Business Archives - Supply Chain Game Changer™

Disaster Strikes!!! Is Your Supply Chain Ready To Recover?

Part Shortages? What is your Supply Line Strategy?

Hurricanes! Earthquakes! Terrorist Attacks! Train Derailments! War! Fire! Cyber Attacks! Every one is a disaster.

You see it in the news every minute of every hour of every day. Either some natural disaster or some man made despicable act has occurred somewhere on the planet. The result is death, destruction and disruption.

Everyone is trying to pick up the pieces. They are trying to figure out what has happened, how to come to grips with the catastrophic results, and how to get things going again.

Depending on what the disaster is people can be struggling to know where they can get the basics such as food, water and shelter.

This is where the Supply Chain must kick in to gear: business continuity and disaster recovery.

Pain Points – An Opportunity to Innovate and Expand!

Pain points are a part of business. They create opportunities to innovate, diversify and grow. Without customer pain points, there is no reason to be in business. Trading goods and services is as old as mankind itself.

Social Media Tips for Supply Chain Leaders!

For busy executives, being active on social media and leveraging social media tips is kind of like networking. It’s one of those things that everyone says you absolutely have to do to benefit your career, but it’s hard to make it part of your daily routine.

Let’s be honest: it’s even harder for those who came of age before social media became ubiquitous. It can be tough to pin down what channels you should be on, what you should be posting, and the specific ways that a strong social media presence will bolster your career.

Supply Chain Collaboration – The New Way to Drive Value!

Create Collaborative Innovation with Suppliers!

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Supply chain collaboration is a hot topic today and no wonder: companies that collaborate effectively across the supply chain have enjoyed dramatic reductions in inventories and costs, together with improvements in speed, service levels, and customer satisfaction.

Supplier chain collaboration itself isn’t new. What’s new is that it’s taken on a much greater urgency and importance.

To Infinity and Beyond! Ultimate Principles for Creating a World Class Team!

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The Supply Chain team was generally viewed as lacking in skill and capability by those outside the organization. Customers and other internal functions viewed Supply Chain as a dysfunctional organization as evidenced by the poor Supply Chain performance metrics. And external benchmarking placed our Supply Chain last amongst our competitors. Going to infinity and beyond was a tall task to say the least.

Inside the Supply Chain organization there were a lot of very smart people. But there was no trust, teamwork or synergy. The culture was one more of complacency than of trend setting. And there was a lack of inspired leadership.

Something had to change!

Design in Quality First!

A Tale of Two Companies: Different Quality Management Beliefs!

The Division I had just joined was enjoying great success in Sales and Development. They had created a modular building block design for their products. Simply there were over two dozen different building block designs which could be configured in innumerable combinations to create the end product.

Each building block was designed to be a low-cost item. Based on the customer requirements and specifications the building blocks could be combined in varying quantities. Then a custom outer case, with the appropriate inputs and outputs, would be created to house all of the building blocks, interconnected on a master mother board.

It sounded great on paper and on Powerpoint slides. But what came next was an absolute nightmare.

Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with Skip Boothby!

What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)? (Video)

At Supply Chain Game Changer we believe in sharing experiences and expertise from people in every industry and from across the globe. As such we have introduced our “Seasoned Leadership in Action™” Interview series. The first in our Interview series is with Skip Boothby, a colleague and good friend for many years.

Skip Boothby is a tremendous Leader and Executive with phenomenal experience in running businesses and operations through every stage of their evolution. Skip’s background and insights are valuable for all of us to learn from and share.

World Class E-Commerce Fulfillment Principles! (Infographic)

Keys to Success in Warehouse Management/Order Fulfillment! (Video)

E-Commerce is the fastest growing avenue for doing business anywhere. It has been for many years and it will be for many years to come. In support of this your operations need to be World Class.

It is certainly a challenge to establish the sales, marketing, merchandising and transactional infrastructure to offer an efficient and effective E-Commerce solution to your customers.

At the core of the Supply Chain an enormous challenge is to have a highly competitive and compelling E-Commerce Fulfillment solution. So what are the key principles that you must have in place to design, construct and deliver a leading E-Commerce Fulfillment solution?

Our 2018 Top 10 List!

It’s been a tremendous start to our second year at Supply Chain Game Changer. Our goal has always been to share experiences and expertise, including our 2018 Top 10 list. In the first half of 2018 our readership continued to grow substantially over our first year, 2017. And we were selected as one of the Top 25 Procurement blogs in the world.

In 2018 we added video content and introduced our “Seasoned Leadership in Action” Interview series. For the purpose of this Top 10 List we have excluded all “Seasoned Leadership in Action” articles as we are not trying to promote a popularity contest amongst individuals. That being said the response to the Interview series has been absolutely outstanding.

We also continued to add more and more Guest posts provided by industry leaders. We have 17 new Guest contributors so far in 2018 on top of the outstanding roster of contributors who started with us in 2017.

As we end the first 6 months of 2018 we wanted to publish our Top 10 List, so far.

Thank you for your tremendous, ongoing support. If you haven’t subscribed yet please sign up! Subscribe Here!

So here is our 1st Top 10 List of 2018…

Truck Drivers – Unsung Heroes of the Supply Chain! (Infographic)

Truck Drivers are a Vital Part of the Supply Chain!

Anywhere you go anywhere in the world you will find truck drivers delivering goods. Roads and highways are filled with trucks of all shapes sizes. Tractor trailers of all configurations are everywhere on the roads.

If you are driving a car you may be annoyed by all of these trucks. Or if you are an environmentalist you may be concerned by the fuel consumption of these behemoths.

But the reality is that these truck drivers are the backbone of our societies and our economies. They deliver the goods that we need to live the lives that we enjoy. Without them the economy would stop and life as we know it would not be the same.

Truck drivers are truly the unsung heroes of the Supply Chain!

10 Signs You Should Reboot Your Lean Program!

Lean in the Back Office … Why is it so difficult?

How many people make a New Year’s resolution to adopt a Lean program and “Lean” yourself out only to abandon it shortly thereafter?

One of the top New Year’s resolutions is to start exercising. In January the local gyms are filled. But by February those gyms are much emptier and many of those well meaning people are still at home.

What do you do when your Lean program at work suffers the same fate? How do you know when your improvement program needs to be improved?

Has Walmart Beat Amazon Using an Omnichannel Returns Strategy?

Customer Returns State … And What to Do Next! (Infographic)

Amazon has reigned supreme in e-commerce for years, but Walmart is well on its way to making the e-commerce giant a little nervous. Amazon acquired Whole Foods and dropped the price of Prime Pantry through Prime Perks. Amazon began looking into brick-and-mortar storefronts, hoping to capture a new slice of the omnichannel pie.

Walmart has a different approach, and in several ways, Walmart is positioning itself to best Amazon in e-commerce through an innovative, omnichannel return strategy. To understand the true scope of this accomplishment, supply chain leaders need to understand the precursor steps Walmart has taken.

Brick and Mortar Stores: Stand Up and Unite!

International Expansion in Retail (Infographic)

It’s time for the Retail Brick and Mortar Store to stand up and be counted! All of the talk about the demise of Brick and Mortar stores is premature.

In this age of E-Commerce the vast majority of retail sales are still conducted face to face in a physical store. Even Millennials shop in a physical store 50% of the time.

The phenomenal growth of E-Commerce is undeniable. But more importantly we must remember that customers want an OMNICHANNEL experience, NOT a Single Channel experience.

At the intersection of what the Customer wants and what the Retailer wants is the Brick and Mortar store! This is where the Brick and Mortar Store is uniquely positioned to leverage its significant advantages!

Supply Chain Impacts of a Protectionist World!

Disaster Strikes!!! Is Your Supply Chain Ready To Recover?

A strong political sentiment these days seems to be more about protectionist behaviour and protecting one’s own national territory and interests rather than those of the Global community.

Yet we have for a long time been a global economy with unprecedented levels of international trade and commerce. Virtually every company and country relies on goods and/or services from countries all around the world.

So how do we manage the Supply Chain in the face of this political myopia?

Do you have a Freight Management Strategy or are you Spinning your Wheels?

6 Trends Affecting Inbound Freight Management!

In going door to door trying to sell a Freight Management service, as well as in my experience working in companies, I have had the opportunity to see a variety of ways in which companies, large and small, were managing their Freight and Logistics spend.

Most everyone felt they were doing a good job already. But I’ve seen instances where Freight is one of the top 5 largest expenses within a company. Yet it is managed by one or two people, with no support, and no visibility from upper management.

Depending on the industry your transportation spend can make up anywhere from 1-10% of your company’s total revenue. Aside from the cost impact the service implications of a poor Freight management system are enormous.

So do you have a strategy for managing Freight and Logistics or are you spinning your wheels?