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Your inbox quickly fills with concerned emails highlighting rising costs, delayed materials, and your teams urgent efforts to assess the situation and determine the next steps. Companies leaning heavily on global sourcing? manufacturer I know saw their import costs jump overnight, forcing a rethink of a decade-old sourcingstrategy.
The manufacturing sector is facing unprecedented volatility in global trade, with tariffs becoming the latest in a series of uncertainty drivers that are impacting virtually all industries. Manufacturing plants are deeply entrenched; tied to infrastructure, suppliers, skilled labor, and regulatory requirements.
The modern supply chain is a complex network of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers, all interconnected and reliant on a shared ecosystem of trust and accountability. Companies that prioritize low costs at the expense of ethics risk damaging their reputation, losing consumer trust, and facing legal consequences.
A data gateway is essentially a connective tissue across your supply chain, providing unified access to supply chain data from various sources, including enterprise systems, data feeds, data warehouses, data lakes, data marts, and business entities.
For senior leaders, understanding and integrating the three pillars of sustainability—environmental, social, and economic—into supply chain strategies is essential. Transportation, warehousing, and manufacturing collectively contribute significantly to carbon emissions, making these areas critical for meaningful change.
Reducingcost was the primary objective, and most operational decisionsfrom sourcing to fulfillmentreflected that mindset. Resilience is the ability to respond to disruption while maintaining core operations, and more companies are shifting their strategies accordingly. For years, supply chains were engineered to be lean.
If you’re evaluating procurement technology or exploring ways to drive more value from existing systems, chances are you’re looking beyond tactical fixes – you want a smarter, scalable strategy. Misaligned priorities across finance, legal, and procurement create friction that delays decision-making and reduces impact.
Now Let’s Get to the Supply Chain News: Hurricane Helene Disrupts IV Fluid Supply Chain Across Major East Cost Hospitals Hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis centers across the country are running low on IV fluids after Helene forced a factory in Marion North Carolina, to shut down operations.
This article outlines key factors driving supply chain change, the limitations of outdated strategies, and how Walmart is restructuring its supply chain using AI and automation. The Shift from Cost-Cutting to Resilience For years, supply chains prioritized costreduction over resilience.
” Traditional planning models optimize functional processes to improve cost and customer service. The problem is that the reduction of costs within one function does not necessarily drive value. I think the rewiring starts with the education of the executive team, and that process should follow strategy.
Treating suppliers as essential partners in the field of direct spend management—almost like customers—can be a key component of a successful company strategy. Supply Chain Knowledge and Risk Mitigation: Suppliers have a direct impact on direct spend with raw material and transportation costs as two big drivers of operating margins.
A data gateway is essentially a connective tissue across your supply chain, providing unified access to supply chain data from various sources, including enterprise systems, data feeds, data warehouses, data lakes, data marts, and business entities.
The 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 20% tariffs on Chinese goods are expected to increase production costs, disrupt logistics networks, and force companies to rethink supply chains. auto parts are sourced from Mexico, making the tariff impact immediate and severe. Vehicle production costs in the U.S.
They integrate AI into demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and logistics operations to improve efficiency, reducecosts, and mitigate risks. Companies must react after the fact, often incurring higher costs and reduced service levels.
Optimizing fulfillment requires a series of steps to get a shipment from its source to the end customer. These steps include sourcing and receiving inventory, storing inventory, order processing, picking and packing an order, shipping the order, and returns management. The question then becomes what is a good OTIF score to shoot for?
These inefficiencies inflate costs and slow response times when customer needs change. Manufacturers are shifting to on-demand production to align output with real-time demand. By producing only whats needed, when its needed, they eliminate the burden of forecasting errors and reduce warehouse dependency.
Scaling manufacturing operations is crucial for business growth but presents unique challenges. Balancing increased demand with consistent quality and controlled costs is difficult but essential for manufacturers looking to expand. Successfully scaling manufacturing requires more than just adding resources.
“To improve,” the report rightly notes, “organizations should enhance supply chain visibility with robust data and analytics; use AI to foresee disruptions; keep business continuity plans current; and diversify supply sources, suppliers, manufacturing and logistics partners.”
In May, the total number of job cuts in the US were 696,309 – an increase of 80% from the 385,859 jobs cut in the first five months of 2024. During the first week of June 2025, job cuts continued with 90,000 layoffs with iconic brands like Kimberly-Clark (1500-1900), Microsoft (6,000), P&G (7000), and Wal-Mart (1,500).
They emphasized being an Industry Cloud Complete Company with industry-specific solutions for over 2000 micro verticals across Process Manufacturing, Distribution, Service Industries, and Discrete Manufacturing. Industry-specific content is available for processes like Source to Settle, Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, and more.
From raw material sourcing to logistics and regulatory compliance, stakeholders across the value chain will need to prepare for structural adjustments. Sourcing and Ingredient Availability A central impact of this policy is the need to replace synthetic colorants with natural alternatives.
That strategy can lead to thousands of scenarios, and still no number of scenarios will answer all questions. Another strategy is to dedicate resources and build the best algorithm for demand forecasting. While this sourcingstrategy is the most cost-effective one, the business might not want to operate like that.
Companies that previously prioritized cost-cutting and centralized sourcing quickly found themselves exposed to serious production and distribution risks. In response, many organizations have shifted toward decentralized and regionalized supply chain models, distributing production and sourcing across multiple regions.
Now for the Do’s & Don’ts In the dynamic world of FMCG, your Route to Market (RTM) strategy and distributor partnerships can make or break your brand’s success. Don’t Neglect Last-Mile Execution : Even the best strategy fails without strong in-market execution. Ensure margins are fair and sustainable.
The battle here is to develop hardware that can handle this massive computational load efficiently and cost-effectively. AWS , Google , and Microsoft are also investing heavily in custom AI chips to reduce their dependence on NVIDIA and optimize performance and cost.
But between rising costs, complex logistics, and the constant struggle to optimize space and labor, staying ahead can feel like an uphill battle. By maximizing space utilization, improving inventory control , and boosting workflow efficiency, you can unlock significant cost savings and elevate your customer service game.
Strategic sourcing and innovative solutions are often viewed as two distinct procurement tools, but they should not be seen in isolation. This article delves into how these two elements, working together, can transform procurement strategies into long-term competitive advantages.
It creates a single source of truth for your rate management, automating RFQs and streamlining the entire procurement process. billion rate data points monthly to provide the most comprehensive view of the market, helping you identify savings opportunities and make data-driven decisions.
In the automotive sector, manufacturers are simultaneously reducing inventory costs and delivery times. Additionally, we’ll discuss best practices for optimization and strategies for balancing efficiency with resilience. Technology integration: Leveraging digital tools to enhance visibility and decision-making.
(TSX: KXS) an end-to-end supply chain orchestration, today announced a new partnership that will deliver improved alignment of supply chain plans with business objectives and strategies for midmarket discrete manufacturing companies. Were thrilled to partner with Infor to help manufacturers be more agile and resilient in the long term.
Let’s take a closer look at how four key industries—automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG), high tech, and industrial manufacturing—are navigating the tariff rollercoaster and adjusting to the shifting landscape. Key takeaway Top challenge: Sourcing volatility driven by EV component shortages and fluctuating global tariffs.
Your Aftermarket Supply Chain is More Complex Than You Think: Stop Guessing, Start Optimizing Lets be honest: managing spare parts inventory requires specialized strategies unlike any other inventory management process. Reduced spare parts inventory by 30% while maintaining optimal availability. Lack of service-level differentiation.
Traditional forecasting methods often fail under high variability, leading to excess costs, stockouts, and obsolescence. Whether you’re in manufacturing, retail, or another industry, navigating the uncertainties can feel like solving an intricate puzzle. Image source: Stefan de Kok 2. weather, social media trends).
Why should companies align their business strategy with product lifecycle management (PLM)? Aligning PLM with your business strategy offers numerous benefits—from innovating next-generation products to faster time to market, to synchronizing with global environmental initiatives.
This is amplified across the supply chain into an exponential impact on inventory and planned orders for manufacturing. When we measure the bullwhip impact (in my class on outside-in process thinking), the bullwhip between manufacturing and procurement is 2-3X. The use of outside-in signals can reduce it by 40-60%. Most likely.
A data-driven, holistic approach is essential to ensure that organizations stay agile, cost-effective, and resilient during times of uncertainty. In this blog, well explore key strategies to enhance supply chain resilience and highlight how services like those offered by ModusLink can help businesses navigate these challenges effectively.
In an era where the threat of supply chain disruptions is constant, reshoring manufacturing has become a strategic imperative for manufacturers worldwide. The primary objective of onshoring and/or nearshoring is often to regain control over production, improve product quality, reduce lead times, and foster innovation.
Since January, Canadians’ weekly grocery trips have become a real-time indicator for the potential impacts of tariffs as shoppers have responded to threats with a showcase of buying power, prioritizing nationally sourced and manufactured products even before a single tariff was enacted.
Transportation is, of course, a major source of green house emissions. A transportation management system (TMS) allows a shipper or carrier to plan the most cost-effective set of shipments that meets service level goals. A TMS can be a great way to save money while lowering costs. That is more than any other sector.
Automotive: Can JIT manufacturing survive legal disruptions to tariff policy? Automakers must model dual-path sourcingstrategies and reintroduce buffer inventory—not just for parts, but for regulatory flexibility. Companies relocating to Mexico may face rapid reversal in cost advantage if emergency tariffs are struck down.
Assumptions arent enough to know how a supply chain incurs costs and earns revenues. They write, “This includes tackling bigger issues such as compliance, supplier relationship management, risk and disruption, responsible sourcing, and transparency. If you think this sounds like an enormous task, youd be right.
Explore supply chain strategies for navigating tariff uncertaintyand learn about how Resilincs AI agents for tariff disruption are changing the game. cutting tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% to 30% for 90 days. cutting tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% to 30% for 90 days. The result? Rethink location With U.S.
It sends shockwaves through sourcing, supplier relationships, profitability, and operational decision-making. A global manufacturer recently told us: We avoided a six-figure tariff penalty because our team understood classification and acted quickly. Sourcingstrategies collapsed because no one planned for this.
Below are some common problems in supply chain management and how they can be mitigated with the assistance of software solutions and digital strategies in logistics. It must address various demands, including indirect procurement requests, project and manufacturing requirements, and external customer demands.
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