Supply

Supply (197)

What Constitutes a Supply Chain Disaster

Supply-Chain-StressOur supply chain is a complex and fast moving environment that is rife for disaster. There are so many moving parts and details that it’s easy to imagine that the smallest mismatch in a single data field, or delayed shipment would cause a ripple effect that could grow to the proportions of a tidal wave, taking with it multiple trading partners in a single afternoon. And yet that doesn’t seem to happen. Read more...

The Approaching Supply Chain Apocalypse

apocalypseLast week I spoke with GXS VP Steve Scala about some of the company’s reasons for discontinuing the practice of daisychaining. Putting aside the rest of the arguments about why the company is taking this route, I agree with Steve that delivering visibility to the supply chain is one of the most important things an EDI transport provider can deliver. And he’s right that moving transactions across multiple connections without tracking individual items is a recipe for disaster. Read more...

UN on Supply Chain Corruption

ungcThe supply chain is a global entity... but you already know that. Being global it is a noticable entity among other global (or nearly global) entities, such as the United Nations. In February 2013 the UN Global Compact established an advisory group on Supply Chain Sustainability. A nice thing to do for sure. At the same time, the organization also created the "Anti-Corruption Task Force of the Advisory Group on Supply Chain Sustainability" - a long title for something that desperately needs to be taken under advisement. Read more...

The Supply Chain is Just a Cost of Doing Business

SupplyChainEfficiency Illustration"Just part of the cost of doing business." That's how the supply chain is perceived in the least progressive of businesses. Gartner's observations on the importance of the supply chain among different businesses is a sobering reminder of how supply chain participants can be observed. Being a 'cost of doing business' means being an expense that should be reduced... definitely not a position in which any participant in the supply chain wants to find itself. Read more...

What's Wrong with Vendors

problemThe supply chain is pretty simple. There are two parties; the buyer and the seller. In that way it's like any business transaction. Both parties have something they need and agree on the terms under which they will transact business. Why then does the relationship between vendors and purchasers go wrong so frequently? Read more...

Labeling Still a Barrier in Some Areas

barcodeChanging long-term processes is never an easy thing to do but it’s especially challenging when you’re talking about how item labeling is done in Asia. Right now, for example, when the internet is down, workers take a “sneaker net” approach to getting purchase orders out: Someone plugs a USB drive into a computer, copies the information then walks down the hall and plugs it into another computer to remove the file and then brings it back to the packer, explains Chris Beukenkamp, managing director, Asia, for SPS Commerce. “We have the internet everywhere but you’re lucky if a factory has a single internet connection -- and that’s usually on a manager’s desk. It definitely won’t be on the factory floor where they’re doing packing and shipping.”

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Pondering the Supply Chain Ecosystem

ECOSYSTEMThis past week I spent visiting my son in Colorado.  On one of our many adventures we hiked to an area in the Rockies that was a uniquely contained ecosystem.  One change to its delicate balance could cause negative impact to its carefully laid out environment.

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Business Continuity Plans Must Consider Supply Chain Operations

superstorm-sandyThe recent superstorm, Sandy, and the Nor’easter that followed one week later, are continual reminders that businesses need to build redundancies and create business continuity plans for services and infrastructure. Not only do outages have immediate impact to operations, they also significantly impact supply chains. In fact, a recent study led by global multi-line insurance provider Zurich Insurance Group and conducted by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) found that the leading cause of supply chain disruption is unplanned IT or telecom outages.

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What Supply Chain Masters Execute

ciosuperSupply chain “masters” are in the best position to turn rising fuel prices from an inhibitor to an opportunity for change, according to the Accenture report, Past the Tipping Point: Record oil prices require new supply chain strategies to enable future high performance. They masters understand the need to re-evaluate the various components of the supply chain. 

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What’s in it for the Supplier?

supplier shareIn order for suppliers to be of value to their retailers, they must figure out how to manage customer relationships. Many suppliers have copped a victim mentality over the years and it comes as little surprise that retailers don’t want to deal with that attitude any longer. With products ranging in the hundreds or hundreds of thousands, retailers have come to expect more value add from their suppliers. They need to know which products are performing, underperforming -- or are so hot they can’t stock them fast enough. Read more...

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