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How Can You Improve Value in Your Supply Chain?

Supply Chain Shaman

” Traditional planning models optimize functional processes to improve cost and customer service. For example, if I improve the cost structure in transportation, procurement, manufacturing and sales independently, what decision support framework decides the right trade-offs? This work was expensive. Your next step?

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Why Organizational Alignment is Critical to the Supply Chain Response

Supply Chain Shaman

If you would like to participate in a current research study, we would love your help and participation in the contract manufacturing study. We are trying to assess the value of a network in managing contract manufacturing.) One of the alignment gaps that is growing and is unfortunate is the gap between procurement and manufacturing.

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5 Reasons Why Manufacturers Who Focus on Customer Experience Will Win

GlobalTranz

Manufacturers have always struggled to know their customers. Customers can place orders online, by phone, in person and in nearly any other means desirable. Unfortunately, this means manufacturers face an even greater challenge, as more customers translate into greater use of customer service.

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Reinventing Supply Chains: Focus on Human Factors

Supply Chain Shaman

In May 2025, one in seven home-purchase agreements fell through resulting in the cancellation of 56,000 purchase contracts. Supply chain was defined in 1982 as interoperability between source, make and deliver. Ask a procurement or transportation professional if they have a good demand signal and expect a laugh.

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Walmart and the New Supply Chain Reality: AI, Automation, and Resilience

Logistics Viewpoints

Just-in-time (JIT) inventory models, lean supplier networks, and offshore manufacturing reduced expenses but left companies exposed to disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing geopolitical shifts demonstrated the risks of relying on single-source suppliers and minimal inventory buffers. Resilience is now taking precedence.

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These Top Manufacturing Technology Trends will Fuel a Focus on Customer Experience in 2018

GlobalTranz

Going back to the Industrial Internet of things (IIoT), the use of Internet-connected technology increases risk in manufacturing. billion in 2018 alone, reports Michael Kotelec of Manufacturing.net , and this will bring a strong, robust boost to efficiency and productivity in manufacturing. However, the risk is well worth it.

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Probabilistic Forecasting: The Future of Supply Chain Planning

ToolsGroup

However, this approach ignores real purchasing behavior, such as customers buying complete sets of four tires. Probabilistic demand forecasting, in contrast, provides a full probability distribution, revealing actual purchasing patterns and enabling inventory planners to align stock levels with demand realities. The result?