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This month, I traveled the globe helping companies understand the potential impact of technology innovation on the future of supply chain processes, I find the term “digital innovation” is a bit like tulip mania. How so? It is a fad sweeping across supply chain leadership teams. I am trying to help teams manage the hype and drive value. CIOs are rebranding as Digital Innovation Officers, and consultants are knocking down doors to sell digital innovation projects.
The manufacturing industry has always been a hotbed for innovation and advancement — but it relies heavily on the workers who have the skills and training to fill those jobs. Experts have predicted more than 2 million manufacturing jobs will go unoccupied during the next 10 years, as the baby boomer generation starts to retire. How can we help to prepare the industry for the next generation of manufacturers?
An interview with Boon Edam’s Aron Waas. Implementing Sales and Operations Planning has many benefits. To truly leverage it to improve business performance and predictability, you need to embark on a change management process and you need the right technology to self-enable your team. Often, teams think they also need plenty of clean and accurate data to do it right.
I hate prediction articles. However, this morning over coffee, my fingers hunger to write this post. I am not sure why. It may be that I am growing tired of hubris and market hype. I writhe in my seat at most conferences and count the number of times the word “digital” is used in presentations. I am often uncomfortable. Consultants and technology leaders are rebranding under a “digital umbrella” without clear definition.
The $53 trillion manufacturing economy in the US is undergoing a major automation paradigm shift due to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Thanks to new practical frameworks, automation projects that were once impossible or inefficient to implement are now being fast-tracked, and robotics automation is becoming increasingly relevant to a growing number of users and scenarios.
Prices Set To Ramp Up For Chinese New Year: Freight Rate Update Wk 2. By John Edmonds, Research & Marketing, Freightos. Weekly update article on the Freightos International Freight Index exploring rate trends and their driving forces. 2018 started with China-US ocean freight prices increasing by 27% as supply chains came back into full swing. Following brief dips last week, ocean and air freight prices will likely rise in the run-up to the Chinese New Year closedown.
Trade promotion forecasting is difficult: getting it right involves factoring in many variables. Marketing people, who are often responsible for it, may excel at creating and running promotions. Forecasting demand data, not so much. This can leave supply chain professionals the tough job planning for, and responding to, promotions. To do this, the first hurdle is creating a good statistical baseline forecast.
Trade promotion forecasting is difficult: getting it right involves factoring in many variables. Marketing people, who are often responsible for it, may excel at creating and running promotions. Forecasting demand data, not so much. This can leave supply chain professionals the tough job planning for, and responding to, promotions. To do this, the first hurdle is creating a good statistical baseline forecast.
It only takes a simple example to remind you how e-commerce continues to evolve and the potential it has to disrupt traditional markets, supply chains and even governments. Let me tell you how international e-commerce is changing one buying pattern and why it will reshape global logistics operations and government import regulations. The moral to the story is that significant e-commerce change doesn’t always start with a big bang, but failure to see change coming can leave many companies at a co
Manufacturing is on the cusp of an explosion in growth and innovation in 2018. Regulatory reform has been top-of-mind for supply chain executives and political leaders in the US since the 2016 election. The US energy industry is also awaiting changes in basic operating procedures, which are expected to dramatically reduce energy costs. These facts set the stage for exponential manufacturing growth in 2018.
AIMMS has been active in the supply chain space for over 28 years. We’ve seen the evolution of the industry and its ongoing transformation , and have embarked on a transformation ourselves. The skills of the past are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of today’s complex, fast- moving digital environment , or prepare for the future.
by Dr. Madhav Durbha Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to engage in or witness the process organizations go through to prepare business cases in support of supply chain investments, from the successfully crafted and executed, to those that fail to gain traction. Based on that experience, I wanted to share my eight most important pieces of advice for those being asked to prepare a business case for their supply chain investments.
Recently, I spoke on the future of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee Supply Chain Forum. At the end of the presentation, Ed Hamlin of Logility stopped me and engaged me in a conversation on a recent Logility implementation at Glen Raven. He was proud of the implementation and asked if I had heard of Glen Raven. As he talked, I smiled.
A new report from Nucleus Research, Value Drivers of Single Model S&OP , concludes that the historical disconnect between planning and execution in S&OP is best bridged by a single unified data model that allows companies to continuously synchronize their strategic, tactical and execution plans. In addition, “supply chain modeling” has become the highest priority in Gartner’s Market Ranking of S&OP Capabilities , displacing “collaboration support with internal stakeholders”.
The 2018 supply chain conference season kicked off for me last week. I gave a keynote presentation on emerging technologies (drones, driverless trucks, 3D printing, blockchain, etc.) at the SMC3 Jump Start 2018 conference in Atlanta, GA. Unlike most industry conferences, which are crammed like sardines into the month of May, this one is always in January and it spotlights the trends and topics that are top of mind for supply chain and logistics executives heading into the new year.
Over the next two years, manufacturers are set to invest more than $250 billion in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and the use of technology to improve manufacturing will only increase. It is almost impossible to define the exact amount manufacturers will invest in technologies over the coming year, but they are moving toward more sustainable, cost-effective practices.
“What should we do about the tariffs?” There’s no straightforward answer — every leader has a different expectation. CFOs want numbers. COOs want action. CEOs want strategy. And supply chain and procurement leaders need to be ready with the right response — fast. That’s why GEP has created a simple three-part framework that will help CPOs and CSCOs brief the board and C-suite with clarity and confidence.
AIMMS has been active in the supply chain space for over 28 years. We’ve seen the evolution of the industry and its ongoing transformation , and have embarked on a transformation ourselves. The skills of the past are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of today’s complex, fast- moving digital environment , or prepare for the future.
Chris Rea has finally found the correct turn off, a lot of people in Africa still don’t know its Christmas and the novelty Santa toilet seat cover is back in the box. Oh, and chocolate Easter eggs are in the shops 4 months in advance. Christmas and the New Year holidays are well and truly over, and the clock is already ticking down on the month of January.
The Digital Freight Ecosystem. Part 2: What’s Bringing Freight Online. By Zvi Schreiber, CEO, Freightos. In the first part of this article , Dr. Schreiber observed that freight is still largely offline and examined why freight digitalization has been so complicated. . However, despite formidable challenges, the logistics industry has been anything but stagnant.
There’s untapped cash and profits in your spare parts business. Aftermarket parts is a big net margin producer for many manufacturers, and yet service levels and inventory in these operations are often woefully sub-optimized (See CapGemini statics above). A recent in depth study from McKinsey analyzed 30 industries and found that average earnings-before-interest-and-taxes (EBIT) margin for aftermarket services is 25 percent, compared to 10 percent for new equipment. (“ Industrial aftermarket ser
Speaker: Andrew Skoog, Founder of MachinistX & President of Hexis Representatives
Manufacturing is evolving, and the right technology can empower—not replace—your workforce. Smart automation and AI-driven software are revolutionizing decision-making, optimizing processes, and improving efficiency. But how do you implement these tools with confidence and ensure they complement human expertise rather than override it? Join industry expert Andrew Skoog as he explores how manufacturers can leverage automation to enhance operations, streamline workflows, and make smarter, data-dri
The term “control tower” has been around for a long time in the supply chain and I recently had a great conversation on the common misconceptions of what control towers are with Tom Nightingale and Adrian Gonzalez (you can watch the video here ). The consensus was that supply chain leaders’ expectations of a control tower are much different than what control towers can now do for their business.
With the increase in the popularity of e-shops and delivery companies, the logistics e-commerce business keeps growing. It faces more and more challenges, as the customers need companies to be quick and increase their logistics performance more than ever before. What does it mean for your business? This fact explains why understanding and following the key trends in logistics e-commerce are crucial for organizations that want to save their place in the supply chain and get better results with le
An interview with Boon Edam’s Aron Waas. Implementing Sales and Operations Planning has many benefits. To truly leverage it to improve business performance and predictability, you need to embark on a change management process and you need the right technology to self-enable your team. Often, teams think they also need plenty of clean and accurate data to do it right.
Recently, I spoke on the future of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee Supply Chain Forum. At the end of the presentation, Ed Hamlin of Logility stopped me and engaged me in a conversation on a recent Logility implementation at Glen Raven. He was proud of the implementation and asked if I had heard of Glen Raven. As he talked, I smiled.
Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.
February is here but blink and you will miss it as it is not a leap year. You cannot change January performance and February should be quite firm by now, so you need to be looking further ahead in your S&OP. Much further ahead.
Forecasting demand in the long tail is much different than in the head. Items with intermittent, unpredictable demand are a growing part of business. You don’t have to be an internet retailer like Amazon to see it. Companies are dealing with more slow moving items with unpredictable demand patterns, which is making demand forecasting and inventory management more difficult.
It’s safe to say that the pace of change in supply chain management, especially from a technology standpoint, has continued to accelerate. Everybody seems to be talking about the digital supply chain these days, but what exactly does that mean? Why is it important? What are some of the key capabilities companies need, not only to keep pace with this change, but also to find new avenues for growth and differentiation?
No one wants to think about lost warehouse inventory, and it can be organizationally frustrating to determine the best process to find, research, and rectify inventory discrepancies. One of the primary reasons a company implements a warehouse management system (WMS) is to know the exact location of their inventory; if the inventory is not there, one might think it is easy to just write that inventory off the books.
What is Remote-Insourcing? Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Not anymore. Remote-Insourcing isn’t outsourcing—it’s a revolutionary staffing model that lets our clients fill key entry-level positions with top-tier, loyal, long-term talent, integrated seamlessly into their businesses—just like local employees but without the turnover or W2 HR hassles. With under 4% unwanted attrition, you train once and keep the same team for years.
by Alexa Cheater It’s no secret these two groups don’t always see eye-to-eye. Finance and supply chain operations—both have a huge impact on your company’s bottom line, but oftentimes there’s conflict between these two organizations, especially when it comes to the numbers. Disparate data, siloed processes and discrepancies between the operational forecast and the corporate budget are all contributing factors.
If you’re back from your year-end holiday, welcome back! If you couldn’t take a break, you’re probably working in express logistics. Year-end is the busiest time for retailers and express logistics service providers as bargain-hunters snap up coveted items on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day. In China, Singles Day (November 11) brings out online shoppers in full force.
Where has that first post-holiday month gone? Suddenly it’s the 24 th of January and there are only 7 calendar days and 5 working days until you close the month. Adopt panic stations despite what Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army would say.
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