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I laugh when business leaders tell me that they are going to replace their current supplychain planning technologies with “AI.” Each supplychain planning technology at the end of 2024, went through disruption–change in CEO, business model shift, layoffs, re-platforming and acquisitions.
Schneider Electric has been working to simplify its supplychain over the last few years. This French public multinational was selected as having the best global supplychain by a leading analyst firm. Schneider Electric’s supplychain operation is of great interest to other practitioners.
The adoption of AI in supplychainautomation is enabling companies to make more accurate decisions, reduce cycle times, and better manage complexity. AI in supplychainautomation is gradually reshaping how core functions operate, particularly in procurement, warehousing, and logistics.
Why Transformation Is a Boardroom Priority Supplychain management is now a core strategic concern for business leaders. Companies that fail to modernize face supply shortages, revenue loss, and regulatory risks. A data-driven, technology-enabled approach is required to build resilience and efficiency.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, supplychain inadequacies have been revealed in a new and stark light. Most found themselves ill-prepared for the magnitude of disruption in supply and demand, followed soon after by political unrest, labor and material shortages, and sharp inflation.
Historically, supplychain leaders managed supplychains in a world of abundance. There are many factors: war, supply shortages, climate change, labor (knowledge and availability), and shifts in governmental regulation. Inventory Health. I find only 8% of companies actively measure inventory health.
In the fast-paced world of modern supplychains, traditional forecasting methods fall short. Advanced supplychain planning is being transformed by probabilistic forecasting , which revolutionizes demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization.
In the fast-paced world of modern supplychains, traditional forecasting methods fall short. Probabilistic forecasting is revolutionizing demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization by significantly improving forecast accuracy and decision-making across distribution networks.
Safety Stock: Navigating SupplyChain Volatility Through Strategic Inventory Planning Demand volatility represents a critical challenge for supplychain executives today, with safety stock emerging as a key strategic tool to mitigate market uncertainties.
Traditional supplychain planning was defined by the theory of constraints and the Deming Wheel of Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) philosophies. As I write about the need to rethink how we make decisions with new forms of technology and the definition of a good decision, I turn to the Cynefin model advocated by my friend Trevor Miles.
Technology can change or even improve work. Companies today making a fundamental mistake: they are attempting to automate current processes with AI versus challenging and redefining work. Today, in supplychain planning, this could not be further from reality. What’s missing? This bearish attitude is well-founded.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) refers to process automation that combines process steps with decision models or business rules with little to no human oversight. APQC conducts research on supplychain and logistics to help organizations assess the performance of their own processes and functions compared to their peers.
Nespresso’s complex coffee supplychain. It’s no simple task providing customers access to the full range of capsules and coffee machines on all sales channels, across more than 70 boutiques in Italy, while optimizing inventory levels. What drove Nespresso’s supplychain planning project?
(Oxford Languages) One of the biggest challenges in supplychain management is understanding counterintuitive principleslike the “ bullwhip effect. Equally perplexing is inventory optimization. Many assume that increasing inventory is necessary to improve service levels. Wait, what?
What is Demand Forecasting in SupplyChain Management? Demand forecasting in supplychain management is the process of predicting customer demand, supply trends, and pricing fluctuations. To help you stay ahead, here are four strategies that supplychains leaders are using to win at demand forecasting.
What is Demand Forecasting in SupplyChain Management? Demand forecasting in supplychain management is the process of predicting customer demand, supply trends, and pricing fluctuations. To help you stay ahead, here are four strategies that supplychains leaders are using to win at demand forecasting.
How CPG leaders can reduce costs without hurting supplychain performance fbaker Tue, 06/03/2025 - 09:18 In the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, SG&A (Selling, General, and Administrative) costs have long been a go-to target for improving margins. The answer lies in technology, smarter planning, and automation.
Global supplychains have been tested repeatedly by a series of disruptive events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S.-China In response, many organizations have shifted toward decentralized and regionalized supplychain models, distributing production and sourcing across multiple regions.
This week in supplychain and logistics news includes Blue Yonder being selected to support Border States, an electrical distribution company, with their warehouse management needs. The CEO said this is “not just an ERP upgrade to the next set of software”, but “building a complete data infrastructure across the company.”
Reasons to Invest in Excellent CustomerService for Your Online Store Call center outsourcing services help many businesses by reducing costs, streamlining operations, and delivering consistently excellent service. In this article, we look at how customerservice outsourcing can positively impact your supplychain 1.
This strategic partnership aims to improve demand planning efficiency, optimize inventory performance, and elevate service levels. This strategic partnership aims to improve demand planning efficiency, optimize inventory performance, and elevate service levels.
For the past few years, the news has been filled with stories about supplychain disruptions, supplychain fragility, and the need for supplychain resilience. A term once prominent in supply discussions optimization isn’t heard quite as often as it used to be.
Are you making an action plan of all the things you could do better and faster with your supplychain planning software when the next global crisis hits? The disruption we’ve seen in supplychain planning as a result of the pandemic is unprecedented. How will the technology remove these barriers?
And how can supplychain planning help? In one project, I am interviewing over fifty supplychain leaders on their perceived impact of advanced planning, what makes a good plan, and how effectively they use the technology. I am also writing the new edition of the SupplyChains to Admire.
Shortages of products from toilet paper to microchips during the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the value of supplychain resiliency, and the opportunities for companies that aren’t as prepared as they would like. By contrast, supplychains that are too lean may not have enough flexibility and redundancy to survive unscathed.
Self-congratulations notes abounded this week as vendor-after-vendor shared their rankings on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SupplyChain Planning. I believe that the Gartner Magic Quadrant is a barrier to progress in supplychain planning, and that vendors that rally in support have a false sense of superiority.
Today, I speak at the North American Manufacturing Association, Manufacturing Leadership Conference, in Nashville on the use of data to improve supplychain resilience. Background The Council of SupplyChain Resilience met for the first time this month. What is supplychain resilience? The reason?
How 3PLs Can Gain Visibility and a Competitive Advantage Offering Automated Billing and a Self-Service Interactive Customer Portal It’s hard to imagine a third-party logistics (3PL) business today operating without some form of a warehouse management system ( WMS ) connecting the digital dots. But can technology do more?
In supplychain management, it is widely accepted that holding enough finished goods inventory to fulfill every order is just too costly. The thinking goes that at some point, improving service levels means you are not adding inventory in a linear manner but rather exponentially.
Easily one of the most significant innovations in our lifetime that’s shaping the future of enterprise AI, agentic AI will be truly autonomous when completing complex workflows across organizations, from customerservice and payment processing to fraud detection and order fulfillment. This is precisely where agentic AI shines.
Excess inventory weighs down supplychains. These inefficiencies inflate costs and slow response times when customer needs change. Powered by digital tools, on-demand strategies offer a cleaner, more responsive path to production. This section breaks down the key technologies powering this shift.
The cheese on the puffs stains my hands like I feel that mis-guided past practices have indelibly colored supplychain practices. At the session, we discussed why companies have not made more progress on inventory management. Days of Inventory Pre and Post-Recession. IT View of the Current State of Inventory.
Ever feel like your supplychain is a tangled mess of spreadsheets, frantic phone calls, and last-minute scrambles? Customers expect seamless experiences, and inefficiencies can quickly erode your bottom line. Modern supplychains thrive on real-time data, execution-focused applications, and dynamic decision-making.
Today, we published The SupplyChains to Admire for 2023. Nvidia, Northrup Grumman, PACCAR Inc, PCA (Packaging Corporation of America), ResMed, Rockwell Automation, Ross Stores, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) Company, Tempur-Pedic, TJX, Toro, Toyota, West Pharma, United Tractors, and Urban Outfitters. I admit it.
During our conversation, Eddie and I spoke about the changing nature of global supplychains in the face of the ongoing Covid pandemic as well as the continuing surge of e-commerce. First, what is the current state of supplychaintechnology? Fourth, what makes order management technology dynamic?
Demand forecasting is a critical strategy for supplychain management that can dramatically improve business decision-making and financial performance. However, securing leadership buy-in for demand forecasting technology requires a strategic approach that clearly demonstrates value.
Do Invest in Distributor Capability Building : Provide training, digital tools, and performance incentives. Do Set Clear KPIs and Governance Structures : Establish transparent metrics for sales, coverage, and service levels. A well-equipped distributor is an extension of your brand and a key to market penetration.
This year’s conference brought together industry leaders, tech pioneers, and retail professionals to address challenges and opportunities, to explore technologies and strategies that promise to revolutionize the industry. Agent AI is emerging as a game-changing tool for understanding and responding to customer behavior in real-time.
” Here is an excerpt from the article: “…it isn’t by becoming more efficient that the supplychains of Wal-Mart, Dell, and Amazon have given those companies an edge over their competitors. According to my research, top-performing supplychains possess three very different qualities. The gap was large.
Now consider that by not optimizing your inventory from a global vantage point you may be creating, if not outright chaos, a much less efficient network than you could have. There are many pieces of the modern manufacturing supplychain. The basic approach to inventory optimization.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global supplychains and upended the global economy, supplychain experts insisted that supplychain resilience was essential. There is a] need to prepare supplychains not only to survive, but to thrive in chaos.”[1] The reason?
If your company’s supplychain survived 2020 and the disruptions of early 2021, it’s safe to say it has passed the supplychain resiliency test. Supplychain disruption has many sources: tariffs and trade disputes, natural disasters, pandemics, economic uncertainty and cybersecurity attacks.
This is a story for the Eds, Franks, and Toms working together in supplychains across the globe. It is also a story for a young supplychain manager attempting to make a difference, but feeling stymied. My job, as the plant engineering manager, was to drive innovation and implement technology improvement.
Autonomous SupplyChains In this competitive environment, a CPG manufacturer needs to fight to get space on retailer shelves in each region, keep those shelves stocked, compete and collaborate simultaneously with e-commerce, and maintain its operating margins. each with discrete plans generated typically in sequential batch runs.
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