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To build an outside-in model, and use new forms of analytics, we must start the discussion with the question of, “what drives value?” ” Traditional planning models optimize functional processes to improve cost and customer service. You are right. The answer is not th e Gartner Top 25.
If your systems are disjointed and you lack the ability to analyze masses of data in real time, you will struggle to deliver on-time, in-full and your reputation and revenue will be negatively impacted. This blog is Part 1 in our Optimizing Supply Chain Performance with Unified Data series, with a focus on optimizing fulfillment.
From sourcing and bid evaluation to warehouse slotting and dynamic routing, AI tools support faster and more consistent outcomes by processing large volumes of operational data and identifying patterns that human decision-makers may overlook. These capabilities are now being integrated into mainstream TMS, WMS, and ERP platforms.
Solvoyo has a metric they call the user acceptance rate. This metric measures the percentage of time the planners accept replenishment, transportation, or inventory plans as they are without any change in the timing of the delivery or the quantity to be delivered. If a user makes changes to the plan, they log that data.
While SAP has had procurementanalytics solutions, last year at Spend Connect Live, SAP announced the Spend Control Tower. Daniel Chapman, the senior director of process transformation for procure to pay at Warner Music, was a keynote speaker. This solution provides insights in a much easier way to digest.
In follow-up qualitative interviews, one of the largest issues with organizational alignment was metric definition and a clear definition of supply chain excellence. In my post Mea Culpa, I reference my work with the Gartner Supply Chain Hierarchy of Metrics. Error is error, but is it the most important metric? My answer is no.
Most of the business networks were hollowed out by venture capitalists or purchased by opportunists. The big data architectures are often present in the current “AI offerings.” Yawn and walk on if the answer is i mproving demand error or reducing inventory levels. The business network market is in need of innovation.)
Returns Management and Integration With 35% of online purchases being returned, predominantly to physical stores, retailers are grappling with the ripple effects on inventory management. Early adopters of these integrated platforms report significant improvements in inventory turnover and reduction in stockouts.
Enterprise procurement leaders are under more pressure than ever—juggling cost control, compliance, supplier risk, and internal complexity, all while trying to modernize outdated systems. AI, automation, and generative tools are redefining efficiency, allowing procurement teams to move from reactive to proactive decision-making.
The most common form of trading partner collaboration is purchase order collaboration. With PO collaboration, buyers send digital purchase orders over the network to suppliers or other trading partners. They sell to the automotive, data communications, medical, industrial, consumer electronics, and other industries.
Procurement and supply chain management are often used interchangeably—but in practice, the lines between them can blur in ways that create real friction. Misaligned priorities, siloed systems, and unclear ownership can directly impact key performance indicators like cost savings percentage and procurement cycle time.
A disruption at any point in the global logistics network including the average of 12 touch points from shipment packaging to final delivery can prove disastrous for profits, service levels, customer loyalty, and other key metrics. With the global e-commerce market predicted to reach $8.1 billion to $23.07
For most CPOs and CFOs, deciding on the right purchasing setup — centralized or decentralized — is no small task. Each model has its perks, and choosing the best fit can feel like walking a tightrope. Keep reading to learn: What is centralized purchasing? What is centralized purchasing?
Traditionally, procurement has been a process weighed down by manual tasks, fragmented systems, and endless paperwork. Today, procurement is undergoing a transformation. While procurement teams have long worked to add strategic value, Artificial Intelligence (AI) amplifies their impact.
Advanced supply chain planning is being transformed by probabilistic forecasting , which revolutionizes demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization. Enhancing Inventory with Probabilistic Forecasting A supply chain is a complex ecosystem influenced by dynamic variables. The result?
Picture this: You’re a warehouse manager, and with a few taps on your smartphone, you instantly know the exact location and quantity of every item in your inventory. That’s not science fiction—it’s the power of mobile inventory management. Ready to turn your inventory from a headache into a strategic asset?
Probabilistic forecasting is revolutionizing demand forecasting, supply planning, and inventory optimization by significantly improving forecast accuracy and decision-making across distribution networks. Enhancing Inventory with Probabilistic Forecasting A supply chain is a complex ecosystem influenced by dynamic variables.
Predictiveanalytics helps logistics companies anticipate disruptions and adapt proactively. AI-powered warehouse management improves inventory flow and reduces waste. Blockchain also facilitates collaboration by sharing verified data across stakeholders. Transparent goal-setting communicates commitment to stakeholders.
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.
Supply shortages resulting in empty shelves or parking lots of WIP inventory represent a spectre causing supply chain leaders to reconsider supply chain inventory practices. Opinion of just-in-time (JIT) as a practice has taken a battering and inventory is rising. Is supply chain inventory the problem?
Even more impressive, lost sales due to stockouts can decrease by up to 65%, while inventory reductions of 20% to 50% are possible. This advanced analysis allows businesses to predict promotional lift with unprecedented accuracy, ensuring optimized production schedules and inventory positioning through sophisticated supply planning.
In May 2025, one in seven home-purchase agreements fell through resulting in the cancellation of 56,000 purchase contracts. Employees Cannot Get to the Right Data at the Speed of Business A war is raging between Oracle, Salesforce and SAP to automate supply chains. The key is to use channel data and decrease demand latency.
GEP and the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Supply Chain Resource Cooperative surveyed supply chain, procurement and IT professionals across a range of industries to gain insight into their priorities and strategies regarding supply chain resilience and optimization. Alex Zhong, Director Product Marketing at GEP.
In a previous post , I made a case for how the Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) are smarter together. Accordingly Supply Chain and Procurement will need continuous collaboration. By aligning supply chain and procurement, spend can be considered more holistically.
Analytics and business intelligence (BI) are no longer optionaltheyre essential. Thats why modern BI systems are quickly becoming the go-to solution for data-driven enterprises. They integrate, align, and activate data across the business to drive better, faster decisions unlike legacy reporting tools that can’t.
Supply chain efficiency is the cornerstone of success and involves the effective management of processes, resources, and technologies from procurement to production, transportation to warehousing. In the automotive sector, manufacturers are simultaneously reducing inventorycosts and delivery times.
At each company, there is a relationship between the metrics of growth, margin, inventory, customer service, and asset strategy. For the purpose of this article, I will use Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) as the proxy metric to discuss asset utilization.) Understanding this relationship requires modeling. (A
I see a preponderance of reports and white papers that have lots of pages but say little. Optimization engines to improve functional metric performance resulted in an exploding number of planners. The issue is data synchronization. The more outsourcing and instances, the greater the issue with data synchronization.
Leveling up your inventory life cycle can be crucial, but keeping all the fundamental factors jumping is essential to let the life cycle evolve. However, if the life cycle stock is healthy, inventory management is smooth. Inventory management revolves around the pivotal concept of the product life cycle. Click here!
Decoding the Procurement Department: A Comprehensive Guide to Roles and Responsibilities This supply chain article provides a comprehensive overview of the procurement department within an organization. Read In Detail About Procurement Department Here 2.
Instead of being relegated to the margins, executives must rethink their strategy and consider how a data-driven reverse supply chain can add more value and improve profit margins. The Benefits of a Data-Driven Retail Reverse Logistics Strategy. Faster time to resolution for returned items. Increased speed in managing repairs.
Pattern recognition is the ability to discern patterns in data and use the insights for further analysis. Wikipedia In 2014, I was exploring methods to publish what is now the Supply Chains To Admire report. The use of orbit charts allowed me to see the patterns of performance at the intersection of metrics over time.
I know that your primary focus is procurement. If S&OP efforts were that effective, don’t you think that we would have made more progress against inventory levels, margin, and growth? In part, this results in increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in consumer demand as one moves further up the supply chain.
E-commerce giants like Amazon, Alibaba, Temu, and Shein are expanding their global warehouse footprints, driving the adoption of WMS to manage inventory, reduce lead times, and optimize last-mile delivery. A majority of warehouses report labor shortages, and more than 50% cite this as a significant business challenge that is only worsening.
What is Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) and Why It’s Essential for Your ERP and Inventory Software? Strong vendor relationships are critical for business success, especially when it comes to managing inventory and procurement. By automating this process, you reduce errors and improve financial reporting accuracy.
As an old gal, with over forty-years of supply chain experience, writing this report for ten years taught me many lessons. I find in the orbit chart analysis that 45% of companies in the report are unconsciously incompetent. An average margin of 21% with inventory turns of 1.58 Most will be surprised when I share the data.
However, two decades later, there is still no technology solution to enable demand visibility or help companies use channel data to translate demand into an inventory, replenishment, or manufacturing strategy. Why have we not improved our use of channel data in supply chain processes?” My question is, “Why?”
Inventory is the lifeblood of any manufacturing business. Get it right, and youve got happy customers and streamlined costs. Striking the perfect balance between available stock and cost efficiency is key. Thats where data-driven decision-making comes in! But what exactly should you measure?
For businesses with seasonal inventory, estimating yearly demand fluctuations with reasonable accuracy can be both challenging and costly. After all, over-estimating can lead to inventory surplus and associated warehousing costs. This is where predictiveanalytics can prove instrumental for strategic supply chain management.
Opportunities for Procurement Technology As we look toward 2025, European businesses are reshaping their supply chains to navigate an increasingly complex global landscape. A recent report by Maersk and Reuters Events highlights that 68% of companies are making supply chain visibility and monitoring solutions a top priority.
In these conventional IT approaches, data is written and coded with fixed semantics into rows and columns. I term this our data jail. Primed for transactional efficiency, these legacy architectures based on relational databases drive order-to-cash and procure-to-pay efficiencies. As a result, data query is fast.
Understanding how your Procurement and Supply Chain KPIs are performing isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for survival and growth. Is inventory bloating your costs? Too often, businesses operate on gut feel rather than hard data. Why You Need Visibility of Supply Chain and Procurement KPIs?
quintillion bytes of data every day. Cluster analysis is a statistical umbrella term for methods that classify data points according to their attributes. Cluster analysis is a statistical umbrella term for methods that classify data points according to their attributes. The retail industry is rich with data.
This shift has pushed supply chain leadership to pivot from reactive management to proactive strategy built on data. In this environment, business leaders need clear, data-based insights to make real-time decisions. Analytics allows organizations to move beyond intuition.
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