundits, however, believe the S&OP process, as originally conceived, needs to change. What’s going on? MORE
Organizations are often counseled to prepare for the unexpected. Even better advice is to prepare for the expected. Hurricanes fall into the expected category. There is a reason meteorologists define a hurricane “season” — roughly from June through November. Seasons are annual events. They may be mild or severe, but they will take place. MORE
Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly an overhyped buzzword. Michael Watson, an instructor at Northwestern University and a founding partner at Opex Analytics, explains, “‘AI’ is a tech buzzword that seems to take on a new meaning each time you hear it. This causes confusion for many business leaders who struggle to put it into perspective for their specific needs.”[1] MORE
Humans yearn for a glimpse of the future. This yearning is why people visit oracles, study the stars, consult shamans, get their palms read, stare into crystal balls, turn over tarot cards, and/or study the writings of seers like Nostradamus. Business leaders are not immune to this compulsion; but, their methods for divining the future are different. For decades, companies have gathered smart people together to perform what-if analysis, identify trends, and produce forecasts. MORE
The relentless press of technology into our lives remains unabated. Critics constantly debate whether advancements are good or bad for humanity. Futurist Jason Silva ( @JasonSilva ) once stated, “Technology is, of course, a double edged sword. Fire can cook our food but also burn us.” ” People need to remember technology’s duality trait as they create or advance new ones. MORE
Long before there was anything labeled the digital path to purchase, legendary retailer Sam Walton stated, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Whether a customer is shopping on-line or in a traditional brick-and-mortar store, he or she are never far from a device that can search prices, locate reviews, and/or obtain all sorts of other information about products and services. MORE
The word “potential” is often viewed as a positive characteristic. The dictionary defines potential this way: “having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.” ” What often goes unspoken is the fact that something having potential means there may not be much to crow about at the present. Potential refers to a future state rather than the present state. MORE
The digital age is quickly becoming the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Because so much data is being generated, only AI systems can analyze all that data in a timely fashion and businesses are beginning to reap rewards from the insights they are gleaning. Pundits have both lauded and decried AI’s pervasiveness. Just how pervasive AI has become in the business world is a matter of conjecture. MORE
We live in the digital age. The world is connected as never before. And data is being generated at an unprecedented rate. Many people, like entrepreneur Richard Branson ( @richardbranson ), see this as an age of opportunity. He has stated, “In this digital age, it doesn’t really matter if you are in Canary Wharf or the Caribbean; there are opportunities waiting to be grasped by entrepreneurs.”[1] ”[1] Branson is celebrating the benefits of connectivity in the digital age. MORE
Every supply chain professional understands inventory is a necessary evil. Carry too little inventory and you can miss out on sales and anger customers. Carry too much inventory and you increase handling costs and cut into profits. Like Goldilocks, supply chain professionals are looking for the “just right” solution to their dilemma. If the solution was easy, there wouldn’t be so many people continuing to write about supply chain optimization. MORE
Depending on the sports you follow, the long game could mean different things. Lisabeth Saunders Medlock ( @LisabethMedlock ), clinical psychologist, explains, “It means throwing the football down the field, AKA the passing game, or driving the golf ball toward the green.”[1] ”[1] In the business world, however, the long game has a different meaning. MORE
Today, much of the United States will experience a total solar eclipse. That hasn’t happened for nearly 100 years. Because … Continued. The post Solar Eclipses and Supply Chain Risk Management appeared first on Enterra Solutions. Business Risk Management Supply Chain Enterra Solutions Stephen DeAngelis MORE
Anyone who has served in the armed forces knows the military loves its acronyms. For years the military has used the acronym VUCA to describe what, in wartime, is often referred to as the fog of war. VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. MORE
The customer is king — and the king expects to be treated royally. Kelly McKesten and Stéphanie Thomson, respectively a producer and an editor with Think with Google , report the phrase “the customer is king” can be traced back to the 1930s in book written by William Harold Hutt entitled Economists and the Public: A Study of Competition and Opinion. They assert the phrase has never been more relevant. MORE
The late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., once stated, “Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.” ” With that caveat in mind, I think I can assert every organization wants to optimize its supply chain. I simply can’t imagine a CEO going to his or her board of directors and telling them their goal is to implement a sub-optimized supply chain. MORE
Retail Shrinkage is a serious retail challenge, especially when its causes can’t be accurately determined. Somewhere between 1.5% and 2.5% of revenue can be lost depending on the channel. For the last few years, inventory shrinkage has annually cost U.S. retailers just under $50 billion combined. Worldwide losses are believed to be north of $100 billion. That’s a big bite out of potential profits. MORE
Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the 6th century BC, wrote, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” ” It’s a lesson succeeding generations have had to learn. Four decades ago, Rich Weissman, CEO of Rich Weissman & Associates and an experienced supply chain management practitioner, was just beginning his career. MORE
We live in a risky world. Supply chains, especially extended ones, are subject to an almost infinite number of risks. … Continued. The post Supply Chain Resilience in a Risky World appeared first on Enterra Solutions. Business Cognitive Computing Risk Management Supply Chain Enterra Solutions Stephen DeAngelis MORE
It is with a great deal of pleasure I announce Enterra Solutions ® has signed a multi-year solution-as-a-service contract with Nestlé USA®. The agreement calls for Enterra to provide a next generation analytics and insights platform along with other business applications to Nestlé. Enterra has been working with Nestlé USA for several years and together, the companies have developed and will continue to deploy an industry-leading advanced analytics and insights capability. MORE
There is continued buzz about Industry 4.0 — the nickname adopted for the ongoing fourth industrial revolution. Anant Kale ( @anantkale ), Co-Founder and CEO of AppZen, explains, “The first industrial revolution mechanized production using steam power, the second gave us the assembly line for mass production, and the third industrial revolution gave us advanced automation using IT and electronics. MORE
The late Mohandas Karamchand (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, once stated, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” MORE
As the United States continues to recover from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, it seems unnecessary to warn supply chain risk … Continued. The post Weather Disasters Usher in New Era of Supply Chain Risk Management appeared first on Enterra Solutions. MORE
Company executives are increasingly aware of the importance of supply chains in making companies successful. A couple of years ago, however, a McKinsey study concluded companies weren’t investing enough in supply chain transformation technologies. Justine Brown reports, “McKinsey found the digitization of supply chains will have the biggest impact on revenue, yet 49% of companies are investing in digitizing their distribution channels or marketing instead. MORE
Most countries around the world set aside a special day to celebrate their national identity. Such celebrations are aimed at bringing people together to recall history and celebrate shared values. In America, that day is the 4th of July. MORE
People not only need to eat most people love to eat. They enjoy the tastes, textures, aromas, appearance, and even sounds of the foods they eat. They appreciate variety — as they say, variety is the spice of life. Nevertheless, most people give little thought to how their food gets to their tables. MORE
When we think of life’s necessities, one of the things immediately springing to mind is the food we eat. Food and drink choices are matters of personal preferences and grocers must be attuned to those preferences if they are going to serve their customers well. MORE
Many analysts believe the future of retail rests on the shoulders of omnichannel operations powered by artificial intelligence (AI). James D’Arezzo, CEO of Condusiv Technologies, writes, “Any retailer that wants to be competitive knows it must offer a seamless omnichannel experience to its customers.”[1] MORE
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 22, 2019
The late Mohandas Karamchand (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, once stated, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 20, 2019
There is continued buzz about Industry 4.0 — the nickname adopted for the ongoing fourth industrial revolution. Anant Kale ( @anantkale ), Co-Founder and CEO of AppZen, explains, “The first industrial revolution mechanized production using steam power, the second gave us the assembly line for mass production, and the third industrial revolution gave us advanced automation using IT and electronics.
Enterra Insights
JULY 18, 2019
Many analysts believe the future of retail rests on the shoulders of omnichannel operations powered by artificial intelligence (AI). James D’Arezzo, CEO of Condusiv Technologies, writes, “Any retailer that wants to be competitive knows it must offer a seamless omnichannel experience to its customers.”[1]
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 21, 2017
Today, much of the United States will experience a total solar eclipse. That hasn’t happened for nearly 100 years. Because … Continued. The post Solar Eclipses and Supply Chain Risk Management appeared first on Enterra Solutions. Business Risk Management Supply Chain Enterra Solutions Stephen DeAngelis
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Demand forecasts are becoming increasingly more difficult to predict and less accurate. How are supply chain professionals dealing with this? What kind of technology are they using to deal with this shift? How is their approach to forecasting evolving? Take this assessment to find out how your demand forecasting process stacks up against others. It’s also a handy resource to identify improvement areas for your team. It only takes a few minutes and you get instant feedback.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 14, 2019
When we think of life’s necessities, one of the things immediately springing to mind is the food we eat. Food and drink choices are matters of personal preferences and grocers must be attuned to those preferences if they are going to serve their customers well.
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Enterra Insights
JULY 4, 2019
Most countries around the world set aside a special day to celebrate their national identity. Such celebrations are aimed at bringing people together to recall history and celebrate shared values. In America, that day is the 4th of July.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 8, 2019
The customer is king — and the king expects to be treated royally. Kelly McKesten and Stéphanie Thomson, respectively a producer and an editor with Think with Google , report the phrase “the customer is king” can be traced back to the 1930s in book written by William Harold Hutt entitled Economists and the Public: A Study of Competition and Opinion. They assert the phrase has never been more relevant.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 6, 2019
Company executives are increasingly aware of the importance of supply chains in making companies successful. A couple of years ago, however, a McKinsey study concluded companies weren’t investing enough in supply chain transformation technologies. Justine Brown reports, “McKinsey found the digitization of supply chains will have the biggest impact on revenue, yet 49% of companies are investing in digitizing their distribution channels or marketing instead.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 5, 2019
Change is inevitable. Change also makes planners lives, at best, complicated and, at worst, miserable. Plans are static and remain applicable only if the status quo doesn’t change — but change is unrelenting. Dwight D. Eisenhower once observed, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Jason M. Girzadas ( @jgirzadas ), a Managing Principal at Deloitte, seems to agree with Eisenhower.
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Network design as a discipline is complex and too many businesses are still relying on spreadsheets to design and optimize their supply chain. As a result, most organizations struggle to answer network design questions or test hypotheses in weeks, when results are demanded in hours. This Buyer’s Guide helps you find easy-to-use technology to become more proactive and less reactive when it comes to network design and optimization.
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Enterra Insights
AUGUST 1, 2019
Every supply chain professional understands inventory is a necessary evil. Carry too little inventory and you can miss out on sales and anger customers. Carry too much inventory and you increase handling costs and cut into profits. Like Goldilocks, supply chain professionals are looking for the “just right” solution to their dilemma. If the solution was easy, there wouldn’t be so many people continuing to write about supply chain optimization.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 2, 2019
Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the 6th century BC, wrote, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” ” It’s a lesson succeeding generations have had to learn. Four decades ago, Rich Weissman, CEO of Rich Weissman & Associates and an experienced supply chain management practitioner, was just beginning his career.
Enterra Insights
JULY 31, 2019
The modern supply chain is mind-boggling. Multinational enterprises deal with a dizzying array of paperwork involving procurement deals, purchase orders, shipping data, etc. Much of that “paperwork” is now done electronically, which is why consultants are increasingly touting the benefits of the digital supply chain. Trevor Miles ( @milesahead ), Vice President of Thought Leadership at Kinaxis, reminds us, however, “Digitization is not the same as digital transformation.”[1]
Enterra Insights
JULY 25, 2019
The word “potential” is often viewed as a positive characteristic. The dictionary defines potential this way: “having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.” ” What often goes unspoken is the fact that something having potential means there may not be much to crow about at the present. Potential refers to a future state rather than the present state.
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Learn which supply chain applications are the best for your organization.
Enterra Insights
JULY 12, 2019
Depending on the sports you follow, the long game could mean different things. Lisabeth Saunders Medlock ( @LisabethMedlock ), clinical psychologist, explains, “It means throwing the football down the field, AKA the passing game, or driving the golf ball toward the green.”[1] ”[1] In the business world, however, the long game has a different meaning.
Enterra Insights
JULY 22, 2019
The late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., once stated, “Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.” ” With that caveat in mind, I think I can assert every organization wants to optimize its supply chain. I simply can’t imagine a CEO going to his or her board of directors and telling them their goal is to implement a sub-optimized supply chain.
Enterra Insights
APRIL 30, 2019
Thirty years ago few people would have predicted a growing number of consumers would complete much of their shopping using a mobile phone. It was only 29 years ago Tim Berners-Lee invented hyperlinks which gave rise to web browsing and eventually led to e-commerce.
Enterra Insights
FEBRUARY 20, 2019
Anyone who has served in the armed forces knows the military loves its acronyms. For years the military has used the acronym VUCA to describe what, in wartime, is often referred to as the fog of war. VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
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What does it mean to become a digital business or digital supply chain?
Enterra Insights
JULY 17, 2019
The digital age is quickly becoming the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Because so much data is being generated, only AI systems can analyze all that data in a timely fashion and businesses are beginning to reap rewards from the insights they are gleaning. Pundits have both lauded and decried AI’s pervasiveness. Just how pervasive AI has become in the business world is a matter of conjecture.
Enterra Insights
JULY 16, 2019
It is with a great deal of pleasure I announce Enterra Solutions ® has signed a multi-year solution-as-a-service contract with Nestlé USA®. The agreement calls for Enterra to provide a next generation analytics and insights platform along with other business applications to Nestlé. Enterra has been working with Nestlé USA for several years and together, the companies have developed and will continue to deploy an industry-leading advanced analytics and insights capability.
Enterra Insights
JULY 11, 2019
The relentless press of technology into our lives remains unabated. Critics constantly debate whether advancements are good or bad for humanity. Futurist Jason Silva ( @JasonSilva ) once stated, “Technology is, of course, a double edged sword. Fire can cook our food but also burn us.” ” People need to remember technology’s duality trait as they create or advance new ones.
Enterra Insights
JUNE 14, 2019
Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly an overhyped buzzword. Michael Watson, an instructor at Northwestern University and a founding partner at Opex Analytics, explains, “‘AI’ is a tech buzzword that seems to take on a new meaning each time you hear it. This causes confusion for many business leaders who struggle to put it into perspective for their specific needs.”[1]
Speaker: Jon Leposky, Director of Operations and Logistics, Z Customization
Automation can be an incredibly powerful tool to lower costs, increase capabilities, and enable scaling. However the road to implementing automation can be long and challenging even when all the proper steps are taken. Being equipped with the proper tools and knowledge of common pitfalls when implementing automation can make the difference between a show stopping disaster and seamless success.
Enterra Insights
JULY 9, 2019
Organizations are often counseled to prepare for the unexpected. Even better advice is to prepare for the expected. Hurricanes fall into the expected category. There is a reason meteorologists define a hurricane “season” — roughly from June through November. Seasons are annual events. They may be mild or severe, but they will take place.
Enterra Insights
JULY 8, 2019
People not only need to eat most people love to eat. They enjoy the tastes, textures, aromas, appearance, and even sounds of the foods they eat. They appreciate variety — as they say, variety is the spice of life. Nevertheless, most people give little thought to how their food gets to their tables.
Enterra Insights
AUGUST 30, 2017
We live in a risky world. Supply chains, especially extended ones, are subject to an almost infinite number of risks. … Continued. The post Supply Chain Resilience in a Risky World appeared first on Enterra Solutions. Business Cognitive Computing Risk Management Supply Chain Enterra Solutions Stephen DeAngelis
Enterra Insights
JULY 1, 2019
We live in the digital age. The world is connected as never before. And data is being generated at an unprecedented rate. Many people, like entrepreneur Richard Branson ( @richardbranson ), see this as an age of opportunity. He has stated, “In this digital age, it doesn’t really matter if you are in Canary Wharf or the Caribbean; there are opportunities waiting to be grasped by entrepreneurs.”[1] ”[1] Branson is celebrating the benefits of connectivity in the digital age.
Speaker: Irina Rosca, Director of Supply Chain Operations, Helix
Organizations need to focus on demand driven supply planning, utilizing real time information on customer orders from all marketplaces (e-commence, Amazon - or other online retailers, and point of sale data from brick and mortar). Focusing on this information once per month during the S&OP meeting is too late for all business units to align. Companies should have seamless integration between order entry, inventory management, forecasting and supply planning models and purchase order status to sense risk, pull levers to mitigate potential risk, and communicate within and outside the organization. This is especially important for new product releases, in store programs or promotions (sales, end caps, PDQ. etc) or online promotions (company run or 3rd party). Depending on total supply chain lead time, not having real time visibility and analysis of this information can significantly affect sales and the bottom line.
Enterra Insights
NOVEMBER 2, 2017
As the United States continues to recover from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, it seems unnecessary to warn supply chain risk … Continued. The post Weather Disasters Usher in New Era of Supply Chain Risk Management appeared first on Enterra Solutions.
Enterra Insights
JUNE 26, 2019
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has been around for three decades. In human terms, the process should be entering its golden, middle years of life. Many pundits, however, believe the S&OP process, as originally conceived, needs to change. What’s going on?
Enterra Insights
APRIL 25, 2019
Humans yearn for a glimpse of the future. This yearning is why people visit oracles, study the stars, consult shamans, get their palms read, stare into crystal balls, turn over tarot cards, and/or study the writings of seers like Nostradamus. Business leaders are not immune to this compulsion; but, their methods for divining the future are different. For decades, companies have gathered smart people together to perform what-if analysis, identify trends, and produce forecasts.
Enterra Insights
JUNE 25, 2019
Retail Shrinkage is a serious retail challenge, especially when its causes can’t be accurately determined. Somewhere between 1.5% and 2.5% of revenue can be lost depending on the channel. For the last few years, inventory shrinkage has annually cost U.S. retailers just under $50 billion combined. Worldwide losses are believed to be north of $100 billion. That’s a big bite out of potential profits.
Speaker: Sarah Gibson, Platinum Operations Manager
The order-to-cash (O2C) process is often considered the lifeblood of an organization. It’s why so many business leaders are looking to next generation of O2C solutions to unlock value across their enterprise — value that’s necessary to remain competitive. Join us for an educational webinar with guest speaker, Sarah Gibson of Parts Town, as she takes attendees through her company’s digital transformation journey.
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