Metrics are a way to measure performance; and, in turn, communicate that information to key executives in the company. Their value is how supply chain management is supporting the direction and strategy of the business. It is important that they present a strategic and tactical understanding of what is happening and how well it is happening.
KPIs (key performance indicators) must be measurable. As a result, numerous metrics are about the logistics components. Some of these are good. However, they do not present a view of the total supply chain. Plus, many have little or no usefulness for the C-suite. Assessing logistics parts is a node-link approach and does not recognize the supply chain process.
Inventory management policies that fail to keep pace with shifting product demand can lock up valuable working capital, especially in volatile markets. By dynamically managing inventory without compromising service levels, companies can free up these unexploited reserves of working capital.
In the last 30 years S&OP improved performance in many businesses. However, S&OP has not yet substantially delivered on its ultimate promise of enterprise wide resource management, rolling financial forecasting and strategy deployment. Whatever maturity model or consultancy support companies use, S&OP seems to get stuck. Worse, overall S&OP development and progress seems to have stalled. It sometimes seems like S&OP is stuck in a time warp, where the same old things as 30 years ago are being discussed.
An S&OP implementation requires many changes, not the least behavioural change. However, practitioners indicate that behaviours are not addressed enough in S&OP implementations. There are different behavioural change requirements during S&OP maturity stages. In three posts, three coaching phases will be explained to support leaders with behavioural change in their S&OP journey. These are; Coach to change, coach to sustain and coach for excellence; coach for excellence.
In an ever-connected world, the availability of data along with the use of algorithms to make sense of it has become commonplace. This article explores the necessary steps to use data effectively, along with potential applications in the transportation and logistics industry.
This article explores the concept of information-based negotiations and the upcoming technological advances that will substantially improve its effectiveness. It is different from some traditional approaches to negotiations. It is not the adversarial negotiation style with the emphasis on game playing, theatrics and taking full advantage of a supplier’s weaknesses. In information-based negotiations the purchasing or supply chain professional gains a deep understanding of the supplier’s industry, its margins and its culture.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) focuses on unlocking value from your supply base. However, to achieve that, you need to identify which suppliers are the most important to your business.
If you can get this process right, you can be confident in knowing that you are directing precious resources to where they will have the greatest impact. Get it wrong, and you could find yourself missing key opportunities and being at risk of wasting time and energy in the wrong places.
When your carrier picks up or delivers your cargo, you should take some time to check for risky behaviors. This article reviews what to look for to ensure you’re not working with carriers that will put your business at risk.
Visiting your carriers in person provides a great opportunity to identify potentially risky behavior. In this article, we explore what you should look for to ensure you’re working with safe, knowledgeable, and reliable carriers.
The long tail is a concept established by Chris Anderson, who pointed out that the internet gave consumers choices beyond what was offered in physical stores. eCommerce offered niche markets the chance to appeal to their audience through major marketplaces likeAmazon, streaming services like Netflix, and music stores like the iTunes Music Store.
Many manufacturers claim they are paralyzed by thoughts of putting the Internet of Things to work for them because they can’t justify the business case to put the wheels in motion. To these manufacturers I say, “Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.”
Not that long ago, supply chain visibility tended to be an internally-focused process, one that allowed manufacturers to know when exactly they could expect to receive inbound goods and materials from their suppliers so they could plan and adjust their production schedules. While that’s still an important capability for companies to have, the Age of the Consumer has shifted the focus of visibility initiatives in the direction of the customers.
In the past century, grocery chains have grown in power and control of their supply chains placing increasing demands and an enormous burden on their suppliers. But do manufacturers have an ace up their sleeves?
3D printing has come a long way in an extremely short span of time. Initially built by Charles Hull in the 1980s as a tool for making basic polymer objects, today, the technology has spurred remarkable efforts in several manufacturing sectors; from building intricate aircraft and race car components, to human organs and prostheses.
As a warehouse manager, you would understand that handling warehouse operations are a massive task. One small mistake may affect the efficiency and productivity of the warehouse. You must continually implement measures to optimize various warehouse processes and improve the overall effectiveness of the operations involved. Apart from minimizing downtime and increasing productivity, it is essential to improve your supply chain. Let us look at a few tips that help in achieving the same.
Most supply chain professionals do not completely understand the disruption and upgrades that autonomous vehicles, specifically what I call robot trucks, will create. Most cannot get past the pitfalls and possible barriers to robot trucks. I define robot trucks with a much broader perspective. I include trucks of all sizes and even internal plant material handling equipment like fork-lifts and automatic guided vehicles (AVGs).
The biggest leap is that robot trucks will learn! Many doubters just cannot get past this. Although not complete artificial intelligence (AI), robot trucks will adapt on their own, to conditions and circumstances, and build an open memory of what to do.
Time and again, software buyers make purchasing decisions based on features offered, but often overlook how data will be integrated only to find out that it won’t be easy. However, there is a way to avoid this headache. Learn why modern enterprises are making data integration a priority instead of an afterthought.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, the rate of fatal injuries for warehouse work is higher than the national average. Warehouses are full of potential safety hazards, but employers and workers can minimize these risks by taking proper safety measures.
For shippers who regularly leverage the spot market, it’s been a buyers’ market the last few years. One shipper I’ve worked with saved more than 9 percent on freight spend simply by moving away from only using brokers to using (temporarily) the spot market for almost all of their loads. But, like Wright’s dog, is that market about to be gone?
Let’s start by looking at the numbers.
The notion of reverse logistics isn’t new, of course. The function has been around since the Phoenicians began shipping amphorae of wine to Rome in 1,500 BC. Processes have moved on since then but reverse logistics is the conundrum that every company will face at one time or another and how it deals with this issue will determine whether it is an opportunity or threat to the business.
Sustainability is rising. Born out of global concern over climate change, on April 22, 2016, a record 175 countries signed the Paris climate agreement, voluntarily pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions. When it comes to green and sustainable supply chains, though, cost cutting is still the driving force.
In September, the United Nations adopted a final roadmap for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Broadly speaking, SDGs are targets for governments, communities and institutions to further international development. The 2030 agenda builds on the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 and includes 17 goals touching on a variety of social, environmental and economic issues ranging from gender equality to accessible and affordable clean energy. But do the 2030 SDGs have any impact on the work of packaging professionals?
Today’s leading companies are grappling with how to achieve progress on a complex array of sustainability-related goals, including the reduction of carbon emissions, toxic releases and water and materials usage.
It's a wrap for bulky, wasteful packaging. Shippers today have to satisfy consumers who not only demand that fewer materials be used in packaging, but also prefer those materials to have a low environmental impact.
The world is in the early stages of a global supply chain revolution. The Amazon Effect. The Internet of Things. Platform Businesses. The new supply chain will grow beyond omnichannel. It will cross into other industries and markets and will incorporate supply chains of products, information, and finance.
All the elements of the New Supply Chain tie together. They are not separate steps. They are not to be selectively chosen or excluded. These are inter-related. The New Supply Chain brings performance excellence.
We all know how delays in any part of the supply chain can cause significant problems and incur additional delays among the rest of the supply chain.
One thing that is often overlooked but plays a major role in keeping the supply chain from crumbling down is maintenance management. In one way or another, you can connect maintenance activities with every stop in your supply chain.
Be it transportation, production, or storage, a failure of one maintenance team can be felt throughout the supply chain. In that light, let's explore this idea into more detail.
Digitization has changed everything. It’s changed not only how we interact but how we make decisions with readily available information. This accessibility to information and organizations has flattened the playing field for every organization as they look to market and sell their wares.
Are you confident your company is achieving the best possible asset recovery results? Do you know whether your return rate could go a few points higher? Or how feasible it would be to slash five, 10 or even 20 percent off your days of inventory? If not, you're not alone. Most businesses don't know what's truly achievable for companies of their kind. As a result, most asset recovery goals are guesstimates. Often, they're not aggressive enough, which means companies are leaving a lot of money on the table and dissatisfied customers in their wake. How industry benchmarks can boost your asset recovery.
For too long, supply chain visibility has been associated with pure track and trace and/or passive analytics. Our systems may provide some basic visibility but it’s visibility that is not actionable. It tells you what goes wrong but it doesn’t help you ensure that doesn’t affect your relationship with your customers in real-time leaving you better at planning but not better at executing that plan. The question is how do you make our visibility actionable? How do you encourage and implement your supply chain visibility to better optimize your processes in the moment? How can you truly make visibility a core competitive advantage for your supply chain?
Leading companies like General Mills, Walmart, Pepsico, FedEx and Anheuser-Busch have made reducing fuel use and emissions from freight a priority in setting their internal supply chain performance goals.
Jonathan O'Brien talks about if it's OK to lie in a negotiation. Should we lie when negotiating? Lying is frequently regarded as a necessary component of negotiation, as part of the way the game is played. For negotiation we tend to use slightly different language to make it more palatable and we call it ‘bluffing’ or ‘laying out a position’.
The supply chain software market is evolving toward platforms that optimize end-to-end processes and juggle constraints at all levels. How can an organization have a full range of supply chain execution (SCE) software at its disposal and still have massive execution problems?
It’s not often that supply chain issues capture the wider public’s imagination. However, there is one innovation in recent years, 3D printing, which appears to make Star Trek science a stunning reality and has broken into the public’s consciousness.
Anyone who has worked with asset intensive process manufacturers knows how hard it is to change the thinking about machine capacity utilization. Video about moving from inside-out production to outside-in demand and market focused is starting to turn.
Metrics are a way to measure performance; and, in turn, communicate that information to key executives in the company. Their value is how supply chain management is supporting the direction and strategy of the business. It is important that they present a strategic and tactical understanding of what is happening and how well it is happening.
KPIs (key performance indicators) must be measurable. As a result, numerous metrics are about the logistics components. Some of these are good. However, they do not present a view of the total supply chain. Plus, many have little or no usefulness for the C-suite. Assessing logistics parts is a node-link approach and does not recognize the supply chain process.
Inventory management policies that fail to keep pace with shifting product demand can lock up valuable working capital, especially in volatile markets. By dynamically managing inventory without compromising service levels, companies can free up these unexploited reserves of working capital.
In the last 30 years S&OP improved performance in many businesses. However, S&OP has not yet substantially delivered on its ultimate promise of enterprise wide resource management, rolling financial forecasting and strategy deployment. Whatever maturity model or consultancy support companies use, S&OP seems to get stuck. Worse, overall S&OP development and progress seems to have stalled. It sometimes seems like S&OP is stuck in a time warp, where the same old things as 30 years ago are being discussed.
An S&OP implementation requires many changes, not the least behavioural change. However, practitioners indicate that behaviours are not addressed enough in S&OP implementations. There are different behavioural change requirements during S&OP maturity stages. In three posts, three coaching phases will be explained to support leaders with behavioural change in their S&OP journey. These are; Coach to change, coach to sustain and coach for excellence; coach for excellence.
In an ever-connected world, the availability of data along with the use of algorithms to make sense of it has become commonplace. This article explores the necessary steps to use data effectively, along with potential applications in the transportation and logistics industry.
This article explores the concept of information-based negotiations and the upcoming technological advances that will substantially improve its effectiveness. It is different from some traditional approaches to negotiations. It is not the adversarial negotiation style with the emphasis on game playing, theatrics and taking full advantage of a supplier’s weaknesses. In information-based negotiations the purchasing or supply chain professional gains a deep understanding of the supplier’s industry, its margins and its culture.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) focuses on unlocking value from your supply base. However, to achieve that, you need to identify which suppliers are the most important to your business.
If you can get this process right, you can be confident in knowing that you are directing precious resources to where they will have the greatest impact. Get it wrong, and you could find yourself missing key opportunities and being at risk of wasting time and energy in the wrong places.
When your carrier picks up or delivers your cargo, you should take some time to check for risky behaviors. This article reviews what to look for to ensure you’re not working with carriers that will put your business at risk.
Visiting your carriers in person provides a great opportunity to identify potentially risky behavior. In this article, we explore what you should look for to ensure you’re working with safe, knowledgeable, and reliable carriers.
The long tail is a concept established by Chris Anderson, who pointed out that the internet gave consumers choices beyond what was offered in physical stores. eCommerce offered niche markets the chance to appeal to their audience through major marketplaces likeAmazon, streaming services like Netflix, and music stores like the iTunes Music Store.
Many manufacturers claim they are paralyzed by thoughts of putting the Internet of Things to work for them because they can’t justify the business case to put the wheels in motion. To these manufacturers I say, “Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.”
Not that long ago, supply chain visibility tended to be an internally-focused process, one that allowed manufacturers to know when exactly they could expect to receive inbound goods and materials from their suppliers so they could plan and adjust their production schedules. While that’s still an important capability for companies to have, the Age of the Consumer has shifted the focus of visibility initiatives in the direction of the customers.
In the past century, grocery chains have grown in power and control of their supply chains placing increasing demands and an enormous burden on their suppliers. But do manufacturers have an ace up their sleeves?
3D printing has come a long way in an extremely short span of time. Initially built by Charles Hull in the 1980s as a tool for making basic polymer objects, today, the technology has spurred remarkable efforts in several manufacturing sectors; from building intricate aircraft and race car components, to human organs and prostheses.
As a warehouse manager, you would understand that handling warehouse operations are a massive task. One small mistake may affect the efficiency and productivity of the warehouse. You must continually implement measures to optimize various warehouse processes and improve the overall effectiveness of the operations involved. Apart from minimizing downtime and increasing productivity, it is essential to improve your supply chain. Let us look at a few tips that help in achieving the same.
Most supply chain professionals do not completely understand the disruption and upgrades that autonomous vehicles, specifically what I call robot trucks, will create. Most cannot get past the pitfalls and possible barriers to robot trucks. I define robot trucks with a much broader perspective. I include trucks of all sizes and even internal plant material handling equipment like fork-lifts and automatic guided vehicles (AVGs).
The biggest leap is that robot trucks will learn! Many doubters just cannot get past this. Although not complete artificial intelligence (AI), robot trucks will adapt on their own, to conditions and circumstances, and build an open memory of what to do.
Time and again, software buyers make purchasing decisions based on features offered, but often overlook how data will be integrated only to find out that it won’t be easy. However, there is a way to avoid this headache. Learn why modern enterprises are making data integration a priority instead of an afterthought.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, the rate of fatal injuries for warehouse work is higher than the national average. Warehouses are full of potential safety hazards, but employers and workers can minimize these risks by taking proper safety measures.
For shippers who regularly leverage the spot market, it’s been a buyers’ market the last few years. One shipper I’ve worked with saved more than 9 percent on freight spend simply by moving away from only using brokers to using (temporarily) the spot market for almost all of their loads. But, like Wright’s dog, is that market about to be gone?
Let’s start by looking at the numbers.
The notion of reverse logistics isn’t new, of course. The function has been around since the Phoenicians began shipping amphorae of wine to Rome in 1,500 BC. Processes have moved on since then but reverse logistics is the conundrum that every company will face at one time or another and how it deals with this issue will determine whether it is an opportunity or threat to the business.
Sustainability is rising. Born out of global concern over climate change, on April 22, 2016, a record 175 countries signed the Paris climate agreement, voluntarily pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions. When it comes to green and sustainable supply chains, though, cost cutting is still the driving force.
In September, the United Nations adopted a final roadmap for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Broadly speaking, SDGs are targets for governments, communities and institutions to further international development. The 2030 agenda builds on the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 and includes 17 goals touching on a variety of social, environmental and economic issues ranging from gender equality to accessible and affordable clean energy. But do the 2030 SDGs have any impact on the work of packaging professionals?
Today’s leading companies are grappling with how to achieve progress on a complex array of sustainability-related goals, including the reduction of carbon emissions, toxic releases and water and materials usage.
It's a wrap for bulky, wasteful packaging. Shippers today have to satisfy consumers who not only demand that fewer materials be used in packaging, but also prefer those materials to have a low environmental impact.
The world is in the early stages of a global supply chain revolution. The Amazon Effect. The Internet of Things. Platform Businesses. The new supply chain will grow beyond omnichannel. It will cross into other industries and markets and will incorporate supply chains of products, information, and finance.
All the elements of the New Supply Chain tie together. They are not separate steps. They are not to be selectively chosen or excluded. These are inter-related. The New Supply Chain brings performance excellence.
We all know how delays in any part of the supply chain can cause significant problems and incur additional delays among the rest of the supply chain.
One thing that is often overlooked but plays a major role in keeping the supply chain from crumbling down is maintenance management. In one way or another, you can connect maintenance activities with every stop in your supply chain.
Be it transportation, production, or storage, a failure of one maintenance team can be felt throughout the supply chain. In that light, let's explore this idea into more detail.
Digitization has changed everything. It’s changed not only how we interact but how we make decisions with readily available information. This accessibility to information and organizations has flattened the playing field for every organization as they look to market and sell their wares.
Are you confident your company is achieving the best possible asset recovery results? Do you know whether your return rate could go a few points higher? Or how feasible it would be to slash five, 10 or even 20 percent off your days of inventory? If not, you're not alone. Most businesses don't know what's truly achievable for companies of their kind. As a result, most asset recovery goals are guesstimates. Often, they're not aggressive enough, which means companies are leaving a lot of money on the table and dissatisfied customers in their wake. How industry benchmarks can boost your asset recovery.
For too long, supply chain visibility has been associated with pure track and trace and/or passive analytics. Our systems may provide some basic visibility but it’s visibility that is not actionable. It tells you what goes wrong but it doesn’t help you ensure that doesn’t affect your relationship with your customers in real-time leaving you better at planning but not better at executing that plan. The question is how do you make our visibility actionable? How do you encourage and implement your supply chain visibility to better optimize your processes in the moment? How can you truly make visibility a core competitive advantage for your supply chain?
Leading companies like General Mills, Walmart, Pepsico, FedEx and Anheuser-Busch have made reducing fuel use and emissions from freight a priority in setting their internal supply chain performance goals.
Jonathan O'Brien talks about if it's OK to lie in a negotiation. Should we lie when negotiating? Lying is frequently regarded as a necessary component of negotiation, as part of the way the game is played. For negotiation we tend to use slightly different language to make it more palatable and we call it ‘bluffing’ or ‘laying out a position’.
The supply chain software market is evolving toward platforms that optimize end-to-end processes and juggle constraints at all levels. How can an organization have a full range of supply chain execution (SCE) software at its disposal and still have massive execution problems?
It’s not often that supply chain issues capture the wider public’s imagination. However, there is one innovation in recent years, 3D printing, which appears to make Star Trek science a stunning reality and has broken into the public’s consciousness.
Anyone who has worked with asset intensive process manufacturers knows how hard it is to change the thinking about machine capacity utilization. Video about moving from inside-out production to outside-in demand and market focused is starting to turn.
The chorus of complaints about non-conforming products (NCPs) infiltrating the building and construction sector raises important questions about quality and safety. It also poses serious commercial challenges for the businesses that do play by the rules. The safety risks to employees and the public as well as the risks to business sustainability and long term asset values are serious. The evidence of non-conformance now in the Australian building market including structural collapses, understrength materials, shoddy and fraudulent practices, inadequate compliance frameworks, glass falling from high rise buildings and electrical equipment posing fire and electric shock risk indicate there is a threat to employee and public safety.
Australian-based businesses conforming to relevant standards and regulations can be at a competitive disadvantage when the price at which a competing product is sold reflects lower levels of attention to the quality that is required under Australia’s conformance framework. Without serious enforcement of rules and adequate deterrents, non-conforming products will remain in the market.
To help get a better picture of the current situation, Ai Group has recently conducted extensive research and interviews with more than 400 businesses across steel, electrical, glass and aluminium, engineered wood products, paint and plastic pipes industry sub-sectors.
The report “The quest for a level playing field: The non-conforming building products dilemma” is the first step in this process. Of great concern was the finding that 92% of respondents reported NCPs in their supply chain. This was even higher in the steel product sector with 95% of respondents in this sub- sector acknowledging NPCs. Steel fabricators as well as steel building products manufacturers are the hardest hit by non-conforming product due a conformance framework that is overly reliant on first party certification and an increasing exposure to non-conforming structures and products.
According to this survey, 45% of companies are experiencing eroded margins and reduced revenues due to the presence on non-conforming products. In addition to the impact on individual business’s finances, the report indicates NCPs can pose safety risks, escalate deterioration rates in buildings, reduce asset values, increase maintenance costs and have the potential to impact on the Australian economy and our general competitiveness overall.
The efficiency of the current regulatory system and conformance framework –the system we rely on to ensure that products are fit for purpose – was also examined in this research. Despite convincing evidence of NCPs in the market, 43% of respondents reported they had not lodged a complaint when encountering NCP. Of these, close to half indicated that: they did not know who to complain to; or how to lodge a complaint; or reported that complaints previously lodged did not achieve a result.
There appears to be confusion among stakeholders about who has responsibility and the arrangements for reporting and recourse when non-conforming product is found. In some cases the gaps and weaknesses in the building products conformance framework are giving rise to voluntary, industry led, third party product certification schemes and such arrangements can be effective.
The report suggests that building certifiers bear a disproportionate share of the burden for ensuring product conformance and that greater emphasis on conformance at point of sale and increased responsibility on product suppliers and builders may be required.
Clearly this is an area which requires action. Ai Group believes that to solve the problem of non-conforming product, stakeholders, in consultation with all tiers of Government, need to work together to examine how to best address the gaps and weaknesses in the building and construction sector conformance framework. As well, the building certification arrangements should be reviewed with a focus on clarifying the role of building certifiers and assessing the adequacy of existing arrangements in preventing the installation of non-conforming product. Clarity should be provided on how to report non-conforming product as well as promoting the role of regulatory bodies in the building and construction sector.
Additionally, further research would be beneficial to identify leading conformance models that are effective whilst keeping compliance costs to a minimum as well as give an indication of other industry sectors with similar problems.
The impact on product and building safety is too great not to take action. The uneven market created by non-conforming products risks a downward spiral of product standards, quality and safety with the potential for significant harm to Australian manufacturers, employees and the public.