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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.
I find that most companies’ understanding of supply chain planning is immature, and that next week, at the Gartner Supply Chain Summit in Orlando, that many will don their Mickey ears to discuss what I consider outdated supply chain planning models. Business leaders see the open sharing of feedback on software as too risky.
Strategic sourcing and innovative solutions are often viewed as two distinct procurement tools, but they should not be seen in isolation. Think of them as apples and gearseach essential and effective on its own, yet when combined; they create a formidable mechanism for achieving procurement excellence. Click here!
They need visibility across multiple internal systemslike ERP, CRM, and financial platformsand even external sources shared with suppliers, partners, and customers. Thats why modern BI systems are quickly becoming the go-to solution for data-driven enterprises. But lets be clear: not all BI platforms are created equal.
Technology can change or even improve work. 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. What’s missing? The ripple effects are pervasive. The reason?
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.
These passports document all aspects of the life cycle – from the sourcing of raw materials to final disposal or recycling. Information must be collected at each stage of a product’s life, including material sourcing, energy use, and environmental impact. Errors or missing information can weaken the effectiveness of the passport.
Today, supply chain excellence matters more than ever. While the supply chain technology market lost its allure at the start of the last decade, it is now cool again. The discipline, first defined in 1982, includes source, make, deliver, and planning functions. The supply chain technology market is responding. The reason?
The issues are largely rooted in politics and the lack of clarity on supply chain excellence. The goal was to teach the impact of system dynamics in a non-linear system that we now call the supply chain. However, few measure it, and no technology is available to drive a learning engine to minimize the bullwhip impact.
In follow-up qualitative interviews, one of the largest issues with organizational alignment was metric definition and a clear definition of supply chain excellence. To manage continuous improvement, companies need a clear definition of excellence and organizational alignment to that goal. They do not excel in planning or forecasting.
As a developer working on the braking software of an automatic car for the past eight years, he constantly tells me that it is not easy, and all of the estimates are too waaaay too positive. I thought back to the press releases I wrote at prior technology companies, which only had a glimmer of truth. The facts are clear.
. <Bear with me… > Here I share a nine-step process in an attempt to help companies unravel the process for buying supply chain planning software. Polluted with well-intended marketing messages by over-zealous technology providers and consultants creates confusion. Research models are always different.
The lack of interoperability between decision support platforms is a problem for companies attempting to improve decisions from the channel to supplier bi-directionally through technology. My Point of View (POV): current processes and technologies are insufficient. When he speaks of the supply chain, he means procurement.
For most digital became an excuse to implement more traditional relational database technologies. Most companies invested in enterprise transactional systems, but their networks operate primarily through spreadsheets and email. Most are excited about their new platforms. ” Does the Dog Hunt? I am researcher.
” Followed by “How are you organized, and what defines functional excellence? And, how do you tie functional excellence to corporate value?” Companies became less clear on the definition of supply chain excellence and how to implement decision support technologies. This gap grew over the last decade.
Supply chain excellence is easier to say than to explain. The supply chain is a complex non-linear system. Understanding this relationship requires modeling. (A The culture is dominated by “lifers” and technology investment is conservative. Business leaders are action-oriented and competitive. The reason?
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.
My Perspective and Point of View Traditional supply chain technologies depend on relational database structures. Like Linus clinging to his blanket, supply chain teams make most of their decisions on Excel spreadsheets. Relational database structures are a barrier to modeling relationships and flow. I term this our data jail.
Let’s start with the definitions: Graph AI uses Machine Learning on graph-based technology to understand the relationships between variables to drive insights. Graph technology leverages graph structures to represent and store data. Running optimizers frequently introduce noise and error into a complex system.
No technology in the market measures inventory health. My answer is why are we spending so much money in technology and human capital to degrade the forecast with an exponential impact on inventory. Improve visibility across the networks that operate in self-serving business models. Is this a risk to resilience? Yes, I think so.
Importers are trying to push 30 percent more thru a system that is running at 70 percent throughput aainst the old level. My thought was to combine my experience working on visibility solutions with Descartes Systems Group and Manugistics with recent research data. We ordered pizza and started working on a visibility maturity model.
Yesterday, @DamarqueViews asked me a question on twitter: “What do you think are the greatest barriers in the adoption of social technology in the supply chain?” I find the evolution of social technologies, and the promise of social, exciting for the supply chain. They excel in the four Ps of marketing.
Introduction Gardner, (1954) and Huntzinger, (2007) define Purchase price variance (PPV) as a metric used to measure the effectiveness of cost-saving efforts by calculating the difference between the planned cost (standard pricing) allocated for purchasing activities and the actual cost incurred.
The company sources goods from 34,000 suppliers out of 30 nations. Driving an excellent supply chain depends on how people are recruited and managed, processes, and the technology used. The company uses a network design tool from Coupa. This is an important analysis tool for maintaining a well-run supply chain.
CAGR , the global supply chain management software market is expected to touch USD 50 billion by 2032. This one figure speaks volumes about how organizations worldwide want access to the best supply chain management tools to boost efficiency and value in their distribution and logistics network. Growing at an overwhelming rate of 11.1%
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.
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.
It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. I strongly feel that a blind focus on functional excellence will cause the supply chain to become out of balance. These technologies are mature. I feel that many of these technologies are now legacy. Here is my argument.
The introduction of smoke-free products made the use of spreadsheet tools far less efficient in the capacity and sourcing planning as the new product categories had rapid growth. “We We needed to simulate multiple scenarios of significantly increased capacity and sourcing complexity, at speed and over a long planning horizon.
With rising costs and declining margins, health systems must become more efficient and productive. Now, of course the systems of healthcare differ but overall the level and growth is certainly a concern. Quite often there can be a general lack of spend and vendor management and strategic sourcing activities. Share on Twitter.
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.
Modern enterprises rely on supply chain software to track several activities, including manufacturing and distribution of goods. However, most of these systems were created before web technologies existed or were in their infancy. These platforms allow users to create robust apps without coding each detail from scratch.
“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. Our current processes and dependencies on Excel spreadsheets cannot get us to our goal.
In the supply chain, variability and volatility come from many sources. The best way to start the design of an agile supply chain is to look at the sources of variability and market volatility that your supply chain encountered in the prior year. Q: You mention that Executive Buy-in is the biggest stumbling block.
by Lori Smith Can the S&OP process be done without technology? The answer to that question has certainly evolved over the years, and while there are still some holdouts, most will now agree that technology is indeed required. So what technologies are today’s supply chain teams using to support the critical S&OP process?
Your Comprehensive Guide to Production Planning Software The benefits of production planning software vs scheduling are about the granularity of the plan: capacity plans (or master production schedules) are not granular and factor in less granular things, like high level capacity, forecasts, inventory, and transfer times.
Note that network enablement is not possible from most ERP platforms. Many of these outsourced products have demand latency of weeks and months (shelf purchase through the replenishment cycle for a manufacturer to receive an order). The models were not implemented correctly to use channel data. Customer Service.
I spent time this week completing reference calls on the use of S&OP technologies. Seeking the next sequel in technology adoption, I want to write how the confluence of new technologies changed companies’ abilities to improve decisions. So, to find the new sequel, I also interviewed new technology entrants.
In addition, poor visibility, unpredictable demand, and disjointed systems worsen the situation further and lead to inefficient procurement, misplaced stock, and emergency orders. Thats why a growing number of organizations are turning to AI software for spare parts inventory management.
Organizations then convert those demand forecasts to the associated quantities of raw materials to purchase, goods to be manufactured, or finished products to ship. Some suppliers of demand management software can also provide excellent forecast benchmarking for selected industries. Demand models need to be continuously updated.
Reason #4 Making key decisions by modelling the supply chain in Excel. I lost track of how many carrots we had and ended up buying more when we really didn’t need any. One of the problems with poor forecast accuracy is that today’s legacy systems are unable to respond fast enough to satisfy demand that is in excess of forecast.
Many of the managers I speak with are buying into the application of artificial intelligence in the workplace, but often struggle to identify specific processes that are best suited for AI.I Bots are technologies that can grab an API key and follow a command. (An This is where the opportunities lie ahead.
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. These concepts, radically different from the traditional planning systems in the market, fly in the face of tradition.
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