Category: Supply Chain

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The Supply Chain: 2/4/2015

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  • Time for CPOs to Focus More on Organizational Costs and Efficiencies Rather than Just Contracted Costs

    He adds that “If we can start eliminating work – by eliminating sacred documents such as the purchase order – as procurement leaders we can move to the forefront of innovation. By cutting costs in administration we can shift our time and talents toward strategic matters, which drive our companies forward.”

    http://www.scdigest.com/ontarget/15-01-27-3.php?cid=8924

  • Story about a retail company deploying DiCentral’s EDI procurement solution:
    Just interesting to read about alternative deployments
    http://www.just-style.com/news/genesco-to-streamline-supply-chain-with-edi_id124219.aspx
  • Procurement increasingly takes a back seat in BCO-carrier negotiations

    Major companies are realizing that their logistics teams bring in-depth transportation knowledge and long-term ocean carrier relationships, across a multitude of cultures, to the negotiating table. Those relationships can have an almost magical effect on the final freight dollar amount and resultant service level,” said Chas Deller, who retired in September as head of global ocean freight procurement for UTi Worldwide and is now a partner in 10XOCEANSOLUTIONS Inc. which advises shippers in contract negotiations.

    http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/container-lines/procurement-increasingly-takes-back-seat-bco-carrier-negotiations_20150126.html

  • Three tips for better IT Procurement

    1) Learn to navigate a three-tiered global supply chain
    2) Keep up with advances in technology
    3) Use impartial and reliable information to beat a volatile market

    http://www.supplymanagement.com/blog/2015/01/three-tips-to-better-it-procurement

  • The best supply chain CEOS
    I am not picking #1 (so you read the article) – here is #3:

    Frederick Smith
    Modern-day legend and proof of the American dream, Smith is the founder of one of the biggest companies in the world. Now a $45 billion interest, the idea for it began during Smith’s three-year stint, 1966-69, as a US Marine, where he observed closely the logistics and procurement of the armed forces and was inspired to start up an overnight delivery service for civilians. He founded Federal Express with his $4 million inheritance (modern equivalent $23 million) and raised $91 million ($525 million) in venture capital in 1970.

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/top10/3800/TOP-10-SUPPLY-CHAIN-CEOs-2015

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The Supply Chain: 1/28/2015

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  • Should companies hire supply chain EHS leaders?

    Given this approach to supplier relationship management, it’s a wonder whether or not enterprises are creating environmental, health and safety positions within procurement departments. According to the National Association for Environmental Management, an EHS manager oversees internal and external operations to ensure all suppliers and staff are abiding by national EHS regulations in addition to supporting progressive environmental policies and worker safety programs.

    http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2015/01/should-organizations-hire-supply-chain.html

  • Demand forecast practices that make customers happy:

    For a company to identify and take advantage of the patterns related to demand forecasting, they need to follow three best practices:
    1.) Implement forecasting software
    2.) Improve processes relating to inventory and sales
    3.) Focus on the customer

    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3745&doc_id=276358

  • Turning supply chain into an innovation engine.
    Nothing we haven’t heard, but an good summary and it shows the projects we are looking to take on are in the right direction…

    For many companies, the simplest form of analytics is looking at customer demands and patterns; then leveraging the gathered insights to build innovative and differentiated services—delivering greater value to the consumer and the businesses bottom-line.

    http://blog.kinaxis.com/2015/01/how-to-turn-your-supply-chain-into-an-innovation-engine-guest-post-from-erwin-hermins/

  • Best practices for a lean international supply chain operation

    5. Adopt a control tower approach:
    Companies today want to increase their end-to-end supply chain visibility. This visibility, though, is much more than track and trace. Today’s global supply chain requires a high degree of operational readiness and synchronization of end-to-end activities, including integrating the flow of goods, information and money associated with the movement of goods. Best in class companies achieve this visibility using a control tower approach. A control tower approach is the cornerstone to agility, responsiveness, and visibility.
    With this approach, companies can reduce inventory, lower total landed costs and decrease cycle times by connecting planning and execution, from raw materials to delivery to the end customer. This end-to-end supply chain connection involves integrating import/export data and information from overseas suppliers, logistics providers, brokers and carriers. Without the big picture, it is nearly impossible to implement cost-saving strategies such as just-in-time inventory replenishment.

    http://www.scdigest.com/experts/Amberroad_15-01-22.php?cid=8899

  • The cheese has moved…

    Stated bluntly, many of today’s sourcing and procurement professionals are not going to be successful in this new world. Those who make the transition probably already demonstrated innovative and adaptive behaviors. CPOs should begin now to retool their organizations with the talent that enables rather than hinders transformation. CPOs should focus on five key competencies in rebuilding their organizations:
    1. Consultative attitude
    2. Financial sophistication
    3. Communication and change management skills
    4. Technical savvy
    5. Vendor management skills

    http://www.sdcexec.com/article/12036122/a-key-trend-affecting-procurement-is-the-basic-fact-that-old-jobs-are-going-away-and-new-jobs-emerging

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The Supply Chain: 1/21/2015

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  • Assessing and managing risk: Interview with IBM’s Louis R. Ferretti

    As supply chains have become more global, the complexities of managing risk across vast and varied physical and political geographies arguably have grown by orders of magnitude. That’s a lesson that IBM, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has taken to heart. Beginning in 2009, the company undertook the task of building a complex supply chain risk management tool, now deployed globally, that provides managers with a way to examine supply risk in a much more robust fashion than ever before.

    http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20150116-assessing-and-managing-risk-interview-with-ibms-louis-r-ferretti/

  • Supply chain risk has companies on edge:

    In its fourth such survey, the Allianz Risk Barometer 2015 shows “business interruption and supply chain” risks remains of most concern for 47 per cent of respondents for the third year in succession.

    http://www.fullyloaded.com.au/news/logistics/1501/supply-chain-risks-have-companies-most-on-edge-allianz/

  • Corrupt government procurement leads to $1.5 trillion mistake:

    The F-35 fighter jet was supposed to do a bit of everything, as James Fallows explains in “The Tragedy of the American Military”. Instead, the aircraft can barely do anything: it has trouble flying at night, its engines have exploded during takeoff, and early models suffered structural cracks. There’s no end in sight, either. The all-in costs of this airplane are estimated to be as much as $1.5 trillion. (That’s approximately the same price as the entire Iraq War.) In an Atlantic magazine video, Fallows explains how such a disastrous project came to be—and why it can’t be stopped.

    http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/01/pentagons-15-trillion-mistake-is-one-of.html

  • Making supply chain green:

    Workers in sustainable supply chain management must be adept at negotiating supply chain complexities and creatively applying broad business and environmental knowledge. Weaving between profit-related subjects and environmental research generated by NGOs, they innovate cross-sector solutions seamlessly. These workers represent a new breed of eco-polymath and they are in demand.

    http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/community/blogs/aj-special-delivery/greening-supply-chain-management

  • Is There a Third Option for SCM Executives Looking to Revamp their Supply Chain Management Operations?

    Improvements need to be achieved in months, not years, a reality that can only be realized through a managed services partnership in which the only measure of success is tied to the operational improvements resulting from the program. While many supply chain executives have never seriously considered managed services as an SCM option due to liability, performance or security risk concerns, this is indeed an economical, efficient and strategically viable solution that supply chain leaders should consider to deliver operational performance.

    http://blog.kinaxis.com/2015/01/is-there-a-third-option-for-scm-executives-looking-to-revamp-their-supply-chain-management-operations/

  • What if the Problem Isn’t the Rules, but the People? [This is a good article on Federal sourcing, but it applies]

    The study found that while there certainly are problems in buying and implementing the latest technology in government, “many federal leaders believe that these problems are the result of execution of the procurement process rather than regulatory requirements.” While nearly 40 percent of the more than 500 survey respondents had some influence in the procurement process, only one of them cited problems with the Federal Acquisition Regulation in written comments.

    http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2015/01/what-if-problem-isnt-rules-people/102792/