2015

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Seven Misconceptions on Managing Inventory in a Market-Driven World

Supply Chain Shaman

When it comes to the management of inventory in value chains, frustration abounds. Executive, after executive, lament, “They have purchased many technologies and sponsored many projects to reduce inventories, but they are not seeing results.” I have been studying the evolution of inventory technologies as an industry analyst since 2002.

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The Ultimate List of Top Logistics Startups – Blog

Freightos

Logistics is the prime example of a changing industry – colossal, ripe for disruption and utterly opaque. And it’s about to get hit by a freight train of innovation. How much do we love freight innovation? Enough to go through every single article published in the top tech blogs – Techcrunch, Verge, Mashable and Recode – since 2007 to count how often articles about logistics startups, freight or cargo were published.

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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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Defeat supply chain complexity like a Jedi

DELMIA Quintiq

Image credit: Moviepilot. Overwhelmed by the dark forces of supply chain planning? The best supply chain planners share a common trait with Jedi knights: No matter how tough things get, they never give up. So how do they overcome a supply chain’s darkest force: complexity? Here’s what they don’t do: Assign different parts of their planning challenge to different departments.

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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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Five Types of Inventory Optimization You Should Know

ToolsGroup

Inventory configuration is usually the predominant issue in most manufacturing environments. Inventory policy is usually the predominant issue in most distribution environments. Here are five types of inventory optimization that you should be aware of if you are considering an optimization solution. Knowing which types are important to your business is an important step to determining which solution best fits your needs.

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Technology and the Supply Chain: What Does the Future Hold?

Kinaxis

by Alexa Cheater Meet the Jetsons! Like any well-rounded child of the 80s, I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Admittedly the futuristic family sitcom The Jetsons , which actually first aired in the 60s, wasn’t top of my list like He-Man or Captain Planet , but there was something fascinating about the whimsical and almost unimaginable gadgets and gizmos they featured.

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Expert Reveals 7 Supply Chain Trends to Watch

Supply Chain Opz

'As pressure to improve supply chain cost performance increases for many companies, the evaluation and selection of competent suppliers becomes a key concern. In this article, Professor Burcu Keskin from University of Alabama will share 7 trends that procurement and supply chain management professionals should watch. Typically, total cost, quality, and delivery performance appear as critical factors in the supplier selection process.

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Want a Better Supply Chain? Here Are 4 Reasons to Outsource Your Transportation Management

Talking Logistics

'Now more so than ever, corporations understand the tremendous impact logistics and transportation can have on their overall business performance and are taking meaningful strides to optimize their supply chain operations. While some organizations have the human capital, industry depth and expertise, and IT infrastructure to manage their transportation on an insourced basis, a majority do not.

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Improving the Transportation Solve: Jointly Optimizing across Inventory and Transportation

Logistics Viewpoints

When a company is looking to reduce their freight spend, while maintaining or improving service levels, there are two main paths they can take. They can buy and implement a transportation management system (TMS). Or they can outsource transportation planning and execution to a 3PL that provides managed transportation services (MTS). I talked to Wietse […].

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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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Big Data Poised to Play a Big Role in Ensuring Food Security

Enterra Insights

“Producing enough food, fiber and fuel for more than 9 billion people by 2050, while conserving natural resources is a … Continued. The post Big Data Poised to Play a Big Role in Ensuring Food Security appeared first on Enterra Solutions.

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Three Reasons Why SAP Supply Chain Planning Is a Risk to Your Business

Supply Chain Shaman

I am writing this blog post in the air, sitting in seat 4c, somewhere over the Midwest en route to Philadelphia. As I look below, I see field after field of United States farmland. The land looks like a giant puzzle. After a busy week with high-tech and electronics clients, my fingers are itching to help others solve a different type of puzzle. The goal of this blog is to help business users maximize their current SAP Investments in a time of change.

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10 Books Logistics And Supply Chain Experts Need To Read

Freightos

There are tens of thousands of books about logistics and supply chains. Literally. Amazon has 31,817 books about supply chain and 24,934 about logistics. That’s 56,751 supply chain and logistics books. All those books would weigh 49,000 kilograms – half the cargo mass of a Boeing 747-200F. Stacked, those books would be as tall as 10.7 Empire State Buildings.

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Lean Manufacturing: Is it Really Worth It? 16 Big Benefits Say, “Yes.”

GlobalTranz

Customer expectations of reliable quality and rapid delivery forces today’s manufacturers to either shorten cycle times or lose business. Customers simply switch suppliers when others are more capable of delivering within their preferred timeframes. Lean systems have provided a formidable operating strategy for leaders determined to achieve and maintain optimal operational systems and customer satisfaction levels.

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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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How can you prepare your supply chain for disruptions?

DELMIA Quintiq

'The butterfly effect. The “butterfly effect” was a term coined by mathematician, meteorologist and chaos theory expert Edward Lorenz around 1960. It refers to how one small incident can have a huge impact later on down the line. The recent West Coast ports cargo-handling disruption is an example of the butterfly effect. The labor dispute caused freight bottlenecks.

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Supply Chain Priorities: Seven Things That Matter Most

ToolsGroup

A recent Gartner study, conducted annually, sheds some light on what matters most to top executives in supply chain technology. I attended the Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Study delivered by Dwight Klappich at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference two weeks ago in London, where he laid out Gartner’s latest findings about the things that matter most in supply chain performance.

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Finally – A breakthrough alternative to spreadsheets for managing your Supply Chain

AIMMS

For most enterprise companies, ERP has become a foundational infrastructure technology and a cost of doing business. However, many are finding that it is not the optimal technology for Supply Chain Planning and Optimization. This has led to usage of spreadsheets to help fill in the gaps. But spreadsheets come with new challenges. Leading companies are overcoming these obstacles and finding success with an alternative that is quickly gaining adoption.

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Why Having a Green Supply Chain Has Become a Necessity

Kinaxis

'by Alexa Cheater In honor of Earth Day I thought I’d take the opportunity to outline in my humble opinion why having a green supply chain is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s a necessity. Gone are the days when consumers would look the other way while companies rode roughshod over the environment in pursuit of a more profitable supply chain. Nowadays even governments (the good ones at least), are actively involved in making sure Mother Nature is protected, at least to some extent.

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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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10 Greatest Purchasing Books Ever Written

Supply Chain Opz

What are the essential purchasing books you should read? In this article, we will uncover the best purchasing books to help you get the edge over competition. Background Historically, purchasing people are considered a kind of clerical workers who are expected to perform basic tasks such as document issuance and price negotiation. Now companies of all sizes realize how purchasing can help creating competitive advantage.

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Let’s Embrace New Ways of Working

Supply Chain Shaman

Tomorrow, I am off to Europe. On Thursday, I am speak on the future of supply chain technologies at an Eyeon conference in Rotterdam. It is the end of the fall speaking conference circuit and I am looking forward to spending time at home over the holidays. While I love talking to supply chain professionals at conferences and challenging them to think more holistically about supply chain excellence, as the leaves fall, I yearn for my home.

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Seven Mistakes to Avoid in Sales and Operations Planning

Supply Chain Shaman

Definition of a Mistake: An action or judgment that is misguided or wrong. Synonyms: Error, fault, blunder, oversight, miscalculation or a misunderstanding. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is important to building value chain agility and improving enterprise performance. (Agility is the ability to have the same performance in cost, quality, and customer service given a level of demand and supply volatility.

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Five Reflections From Supply Chain Planning Benchmarking

Supply Chain Shaman

Benchmarking is a measurement of the quality of an organization’s policies, products, programs or strategies against standard measurements. Business Dictionary.com. Writing a Shaman blog post is now a Sunday night ritual. For me, it is a good time to reflect, think and share what I am learning. In my work with Supply Chain Insights , I immerse myself in learning.

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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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How do we Drive Invention to Innovation in Planning?

Supply Chain Shaman

This week, I spoke at the Chicago CSCMP round table event. I love to hear the thoughts from different speakers. At the event, James Rice, MIT, spoke on innovation, and his reflections on Clayton Christensen’s 1997 classic business book, the Innovators Dilemma. I, like many of you, read this book when it was published. However, hearing the concepts again, from Jim, sparked some new thoughts.

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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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The Digital Supply Chain: Making The Leap With A Ball and Chain

Supply Chain Shaman

Last week, I spoke on the evolution of the digital supply chains and my vision for Supply Chain 2020 at the World Trade Group Event in Miami. I was the last speaker at the event, there were many cancellations in the program; and as a result, I questioned why I had come. However, it turned out OK. The audience stayed for the presentation and following the event, there were many spirited debates at the restaurant bar on the content.

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Using the Bits: Building Digital Outside-In Processes

Supply Chain Shaman

Social. Mobile. Sensors. 3D printing. The Internet of Things. The list goes on and on. The atoms and electrons of the supply chain are changing. My mind is spinning with the possibilities. Transmitted perfectly, replicated indefinitely; and with a one-time investment in network infrastructure, a digital task performs well with zero marginal cost. As a result, new data types move quicker and more accurately, with lower levels of investment.

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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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Reflections on Integrated Supply Chain Planning

Supply Chain Shaman

'Yesterday, I presented to 700 global attendees on an APICS webinar. In the presentation, I shared data on the evolution of supply chain planning and the results on user satisfaction. The results confound me. They are not consistent with market perception. Let me share the story. As shown in Figure 1, users are more satisfied, the implementations are shorter and there is greater Return on Investment of solutions from Best-of-Breed solution providers—especially if the best-of-breed solution provi

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Experts Choice Of Top Online Logistics Resources

Freightos

The Experts’ Choice of the Top Online Logistics Resources. Intro Email Newsletters News Sites Social Media Influencers Blogs Unexpected Places. If you’re like me, staying up to date on supply chain news is critical. But for every online “aha” I wade through dozens of yawns. So I went straight to the source and asked consultants, trade reporters, Wall Street Journal reporters and others, what their go-to logistics and supply chain sources were.

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Is Inventory Waste or an Asset?

Supply Chain Shaman

I am sitt ing in seat 4E on an evening flight to San Francisco thinking about my day. It is Labor Day weekend in the United States, and the plane is full. While many have a three-day holiday this weekend, I will celebrate this Labor Day working. Next week is the annual Supply Chain Insights Global Summit , and summit preparation is on my agenda for the weekend.