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Each supply chain planning technology at the end of 2024, went through disruption–change in CEO, business model shift, layoffs, re-platforming and acquisitions. Sorting through this to make a decision on a new planning solution at this time is tough. At the top of the model is a balanced scorecard. My advice?
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 follow-up qualitative interviews, one of the largest issues with organizational alignment was metric definition and a clear definition of supply chain excellence.
However, as carbon taxes and emissions reporting requirements continue increasing, supply chain professionals face mounting pressures from inside and outside their organizations to measure and improve performance against new, nebulous sustainability metrics. Sustainability is high on the list of favorite corporate buzzwords.
As supply chains become more interconnected and risks more dynamic, traditional procurement tools fall short. AI agents offer a smarter, faster way to manage sourcing, risk, and spend across the entire procurement lifecycle. They can learn and improve over time, as they collect new data and feedback.
As supply chains become more interconnected and risks more dynamic, traditional procurement tools fall short. AI agents offer a smarter, faster way to manage sourcing, risk, and spend across the entire procurement lifecycle. They can learn and improve over time, as they collect new data and feedback.
Enterprise procurement teams face growing pressure to deliver strategic value – managing supplier risk, ensuring compliance, and supporting sustainability – all without sacrificing speed or control. This blog explores the most common challenges in digital procurement and the capabilities that matter most.
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.
Reason #4 Making key decisions by modelling the supply chain in Excel. Reason #9 Relentless pursuit of one supply chain metric at the expense of other metrics. Imagine that your child brings home their report card and it’s a mix of good and fair grades. Just focus on geography and forget about anything else.
In this type of environment, traditional procurement software and manual processes are insufficient – and many procurement teams are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) for answers. Key Takeaways Understand the potential impact of AI – including Generative AI & AI Agents – in procurement.
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.
Three months into 2025, we have seen a barrage of on-again, off-again tariffs that have supply chain and logistics teams reeling, as they must rethink everything from next weeks shipping route to their foundational network models. With the global e-commerce market predicted to reach $8.1 We were wrong. billion to $23.07
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.
The output was just not helpful. With fixed models and hard-wired data feeds, teams could not adjust the planning systems to use consumption data or market indicators. Next Steps: Start to model demand based on market data to align the organization on baseline demand. Instead, rethink the model and the approach.
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!
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.
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?
The promise of a well-intended consultant just sounds sooooooo good. 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.)
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. You know there are opportunities hidden in the numbers; the challenge is surfacing them in time to act. Let’s dig in!
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 inventory costs and delivery times.
Procuring transportation for freight is much different than any other procurement category. Transportation procurement needs to support both customer service and a company’s internal supply chain goals. One master of freight procurement is Kyle Masters. For their customers, “on time” is customer defined.
This advanced analysis allows businesses to predict promotional lift with unprecedented accuracy, ensuring optimized production schedules and inventory positioning through sophisticated supply planning. Five Ways Advanced Machine Learning in Demand Planning Is Improving Forecasting 1.
Analytics and business intelligence (BI) are no longer optionaltheyre essential. But to do that effectively, they need more than just spreadsheets and static dashboards. They integrate, align, and activate data across the business to drive better, faster decisions unlike legacy reporting tools that can’t.
Procurement and Supply Chain Management are essential functions that can help companies navigate these challenges, but they are often siloed and operate in separate departments. Their metrics are often misaligned as well – supply chain focuses on service and procurement focuses on the cost of acquiring materials and services.
The companies with the strongest year-over-year performance (placing in the winner’s circle for six more times in ten years) are Apple, L’Oreal, Nike, Paccar, TJX, and TSMC. As an old gal, with over forty-years of supply chain experience, writing this report for ten years taught me many lessons.
How aligned do you believe your organization is to drive these metrics? In my recent Mea Culpa post, I mentioned my prior work on Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), and the importance of leadership. Sounds easy, right? Leadership and S&OP? Shouldn’t it be like peanut butter and jelly? What sounds so easy is very difficult.
In recent years, the overall state of Procurement has been bolstered by increased proficiency, expanding engagement, and a growing direct impact on operations. And they’re not the only ones—other department heads are also increasingly budget-conscious, creating a new opportunity to partner with procurement for better budget management.
By embedding analytics across logistics, sourcing, and fulfillment, businesses gain the visibility and foresight needed to stay competitive.Analytics-driven leadership is no longer a luxury; it’s the foundation of operational survival in todays volatile business environment. Analytics allows organizations to move beyond intuition.
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? Why You Need Visibility of Supply Chain and Procurement KPIs? Decoding the Metrics: What Are They Telling You?
Instead of relying solely on a single, monolithic AI model (based on a massive large language model), a company can orchestrate a team of specialized agents, each leveraging the best AI or mathematical technique for its specific task. We needed to model the data in a way that we can do simple searching. Al Syed explained.
Just as in the following five examples that reveal interesting data related to the trucking industry. Transportation Metrics That Matter Most to Track and Improve Performance : How do you measure logistics efficiency and transportation metrics performance indicators when you are already doing the best job possible?
Some supply chain companies are leaning on the power of analytics to help streamline their processes and get ahead of their competitors. But many companies have struggled to embrace the relationship between using analytics and implementing changes that can improve business performance. The simpler the model, the more likely the use.
Logistics encompasses certain subsets of practices within the supply chain, such as just in time logistics, mission critical logistics, and more. The reason is that really, reverse logistics is something a lot of shippers and logistics providers have done for a long time. Top 15 Logistics Blog Posts of 2014. Read the Full Post.
Opinion of just-in-time (JIT) as a practice has taken a battering and inventory is rising. Calls are increasing for a return to just-in-case (JIC) policies, with some citing this trend as a risk. My great-aunt Ione, who lived to be 103, quit smoking at 97, which prompted the question “why now?”
This is part 2 of a 2-part series on how to succeed in planning and decisions amid times of disruption. In part 1 of my blog on Planning the Value Chain and Decision Making in Times of Disruption, the focus was on the ability to react and execute amidst the unpredictability of demand. Technology for Effective Planning.
Every time that it happens, I smile. It was when gasoline was 1/3 the cost of today and there was a lot of excitement about 32-bit architectures and the move to client-server systems. Just ask any consultant and they will quickly tout “best practices.” I understand. I was once there also. Let me start with a story.
This blog explains The Key MRP Metrics in Supply Chain whcih every supply chain professional in Manufacturing or Distribution Businesses. The metrics that underpin MRP could be described as the balls in this juggling act. This article takes an in-depth look at the crucial metrics every supply chain professional needs to know.
In today’s dynamic market, procurement is far more than just a buying and purchasing center. Our latest e-book, “ Is Manufacturing Missing Out On Procurement’s Value Add? Our latest e-book, “ Is Manufacturing Missing Out On Procurement’s Value Add? Here are some key insights from the e-book.
Analytical techniques like linear programming can create the mathematically “optimal” plan, but these methods must be implemented well to avoid creating other challenges. Analytical techniques like linear programming can create the mathematically “optimal” plan, but these methods must be implemented well to avoid creating other challenges.
Companies often push aside procurement compliance to focus on more pressing issues. No wonder—procurement often gets tedious and burdened with time-consuming processes. However, ignoring procurement compliance is like ignoring a ticking time bomb. It’s only a matter of time before it explodes.
Businesses often use it in retail and purchasing. Category management isn’t just another procurement trend. It’s a way for companies to group similar goods or services (like IT infrastructure, facilities, or raw materials) and manage them holistically instead of handling every purchase in isolation.
The major challenge faced by customers of real-time visibility data had always been how to operationalize what could quickly become overwhelming quantities of fast-changing information. This extensive connectivity has resulted in impressive metrics: 1.2 The platform is built on a four-layered framework: Connect, See, Act, Automate.
At that time, manufacturers talked about customer-centric supply chains, but were afraid to aggressively adopt ecommerce strategies. Get Good at Having a Real-time Perpetual Inventory Signal. Foundational for ecommerce is a real-time perpetual inventory (PI) signal. The proliferation of the business models is exciting.
Remember those times when we used to stroll down the block and find local stores such as the mom-and-pop diners and get the chance to relish the coziness and sense of family environment there. Digital commerce efficiently requires the digitalization of many customer-facing operations and sourcing and procurement.
Inventory, in this time of uncertainty, is the organization’s most important buffer to protect against variability. Cash-to-Cash Metrics. In times of uncertainty, cash is king. Cash-to-cash is a compound metric: (Days of Receivables+Days of Inventory)-Days of Payables=Cash Conversion Cycle. Let me explain.
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