2014

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Supply chain innovation through the Nexus of Forces

ivalua

In my last blog post, “ Will your supply chain lead in the next decade? ,” I talked about Gartner’s first-day focus at their Supply Chain Executive Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. Another significant theme was the need to act on what Gartner calls the Nexus of Forces: the cloud, social, mobile, and information. It’s the convergence of these forces that Gartner predicts will drive the business of the future.

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Introducing Supply Chain Power Influencers on Twitter

Supply Chain Opz

'Social media has been adopted by supply chain management professionals as a mechanism to express opinions and disseminate knowledge. Since there is too much information floating around, many people rely on "influencers" who exhibit expertise, enthusiasm or credibility. Then, this article will show how the influencers in supply chain management can be identified.

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6 maps that explain global supply chains

The Network Effect

'We all know that supply chains are becoming more and more global, but how often can we actually see them becoming more global? The site vox.com has compiled 38 maps that explain the global economy. We’ve selected 6 that are especially relevant to supply chains. #1: How Sugar Circulates Globally. Even seemingly simple commodities have complex supply chains.

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What are “Analytics”?

Supply Chain Action Blog

“Analytics” is one of those business buzz words formed by transforming an adjective into a noun. . So forceful and habitual is such misuse of language that one might call it a compulsion among business analysts and writers. The term “analytics” commonly refers to software tools that can be used to organize, report, and sometimes visualize data in attempt to lend meaning for decision-makers.

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Manufacturing Sustainability Surge: Your Guide to Data-Driven Energy Optimization & Decarbonization

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets.

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Will your supply chain lead in the next decade?

ivalua

Yesterday was the first day of Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Summit. The conference theme is “supply chain will lead in the next decade.” Because of supply chain’s far reaching effects, Gartner is challenging supply chain leaders to drive transformation throughout their organizations. Gartner noted the increase in chief supply chain officers (CSCO), with 40% of them reporting to the CEO.

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Experts Discuss How to Streamline Global Supply Chain

Supply Chain Opz

'Companies of all sizes have been capturing the value from Global Supply Chain to increase the economies of scale and scope for years. Due to the rapid change in global business environment, managers find it difficult to gain the edge over competitors. In this article, we will show you tips from worldwide experts that you can use to streamline your global supply chain operations.

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7 Reasons Why You Need Supply Chain Planning Software

Supply Chain Opz

'Supply chain planning has been recognized as one of the best practices due to the force behind globalization and higher level of competitions. Considerable cost savings can be achieved when it''s implemented properly. This article will explain its basic concept and some reasons why you may need the help of supply chain planning software. Basic Concept Many companies use the word "supply chain planner" to describe an entry level job dealing with the demand forecasting and material scheduling.

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SCM Global 50: Best Global Supply Chain Blogs

Supply Chain Opz

'Managing the smooth flow of material and information in global supply chain context has been a business challenge for many years and many companies tries to find the new ways to take the advantage of the shift of global economy. Then, this article will show you some good resources that will help you handle the complexities in global scm. Background Even though re-shoring concept has been adopted more and more by companies of all sizes, maintaining the good control of overseas facilities and kee

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Expert Explains How to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency

Supply Chain Opz

'Over the years, supply chain professionals have been trying to improve supply chain efficiency so they can gain an edge over the competitions. In this guest commentary, Thomas Roemer, Executive Director of the Leaders for Global Operations at MIT Sloan School of Management will show you where the problem lies and ways we can deal with this issue. Companies seeking to further improve their supply chain efficiency will have to continue fighting their old foe – variability – albeit in a set of new

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Supply Chain Case Study: the Executive's Guide

Supply Chain Opz

'Professionals in supply chain management use various methods to identify best practices to improve the operations. Analysis of case study is certainly one of the most popular methods for people from business management background. In order to accelerate the learning, this article has gathered 20+ most sought-after supply chain case studies, analyzed/categorized them by industry and the findings are presented.

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GEP Procurement & Supply Chain Tech Trends Report

The technological landscape is dynamic and changes quickly. And for procurement and supply chain leaders looking to harness the power of technology to navigate complex challenges and an uncertain business environment, keeping up with the latest trends can be its own obstacle. So, what’s on the technological horizon for procurement and supply chain for the year ahead?

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7 Reasons Why You Need Supply Chain Planning Software

Supply Chain Opz

'Supply chain planning has been recognized as one of the best practices due to the force behind globalization and higher level of competitions. Considerable cost savings can be achieved when it''s implemented properly. This article will explain its basic concept and some reasons why you may need the help of supply chain planning software. Basic Concept Many companies use the word "supply chain planner" to describe an entry level job dealing with the demand forecasting and material scheduling.

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Best Logistics and Supply Chain Infographics

Supply Chain Opz

'Following the success of our previous blog rankings titled " Supply Chain Power ", now we extend the rankings further. For the first time, the infographics from various blogs will be examined and a collection of best infographics will be established. Background Blogging has become a heart of the successful business because it can help to solve customer problems, develop thought leadership and create trust within logistics/scm communities.

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10 Commandments of Inventory Management

Supply Chain Opz

'Inventory management is one of the most important tasks for supply chain management professionals. However, most inventory control theories are too complicated or too difficult to apply to real world situations. Then, this article will show you 10 simple principles that you can use to streamline your inventory management practices right away. 1) Utilize cross-functional team If you''re an inventory controller and you choose to stay in your cubicle for the whole day, it''s the indication that yo

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The Noob Guide to Supply Chain Definition

Supply Chain Opz

'What is the definition of supply chain management? Despite the popularity of this concept, there are considerable confusions among the practitioners. Because, each professional organization has its own version of the definition. In this article, we will show you 6 attributes that will make you understand more about the meaning. 1) It''s a network Many companies have the department that controls various activities within the supply chain.

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Scaling Logistics for Success: A White Claw Story

Speaker: Scott Campbell and Molly Feller

As the demand for your products skyrockets 🚀, you're likely experiencing logistical challenges that are preventing you from scaling your business. The sudden surge in demand can be exciting, but it can also put a strain on your supply chain and logistics operations. In this webinar, join Scott Campbell, Vice President, Logistics & Demand at Mark Anthony Services and Molly Feller, VP Logistics as a Service Operations at e2open, as they explore the challenges that arise when companies expe

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Why the supply chain should be more social

The Network Effect

'No company has ‘truly’ modeled the full relationship set between how companies interact with other companies upstream and downstream in the supply chain. Some of the largest companies in the world struggle to maintain accurate master data about their suppliers. Even companies who have invested in building an accurate database of their direct suppliers know very little about the next tier of suppliers upstream in the supply chain.

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Use these management strategies to build a great supply chain…

The Network Effect

'Today I want to talk about some of the processes and management strategies that can be used to help a supply chain on the journey from ‘good’ to ‘great’ To read more about this subject and related themes, I suggest you read the new whitepaper, Supply Chain’s New World Order” , Visibility and Measurement. Visibility to the potential value locked in the current environment is a key driver in a supply network transformation and is being provided by advanced cloud based ne

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The Anatomy of Supply Chain Strategy

Supply Chain Opz

'What is Supply Chain Strategy? Strategic management has been around for more than half a century but there is still no standard strategy formulation for supply chain management. In this article, we will show you what solid supply chain strategy should look like. 1) It''s a multi-year roadmap : w hen people talk about strategy, they often say something like, "we want to reduce cost by 5%" or "we will do what ever it takes to achieve 95% service level" However, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines

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Why overcoming stale data is key to achieving a great supply chain

The Network Effect

'If we feel that today we have achieved a level of goodness across our supply network planning and operations, how do we target and mobilize toward greatness? The challenge for us in today’s competitive environment is how to evolve from ‘good’ to ‘great.’ We’ve gotten to ‘good’ by deploying the dominant technologies of today, but whose architectural design unfortunately perpetuates significant latency and inefficiency across the supply network.

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Supply Chain Orchestration: A New Era in Supply Chain Management

When the only certainty is uncertainty, what does that mean for today’s supply chain management approaches? This eBook delves into how supply chain orchestration can help businesses unlock agility, transparency, intelligence, and trust across their end-to-end supply chain.

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What’s the biggest cause of poor performance in every supply chain?

The Network Effect

'Note: this is part 2 in a series of posts. In part one I laid out the 5 stage maturity model that shows how organizations can turn their “big data” into “big visibility” The stages are 1) Representation; 2) Accessibility; 3) Intelligence; 4) Decision Management; 5) Outcome-Based Metrics and Performance. The fifth stage was so important, I promised to devote an entire post to it. .

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The supply chain implications of rising healthcare costs…

The Network Effect

'The pressure to contain or drive down health system costs continues to be of big focus. In the US, healthcare expenditure per person has risen by almost 78 per cent since 2000 to USD 8,700 in 2011 (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 2012). In Europe, the proportion of healthcare costs as a share of GDP is predicted to rise from 6.7 in 2008 to 7.6 per cent by 2020.

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How the cloud and counterfeiting are affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain

The Network Effect

'Note: This is part of an ongoing series on the top ten trends affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain. You can read my first post with the first two trends here. Number 3: Optimized Execution in Operations, Logistics, and Distributions. Pharmaceuticals manufacturers now realize that integrating upwards of 100 contract manufacturers in different regions into their core ERP would take several years.

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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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How to Create a Blueprint for Fleet Resilience

Speaker: Jeff Dickinson - President and CEO of Railgistixs Transport, Supply Chain and Logistics Thought Leader

Despite the ongoing transformation of the supply chain and logistics landscape, the steadfast importance of carrier safety remains a core principle. From prioritizing preventative maintenance to optimizing fleet utilization, the fundamentals persist. If you’re overlooking and neglecting essential safety precautions today, this could result in expensive repairs and potential safety hazards in the future. 🚧 Join Jeff Dickinson for a conversation on how to mitigate risk, enforce compliance,

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The Internet of Things: How “Process Robots” Are Enabling Supply Networks (Part 2)

The Network Effect

'In yesterday’s post I introduced the concept of “process robots”, and showed how they are already being deployed within supply networks to automatically do the work. For the most part these process robots have been hidden from view, lurking deep in the bowels of our supply networks solving a range of problems from simple matching of tagged services to some of the harder supply chain problems which may require some level of optimization or advanced mathematics.

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Why pharma companies are building direct sales channels to the end-consumer

The Network Effect

'Many companies in the pharmaceuticals sector are facing a challenge; they must decide if, when, and to what extent they should develop a direct-distribution channel to the end consumer. Sales of products in the OTC category have been growing faster than other pharmaceutical products in the past few years. Products catering to the consumer desire for private health monitoring are emerging; for example smartphone apps and add-on devices allow testing and digital recording of blood sugar values f

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Five Major Changes Happening Right Now in Industrial Distribution

The Network Effect

'Big things are happening in today’s industrial distribution landscape–five big things, to be exact. And they are causing an uproar in the industry as they all occur simultaneously. The five big changes happening now are: 1. Experience. 2. Convenience. 3. Selection. 4. Price. 5. Competition. Let’s take a closer look at experience. This means everything from real-time product availability and enhanced search, to improved product descriptions and streamlined checkout.

Price 74
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Why Commercial Drone Is NOT the Future of Supply Chain

Supply Chain Opz

'Since the early December 2013, Amazon Prime Air, a program which aims to utilize a whole fleet of drones to make a delivery within 30 minutes, has been capturing the news headlines. The current status is that FAA has not issued any rules and regulations specifically for the commercial drone yet. Then, this article will show you 7 reasons why Amazon Prime Air or similar drone delivery program may fail to materialize. 1) Public Safety : the most terrifying thing about a drone delivery was describ

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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What does increasing regulatory oversight mean for the pharma supply chain?

The Network Effect

'Due to more complex supply chains, policy makers worldwide are enforcing stricter regulations for manufacturing and logistics. Selected manufacturing problems and growing public pressure have caused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen GMP standards (Good Manufacturing Practices) and control them more strictly. Within a decade, the number of FDA warning letters sent to medical device manufacturers has increased threefold, from 61 letters in 2002 to 181 in 2012 (EC A 2012).

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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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Integrating Big Data and Application Development into today’s Social Supply Chain

The Network Effect

'In my last post I explained the concept of the enterprise social graph (ESG), and discussed why supply chains can benefit greatly from the advanced cloud platforms that can enable an ESG. Today I want to go a step further and show how Big Data and application development are handled within these new environments. First, today’s advanced cloud platforms provide a flexible architecture that enables the aggregation, storage, querying, processing, and analyzing of Big Data.

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The transforming pharmaceutical supply chain

The Network Effect

'I was just with one of the leading global pharmaceutical company yesterday, and once again I was struck by how quickly the pharmaceutical supply chain is changing. I’ve already touched on elements of this before , but today I want to describe one of the main underlying causes of this transformation. The rise of OTC and Generics . The market for Over-the-Counter (OTC) medicines is now forecast to outgrow the total current pharmaceutical market.

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Exploring the Advantages and Hurdles of Direct Store Deliveries

Direct Store Delivery, or DSD, is a common practice among global suppliers and retailers – like PepsiCo, Frito Lay, CVS, and Dollar General – and its popularity is growing, with the global DSD market expected to reach $1.19 trillion by 2027. Download this eBook for exclusive insights into direct store deliveries, challenges, benefits, and future trends.