November, 2014

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What Do We Do Now?

Supply Chain Shaman

'“What did you learn?” asked the client. I smiled and reflected. It was a thought-provoking question. The ROI study on supply chain planning was completed. We were reviewing the data that is showcased in the blog post Three Questions People are Afraid to Ask. The data is clear: best-of-breed supply chain planning solutions are faster to implement, have a better ROI and yield higher satisfaction than planning systems from ERP providers.

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Optimization or automation: Which do you need?

DELMIA Quintiq

'It’s easy enough to confuse automation with optimization. In both cases, you press a button, wait a few seconds, and whoops… there’s your result. But while the external actions look alike, the results are very different. What automation really automates. Automation automates what human planners do. So what do planners do? Planners oversimplify. To cope with the overwhelming complexity of supply chain planning, planners base their decisions on simple rules of thumb or heuristics.

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From Hurricanes to Overthrown Governments to Potholes: Transportation and Supply Chain Resilience

Talking Logistics

'When referring to supply chain resilience, the causes of disruption vary widely in scale and emphasize the unpredictability and severity of the events. We know transportation plays an important role in the supply chain – it’s the line in a flow diagram between the little buildings and smoke stacks – and transportation disruptions happen on a daily basis.

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Your supply chain is costing you money – Reason #8: Keeping supply chain information in silos (and preventing your users from making the best decisions)

Kinaxis

'by John Westerveld. Over the years, working for and with numerous manufacturing companies, I’ve seen many supply chain practices that cost companies money. Over the next several weeks, I’ll outline these issues and discuss some ideas around how to avoid these practices. You can find the previous posts here: Reason #1: Offshoring without getting the full picture.

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4 Ways To Drive Supply Chain Excellence in the Food Industry

The Supplier Relationship Management Playbook is your guide to building effective supplier partnerships that drive supply chain excellence. This playbook equips supply chain professionals with strategies for managing compliance, tracking performance, and fostering collaboration to reduce supply chain risks. Inside, you’ll find: Strategies for Compliance: Best practices to help meet regulatory standards.

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Turkey Logistics: The Thanksgiving Supply Chain

Logistics Viewpoints

'Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time for family, friends, and turkey. Lots of turkey. Just how much turkey? According to the National Turkey Federation, over 730 million pounds of turkey will be consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving. Given that the average weight of a Thanksgiving turkey is 16 pounds, that is about 45 million […].

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Misnomer

Supply Chain Shaman

'Misnomer (n): A wrong name. The misuse of a term or name. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. I am a supply chain gal. I work with many organizations on their supply chain strategies. One of the important lessons I have learned in my lifetime of doing this work is to never be afraid to ask what a term means … especially when everyone in the room is comfortable.

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My other truck is a sleigh

DELMIA Quintiq

'If you’re a trucker you’re not exactly Santa Claus, but once a year you have the same job and face the same problems – delivering lots of VIPs (Very Important Packages) to lots of addresses in harsh weather and within a very short time window. Could you do it? Smart Trucker Challenge: Holiday Edition gives you a chance to find out. The rules of the game are simple enough.

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Big Data and Analytics for Oil and Gas Transportation

Talking Logistics

'Live Epsiode: Friday, November 14, 2014 at 12:00 ET. There has been a significant resurgence of the U.S. oil and gas industry in recent years, and U.S. is now second leading producer of oil (behind Saudi Arabia). Based on the current trends, North America could rival OPEC in oil and production. This growth along with the complexities found in the oil and gas industry can create significant transportation and logistics challenges.

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Your supply chain is costing you money – Reason #7 Making decisions based on bad data (supply chain data accuracy)

Kinaxis

'by John Westerveld. Over the years, working for and with numerous manufacturing companies, I’ve seen many supply chain practices that cost companies money. Over the next several weeks, I’ll outline these issues and discuss some ideas around how to avoid these practices. You can find the previous posts here: Reason #1: Offshoring without getting the full picture.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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How to Avoid Dimensional Weight Pricing Cost Spike

Logistics Viewpoints

'This past June, the largest overnight delivery carriers (FedEx and UPS) announced that they would apply dimensional weight pricing to all shipments, effective January 2015. It is expected that shipping costs will increase 20 to 30 percent and affect over 70 percent of all shipments. What shippers are truly affected by the new pricing model? […].

Modeling 234
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Why a ‘single version of truth’ is key to a great supply chain

The Network Effect

'The journey from ‘good’ to ‘great’ is well underway across many global supply networks. While comprehensive benchmarks are still being normalized for comparative purposes, recent results that have been experienced by various customers of the new cloud-based platforms include reductions of 40% in inventory requirements for cycle and safety stock when compared to traditional ERP batch type processing, 5% decreases in lost sales, 99% customer service levels at retail, 5% reductions in material c

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Avoiding a 2014 Holiday Supply Chain Meltdown Requires Managing Customer Expectations

Enterra Insights

'Some of us have blessedly short memories when it comes to recalling unpleasant events in our lives. Golfers are even … Continued The post Avoiding a 2014 Holiday Supply Chain Meltdown Requires Managing Customer Expectations appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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The basics of customer-centric multi-channel retailing (Part 1)

DELMIA Quintiq

'Start where the customer can’t see. Back in university, I was fully engaged with the topic of multi-channel retailing thanks to a marketing professor who had a long-standing passion for everything retail and digital. I learned a lot about omni-channel retailing and the customer’s way of looking at it. The marketing classes helped me appreciate the why’s and what’s, but the how’s of multi-channel retailing remained largely unknown.

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Freight Procurement Simplified: Bids from Hours to Minutes

Speaker: Eric Berdinis, Ran Sun, & Chris Chmielewski

Procuring freight can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone. If you’re frustrated with the complex and manual processes for obtaining bids for your contract and spot freight, you’re not alone. In today’s fast-moving supply chain environment, optimizing these processes is critical to staying competitive and cutting costs. Join this exclusive webinar with experts from Uber Freight to learn how the latest digital tools and automation can transform your freight procurement strategy by strea

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The Network Effect in Supply Chain and Logistics

Talking Logistics

'About four years ago, UPS launched its “ We Love Logistics ” ad campaign, which helped raise public awareness about the logistics industry (and helped my family and friends better understand what I do for a living). I hope UPS does the same for communicating the value of networks to supply chain and logistics executives — not just physical networks, but digital ones too.

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Kinexions: Is “User Conference” the Right Description?

Kinaxis

'by Bill DuBois Being a presales consultant (…by day, Late Late Supply Chain Show host by night) during the last quarter of the year, there’s little, if any, time to reflect back on what was the most successful user conference in Kinaxis history. To be honest, my reflections didn’t start until I read Josh Greenbaum’s post, “ Women of the Supply Chain: Responsibility, Collaboration and Bathroom Lines ”.

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Why Do CEO’s Too Often Struggle with Supply Chain Management Best Practices?

Logistics Viewpoints

'I’d been interacting with Mark Kuta, who works for Oracle in the Value Chain Planning group, and he sent me a book he wrote called Think Like a CEO. The book seems to be directed at sales people; the subtitle is “Sell to Any Company in Any Industry… Better and Faster than a Harvard MBA.” […].

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What’s new in the automotive supply chain? (Hint: Inventory Replenishment Policies)

The Network Effect

'1965 Ford Mustang Assembly Line in Dearborn. This is an ongoing series of posts on new developments within the automobile supply chain, with examples of best practices. In my last post, I talked about why a network model makes so much sense. Today I want to explore how automobile suppliers are improving their operations via inventory replenishment policies.

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How to Master Product Portfolio Management

Pursuing product portfolio management excellence empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of their offerings. This comprehensive guide unveils 10 essential keys that serve as the building blocks for success.

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Design for Postponement

SCM Research

'Today, I would like to draw your attention to one of my favorite articles in the field of supply chain management: Design for Postponement by Swaminathan & Lee (2003). The article identifies three key postponement enablers: First, process standardization, where the initial steps of a process are standardized across a product line and distinct personalities are added at a later stage (e.g., localized manuals or power supply modules of a printer).

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The basics of customer-centric multi-channel retailing (Part 2)

DELMIA Quintiq

'Start where the customer can’t see. In the first part of this blog series , I talked about the multi-channel retail experience and the critical prerequisite retailers need to fulfill to get started on this journey. In this post, I will explore how retailers can design their bottom line with the customer in mind. In the context of multi-channel retailing, the expression “putting the customer at the heart of everything we do” translates into: Providing value for the price a customer is payi

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What Role Does Global Trade Data Play in Today’s Supply Chains?

Talking Logistics

'Global Trade Data (aka “trade content”) is one of the “3Cs” of Global Trade Management , but its value extends well beyond facilitating import and export processes. Defining Global Trade Data, determining which supply chain processes benefit from it, and figuring out how supply chain applications integrate with and use the data aren’t always straightforward.

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Supply Chain Professionals Speak on Delivering Better Business Outcomes with Kinaxis

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow I wanted to share this video compilation of several supply chain professionals that we have interviewed over the years. In the following clip these supply chain practitioners share their opinions on: What is the primary change we are seeing in today’s supply chain? What are key supply chain challenges organizations are faced with today?

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The Ultimate Guide to Transportation and Load Building Optimization

Enhance your transportation and load building efficiency with our comprehensive guide. Learn to tackle today's supply chain challenges and optimize your approach with advanced planning strategies. This guide covers: Supply Chain Challenges: Discover how transportation planning can address critical issues and improve efficiency. Load Building Benefits: Understand how effective load building can enhance your transportation processes.

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Why Businesses are Elevating Supply Chain Design from a Project to a Core Business Process

Logistics Viewpoints

'When I speak with new customers, many of them tell me how in the past they viewed supply chain design as an optimization project that was completed every three to five years, often by third-party firms. Now these large, multi-national businesses are bringing supply chain design in-house and adopting it as a core business process. […].

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Why ERP reduces accountability and measurement in your supply chain, and how you can fix it

The Network Effect

'Assuming excellence in customer responsiveness is a given, in order to achieve excellence in operating performance all employees should have a solid education and understanding as to how their roles and responsibilities contribute to their supply network outcomes in addition to their budget or financial performance. And more importantly, accountability must become a key component to any organizational and measurement alignment.

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Human Rights in the End-to-End Supply Chain

SCM Research

'“Certification programs have their merits and their limitations. With the growing availability of social media, analytics tools, and supply chain data, a smarter set of solutions could soon be possible”, as Robert Handfield and I argue in our paper, just published in Supply Chain Management Review. We believe that an evolution from company thinking to supply chain thinking will now help to make businesses more socially responsible: “Traditional solutions that focus just on a b

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The Digital Path to Purchase Requires Mastery of Omnichannel Capabilities

Enterra Insights

'“Very few companies – a mere five percent – believe they are ‘advanced’ when it comes to omnichannel capabilities,” a … Continued The post The Digital Path to Purchase Requires Mastery of Omnichannel Capabilities appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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What Makes a Warehouse Worker Happy?

The 2024 Newcastle Systems Worker Satisfaction Survey provides insights into the life of a warehouse worker and what matters to them.

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Insights from Elemica reveal 2014 Frankfurt

Talking Logistics

'What do the Germany World Cup Team and the Boston Red Sox have in common? That was my opening question to the executives attending last month’s Elemica reveal 2014 Conference in Frankfurt. The answer: Both teams illustrate that past performance is no guarantee of future results. The German team overcame disappointments in 2006 and 2010 to win the World Cup this year, while favorites Spain (the defending champion) and Brazil (the host country) were humbled by the competition.

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End-to-End Available to Promise Webcast

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow Just a quick post to let our readers know of the upcoming webcast, “ End-to-End Available to Promise “ This webcast will define available to promise (ATP) in dispersed and outsourced operations for environments with high demand and supply variability. Traditionally, ATP has been done in a request – promise manner across each tier of the supply chain, which adds enormous latency to the decision process.

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Two Ways Supply Chains Can Remain Strategic to Business

Logistics Viewpoints

'Supply chain management is a critical function at any business that involves production, distribution, or inventory management. But being a critical function does not make it strategic in the traditional Michael Porter definition of providing a unique, valuable and sustainable competitive advantage. So, how can the supply chain management function elevate itself to that of […].