Kinaxis

Gartner recently published their Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record and we take great pride in the fact that Kinaxis has been placed in the Leaders quadrant.

Tesla is vertically integrating - or possibly taking an Apple/Foxconn funded manufacturing and supply chain partnership approach.

A tactical exchange of data node-by-node through the global supply chain is no longer sufficient to achieve true collaboration between brand owners and suppliers in today's volatile business environment.

On the following pages of this report you will find excerpts and links to resources and content that I have contributed over time on many relevant sub-themes supporting this vision of integrated supply chain planning and response management.

When the word "collaboration" is substituted for "social," we can see that B2B organizations made use of these technologies long before the word "social" came into vogue. Most supply chain planning (SCP) systems today are not social. Rather, they are oriented around the job of an individual planner, who works with a user interface that strongly resembles an Excel spreadsheet.

The central challenge for organizations is to define how to implement systems of engagement quickly, responsibly, and in the context of achieving a business purpose.

My predictions may be right, or they may be wrong, but one thing I think all will agree on is that 3D printing will make the supply chain more complex and more difficult to manage. The companies that succeed through this transition will be the ones that adapt early and leverage the tools they need in order to manage this more complex supply chain.

If the last few years have shown us anything it is that the supply chain is being exposed to more and more risk. Some of this risk can be managed through better supply chain design; assessing where supply “choke points” are and building in supply and logistical redundancy. Other risk, however, must be managed through better response capabilities.