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I laugh when business leaders tell me that they are going to replace their current supply chain planning technologies with “AI.” Each supply chain planning technology at the end of 2024, went through disruption–change in CEO, business model shift, layoffs, re-platforming and acquisitions. You are right.
Building a software company is hard work. The industry has had little value from digital transformation and business networks. Most of the business networks were hollowed out by venture capitalists or purchased by opportunists. The business network market is in need of innovation.) In the discussion, don’t be shy.
Supply chain excellence is easier to say than to explain. The supply chain is a complex non-linear system. At each company, there is a relationship between the metrics of growth, margin, inventory, customer service, and asset strategy. The culture is dominated by “lifers” and technology investment is conservative.
End-to-end supply chain visibility, planning, and execution support software are critical in agile supply chain performance. The classical approach involves functional silos, sequential decisions, and Excel and people to render a plan executable. each with discrete plans generated typically in sequential batch runs.
Despite two decades of advancement in supply chain technologies, companies are struggling to gain balance at the intersection of operating margin, inventory turns and case fulfillment. I believed that the first generation of supply chain systems would improve operations to a greater degree than actually happened. I am an old gal.
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. Technology integration: Leveraging digital tools to enhance visibility and decision-making.
Millions of shoppers, like my Dad, are not going back to their old habits because there are now faster and more convenient ways for buying daily household needs. It excels on a union of E-Commerce mobile apps and last-mile delivery innovations. It also provides an excellent part-time employment opportunity with flexible shifts.
I asked companies to “Navigate through the hype focusing on the feasibility of scope and technology.” At the time, the popular belief was that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technologies would build multi-tier capabilities. It went public last year in one of the few successful IPOs in the supply chain software space.
The attendees were sitting on the edge of their seats to hear about the next release of Llamasoft software. The market for network design tools was growing at a moderate rate, and most of the market had invested in technologies from either i2 Technologies (then termed i2 Strategist) or Logictools. Reflections.
Nick Lynch is the Global Excellence Manager at Shell Lubricants, a division of Shell Global. It is just not enough to do a software upgrade or slowly push continuous improvement projects. He did this first by implementing demand sensing from Terra Technology (now E2Open) eight years ago. Nick does this well. The reason?
The consulting team pitches a theme–vision of supply chain best practices, big data analytics, or demand-driven value networks– to the executive team, and a new project is initiated. The first evolution of technologies were built by best-of-breed solution vendors. The first step in the journey is a kick-off meeting.
The award, based on beating the industry peer group on rate of improvement on the key metrics of growth, operating margin, inventory turns, and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) while outperforming their peer group, is tough to achieve. The orbit chart below illustrates L’Oréal’s performance at the intersection of two metrics.
Market-driven Value Networks: An adaptive network focused on a value-based outcomes. The network senses, translates, and orchestrates market changes (buy and sell-side markets) bi-directionally with near-real time data to align sell, deliver, make and sourcing organizations outside-in.
As an analyst in the supply chain market for 15 years, I have written many articles on best-of-breed technology companies purchased by a larger company. Today I am writing my take on the acquisition of Terra Technology by E2open. History of Terra Technology. Terra Technology is 15-years old.
In the work, I listen to existing processes to provide feedback, ideate with the team on potential improvement, share advice on the fit of technologies, and network leaders to leaders to gain additional insights. How aligned do you believe your organization is to drive these metrics? Who makes the decisions on the trade-offs?
Or agreement on the definition of supply chain excellence. As a result, functional excellence anchors action. The focus is on digitization—automating today’s processes—versus rethinking process excellence based on the art of the possible. Confluence of New Technologies. Today, we find ourselves in a hype cycle.
by Trevor Miles I have been in the advanced planning and scheduling (APS) space since 1995 when I joined i2 Technologies in Europe. My enhancements were to add the underlying technology and company information at the bottom which gives some context. . Let me start with the confusion between planning and execution. Their words.
million square feet in 10 distribution centers and 35 million square feet across its branch network. Driving an excellent supply chain depends on how people are recruited and managed, processes, and the technology used. The company has shown sustained improvement on this metric. Across the US, Ferguson has 6.5
This is why I host training twice a year to challenge existing technology paradigms. He feels that based on his years of experience with a software provider, he has a whizzbang technology. Optimization engines to improve functional metric performance resulted in an exploding number of planners. Back to John.
As McCarthy put it, after a customer buys a bed, it’s his responsibility “to make sure we deliver it to their home brilliantly.” Getting real-time data from telematics and feeding it back into the planning system for ongoing process improvement is critical.
It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. Year after year, well intentioned people toiled against improving metrics that reduced, not improved, the effectiveness of the supply chain. These technologies are mature. I feel that many of these technologies are now legacy.
It’s a holistic approach that blends strategic planning, streamlined processes, and the right technology to transform your warehouse into a well-oiled, profit-generating machine. Eight proven optimization strategies, combining technology, best practices, and sustainable solutions.
Businesses adopt online procurement systems to mitigate risks and to streamline requisitions, approvals, order placement, and spend management. However, with numerous e-procurement software vendors available, choosing the right tool can be overwhelming. Keep reading to learn: What is an online procurement system?
If you are going to be excellent at ecommerce fulfillment, you need to have great perpetual inventory capabilities. Cloud-based logistics and warehouse management are combining with B2B networks to enable multi-tier fulfillment. Some of the packages on the trucks moving right now are the first shipments of Metrics that Matter.
“The idea of the value chain is based on the process view of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or service) organisation as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs. 2) Efficient Supply Chains, Not Effective Networks. High-Tech and Electronic Supply Networks.
Last week, at Supply Chain Insights , as part of our monthly webinar series, I hosted a panel discussion on the current state of the healthcare value network. They each lag in their understanding of supply chain excellence, and are now struggling to build effective supply chain teams. I think both factors are at play. What Can We Do?
Additionally, through network strategies, be sure to design your warehouses for flows. Common Platforms: The more that products are standardized and platforms are rationalized, the easier it is to design for agility. Additionally, through network strategies, be sure to design your warehouses for flows.
, the biggest challenge supply chain and logistics professionals face today is not change, which is something they have always faced, but keeping up with the rapid pace of change across a variety of dimensions — technology, regulations, economic and political landscapes, demographics, and so on. What benefits are they achieving?
Ultimately, what KPIs, as metrics and indicators derived from the set of plans are taken into account and prepared for each scenario. Technology for Effective Planning. Working with Excel spreadsheets does not contribute the efficiency, speed and agility necessary for planning teams to bring the best plans to the company.
Brand loyalty is no longer the driver for consumer purchasing decisions. People simply want to purchase products from businesses which provide a more transparent and streamlined service, and who deliver on their customer promise, even if it means inflated prices to obtain it. AI WILL FACILITATE AGILE AND RESILIENT DECISION-MAKING.
Consultants and technology leaders are rebranding under a “digital umbrella” without clear definition. Confluence of Technologies. Here are my predictions for 2018: Supply Chain Excellence as We Know It Is Redefined. Supply chain excellence definitions evolve as companies explore the Art of the Possible.
2) Value Network Connectivity. Each year, we do a study–we term it the Voice of Supply Chain User – on user satisfaction with today’s systems. As noted on the figure, currently people are not happy with any of their supply chain systems. Users of Software as a Service solutions have higher satisfaction rates.
Mr. Welty founded a company that sold warehouse management systems (WMS) called AllPoints Systems in 1987. The company buying his company, EXE Technologies, is now infamous among those who have followed the WMS market. EXE Technologies bought AllPoints with stock. Unfortunately, Kiva Systems was bought by Amazon.
It is hard work to maintain the status quo in metrics performance. A balanced portfolio of metrics delivers the greatest value. The supply chain is a complex, non-linear system. As a result, supply chain leaders focus on unrealistic goals of inventory or costs, they will throw the system out of balance. Many fail.
The turns are the lowest of any industry, and despite investments in technologies and processes, inventory turns have only improved 3%, and Cash-T0-Cash (C2C) cycles have declined 4%. There is an inverse relationship between margin and supply chain excellence. There is no Walmart or channel power broker in this value network.
For the past five years, the team at Supply Chain Insights identified Supply Chains to Admire Award Winners by analyzing performance by peer group on the key metrics of growth, operating margin, inventory turns and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). The project included the centralization of SAP ERP and the augmentation with other software.
While I blog more business-focused research on Forbes , and tell stories from my travels on LinkedIn , this is my blog for the technology leader attempting to stay current on supply chain technology trends. The Evolution of Supply Chain Technology Adoption: Beginning of the Third Act? I average a post a week. The gaps are large.
Today, technology providers are selling analytics. It is about answering the questions that we do not know to ask and testing and learning from market data (in vitro) to understand effective frontiers in complex non-linear systems. The answer is not with one technology or approach. A dragon lives forever but not so little boys.
The focus is on the role of supply chain finance in driving supply chain excellence. The design of the conference includes tours of several modern warehouses and centers of excellence. The supply chain is a complex non-linear system. ————————-. Time horizon. The River of Demand. #3
Executive, after executive, lament, “They have purchased many technologies and sponsored many projects to reduce inventories, but they are not seeing results.” ” I have been studying the evolution of inventory technologies as an industry analyst since 2002. It is truly a case of process, people and technology.
Gartner purchased the firm in 2010.) Driving Improvements in Supply Chain Excellence. He felt strongly that supply chain leaders knew how to drive supply chain excellence and needed a forum– or maybe two or three depending on the business model– to help them network and refine their approaches. I disagreed.
There is no doubt, that the retail landscape is increasingly looking like an online one as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Toys R Us, Foot Locker, and Best Buy mobile shutter hundreds of stores unable to keep up with the changing customer that wants fast, free delivery all with just a click of a button. trillion, a 3.8
True collaboration is systemic. Cash-to-Cash Metrics. Cash-to-cash is a compound metric: (Days of Receivables+Days of Inventory)-Days of Payables=Cash Conversion Cycle. While touted as a digital procurement provider, it took the Company nine days to onboard me as a vendor, and two weeks to process a Purchase Order.
To drive global scale, companies need to design the supply chain to buy globally and execute locally. The company leverages globally sourcing strategies to buy products at a lower cost and then deploys some unique process logic to drive mass customization for retailers. Performance on the Supply Chain Metrics That Matter.
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