Procurement

The prime objective for all supply chains is to provide clients with what they want, when they want it. Inventory management plays a central role in every supply chain’s need to satisfy its clients.

Minimizing inventory investment and carrying costs while maintaining high service levels can be a tough balancing act. But best-practice companies have shown that it can be done - profitably.

Procurement is one of many areas vying for a supply chain executive’s time and attention. But when you consider the variety and depth of benefits that high performance in procurement can deliver, perhaps a little extra time and attention are warranted.

The big players continue their aggressive push into the supply chain management software space, using acquisitions and internal technology development to beef up their WMS and TMS offerings, build out planning and optimization, and even add event management to their menus.

While the effects of the global recession took its toll on enterprise software markets to a large degree in the form of a double-digit revenue reduction, it does not appear that damage to the Transportation Management System (TMS) market was nearly as severe, according to research from ARC Advisory Group.

Entitled Managed Transportation Services (MTS), company officials said this offering provides shippers with superior visibility from pickup through delivery, coupled with centralized technology to monitor and improve supply chain operations.

Business prospects are improving. However, companies are still under terrific pressure to hold down costs. Many have done an admirable job, but continue to be daunted by one of our time’s most-vexing cost-management challenges: wildly fluctuating oil prices.