Tag: supply chain

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/31/2016

sn_rest_Nico Beard

  • After IBM & GE, even SAP ditches annual reviews

    SAP’s human resources head for Germany, Wolfgang Fassnacht, said Europe’s biggest software maker had found the annual review process, with its focus on separating over- from under-performers, was often counter-productive to the goal of constructive dialogue.

    “Grading workers did not work. People are open to feedback, also to harsh criticism, until the moment you start giving scores. Then the shutters go down,” he told Reuters.

    SAP is testing a new process, which includes more regular check-in talks, on about 8,000 of its workers and aims to implement it for all of its almost 80,000 workforce next year.

    “The old system is too static,” said Fassnacht. “It no longer reflects the dynamic circumstances we are operating in.”

    http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate/after-ibm-ge-even-sap-ditches-annual-reviews/53671429
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  • Supply Chain Performance and….. Sleep?

    I just finished reading The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington, CEO of theHuffington Post.  She makes a great case for how we have become a culture that treats sleep as wasted time and as optional. But more and more professionals are making the connection between sleep and performance.  We already know that truck drivers and airline pilots can be dangerous when they don’t get enough sleep. Collegiate and professional athletes and Olympians are now tracking their sleep patterns against improved performance results. Some athletes have recorded as much as 8-10% improved batting averages, basket shots made and race times when they get eight or more hours of sleep.  In addition, academic scores improve and in a corporate setting, decisions are better.

    http://www.scmr.com/article/supply_chain_performance_and.._sleep#When:13:44:00Z

  • Laptops most often stolen from most unlikely place

    When Kensington asked respondents where company employees had experienced IT theft, the No. 1 response was ‘cars and transportation’ at 25 percent. But the No. 2 response, coming in ahead of ‘airports and hotels’ (15 percent) and ‘restaurants’ (12 percent), was the office (23 percent).

    http://www.cio.com/article/3107865/security/laptops-stolen-from-office-more-frequently-than-from-airports-or-restaurants.html<
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  • Supply chain risk hits three-year high

    “The UK’s departure from the EU could lead to some of the most dramatic shifts and severe implications for global supply chains in the coming years,” said CIPS economist John Glen. “While the full impact of the leave vote is still unfolding, confusion and uncertainty surrounding the current situation has already driven supply chain risk to a worryingly high level.”

    “In the short term, supply chains will be exposed to exchange rate volatility risks which may be difficult to hedge. It may therefore be appropriate to crystallize exchange rate exposure by paying suppliers ahead of contracted payment days.

    http://www.cips.org/supply-management/news/2016/august/supply-chain-risk-hits-three-year-high/

  • How to Think Like an FBI Negotiator?

    Former FBI negotiator Chris Voss sheds light on communication and indirect messages, the value of empathy in business and in life, and when and how to walk away from a deal. Chris Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It”

Photo: Nico Beard

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/24/2016

sn_plane_NicoBeard

  • Why outsourced call center roles are coming back onshore

    While companies must pay more for onshore call center agents (offshore labor rates are typically 40 to 55 percent of onshore rates), increased automation has helped defray some of the extra expense of local labor. “While companies are ready to pay more for better quality services, increased technology leverage in a traditionally labor-intensive contact center space has offset some of the additional cost,” Bhargava says.

    In addition, companies are increasingly adopting a work-at-home model for agents, which incurs lower operational costs than onshore full-time-equivalents (FTEs). Work-at-home agents are typically 5 to 10 percent cheaper than on-site professionals in the U.S., Bhargava says.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3106821/outsourcing/why-outsourced-call-center-roles-are-coming-back-onshore.html

  • What’s Next After Supply Chains?

    http://www.onenetwork.com/2016/08/whats-next-after-supply-chains/
  • More airline outages as carriers grapple with ageing technology

    The reservations systems of the biggest carriers mostly run on a specialized IBM operating system known as Transaction Processing Facility, or TPF. It was designed in the 1960s to process large numbers of transactions quickly and is still updated by IBM, which did a major rewrite of the operating system about a decade ago.

    A host of special features, ranging from mobile check-ins to seat selection and cabin upgrades, are built on top of the TPF core, or connected to it.

    “They have surrounded that old industry infrastructure with modern technology,” said Bob Edwards, United Continental Holdings’ former chief information officer until 2014. “Those systems have to always reach back into the old core technologies to retrieve a reservation or to figure out who flies between Dallas and New York City.”

    When a power outage shuts off that reservations system – as happened on Monday to Delta Air Lines’ “Deltamatic” system – TPF falls out of sync with the newer technologies that passenger service agents use to assist travellers, Edwards said.

    http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/more-airline-outages-as-carriers-grapple-with-ageing-technology-116081301175_1.html

  • Exclusive: Honeywell explores acquisition of JDA Software

    The acquisition would illustrate how Honeywell, a U.S. diversified industrial conglomerate, is keen to boost its automation portfolio after it agreed last month to acquire Intelligrated Inc, a U.S. distribution systems and logistics company, for $1.5 billion.

    JDA Software’s majority owner, buyout firm New Mountain Capital LLC, has already explored a sale of the company to private equity firms, and there is no certainty its latest talks with Honeywell will result in a deal, the people said on Monday.

    https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-honeywell-explores-acquisition-jda-software-sources-200622953–sector.html

  • SAP Targets Terrorism With AI

    SAP National Security Services, which describes itself as an independent subsidiary of the German-based software giant that’s operated by U.S. citizens on American soil, works with homeland government agencies to find ways to track potential terrorists across social media.

    “One [use] is the identification of bad actors: People that may be threats to us—people and organizations,” says Mark Testoni, president and CEO of SAP NS2, as the company is known. “Secondarily, once we’ve identified those kinds of players and actors, we can then track their behaviors and organizations.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3062259/sap-targets-terrorism-with-ai

Photo: Nico Beard

Posted on

News You Can Use: 8/17/2016

sn_chains_Joey Kyber

  • Filler Words Like “Um” Aren’t All Bad, and Can Be Used to Your Advantage

    But, according to the experts, there’s still a right and wrong way to use them. Fraundorf recommends you try to use only a few when you talk, noting that too many can make comprehension harder. And Steven D. Cohen, assistant professor of communication at the University of Baltimore, suggests you use “like” and “I mean” as fillers instead of “uh” or “um.” People tend to be more forgiving of words that suggest contemplation as opposed to words that draw attention to a loss for words. Cohen also points out that filler words used in the middle of a sentence are less likely to be noticed, and a silent pause may be the best form of filler if you’re looking to have a dramatic impact on your listeners. If you want to read more on the benefits of filler words, check out the link below.

    http://lifehacker.com/filler-words-like-um-arent-all-bad-and-can-be-used-t-1784468757

  • Don’t Follow Your Passion by Mike Rowe
  • Brainstorming Is Dumb

    The old brainstorming method infiltrated the American workplace over half a century ago, after an advertising executive named Alex F. Osborn coined the method in the 1940s. As companies all over the country adopted the method, psychologists started to wonder: Does brainstorming actually work? Many scientific studies later, they had their answer: a resounding no. Study after study found that people who use this group technique produce fewer good ideas than those who ideate alone.

    But there is an alternative that works better:

    Over the past 20 years, researchers have discovered a collection of group techniques that they’ve found are more effective than both brainstorming and working alone. One of the best ones they’ve devised is brainwriting—it’s a kind of like brainstorming, except that group members write their ideas on pieces of paper instead of sharing out loud. People then pass those sheets of paper around the group and read each other’s ideas while they continue to write down their own ideas. This method allows the kind of group interaction that’s constructive (i.e., sharing ideas and building on them), while avoiding the pitfalls of face-to-face brainstorming.

    http://www.fastcodesign.com/3062292/evidence/brainstorming-is-dumb

  • 7 Ways to Cut Travel Expenses

    Small savings add up when it comes to long funding rounds and weeks at a time being spent on the road. For example, say that you and your partners need two hotel rooms, for a total of 21 nights, across various cities. Saving just $25 per hotel room per night will equal savings of $1,050. That’s a significant amount for a fledgling startup.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279734

  • Supply chain profile: Daniel Myers

    Q: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen during your career?

    A: I have seen us move in the industry from a siloed [view] to sharing information. We call my division the “integrated supply chain” because breaking down divisions is the secret to business success. We’ve got to be consumer-driven and optimize the total value chain to succeed, moving from silos to a focus on common metrics. The Information Age allows you to do that.

    Q: What hasn’t changed?

    A: The focus on having leaders of integrity who can build trust and “followership.” You can sense when you have a great leader because people want to be there. That’s true for all generations; Millennials want to work for something greater than money—they want to work for something they’re proud of.

    http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20160810-supply-chain-profile-daniel-myers/

Photo: Joey Kyber

Posted on

News You Can Use: 7/13/2016

sn_tracks_Kaique Rocha

  • The Millennials Balancing Their Parents’ Job Searches With Their Own

    This represents a generational role reversal, prodded perhaps by labor-market forces that favor younger workers over older ones. Although the jobless ratedropped below 5 percent last month, figures specific to older workers tell a different story. A recent study found that 55 percent of Americans over 50 plan to work past the age of 65, primarily because they cannot afford to retire sooner. And, as of December 2014, job-seekers over the age of 55 had been unemployed for an average of 54.3 weeks, nearly twice as long as their younger counterparts.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/the-millennials-balancing-their-parents-job-searches-with-their-own/488621/

  • Applying Supply Chain Management to Deliver Faster with Higher Quality

    DevOps loves Deming… Agile has its roots in Deming, as does Lean, and does DevOps… as does TQM and SixSigma… This is just a fuller embrace of what DevOps already loves in Deming.

    More specifically to development, Lean introduced the 8 types of Waste and culture to manage and reduce waste which comes at the cost of delivering code, delivering value, and pleasing/delighting your customers. Software supply chains introduced an unmeasured – and therefore unmanaged – form of waste. Managing out elective re-work can massively improve developer productivity. A Fortune 100 insurance company achieved a 20% boost in developer productivity in the 1st year.

    For Operations, using higher quality projects can reduce service interruptions – as can avoiding elective attack surface of older and known vulnerable versions of otherwise high quality projects. Further, using fewer total versions of the projects you’ve chosen can reduce operational variance in production – improving quality of service delivered.

    Let’s also not forget that the same choices improve security with fewer incidents due to entirely avoidable, elective risk and attack surface. Further, when unavoidable attacks rear their heads, the tracking of which libraries went where (with versions) enable a significantly faster MTTI/MTTR (Mean-Time-To-Identify and Mean-Time-To-Remediate).

    https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/06/supply-chain-management-DevOps

  • Honeywell acquires Intelligrated for $1.5 billion

    Honeywell International Inc. said today it will acquire material handling automation provider Intelligrated Systems Inc. from its private equity owner for $1.5 billion, triggering a second wave of consolidation in the material-handling sector just two weeks after rival systems integrator Dematic Corp. was sold.

    http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20170701-honeywell-acqiures-intelligrated-for-15-billion-dollars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS-articles

  • An exclusive look inside Facebook
  • Penn State Is a Key Link in the Supply Chain

    Although the 27-year-old organization is still firmly rooted in traditional aspects of distribution, procurement and transportation, research efforts also focus on newer topics such as demand-driven supply networks, human behavior modeling and low-cost country sourcing.

    http://www.assemblymag.com/articles/93475-penn-state-is-a-key-link-in-the-supply-chain

  • Supply Chain Metric of the Month

    APQC defines procure-to-pay cycle time as the time required in days to pay suppliers, starting from the time that the purchase order is placed until the time that payment is made  to the supplier (e.g. procure-to-pay processing time). As shown in Figure 1, research from APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking in procurement shows that top performing organizations have shorter procure-to-pay cycle times. Top performers have a procure-to-pay cycle time of two months, whereas bottom performers have a cycle time of about a month and a half. At the median organizations have a cycle time of 25 days to pay suppliers, or 11 days longer than top performers. However, organizations at the median have a procure-to-pay cycle time that is almost 3 week less than bottom performers.

    https://www.apqc.org/blog/chain-supply-chain-content-you-can-use-june-2016

Photo: Kaique Rocha

Posted on

News You Can Use: 6/1/2016

sn_building_Vladimir Chuchadeev

  • Gartner names this year’s Supply Chain Top 25

    For the first time ever, Unilever topped the list — followed by McDonald’s, Amazon, Intel and top-five newcomer H&M. Five new companies also made the Top 25, including: BASF, BMW and Schneider Electric.

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/supplychainmanagement/4303/Gartner-names-this-years-Supply-Chain-Top-25

  • Stressed? Use This Breathing Technique to Improve Your Attention and Memory
  • What millennials really think of open office spaces

    Exposed offices also make it difficult to concentrate, especially with work that requires intense focus, or speaking to others on the phone. This was the case for Laura Munoz in her inside sales job at Groupon after college. “I loved feeling part of that community but as an inside sales rep I hated having people listen to all of my conversations,” she says. “It was to an extent nice to pick up sales tips from listening to others, but it really made me act differently—either carefree or totally nervous. And of course there was the occasional private conversation that you wish you didn’t hear.”

    http://www.monster.com/career-start/a/what-millennials-think-open-office-spaces

  • Big Data Analytics and the Evolution of the Supply Chain

    A recent Accenture study of more than 1,000 senior global executives found that, while 97 percent understood how Big Data could benefit their supply chain, only 17 percent reported implementing any of the findings. Here are some of the ways that Big Data can identify opportunities and revolutionize supply chain management in nearly any organization.

    http://tech.co/big-data-analytics-evolution-supply-chain-2016-05

  • Coupa Turns Big Data Into Actionable Insights for Finance and Supply Chain

    Coupa Analytics enhances the Coupa unified spend platform and rolls up data across applications from procurement, e-invoicing, contracts, travel and expenses, and more. The common data layer across all Coupa applications makes it easy to aggregate data so organizations can make intelligent decisions faster than ever. Customers benefit through consumerized data science, embedded naturally throughout analytics, so they can become spend analytic experts without having to go to extensive training or have data engineers standing by to help.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/coupa-turns-big-data-actionable-153000925.html

  • The Career Limitations Of Emotional Intelligence

    Sharma also adds that when the concept of emotional intelligence debuted over 20 years ago, diversity issues simply “weren’t as much a part of that conversation at the time.” There’s now evidence to suggest that the ability to navigate culturally diverse working environments may trump generaland emotional intelligence for certain “cross-border” managers. As Sharma puts it, “culture and complex emotions now interact when we talk about globalization,” which in his view is transforming the workplace in ways we’re only beginning to realize. “If you’re working across global teams, as a lot of managers do today, it takes more than EI to be successful, like knowledge of places and people and local cultures.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3060123/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-career-limitations-of-emotional-intelligence

Photo: Vladimir Chuchadeev