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Supply Chain Leaders Rearranging Deck Chairs? Yes, I Think So.

Supply Chain Shaman

The supply chain is complex non-linear system that is easily thrown out of balance through a focus on functional metrics. They rock back and forth in improving singular metrics but struggle to improve a portfolio of growth, margin, inventory performance, and asset utilization. Stop the Focus on Functional Metrics.

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Provoking the Industry to Move Past Incrementalism

Supply Chain Shaman

There are many forms of decision support—price optimization, revenue management, transportation planning, spend management, network design. To make the argument, let’s look at industry orbit charts in aggregate for the period of 2006-2017 for the apparel and chemical companies. Let’s start the discussion with a focus on philosophy.

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Top 6 Retail Trends & Supply Chain Planning Challenges in 2023

Logistics Viewpoints

Continuing Disruptions in Transportation and Sourcing Materials After the pandemic, retailers are faced with new challenges and disruptions due to global conflicts, trade restrictions, and now recessions. Here are some highlights from these trends in 2023 and implications on supply chain planning. in 2021 compared to the year before.

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2020 Requires Big Wings and Feet

Supply Chain Shaman

No metric should be measured in isolation, and functional metrics should be replaced with the balanced scorecard metrics shown in Figure 2. To maximize value—price to tangible book, functional metrics need to be reset to focus on reliability. 5 A Focus on Functional Metrics Throws the Supply Chain Out of Balance.

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Taking the Hill

Supply Chain Shaman

This week, at Supply Chain Insights LLC, we published our 11th report in the series titled Supply Chain Metrics That Matter. Apparel is actually moving backwards. When companies look at singular metrics (labor costs or inventory), they have moved backwards. Aligning metrics matters.

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Columbia Sportswear: Peeling Back the Onion on Your Supply Chain Processes

Talking Logistics

Like the multi-billion dollar chemical manufacturer that had been paying market rates for ocean transportation for eight years because nobody realized that their contract, filed away in a drawer by a transportation manager who had left the company, had expired. From the article: Columbia Sportswear added $415.6

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Tips for Retailers (And All Shippers) to Overcome the Amazon Effect

GlobalTranz

retailers conducted by NRF and Forrester Research surveyed the key metrics of 195 apparel, footwear, general merchandise, home furnishings and personal care retailers, and determined that the average cost to fulfill an order is $10 (shipping + fulfillment costs). The State of Retailing Online (SORO) survey of U.S.