January, 2015

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Agility Does Not Grow on Trees: Start Building Today

Supply Chain Shaman

'Companies want to be agile. As demand and supply volatility increases, the goal is to build a flexible supply chain system. The definition is one that can deliver the same cost, quality and level of customer service with the increase in demand and supply volatility. The gap is large. Today, based on recent research, less than 30% of supply chain leaders have a supply chain that they consider to be agile.

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[INFOGRAPHIC] The Evolution and History of Supply Chain Management

GlobalTranz

'History of Supply Chain Management. Over the last 100 plus years of the history of supply chain management has evolved from an initial focus on improving relatively simple, but very labor-intensive processes to the present day engineering and managing of extraordinarily complex global networks. We will take you through the last 60 plus years below and end the post with an amazing infographic.

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Top 12 logistics influencers on Twitter

DELMIA Quintiq

'Finding logistics people to follow on Twitter is easy. Simply key in “logistics” and voila: You’re given a long list of individuals whose profiles contain these words. Finding the right logistics people worth following however is a daunting exercise, especially if you don’t know who to look for. We’ve put together a list of logistics influencers worth following, most of whom we’ve had the pleasure of engaging with.

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7 Supply Chain Lessons from Lenovo

Supply Chain Opz

'Lenovo has been consistently ranked on the list of supply chain top 25 by research and advisory firm Gartner Inc for more than 4 years in a row. However, the majority of Lenovo''s supply chain case studies focus on the use of information system and the benefits of the acquisition of IBM’s PC business in 2005. In this article, we will show you 7 elements of Lenovo''s supply chain operations from the book " The Lenovo Way: Managing a Diverse Global Company for Optimal Performance ". (1) Empty You

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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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How to Turn Your Supply Chain into an Innovation Engine | Guest Post from Erwin Hermins

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow Our partner Celestica recently published the following article, ‘How to Turn Your Supply Chain into an Innovation Engine’. The author, Erwin Hermans, vice president of supply chain services, describes the areas to consider when turning your supply chain into an innovation engine: An Enabler for New Business Models. Finding the Real Cost of the Supply Chain and Optimizing.

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More Trending

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My Take: Metrics that Matter

Supply Chain Shaman

'Last week, I held my new book in my hand. It is exciting to have two years of research, nine months of writing, and four months of editing to become crisp, fresh pages. The smell of ink is intoxicating. I am now an author of my third book. I also love getting feedback. Over the course of the last week, I had a Linkedin comment from Dubai, questions from a team from the Philippines, and an inquiry from Switzerland.

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The Future of Logistics: Are 3PL Companies Ready to Adopt these 4 Emerging Technologies?

GlobalTranz

'This first post is part one of a two-part series on the future of logistics. In today’s post, we will cover the four emerging technologies which 3PLs must consider as a part of their service offerings. In the least, 3PLs must understand these emerging technologies so that one day they may integrate into logistics service providers ‘ company practices to better serve customers.

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Driver Networks and The Future of Last-Mile Delivery Operations

Talking Logistics

'My smartphone now allows me to order and receive almost anything within an hour or two — from a bottle of wine a dinner guest mentioned during appetizers to more coat hangers for the shorts I received as a gift a few hours ago. And I hardly pay for the convenience! It’s like the good ‘ol Dot-com Bubble days all over again thanks to companies like Saucey , WunWun , Google Shopping Express , and Door Dash.

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The Secret to Successful Enterprise Strategy? Always Include Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Opz

'In this guest commentary, John McKeller , senior lecturer for the Wisconsin School of Business Grainger Center for Supply Chain Managemen t at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains four key considerations for successfully integrating a firm’s strategy with supply chain management. Before entering academia, McKeller held various supply chain managerial positions with subsidiaries of Ralston Purina, Eli Lilly and Company, and General Dynamics Corporation.

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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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2015 New Year’s Resolutions for the Supply Chain Industry

Kinaxis

'by CJ Wehlage 2015 will be my 25 th year in the supply chain industry, mostly as a practitioner. I’ve had the benefit of stepping away from the grind for 2 years, spending time at AMR Research, where I visited with many companies and learned about their supply chain practices. As well, these past 2 years at Kinaxis have brought great insight on the operational challenges of supply chain leaders.

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5 Supply Chain Predictions for 2015

Logistics Viewpoints

'Very often any predictions you can make for a one year period are not about a brand new thing that will occur, the prediction is really part of a larger megatrend that has not only been going on for some time but will also continue for many years to come. Some of the megatrends affecting […].

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Stories of Supply Chain Leadership: An Interview with Joan Motsinger of Seagate

Supply Chain Shaman

'Many companies talk about Supply Chain Excellence, but most leaders struggle to define it. As a goal, it is easier to say than to define. One supply chain leader, in a discussion last week, likened supply chain excellence to fitness. His reasoning? He saw fitness as a goal to work for, and he acknowledged that you can get fitter; but he believed that the state of fitness is elusive.

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The Changing Face of Manufacturing: How US Manufacturers are Looking Homeward

GlobalTranz

'This is the first post in a two part series on the “Changing Face of Manufacturing.” We have many manufacturing shipper customers, and we love to create content of value for them on such subjects as best practices in logistics or trends around the supply chain. However, we don’t only talk about what we do well, we also like to talk about things that may affect manufacturing companies so we can be the maven to resources which are of value to our customers and the industry at la

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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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Bitcoin: A New Supply Chain Operating System?

Talking Logistics

'I have to admit, I’ve paid very little attention to all the buzz surrounding bitcoin these past few years. I’m fairly conservative when it comes to banking (for example, I’m still not comfortable “depositing” checks using my smartphone ), so using a new digital currency, or “fake money” as my wife calls it, to buy stuff isn’t something that appeals to me, especially since bitcoin’s developer remains a mystery.

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A new frontier for forecast accuracy

The Network Effect

'Mike Behnken/Flickr. Note, this is part two in a series on demand sensing. Part one is here. . At some point most forecasting methods will hit the law of diminishing returns where the forecast accuracy will tend to flatten out, regardless of the formulae or analytics that are applied. Mathematicians have traditionally approached forecasting based on various time series and curve fitting techniques which create a forecast based on data such as prior sales history, drawing on several years of dat

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How Supply Chain Best Practice Metrics Can Predict the NFL Super Bowl

Kinaxis

'by CJ Wehlage For those that follow the National Football League (NFL), these next few weekends are going to be engaging. We are down to the final four teams: Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers. With full disclosure, I have to say that I do not have a rooting interest. I grew up in Pittsburgh, and it is Steelers all day.

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My Supply Chain Resolutions

Logistics Viewpoints

'What resolutions should you make in the New Year to improve your supply chain? Here are mine: To remember that supply chains should be built backward from the customer. One way to do this is to use a Perfect Order metric as a key way of measuring the supply chain organization. But the question remains […].

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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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Cradle to Grave?

Supply Chain Shaman

'Last week, I interviewed Robert Byrne, founder of Terra Technology on his demand planning benchmarking study. I enjoy creating the podcast series, and Rob’s findings in his benchmark study are always thought-provoking. This is his fifth year of studying demand processes. In this blog, I share the findings and why I think that they should matter to supply chain professionals in consumer-facing industries.

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Lean Inventory: Using Lean Initiatives To Manage Inventory

GlobalTranz

'What is Lean Inventory Management? What techniques are applied to make it successful? More firms are implementing lean inventory management techniques to reduce costs, improve flexibility and have more time to focus on their customers. Lean supply chain and inventory management enable Small Medium Businesses (SMB) to improve efficiency and increase profits.

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Container yard planning: 5 steps to big profits

DELMIA Quintiq

'Big data can be a huge contributor to great supply chain planning, but it doesn’t translate to actual value unless you know what to do with it. To bridge the gap between big data and optimized planning decisions, companies are now turning to big calculations. Big calculations unlock the value of big data, resulting in real-time optimization aimed at achieving fast and efficient business results.

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Supply Chain and Logistics Conferences to Attend in 2015

Talking Logistics

'Last January, I shared 5 New Year’s Resolutions for supply chain and logistics executives to improve as leaders. Of the five resolutions, the one you should always recommit yourself to every year is “Make the time for learning — and teaching.” As I wrote last year: According to leadership expert Ken Blanchard, “when you stop learning, you stop leading,” and this is especially true in supply chain management.

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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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Will that be automatic or semi-automatic to manage your supply chain?

Kinaxis

'by Christopher Hatcher Years ago when I was in the army, one of the most memorable days of my mostly forgettable BASIC training experience was flipping the switch to automatic. Yes, we’re talking about the M16 rifle standard issue weapon for soldiers. We were trained on this weapon out at the firing range where we learned to hold the weapon steady, breath calmly, and ignore the clamor of dozens of shots ringing out through the earplugs nestled in our ears.

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Best Supply Chain Conferences to Attend in 2015

Logistics Viewpoints

'Happy New Year! There are many supply chain conferences scheduled in 2015. If you are like me, you only have so much time to spend at conferences and must choose the ones that best suit your needs. I believe that the best conferences are large enough to support networking and diverse topics, but personal enough […].

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Are Supply Chain Orchestration Services Still Science Fiction?

The Network Effect

'Sogol/Flickr. Note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts where I discuss the current landscape for logistics service providers (LSPs). In the first post, I discussed some of the top challenges that they face. In the next two, I discussed a broad set of opportunities that I am calling “ Coordination Services and Harmonization services “ .

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Skillfully Managing Manufacturing Reshoring Projects

GlobalTranz

'There’s more involved in successfully reshoring a foreign manufacturing operation back to the U.S. than simple cost comparisons. These initiatives have many moving parts and require careful planning. So where should a company begin? Reshoring is a hot topic in manufacturing. Many companies are already doing it, and according to a recent BCG study, 54 percent of companies with over billion in revenues are now considering it.

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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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What the Super Bowl Can Teach Us about Supply Chain Risk Management

Enterra Insights

'This year’s Super Bowl looks pretty evenly matched. Both teams (the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks) sport a 14-4 … Continued The post What the Super Bowl Can Teach Us about Supply Chain Risk Management appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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5 Global Transportation Themes to Look Out for in 2015

Talking Logistics

'Two major shifts are changing the face of global transportation management as we know it: Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, relying on partners and data beyond the four walls of the enterprise; The very definition of global transportation management is broadening and expanding well beyond the traditional TMS scope. As a result, several areas of focus will move to the forefront of logistics strategy.

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How Anritsu Achieved End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility – SupplyChainBrain & Kinaxis Video Series

Kinaxis

'by Melissa Clow SupplyChainBrain attended our annual Kinexions user conference, and while there, they completed a number of video interviews with customers, analysts, and Kinaxis executives. And, we’d like to share them! In this interview, hear Dave Stenfort, director of operations with Anritsu, speak about how the company achieved visibility of inventory and improved control over critical parts in its manufacturing supply chain.