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Treating suppliers as essential partners in the field of direct spend management—almost like customers—can be a key component of a successful company strategy. Supply Chain Knowledge and Risk Mitigation: Suppliers have a direct impact on direct spend with raw material and transportation costs as two big drivers of operating margins.
They integrate AI into demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and logistics operations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and mitigate risks. Companies must react after the fact, often incurring higher costs and reduced service levels. Predictive maintenance of transportation fleets reduces downtime and repair costs.
The problem is that the reduction of costs within one function does not necessarily drive value. For example, if I improve the cost structure in transportation, procurement, manufacturing and sales independently, what decision support framework decides the right trade-offs? What should we do? What should be on the scorecard?
While SAP has had procurement analytics solutions, last year at Spend Connect Live, SAP announced the Spend Control Tower. Daniel Chapman, the senior director of process transformation for procure to pay at Warner Music, was a keynote speaker. However, those savings can leak away in several different ways.
Planners are uniquely positioned with an end-to-end focus, from procurement of materials, through manufacturing and engineering, to the movement, storage, and delivery of finished products or services. SCP involves meticulously planning the journey of a material or product from its raw material stage to its final consumer.
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.
You need granular visibility into every SKU and material that could face increased tariffs. Kanban buffer strategy Traditional lean principles assume predictable costs and supply flows. Your kanban and inventory strategies need tactical adjustments to prevent operational stalls. This isn't about broad categories.
Industry-specific content is available for processes like Source to Settle, Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, and more. A customer story highlighted saving thousands of hours annually and improving on-time delivery through automating part order processing. Automate: utilizes technologies such as RPA, IDP, and IPaaS.
While traditional supply chains move materials in a linear fashion, make, use, dispose, circular models seek to extend the life and value of resources by designing waste out of the system entirely. In practice, that means tracking materials more carefully, recovering components, rethinking product design, and integrating reverse logistics.
From raw material sourcing to logistics and regulatory compliance, stakeholders across the value chain will need to prepare for structural adjustments. Each reformulation may involve regulatory submissions, quality assurance reviews, and potential consumer communication strategies.
Supply Chain Resilience: Strategic partnerships with reliable suppliers guarantee consistent material availability, regardless of production scale. Dependencies on suppliers who cant meet increased demand can lead to material shortages and production delays. This reliability prevents bottlenecks and keeps production flowing smoothly.
That’s exactly what Kyle Krug , Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Marketing at Legacy Supply Chain Services, suggests. The SAP staff explains, “The good news is that you can now leverage smart technologies and tools to better power increasingly sophisticated supply chain optimization strategies.”
Factors such as geopolitical shifts, extreme weather events, raw material shortages, and infrastructure challenges can significantly impact operations. Effective demand planning also optimizes inventory levels, reducing costs associated with storage and carrying inventory.
You’ll learn how to leverage data to streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and exceed customer expectations. Various supply chain optimization techniques, such as detailed planning, assessing current practices, and automating processes, can significantly enhance efficiency and reduce costs. Let’s dive in.
Charting the Course to Sustainable Transportation: Our Journey to a Greener Future Introduction At LogiSYM Platinum in October, 2023, t he LSCMS Shippers Council recently hosted a round table event, bringing together key players in the logistics and supply chain management sectors to discuss the pivotal theme of sustainable transportation.
The explosion in globalisation, and corresponding reduction in transport availability over the last decade or so, have together kiboshed some of the factors which once fueled a steady growth in offshore manufacture and procurement. Let me show you why. Understanding the Basics: What is Nearshoring?
Decoding the Procurement Department: A Comprehensive Guide to Roles and Responsibilities This supply chain article provides a comprehensive overview of the procurement department within an organization. Read In Detail About Procurement Department Here 2.
Ask a procurement or transportation professional if they have a good demand signal and expect a laugh. Technology can automate role-based views up and down the river of demand for all roles: marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing, procurement, transportation, and human resources. Remove Boulders, Eddies and Dams.
According to McKinsey & Company, procurement accounts for 50% to 80% of a company’s cost base. That’s why organizations zero in on strategies to achieve procurement cost reduction. The key thing to remember is that cost reduction in procurement isn’t just about slashing expenses.
Mastering resilience enables businesses to uphold efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall performance even when dealing with disruptions. This article will explore key strategies for building supply chain resilience, and how Skill Dynamics can help support your business throughout this transformation.
For instance, a student struggling with inventory management concepts can receive supplementary materials, interactive simulations, and one-on-one tutoring sessions tailored to their needs. Conversely, a student who quickly grasps procurementstrategies can be challenged with advanced case studies and leadership projects.
We have all our factories, both in-house and outsourced, all of our distribution centers, and our transportation network on the Blue Yonder foundational system. We can run a plan simulation to maximize revenue, maximize shipments, maximize the customer experience, or minimize transportation costs. Fiedler : A couple of reasons.
As these organizations act on their climate pledges, the responsibility to reduce emissions is cascading to suppliers at every level. That includes everything from raw materials and manufacturing to packaging and logistics. Known as Scope 3 emissions, these are also the most difficult to measure and manage.
This trend, known as reshoring , is driving the emergence of regionalized freight networks , optimizing supply chains for efficiency, cost savings, and resilience. To mitigate risks, manufacturers are embracing regionalized freight networks that reduce dependence on overseas suppliers and enable faster, more reliable deliveries.
Just as your body needs multiple defense mechanisms to fight off illness, your supply chain needs various strategies to handle disruptions, whether they’re local supplier issues or global crises. Let’s look at five proven strategies that can help you create a more resilient supply chain.
At the core of every successful enterprise are four critical functions: supply chain management, logistics, transportation, and operations. Understanding the differences between supply chain, logistics, transportation, and operations is crucial for effective business planning, reducing delays, and controlling costs.
Tariffs are reshaping sourcing strategies, forcing tech upgrades, and making inventory planning a lot more complicated. Import tariffs raise the cost of raw materials, components, and finished goods. This strategy, while niche, shows how adaptive companies can be when incentives are clear. How Do Tariffs Affect Supply Chains?
As businesses globally focus on reducing lost productivity, costly downtime, and rising inventory expenses, effective spare parts management has become a top priority—especially for asset-intensive industries. This balance ensures that spare parts are always available for critical needs while reducing unnecessary inventory costs.
Behind the scenes of every successful business lies a well-orchestrated machine made up of four critical functions: supply chain, logistics, transportation, and operations. What Is Transportation? Supply chain management (SCM) is the overarching system that governs how goods move from raw materials to the final customer.
By mastering the five key supply chain capabilities below, you can generate substantial cost savings, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance your overall adaptability to market changes. It incorporates disciplines such as procurement, logistics, and inventory management to create a cohesive and competitive supply chain.
To stay ahead of the curve, industry leaders are turning to data-driven strategies and artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how they manage inventory, forecast demand, and optimize the entire spare parts lifecycle. This lack of transparency hampers accurate demand forecasting, procurement efficiency, and inventory optimization.
This article delves into the pivotal role of the supply chain in driving business success, highlighting its impact on reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, boosting customer satisfaction, and providing the agility needed to respond to an ever-changing market environment.
Sourcing High-Quality Raw Materials Quality is king in brewing. The character and taste of beer fundamentally depend on raw materials — water, malt, hops, and yeast. Proper beverage transportation is crucial for maintaining product quality, preventing spoilage, and meeting distribution timelines.
Supply chains are the backbone of global trade that ensure the smooth movement of goods and materials across industries. One of the most effective strategies for building resilience is integrating project management into supply chain operations.
Supply chain strategy is critical to business success, but companies often underestimate its importance and hence pay it less leadership attention than other areas of operation. Supply Chain Strategy In 2014, a survey by Tompkins Consortium delivered a shocking revelation.
Economic downturns can disrupt the flow of goods, increase operational costs, and reduce profit margins. In this blog post, well explore the importance of robust supply chains, the key risks they face during economic downturns, and practical strategies. Supply chains are particularly vulnerable during recessions.
While there are no short-term fixes, enterprises should prioritize areas where they can make the quickest gains to reduce costs. Depending on the nature of your business, your trading partners or your location, this could include procurementstrategies, demand planning, logistics, and global trade management among others.
But what exactly is supplier collaboration, and how can it be effectively implemented to enhance supply chain performance, reduce costs, and contribute to broader business objectives? Suppliers contribute their expertise in battery technology, lightweight materials, electronic components etc., What is supplier collaboration?
As supply chains become increasingly complex and face escalating pressures from global disruptions and rapid market shifts, businesses need more than traditional strategies to remain competitivethey need transformative tools.
Recent tariff hikes on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), medical devices and certain raw materials — particularly those sourced from China—are creating cost pressures and altering sourcing strategies. The following strategies outline how industry leaders are future-proofing their import operations in the year ahead.
Koganti urged the procurement audience to look for whats referred to as “foresight function” in planning tools, which is capable of enhancing data analysis, scenario generation and trend identification , allowing for more informed and proactive decision-making, albeit with human oversight.
Within this setup, an ERP procurement module helps companies make purchases and manage suppliers. Numbers speak louder: According to Procurement Tactics’ top procurement trends in 2025 , 83% of CPOs prioritize digitization. Keep reading to learn: What Is ERP in Procurement?
It demands a deep dive into complex calculations and multi-faceted considerations that impact everything from sourcing and production strategies to long-term investment and risk management. Evaluating the options around sourcing from different countries and applying different inbound and outbound transportationstrategies.
To stay ahead of the curve, industry leaders are turning to data-driven strategies and artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how they manage inventory, forecast demand, and optimize the entire spare parts lifecycle. This lack of transparency hampers accurate demand forecasting, procurement efficiency, and inventory optimization.
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