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The Supply Chain: 2/18/2015

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  • What happens if US Ports keep closing?

    Kelly Kolb, Vice President of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said: “A shutdown would not only impact the hundreds of thousands of jobs working directly in America’s transportation supply chain, but the reality is the entire economy would be impacted as exports sit on docks and imports sit in the harbour waiting for manufacturers to build products and retailers to stock shelves.

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/supplychainmanagement/3831/What-happens-if-the-US-ports-keep-closing

  • Lessons from Apple

    Any violations found during the audit, which for Apple might include underage workers being used, document falsification, intimidation of or retaliation against workers participating in audits and significant environmental concerns, are raised with senior managers both at Apple and the supplier itself. That supplier is then placed on probation until they successfully pass another audit. During probation that supplier is monitored closely and if no commitment has been shown to then the relationship is ended.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–tim-burt/2015/02/12/supplier-audits-lessons-from-apple

  • How to be a great procurement boss…

    Great bosses understand their organisation’s business objectives and ensure their own team’s targets align with them. Any good CPO will understand what is expected of their team, but the challenge lies in translating the big picture to each individual. Explain the link to them. Work with your staff to help them understand how the different dimensions of their role delivers value. Start by touching on efficiency, productivity, innovation, customer service and other non-cost related drivers which are critical success factors and they’ll start to see the connection more clearly.

    http://www.supplymanagement.com/blog/2015/02/five-top-tips-how-to-be-a-great-procurement-boss

  • Call the lawyers: Here are the real reasons why contract award protests are on the rise

    Don’t get me wrong, that is one reason why the numbers are increasing — by 5 percent in 2014, as I reported in November. But a panel of procurement experts pointed to a couple other reasons: more missteps by a more inexperienced government acquisition workforce, and the disintegration of the “protest stigma” that once existed in the industry.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2015/02/call-the-lawyers-hereare-the-real-reasons-why.html

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Supplier Report: 2/14/2015

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IBM

  •  IBM establishes “One Channel” team…

    The team is designed to align channel operations from across the company in an effort to provide a broader, more competitive partner experience, according to Big Blue, while also increasing IBM’s focus on the recruitment of new partners, developers and independent software vendors.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2395350/ibm-unveils-one-channel-team

  • IBM Cloud Chief: “We are in a marathon”

    But LeBlanc believes he’s got a good story to tell. IBM has set up “40 different data centers in 15 different countries,” he said, with an eye toward being in the right place in accord with customers’ needs.

    http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/13/ibm-cloud-chief-were-in-a-marathon/

  • IBM finds security flaw in dating apps…
    Something to consider as the internet of things tracks more of our personal health data…

    The study revealed a fearful fact for the businesses too. According to the study, employees of almost 50% companies use the dating apps which were found vulnerable. This makes the corporate data endangered too.

    http://techfrag.com/2015/02/13/ibms-research-cautions-mobile-dating-app-users/

  • IBM & Apple partnership to expand…

    The first apps to be released solved specific problems in specific industries. In tech talk, they were for vertical industries. Each of the apps had a catch name. There was one for flight planning for airlines named Passenger+, and insurance company customer service app was named Retention. Now, the two have begun work on their horizontal apps, says a spokesperson for IBM. One of those apps supply-chain, which helps to match how much product, is expected to be sold with how many materials need to be ordered.

    http://www.dailymailtimes.com/apple-and-ibm-partnership-to-expand/443/

  • Another brutal article on IBM current performance:

    Here’s the outcome of all this in a nutshell: recently, IBM failed to win a $600 million contract with the CIA to handle all of that agency’s cloud computing, even though its offer was actually 30 percent less costly than Amazon’s winning bid. Let that sink in: book-seller Amazon beat IBM for a major technological, government job. IBM is a giant with enormous background in mainframe computing and government contracts. Here’s what’s most frightening. IBM’s bid was rejected on “technical grounds.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-a-georgescu/ibm-a-lesson-for-american_b_6659702.html

  • IBM drops patent bomb on Priceline.com

    The patents span 10 years, starting in 1999. They cover a setting up a user account with single-sign-on in a federate computing environment; a way to present applications as an interactive service; a method for presenting advertising as an interactive service; and a way to preserve state information between a client and server.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/10/ibm_sues_priceline/

Oracle

HP

  •  HP acquires Voltage Security with a view to data encryption

    Voltage provides solutions focused around data encryption and tokenization, and its services are intended to bolster HP’s existing Atalla cloud encryption and data security product.

    http://thestack.com/hp-volta-acquisition-130215

Other:

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Productivity Bulletin: 2/13/2015

Photo: Sean MacEntee, Flickr

Photo: Sean MacEntee, Flickr

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The Supply Chain: 2/11/2015

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  • Taking the guess-work out of forecast planning:

    To avoid the financial risks associated with planning errors, supply chain leaders and manufacturers should consider building an “insight-based” demand planning process, which brings together analytical tools and data with key human inputs across various functions. This “next generation” demand management approach will allow supply chain operations to evolve and scale with the ever growing volatility and uncertainty of today’s markets.

    http://blog.kinaxis.com/2015/02/what-if-you-could-take-the-guesswork-out-of-forecast-planning/

  • Vanguard named leader in supply chain strategy:
    The link is a press release with all the standard trimmings…
    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pwc-named-vanguard-leader-in-supply-chain-strategy–planning-300031396.html
  • McDonald’s and the challenges of a modern supply chain:

    The trouble is bad reputations aren’t lost that easily. A generation of cynical middle-class customers have already decided that McDonald’s is a tarnished brand. Supply-chain transparency is that kind of challenge: It’s rarely the top thing on consumers’ minds, but it is an issue that sticks in the imagination. And when newer, less tarnished players like Chipotle arrive, consumers can tacitly exercise the prejudices and cross the street. The lesson for other firms: If you have problems in your supply chain, don’t let the critics get there first.

    https://hbr.org/2015/02/mcdonalds-and-the-challenges-of-a-modern-supply-chain

  • Shell is leveraging supply chain to reduce costs:

    Van Beurden said the company was taking a prudent approach and would be careful not to overreact to the recent fall in oil prices. “There are cost reduction programmes in place across Shell, looking not only at our own costs, but also in the supply chain,” he said. “These programmes are balanced against the different strategic activities in the company, we’re not chasing costs for costs’ sake, and we are careful to make sure none of this compromises safety.

    http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2015/shell-drills-into-supply-chain-to-slash-costs

  • 4 issues original equipment manufacturers need to consider in 2015:

    Collaboration in the cloud will enable logistics companies to work seamlessly together.  In particular, smaller players will feel the benefit. Soon, the barriers to entry will get even lower. “Fourth party logistics providers (4PLs) as overall organizers are able to orchestrate the total supply chain,” said Farrell. “When you combine what you can do in the cloud with 4PL, you get to the point where you can combine multiple supply chain networks to get overall better service.”

    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3219&doc_id=276526&itc=ebnonline_gnews

  • The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem…

    For example, one of the greatest challenges in supply chain management is to get beyond a focus on cost reduction as opposed to revenue generation. If you are a supply chain executive, you struggle to have that discussion with the rest of the executive team. One retailer I know took a different approach to describing their metrics to get their point across.

    http://logisticsviewpoints.com/2015/02/03/the-problem-is-not-the-problem-the-problem-is-your-attitude-about-the-problem/

  • The core components of supply chain management:
    I like to read these summary general summary posts due to the “tell me what I don’t know” factor.  But something else jumped out at me when I read this article… Does this feel like the work that we do (or should be doing)?
    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3742&doc_id=276501
  • Procurement needs to innovate:

    For procurement to better contribute to institutional effectiveness, then, it needs to innovate. Promoting innovation in procurement means processes that are transparent and efficient, and that facilitate equal access and open competition. Innovative solutions to public service needs are instrumental to delivering better services with long-term value for money.

    http://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/innovation-procurement-why-and-how/?cid=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT&hootPostID=4dc8c253a29b9262da353be71ba78b06

  • 2015: the year of hyper-transparency in global business

    Many of the core benefits of increased transparency become apparent when its absence is considered. How can you address problems with your goods if you don’t know who is supplying you? How can you prioritise your activities if you aren’t collecting data on how you interact with your customers and suppliers? How can you mitigate risk if you don’t understand what your risks actually are? And how can you encourage trust and transparency within your own supply chain if it transpires that your own processes don’t support your suppliers.

    http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/02/2015-hyper-transparency-global-business