November, 2014

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What Do We Do Now?

Supply Chain Shaman

'“What did you learn?” asked the client. I smiled and reflected. It was a thought-provoking question. The ROI study on supply chain planning was completed. We were reviewing the data that is showcased in the blog post Three Questions People are Afraid to Ask. The data is clear: best-of-breed supply chain planning solutions are faster to implement, have a better ROI and yield higher satisfaction than planning systems from ERP providers.

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Optimization or automation: Which do you need?

DELMIA Quintiq

'It’s easy enough to confuse automation with optimization. In both cases, you press a button, wait a few seconds, and whoops… there’s your result. But while the external actions look alike, the results are very different. What automation really automates. Automation automates what human planners do. So what do planners do? Planners oversimplify. To cope with the overwhelming complexity of supply chain planning, planners base their decisions on simple rules of thumb or heuristics.

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Experts Discuss How to Streamline Global Supply Chain

Supply Chain Opz

'Companies of all sizes have been capturing the value from Global Supply Chain to increase the economies of scale and scope for years. Due to the rapid change in global business environment, managers find it difficult to gain the edge over competitors. In this article, we will show you tips from worldwide experts that you can use to streamline your global supply chain operations.

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Your supply chain is costing you money – Reason #8: Keeping supply chain information in silos (and preventing your users from making the best decisions)

Kinaxis

'by John Westerveld. Over the years, working for and with numerous manufacturing companies, I’ve seen many supply chain practices that cost companies money. Over the next several weeks, I’ll outline these issues and discuss some ideas around how to avoid these practices. You can find the previous posts here: Reason #1: Offshoring without getting the full picture.

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GEP Procurement & Supply Chain Tech Trends Report

The technological landscape is dynamic and changes quickly. And for procurement and supply chain leaders looking to harness the power of technology to navigate complex challenges and an uncertain business environment, keeping up with the latest trends can be its own obstacle. So, what’s on the technological horizon for procurement and supply chain for the year ahead?

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Turkey Logistics: The Thanksgiving Supply Chain

Logistics Viewpoints

'Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time for family, friends, and turkey. Lots of turkey. Just how much turkey? According to the National Turkey Federation, over 730 million pounds of turkey will be consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving. Given that the average weight of a Thanksgiving turkey is 16 pounds, that is about 45 million […].

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Misnomer

Supply Chain Shaman

'Misnomer (n): A wrong name. The misuse of a term or name. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. I am a supply chain gal. I work with many organizations on their supply chain strategies. One of the important lessons I have learned in my lifetime of doing this work is to never be afraid to ask what a term means … especially when everyone in the room is comfortable.

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My other truck is a sleigh

DELMIA Quintiq

'If you’re a trucker you’re not exactly Santa Claus, but once a year you have the same job and face the same problems – delivering lots of VIPs (Very Important Packages) to lots of addresses in harsh weather and within a very short time window. Could you do it? Smart Trucker Challenge: Holiday Edition gives you a chance to find out. The rules of the game are simple enough.

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Why a ‘single version of truth’ is key to a great supply chain

The Network Effect

'The journey from ‘good’ to ‘great’ is well underway across many global supply networks. While comprehensive benchmarks are still being normalized for comparative purposes, recent results that have been experienced by various customers of the new cloud-based platforms include reductions of 40% in inventory requirements for cycle and safety stock when compared to traditional ERP batch type processing, 5% decreases in lost sales, 99% customer service levels at retail, 5% reductions in material c

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Your supply chain is costing you money – Reason #7 Making decisions based on bad data (supply chain data accuracy)

Kinaxis

'by John Westerveld. Over the years, working for and with numerous manufacturing companies, I’ve seen many supply chain practices that cost companies money. Over the next several weeks, I’ll outline these issues and discuss some ideas around how to avoid these practices. You can find the previous posts here: Reason #1: Offshoring without getting the full picture.

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Scaling Logistics for Success: A White Claw Story

Speaker: Scott Campbell and Molly Feller

As the demand for your products skyrockets 🚀, you're likely experiencing logistical challenges that are preventing you from scaling your business. The sudden surge in demand can be exciting, but it can also put a strain on your supply chain and logistics operations. In this webinar, join Scott Campbell, Vice President, Logistics & Demand at Mark Anthony Services and Molly Feller, VP Logistics as a Service Operations at e2open, as they explore the challenges that arise when companies expe

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How to Avoid Dimensional Weight Pricing Cost Spike

Logistics Viewpoints

'This past June, the largest overnight delivery carriers (FedEx and UPS) announced that they would apply dimensional weight pricing to all shipments, effective January 2015. It is expected that shipping costs will increase 20 to 30 percent and affect over 70 percent of all shipments. What shippers are truly affected by the new pricing model? […].

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Big Data and Analytics for Oil and Gas Transportation

Talking Logistics

'Live Epsiode: Friday, November 14, 2014 at 12:00 ET. There has been a significant resurgence of the U.S. oil and gas industry in recent years, and U.S. is now second leading producer of oil (behind Saudi Arabia). Based on the current trends, North America could rival OPEC in oil and production. This growth along with the complexities found in the oil and gas industry can create significant transportation and logistics challenges.

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Avoiding a 2014 Holiday Supply Chain Meltdown Requires Managing Customer Expectations

Enterra Insights

'Some of us have blessedly short memories when it comes to recalling unpleasant events in our lives. Golfers are even … Continued The post Avoiding a 2014 Holiday Supply Chain Meltdown Requires Managing Customer Expectations appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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The basics of customer-centric multi-channel retailing (Part 1)

DELMIA Quintiq

'Start where the customer can’t see. Back in university, I was fully engaged with the topic of multi-channel retailing thanks to a marketing professor who had a long-standing passion for everything retail and digital. I learned a lot about omni-channel retailing and the customer’s way of looking at it. The marketing classes helped me appreciate the why’s and what’s, but the how’s of multi-channel retailing remained largely unknown.

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2024 Annual T&L M&A Report

Tenney Group, an industry specialized M&A Advisory firm in the T&L space, produced the 2024 Annual M&A Report. The report contains an in depth overview of 2023 notable deals and the market, while also providing the outlook for 2024 M&A.

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Why ERP reduces accountability and measurement in your supply chain, and how you can fix it

The Network Effect

'Assuming excellence in customer responsiveness is a given, in order to achieve excellence in operating performance all employees should have a solid education and understanding as to how their roles and responsibilities contribute to their supply network outcomes in addition to their budget or financial performance. And more importantly, accountability must become a key component to any organizational and measurement alignment.

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Supply Chain Professionals Speak on Delivering Better Business Outcomes with Kinaxis

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow I wanted to share this video compilation of several supply chain professionals that we have interviewed over the years. In the following clip these supply chain practitioners share their opinions on: What is the primary change we are seeing in today’s supply chain? What are key supply chain challenges organizations are faced with today?

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Why Do CEO’s Too Often Struggle with Supply Chain Management Best Practices?

Logistics Viewpoints

'I’d been interacting with Mark Kuta, who works for Oracle in the Value Chain Planning group, and he sent me a book he wrote called Think Like a CEO. The book seems to be directed at sales people; the subtitle is “Sell to Any Company in Any Industry… Better and Faster than a Harvard MBA.” […].

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A Case Study in Closed-Loop Operational Management

Talking Logistics

'As I’ve said before, the biggest challenge facing supply chain and logistics executives today is not managing change, because that’s always been the norm in supply chain management, but managing the rapid pace of change. Customer expectations, regulations, the competitive landscape, technology — all of these things are changing so rapidly, companies having a hard time keeping up; their existing technology, talent, and decision-making processes can’t keep up with this rapid pace of change.

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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Design for Postponement

SCM Research

'Today, I would like to draw your attention to one of my favorite articles in the field of supply chain management: Design for Postponement by Swaminathan & Lee (2003). The article identifies three key postponement enablers: First, process standardization, where the initial steps of a process are standardized across a product line and distinct personalities are added at a later stage (e.g., localized manuals or power supply modules of a printer).

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The basics of customer-centric multi-channel retailing (Part 2)

DELMIA Quintiq

'Start where the customer can’t see. In the first part of this blog series , I talked about the multi-channel retail experience and the critical prerequisite retailers need to fulfill to get started on this journey. In this post, I will explore how retailers can design their bottom line with the customer in mind. In the context of multi-channel retailing, the expression “putting the customer at the heart of everything we do” translates into: Providing value for the price a customer is payi

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10 Facts You Didn’t Know about China’s Super Consumers

The Network Effect

'China’s super consumers are the biggest and most important consumer class in history. In his new book China’s Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them , Tompkins International Principal Michael Zakkour explores the extraordinary birth of consumerism in China and explains who these super consumers are. Take a look at 10 interesting insights from the book: No matter what products or services you are selling, you cannot succeed in China or with Chinese consumers w

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Kinaxis Receives Two Awards at the Best Ottawa Business Awards Gala: Deal of the Year and Outstanding Company

Kinaxis

'by John Sicard Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Best Ottawa Business Awards in Ottawa, Canada where Kinaxis was recognized for Deal of the Year and as an Outstanding Company. As an Ottawa headquartered company and a business that has been very successful over the past few years, we are delighted to be a part of the business growth and success of Ottawa.

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How to Create a Blueprint for Fleet Resilience

Speaker: Jeff Dickinson - President and CEO of Railgistixs Transport, Supply Chain and Logistics Thought Leader

Despite the ongoing transformation of the supply chain and logistics landscape, the steadfast importance of carrier safety remains a core principle. From prioritizing preventative maintenance to optimizing fleet utilization, the fundamentals persist. If you’re overlooking and neglecting essential safety precautions today, this could result in expensive repairs and potential safety hazards in the future. 🚧 Join Jeff Dickinson for a conversation on how to mitigate risk, enforce compliance,

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Why Businesses are Elevating Supply Chain Design from a Project to a Core Business Process

Logistics Viewpoints

'When I speak with new customers, many of them tell me how in the past they viewed supply chain design as an optimization project that was completed every three to five years, often by third-party firms. Now these large, multi-national businesses are bringing supply chain design in-house and adopting it as a core business process. […].

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Insights from Ryder Innovate 2014

Talking Logistics

'I have long argued that third party logistics providers (3PLs) should set themselves apart from the competition by fully harnessing the power and value of their customer and employee communities. The reason is simple: companies want their 3PL partners to provide them with insights about leading industry practices and trends, as well as to facilitate networking and knowledge-exchange opportunities with other shippers in the 3PL’s community.

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Human Rights in the End-to-End Supply Chain

SCM Research

'“Certification programs have their merits and their limitations. With the growing availability of social media, analytics tools, and supply chain data, a smarter set of solutions could soon be possible”, as Robert Handfield and I argue in our paper, just published in Supply Chain Management Review. We believe that an evolution from company thinking to supply chain thinking will now help to make businesses more socially responsible: “Traditional solutions that focus just on a b

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FMCG Supply Chain Consultants – Gok, Martha and Jamie.

Enchange Supply Chain Consultancy

'My aging Toyota Land Cruiser is about to clock up an impressive 300,000km on roads that are of variable and low quality. Luckily, the car is built like a tank and comes with bull bars on the front or what I like to call a “Dacia Catcher”. (Dacia as in Thatcher not Dacia as in Facia; will Captain Slow of Top Gear ever learn?). Now is the time I have to get the car ready for the bi-annual roadworthiness inspection and this year I thought I would change the servicing garage.

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The Art of Consistent Perfect Order Delivery: Smart Order Fulfillment Through Orchestration

Shippers and logistics service providers are pressured to match the “Amazon effect” for fast and efficient service across multiple B2C, B2B, and D2C channels. Perfect order delivery - on-time and in-full at the lowest possible cost – is critical. However, recent surveys of supply chain stakeholders reveal that many don't have the technology necessary to achieve it.

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The Digital Path to Purchase Requires Mastery of Omnichannel Capabilities

Enterra Insights

'“Very few companies – a mere five percent – believe they are ‘advanced’ when it comes to omnichannel capabilities,” a … Continued The post The Digital Path to Purchase Requires Mastery of Omnichannel Capabilities appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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End-to-End Available to Promise Webcast

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow Just a quick post to let our readers know of the upcoming webcast, “ End-to-End Available to Promise “ This webcast will define available to promise (ATP) in dispersed and outsourced operations for environments with high demand and supply variability. Traditionally, ATP has been done in a request – promise manner across each tier of the supply chain, which adds enormous latency to the decision process.

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Two Ways Supply Chains Can Remain Strategic to Business

Logistics Viewpoints

'Supply chain management is a critical function at any business that involves production, distribution, or inventory management. But being a critical function does not make it strategic in the traditional Michael Porter definition of providing a unique, valuable and sustainable competitive advantage. So, how can the supply chain management function elevate itself to that of […].