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From the moment that manufacturers began outsourcing the making of parts and components that go into their products, supplier segmentation took on extreme importance. Suppliers were quickly categorized in many ways… by quality, performance, price, riskiness, and so on. As the manufacturer’s pool of suppliers grew, they also segmented their supply base by how much they spent with each, their overall value contribution, and how critical the supplier was to their supply chain.
I’ll reveal what your business needs to know about The Titans: Alibaba, Amazon, and Walmart, in my newest thought leadership video coming soon. This is a sneak peak of what’s to come. The Titans: Alibaba, Amazon, and Walmart: Game Changing Strategies: Time FOR YOU TO Respond! is a roadmap that guides you through steps on how to respond to the Titans and gain profitability.
Two interesting logistics articles in the financial media this week were the catalyst of this short post. Both articles reported on major shippers (a major truckload carrier in this Nasdaq piece and a leader in parcel delivery in the Wall Street Journal ) raising the fuel surcharges they levy on customers, despite the fact that fuel prices continue to sit at multi-year lows.
There is a process that is fast becoming a necessary and key component of both demand planning and sales and operations planning. I have heard it described as “forecastability”and “demand curve analysis”, among other terms, but, here, I will call it a “Demand Plan Sanity Check” or DPSC for short. I am seeing this across industries, but particularly in consumer products.
“What should we do about the tariffs?” There’s no straightforward answer — every leader has a different expectation. CFOs want numbers. COOs want action. CEOs want strategy. And supply chain and procurement leaders need to be ready with the right response — fast. That’s why GEP has created a simple three-part framework that will help CPOs and CSCOs brief the board and C-suite with clarity and confidence.
Suppliers have never been more important. Driven by a desire by manufacturers to insulate themselves from spiraling labor costs, manufacturers shifted production of parts and components into the supply chain. As a result, your suppliers now have a very significant impact on the price and quality of your products, your company’s reputation and ability to innovate, and even the success of the new offerings your company introduces into the marketplace.
With these carefully selected words, Andy Grove fostered a culture of continuous innovation at Intel. He wanted his senior leaders to encourage experimentation and prepare for inevitable market changes that would threaten Intel’s dominance. Grove abhorred complacency and urged his people to test new techniques, new products, new sales channels, and new customers, to be ready for unexpected shifts in business or technology.
In the world of supplier management, the risk register is becoming a prominent and high profile tool for manufacturers. It acts as a central repository for all risks identified by the organization and, for each risk, includes information such as type of risk, probability of occurrence, potential impact on the business, prevention strategies, and action plans if the risk should occur.
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In the world of supplier management, the risk register is becoming a prominent and high profile tool for manufacturers. It acts as a central repository for all risks identified by the organization and, for each risk, includes information such as type of risk, probability of occurrence, potential impact on the business, prevention strategies, and action plans if the risk should occur.
From the moment that manufacturers began outsourcing the making of parts and components that go into their products, supplier segmentation took on extreme importance. Suppliers were quickly categorized in many ways… by quality, performance, price, riskiness, and so on. As the manufacturer’s pool of suppliers grew, they also segmented their supply base by how much they spent with each, their overall value contribution, and how critical the supplier was to their supply chain.
This week we announced the launch of Directworks 2.0 , our new sourcing and supplier management platform. Back in February of this year, I published a post about the beliefs and principles guiding our product vision at Directworks. Now that the product has been launched, I thought it would be interesting to assess how well we lived up to those beliefs and principles.
I’ve been working with Shanghai-based UNITY Business Consulting recently, and thought I’d pass along an interesting road map for the future of logistics. Focus on the far right column, “Logistics 4.0″, which is distinguished by such characteristics as no warehouse in the supply chain, and autonomous transportation and equipment.
Do you know why everyone hates technology solution product demos? Because they’re tedious and frequently fail to explain how the solution solves the customer’s specific business challenges and pain points. Making matters worse, solutions for enterprise-level businesses (like supply chain logistics IT solutions) are complex applications covering a broad array of business processes and functions.
Speaker: Andrew Skoog, Founder of MachinistX & President of Hexis Representatives
Manufacturing is evolving, and the right technology can empower—not replace—your workforce. Smart automation and AI-driven software are revolutionizing decision-making, optimizing processes, and improving efficiency. But how do you implement these tools with confidence and ensure they complement human expertise rather than override it? Join industry expert Andrew Skoog as he explores how manufacturers can leverage automation to enhance operations, streamline workflows, and make smarter, data-dri
It’s been awhile since we’ve covered supply chain control towers, and I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the topic, as there has been some really interesting research published over the past few months. First–Nucleus Research released its 2015 Value Matrix: Supply Chain Control Towers. If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you read the whole thing.
Note: This is the next installment in an ongoing series that explores shelf-connected supply networks. We’ve asked whether a shelf-connected system was possible with traditional ERP systems , discussed how new approaches to forecasting processes are required in a shelf-connected world, explored new types of demand-driven inventory replenishment policies. and explained why ERP system struggle to replenish in shelf-connected environments.
This post is a series exploring the concept of a shared industry backbone in the cloud. In my first post, I explained why ERP can’t provide a single version of truth for your supply chain. In this post, I want to talk about the requirements for an industry operating backbone and why this technology is catching on: Leveraging a supply network across an industry backbone enables a new level of collaboration with both customers and suppliers, supported from a systems viewpoint providing sign
SCM World just released an interesting report (gated) on the “The Future of Supply Chain”, based on responses from more than 1000 supply chain leaders around the world. It’s full of interesting findings and predictions and I suggest you read the whole thing yourself if you can, but I thought I’d highlight the primary prediction because I think it’s spot on: New technologies, both upstream in manufacturing as well as downstream at the point of sale and beyond, are e
Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.
The People Speak!/Flickr. Friedrich Nietsche said “Most bad habits are tools to help us through life.” This is especially true in the world of retail supply chain planning. When retailers embark upon implementing time-phased planning, it is tempting – from a change management standpoint – to tell people “this isn’t much different than what we do today” or “we’re essentially doing the same thing in a different way” While this is partiall
The Titans: Alibaba, Amazon, and Walmart: Game Changing Strategies: Time FOR YOU TO Respond! is a road map that guides you through steps on how to respond to the Titans and gain profitability. Throughout the month of October we will be sharing glimpses of three game changing strategies as discussed in the video. The first is: Alibaba is the leader in Crossborder Commerce.
Note: This is a series of posts exploring how logistics service providers can offer their customers solutions that go beyond traditional logistics processes. So far, we’ve covered order promising and delivery , replenishment planning and distribution services , supply chain benchmarking , orchestration , and harmonization. . As shippers look for global expertise and operational solutions, LSPs are in a prime position to offer inbound procurement and supplier collaboration, and with the ne
Never mind what solution providers may tell you about why you should implement a new (or upgrade an aging) TMS solution. Here are four indicators from top tier, impartial sources that, together, represent a compelling case for why you should tackle supply chain logistics automation challenges in the next two quarters. A US Recession Just Got a Little More Likely – Bloomberg.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
Note: This is an ongoing series of posts on new developments within the automobile supply chain, with examples of best practices. In earlier posts, I talked about order aggregation , new inventory replenishment policies , why a network model makes so much sense , and the all important ASN. Today I want to discuss international shipping management in the context of the new network platforms. .
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