Category: Supply Chain

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/26/2015

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  • The hazards of go-to people

    For the staffers who are not the go-to people, things often don’t work out too well either. They can end up in a self-reinforcing cycle of unhappiness and poor performance. When they realize that they are not one of the go-to people they might miss out on the opportunities to work on exciting or important things, since they are not considered dedicated and capable.

    http://www.cio.com/article/2973120/leadership-management/the-hazards-of-go-to-people.html#tk.rss_all

  • Target’s Big Issue: Modernizing Its Supply Chain

    From September, Mulligan will be overseeing a reorganization of Target’s supply chain system. CEO Cornell described the present system as “an incredibly complex supply chain, built to serve an outdated linear model in which product flows from vendors through distribution centers to stores.” Now what is needed is a new structure that goods can flow in multiple directions as orders are made, including orders from customers for store pick-up or home delivery. The outmoded way is costing Target money and time, neither cheap commodities.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3458396-targets-big-issue-modernizing-its-supply-chain

  • Amazon sounds like a hellish place to work (the complete saga):

    Oh, and if you have any shred of a personal life or bodily ailment, Amazon is probably not the best place to work. The Times notes several disturbing cases wherein employees have been criticized for scaling back their hours to take care of sick and dying family members or small children. A woman who had thyroid cancer was given a low performance rating after she returned, while another woman suffering from breast cancer was put on a “performance improvement plan” because her personal “difficulties” had interfered with fulfilling her work goals.

    http://gizmodo.com/working-for-amazon-sounds-utterly-soul-crushing-1724325816
    To add more (from the NYT):

    Amazon employees are held accountable for a staggering array of metrics, a process that unfolds in what can be anxiety-provoking sessions called business reviews, held weekly or monthly among various teams. A day or two before the meetings, employees receive printouts, sometimes up to 50 or 60 pages long, several workers said. At the reviews, employees are cold-called and pop-quizzed on any one of those thousands of numbers.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

    And now, the NYT backs off (seriously?)

    In addition, the evidence against Amazon, while powerful, is largely anecdotal, not data-driven. And anecdotes can be used and interpreted in any number of ways. A reader, Len Edgerly of Cambridge, Mass., wrote to object to parts of the article, particularly a story from Mr. Bezos’ childhood in which he tries to make his grandmother quit smoking by blurting out precisely how many years of her life she had already lost, causing her to burst into tears.

    http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/was-portrayal-of-amazons-brutal-workplace-on-target/

  • Monitor Financial Distress in Your Supply Chain

    Manufacturers should prioritize, understand, and address troubled supplier situations with advance awareness. That’s why companies should continually analyze their contracts to maximize leverage, and understand available legal options. To alleviate the pressures of financial distress, manufacturers should exercise common law and statutory remedies in order to purposefully tweak standard terms and conditions of new contracts (or negotiate changes to existing contracts). The terms of these contracts significantly impact the manufacturer’s ability to re-source production to a healthier supplier, recover tooling, and utilize certain remedies.

    http://www.natlawreview.com/article/monitor-financial-distress-your-supply-chain

  • The 4 Levels of Organizational Alignment

    No matter how SMART goals are, they’re irrelevant if they aren’t actively communicated. This is a top-down process, meaning employers need to play an active role in communicating the company vision. Whether it’s through company-wide newsletters or calendars, weekly meetings or goal-management software, keep employees up to date on progress toward goals.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249312

  • 8 Team-Building Mistakes Richard Branson Would Never Make

    During an Entrepreneur blog post, Branson said, “You need to give your people the freedom to get creative, to come up with their own ideas and run with them. If someone comes to you with an idea for a business, why not ask that person to launch a startup? Over the years some of our employees’ ideas have resulted in our setting up businesses. This has helped us to enter new markets and, more often than not, succeed. Your company should act as a springboard for ambitious employees, not a set of shackles.”

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249616

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/19/2015

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  • Defusing The Internet Of Things Time Bomb

    Perhaps the most concerning issue is the ticking time bomb of sustainability, or ensuring IoT devices remain secure long-term, throughout their entire life cycle. New paradigms are present here — who would have previously considered software upgrades for garage door openers or washing machines that might impact security or privacy?

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/10/defusing-the-internet-of-things-time-bomb/?ncid=rss

  • Three Ways Procurement Can Gain Millennial Appeal

    Millennials make data-based decisions every day, whether it’s using Yelp reviews to pick a restaurant or Mint to balance their personal finances. Luckily for procurement departments, Millennials expect to bring the same data-driven decision-making processes and skills into the workplace. Regretfully, though, few organizations have the right tools in place that make this a possibility. Many procurement departments still rely on siloed solutions, giving employees limited access to company data and making it nearly impossible to make accurate, data-based decisions. Without having a fully integrated solution in place that collects, stores and analyzes data from across the organization, employees aren’t able to make more informed, strategic decisions—another millennial repellent.

    http://www.sdcexec.com/article/12101749/three-ways-procurement-can-gain-millennial-appeal

  • 5 takeaways for companies overseeing interns

    At many workplaces, your manager is your mentor. And, sometimes your manager is open, communicative, and engaged. However, on those rare occasions an intern ends up with a manager like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (someone who ends conversations with the neck-tingling “That’s all”), it’s nice to have options.

    https://opensource.com/business/15/8/five-internship-lessons-for-managers

  • Apple’s diversity numbers
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    http://www.fastcompany.com/3049862/fast-feed/apple-finally-releases-diversity-numbers-shows-incremental-improvement
  • How to Retain Millennial Employees Through Workplace Equity

    According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median tenure of workers ages 25 to 34 is only three years. The cost of this turnover averages between $15,000-$25,000 per employee. Do the math.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249548

  • Three signs you are better off abandoning your idea

    Unfortunately, you may not be the first and only person to come up with your particular idea. The last thing any entrepreneur wants to hear from an investor is that their groundbreaking work is an “uncommonly popular idea” but it happens. When it does, differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace or accept failure and use it as an opportunity to regroup and pivot to a better idea.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249468

Photo: Genta Mochizawa, Unsplash

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/12/2015

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  • FDA tells hospitals to ditch IV pumps that can be hacked remotely
    This is the world of the “Internet of Things” (IoT)

    The Food and Drug Administration “strongly encourages” hospitals to stop using Hospira’s Symbiq Infusion System, because it’s vulnerable to cyberattacks that would allow a third party to remotely control dosages delivered via the computerized pumps. Unauthorized users are able to access the Symbiq system through connected hospital networks, according to the FDA and the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team. ICS-CERT reported the vulnerability on July 21st and the FDA released its own safety alert on Friday, July 31st.

    http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/31/fda-security-warning-hackers

  • Formality The Key To Supplier-Enabled Innovation

    So, in my mind, two things must happen for CPOs to begin their journey into SEI. First, they must convince themselves of the scale of the opportunity that exists. And, second, they must convince the rest of the senior team the same. It sounds simple, but a formal programme can only be put in place with the backing of key stakeholders, a significant financial investment and patience. Get it right, however, and the returns will be career defining.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–david-rae/formality-the-key-to-supplier-enabled-innovation-555593

  • 7 Habits to Work Proactively, Not Reactively
    (Hmmm… who am I sending this message out to *cough**spoons*cough*)


    Try not to overthink. Just DO.
    If you over-think, a 5-minute email could take 30. A few additional Powerpoint slides could take half a day. We tend to overthink when we feel insecure. So shift into a vibe that allows your inherent awesome instinct and abundant intelligence to do its natural work and just get it done. As the saying goes, “Done is better than perfect.”

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248866?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • The Unlikely Source of Your Next Big Breakthrough

    Get to know your own backyard. We all have an extensive network of supply-chain support — from our Internet providers to our credit cards, banks, and other financial-service systems to the couriers who send and deliver our packages. Most of us have only a cursory understanding of what these people can actually do for us. We may know the main benefits of these programs, but we remain in the dark when it comes to knowing how they can enhance our innovations. Build relationships with your support teams. Make calls and sight visits to these places. Educate yourself about the capabilities of your supply chain. What you learn will likely surprise you.

    Go to show-and-tell events. There are tons of innovation sources in supply-chain sectors of all kinds, but you won’t know about them if you’re not exposed to them. Attend information fairs and showcases hosted by universities, governmental organizations, and trade associations. Meet new people, ask tons of questions that speak to your particular needs. Talk to the people you travel with and listen to the solutions they’ve conjured up for their situations. You may be able to reapply them to your organization. Remember that these forms of communication are not limited to your competitors or the individuals in your industry but open to people in all areas closely and remotely related to your own.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-degraff/the-unlikely-source-of-yo_b_7880176.html

  • Google will now tell you when a restaurant is too busy
    This is amazing 

    A new feature in Google will show users when local restaurants are booked up and stores have the most foot traffic. The Google Search tweak is rolling out today on mobile for some users, and shows graphs—presumably based on geolocation from smartphones—indicating when a given venue is busiest during the day.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3049165/fast-feed/google-will-now-tell-you-when-a-restaurant-is-too-busy

  • Three things that make CEOs stupid

    Power, of course, is the first problem. When things are going fairly well, the CEO has a ton of power, and often, that power makes things appear to work, even when they’re not the right thing to do for the long-term. As a result, there’s no market that is correcting the bad decisions, at least not right now.

    http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/07/three-things-that-make-ceos-stupid.html

  • The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman on career pivoting…
    http://www.fastcocreate.com/3049162/creation-stories/robert-kirkman-creation-stories?partner=rss&utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=webfeeds
Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/5/2015

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  • Gartner Announces Rankings of Its 2015 Supply Chain Top 25
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    http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3053118
  • Detroit Is Cultivating Local Entrepreneurship to Secure It’s Future

    What have I been saying about Detroit and Camden?  It is going to happen…Detroit is also a city that is made of 82 percent African-American residents and 52 percent women residents, with an annual median household income of $26,000. When witnessing this new business growth we must ask ourselves, is everyone able to participate? Can all have the opportunity to start a business and grow? Nationally, according to our database, minority entrepreneurs make up 15 percent of businesses and contribute $591 billion in revenue to the economy. Will Detroit capture and foster this growth?

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248844?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • Big Data and Risk are a Match Made in Heaven

    Tier one automotive supplier Borg Warner, for instance has developed a Supplier Performance Monitor using huge amounts of readily available data from its own SAP system plus third party data all fed through an artificial intelligence algorithm similar to Google’s search engine to stay ahead of problems.  Rather than periodically assessing risk and paying for protection with working capital, Borg Warner constantly listens for tremors and responds before the problem gets out of hand.

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    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinomarah/2015/07/30/big-data-and-risk-are-a-match-made-in-heaven/

  • Amazon CTO: ‘We Still Consider Ourselves a Startup’

    It’s very important to realize today that with minimal investment you can start building applications. Five, ten years ago you would need millions [of dollars] in investment. It allows entrepreneurs to truly focus on new products without having to worry about the infrastructure, without having to get additional investment to buy hardware. And if you look at the big household names these days, Airbnb, Spotify, Instagram, Pinterest – all of these are born in the cloud. Without cloud, if you asked them, they would probably say they would not have been able to reach this scale at the speed they did, without it.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248884?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • Summer Break: Procurement’s Day in the Sun

    Added Miller, “the demand for supplier transparency and high-quality, responsibly-sourced offerings has never been higher. Cost containment will always remain a key sourcing objective, but today, it’s equally important that a company can find and retain reliable and reputable sources of supply.  How and where a product gets made can have far-reaching implications on an organization’s sales effectiveness and brand reputation.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmartyn/2015/07/28/summer-break-procurements-day-in-the-sun/

  • Exploring Investment Drivers for Global Supply Chain Risk Management

    a new concept is emerging: global supply chain risk management (SCRM).
 Quite often, the decisions to invest in SCRM are often driven more by the fear of negative press – and of course regulatory penalties – than the opportunity to make the supply chain more resilient and maintain top-line revenue and market share, even in the case of a supply chain upset.

    http://spendmatters.com/2015/07/31/global-supply-chain-risk-management-investment-drivers/

Photo: Christian Joudrey