Low-cost country (LCC) sourcing is now a commonplace strategy for shrinking bottom line labor and material costs in most consumer products industries, including apparel, footwear, toys, and other manufactured products. Organizations continue to scour global markets for even lower labor rates, moving from Western China to the Pearl River, and now to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and North Africa. MORE

Lucky are the companies that can shift production to other countries like Mexico or Vietnam. With real-time visibility capabilities, customers can gain time to resolution to proactively identify issues deep in the supply chain, e.g. “where is my inventory,” and leverage ML-based recommendations to find alternate sources of supply and integrated execution capabilities to turn recommendations into alternate supply shipments. MORE

Almost 75 percent of US companies are experiencing capacity shortfalls in their supply chains, due to Coronavirus-linked transport disruptions , a new study has shown. Examples are: Samsung Electronics , which is shifting part of its domestic phone production to Vietnam due to the rapid advance of COVID-19 in South Korea. It is also airlifting parts from China to its Vietnam operations. MORE

The problem in most supply chains is “not enough data”, because data is being created from machines, from people, from systems, and from external sources. Often the sources of information are hidden in piles of data that we don’t think about. A problem in procurement can impact manufacturing and logistics and planning, but often these dots are never connected, so there never emerges a cross-functional approach to working on them. MORE

Those who source a significant portion of their goods from China. Also, those retailers who have not already diversified their sourcing options, as some of the major players have, will have little time to do that before the new tariffs kick in, putting them at a distinct disadvantage. finding alternate sources for goods outside of China. Other Asian sources have similar uncertainties to navigate. What will be the impact on costs for production and transportation? MORE

Those who source a significant portion of their goods from China. Also, those retailers who have not already diversified their sourcing options, as some of the major players have, will have little time to do that before the new tariffs kick in, putting them at a distinct disadvantage. finding alternate sources for goods outside of China. Other Asian sources have similar uncertainties to navigate. What will be the impact on costs for production and transportation? MORE

Strategies include sourcing more items directly from manufacturers to improve margins, SKU rationalization and space reduction, “show more carry less” and assisted-store ordering. Penske Logistics @PenskeLogistics In early 2018, Penske Logistics gained entry into the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), which encourages the development of blockchain applications in the transportation industry. The world of supply chain and logistics is changing every day. MORE

An excerpt from our book “The Procurement Value Proposition” got a nice section of CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly edition this week. The book looks at what the future procurement capability will need to be, in light of the massive “game changers” of globalization, technology, cultural diversity, demographic issues, and sustainable pressure that is changing the entire ecosystem. MORE