Business

Thoughts regarding business trends that will affect not just how you do your job but also how the supply chain is managed - not surprisingly analytics have a profound impact and remains at the top of the list.

The National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education (SCTE) and the California Centers of Excellence recently embarked on a research study to gather information and analyze national trends related to the emerging occupation of Supply Chain Technicians.

We told Mr. Walton that we were planning to build a new distribution center, he said, ‘great, I’d like to hear about it,’ he must have asked me 50 questions he wanted to know, he wanted to know every nuance and detail about the project.

2014 is starting off with high demand from e-commerce and other users who are in the market for large, sophisticated space, and lots of it. Modern space with proximity to population centers and a robust logistics infrastructure will dominate the industrial real estate sector in 2014.

New UPS survey highlights supply chain concerns for healthcare executives looking to drive business change & meet business goals - Global Pains Lead to Transformative Strategies.

NMI® at 53%; December Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®, Business Activity Index at 55.2%; New Orders Index at 49.4%; Employment Index at 55.8%

Mark Patterson, Vice President of Innovation and Product Incubation at DHL Supply Chain discusses what trends are expected to shape supply chains in 2014.

The Robin Report is published monthly for senior executives in the retail, fashion, beauty, consumer products and related industries.

Supply chain management is the hot new MBA, according to the Wall Street Journal, or why it was the leading topic of discussion at all four of the Material Handling & U.S. Logistics Roadmap round table meetings last summer.

Amazon plans to box and ship products it expects customers to buy preemptively, based on previous searches and purchases, wish lists, and how long the user’s cursor hovers over an item online. The company may even go so far as to load products onto trucks and have them “speculatively shipped to a physical address” without having a full addressee.

So how will 3D Printing impact the supply chain and logistics? It will accelerate a shift from “push supply chains” to “pull supply chains.” Some recent findings indicate that nearly 20% of those transport, logistics and supply chain executives surveyed were currently using 3D printing to some degree. Just under 40% believed 3D printing would have the most impact on increased customization.

Globalization has been a major industrial trend in which low labour costs have driven companies to set up their production sites in low cost countries, thus creating growth of cargo shipping between continents. The balance between transportation and labour cost may change. A new trend in the future may be globalization, where the global business is supported by local 3D production that optimizes the business through speed, quality or personalization.

I’ve thought long and hard about what to say this year because of all the media buzz around shale oil and natural gas fracking as energy saviors, maybe bringing back cheap energy and rendering the big user oil countries less dependent on oil, and less dependent on OPEC and other oil producing countries. My view has not been altered by the recent news around fracking.

The goal of this article is not to take a strong stance on if or when the supply chain talent storm will occur; like the weather, that is hard to predict. Rather, consider this paper a “storm warning.”

Before pursuing any supply chain innovation, a company has to be clear about the objective; is the goal continuous improvement to maintain market position with a modest increase in margin or to disrupt the industry? Many managers get starry-eyed over the latter objective but actually need to target the former.

In the business world, why is competition so often the norm, while cooperation seems like an impossible goal? Why do we so often settle for “better than nothing” compromises? One of the most destructive assumptions we bring to negotiations is the assumption that the pie of resources is fixed. The mythical-fixed-pie mindset leads us to interpret most competitive situations as purely win-lose.

Which individual certification program is most appropriate for those aspiring to have a career in the field of supply chain management. With multiple certification choices it seems that many are confused as to which certification program will provide the most benefit for that dream job.

The competitive marketplace demands that we have extreme competence managing the supply chain. Any risk, cost, distribution, or planning error can impact a company’s success. One way to keep your company competitive is by investing in continuous professional development.

Firms can manage their sourcing better by developing relationships not only with their suppliers but also with their suppliers' suppliers, according to two papers co-written by a University of Illinois expert in supply chain management.

A firm’s raw material sourcing knowledge can be a strategic resource, and therefore we explore how firms can capture and use this knowledge. We examine the sourcing experiences of four firms in four different countries in the automotive industry and identify the raw material sourcing knowledge‐related parameters with appropriate theoretical explanations.