Unleash Your Employees’ Ideas to Truly Change the Game!

Organizations that are either considered high performing or who aspire to become high performing understand that their employees are their greatest asset.  A company can only achieve its overall objectives if their employees are aligned, on board and driving toward those goals, and if their ideas are heard.

At its core your employees understand how well or how poorly the day-to-day processes in your company run better than anyone else.  They also have tremendous ideas on how to improve those processes, how to improve your metrics, and how to achieve your objectives.

So how do you tap in to that intellect, unleash those ideas, and empower your employees in an organized and efficient manner?  How do you get your finger on the pulse of what is on your employee’s minds?

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A Comprehensive Warehouse Safety Guide!

When it comes to the state of working in America, warehouses have seen a huge increase of workers with over 1,000,000 total since the start of 2018. With this trend looking to continue into the next couple of years, it’s time to examine the state of the industry, especially when it comes to safety with all of these new employees entering the field.

Warehouses, often full of moving machinery carrying heavy loads, are inherently one of the most dangerous places to work. If you’re a warehouse manager, failing to control these risks can lead to high employee turnover, decreased productivity, legal issues, and, at worst, injury or fatality.

In most case scenarios, the law requires companies to train their workers for a CPR certificate to improve workplace safety practices.

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The Baby Supply Chain!

We have a newborn Grandson!  A beautiful baby boy!

Aside from being a parent there is no better feeling than being a Grandparent!

A whole new world of joy and responsibility has begun for my son and his girlfriend.  It is such an exciting time but their routine will be completely turned upside down as new parents.

They will have to figure out so many things that they never had to deal with before.  Parents immediately  have to care for their child in every way.

They have also just entered the world of the Baby Supply Chain!

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What is Mentoring?

A mentor is a person who can be a sounding board, someone of experience who can listen and help development, while not losing sight of reality. That is mentoring. 

Mentorship is actually rarer than we think but true mentorship is a beautiful thing.

“Mentors should keep their protégés’ feet grounded, and support and stretch them to succeed personally and professionally,” says Debbee Dale in “How to Set up a Mentoring Scheme.” I think that is a perfect description.

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The Digital Supply Chain Infographic!

Supply Chain 4.0 is the manifestation of the Digital Supply Chain of the future as enabled by many of the Disruptive Technologies that we all hear about every day. Here we review our Digital Supply Chain infographic.

Everyone is impacted by the advancement of technology in both their personal and professional lives.  And that impact will only become more profound as time goes on.

The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Robotics, Big Data, Advanced Analytics and more are terms represent the technological breakthroughs that are being made every day.

For those involved in Supply Chain there are deep impacts that are occurring, and that will continue enabled by the evolutionary and revolutionary change that is enabled by technology. Let’s look at the Digital Supply Chain infographic.

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Augmented Reality (AR) is the Future of Supply Chain!

Augmented Reality (AR) enables transformational change!

When I started in the distribution space, I was told “…business is simple…cases in, cases out.” Reports were on green bar paper and forklifts were everywhere. As the distribution space evolved, the reports became spreadsheets and forklifts remained very important as they are coupled with the latest and greatest automation.

Supply chain improvements over the last 15 years have been incremental at best. The advances we are making in the supply chain powered by Augmented Reality (AR) are going to be wildly disruptive. The supply chain community that leans into AR and gets it right will come out the clear winners for every perspective: simplicity, safety, quality and productivity.

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Peeling Back The Orange Juice Supply Chain!

Orange juice is the most popular fruit juice in the world, and one of the most popular of all drinks globally.  Depending on the country you live in you may consume on average several gallons of Orange juice annually.

When you go into a grocery store or supermarket you are likely to see a large pile of oranges.  And when you walk down the aisle to where the juices are you will see a large variety of brands and types of juice … with lots of pulp, some pulp, no pulp, low acid, with calcium and vitamin D, and on and on.

While Oranges and juice are common and usually easily found it is still curious as to what the Supply Chain is.  What exactly is the Orange juice Supply Chain and how does it work?

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Struggling with Process Ownership? Is it a Failure to Communicate?

Does your business struggle with process ownership? Are your process improvements not “sticking”? The failure of an organization to have in place well-functioning process owners is a common occurrence these days.

The root causes (if anyone cares to do a full postmortem) are numerous. We’ve heard it all before; “the organizational structure won’t allow for it”, “incentives are misaligned”, “leaders don’t understand what it takes to be a process owner” etc. I’m sure we can all relate to some or all of these statements.

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Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Derek Panchyshyn!

Derek Panchyshyn
Derek Panchyshyn

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 at Supply Chain Game Changer.  This interview is with Derek Panchyshyn.

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Procurement Outsourcing – Keep your Integrity!

Like so many professionals Procurement people are very proud.  They are proud of the job that they do and the contributions that they make.  And they are most always proud of their ability to negotiate and get the best deal!

But at some point in their careers, especially in the age of Outsourcing, they are likely to have to deal with potential suppliers who provide Procurement services.  Procurement typically negotiates deals for other functions like I/T, HR, Manufacturing and every other area in the company.

Now they are faced with dealing with companies who basically state that they can do a better job at negotiating and Procurement than they do.

In the face of such a perceived, direct challenge to your abilities how do you and your Procurement team deal with this professionally and with integrity?

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Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Jill Button, CEO of ProcurePro!

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.  This interview is with Jill Button, President and CEO at ProcurePro.

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Crowdfunding Fulfillment Solutions: Things You Should Know About

Crowdfunding has given entrepreneurs and inventors greater access to startup capital. You might not be able to get seed money or Series A funding from a venture capital firm for your idea, but backers on Kickstarter or Indiegogo could give you just the leg up that you need.

Crowdfunding marketing is a strategy to raise funds for a project by asking a large number of people to donate money, usually in small amounts to fulfill the financial goals of the project. Crowdfunding, on the other hand, gives you a quick place to showcase and share your pitch with a bigger audience.

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A Case Study in Reverse Logistics Optimization!

The application of advanced forecasting and planning methodologies improve inventory management in a critical, high-volume repair and reverse logistics optimization business, dramatically reducing costs and fulfillment cycles while improving customer satisfaction.

When one of the world’s leading manufacturers of personal computers set new goals for its European operations, ModusLink was there to help.

The OEM turned over management of one of the most critical, high-volume segments of its reverse logistics program—the processor business—saving the manufacturer millions of dollars each year; reducing excess inventory; increasing same-day, on-time ship rates; and improving customer satisfaction.

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What is Virtual Procurement and Why Should You Care?

Any of this sound familiar?  Then you need Virtual Procurement!

“With recent minimum wage increases, I need to find better ways to control my costs and to stay profitable while still delivering the highest level of service to my customers.”

“We are too small and can’t afford to hire a full-time procurement person. We are busy and just don’t have the time to focus on procurement.”

“We hope for good prices, but we usually just accept what suppliers offer. We are leaving hard earned money on the table.”

“Contracts are stored in someone’s drawer or lost, never to be seen again. Contracts often expire leaving us scrambling.”

“Supplier relationships are too close. They don’t deliver on their promises. Communication is lacking or too casual.”

If any of these statements resonate with you, please keep reading.

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The Omni-channel Approach to Customer Experience!

Unchaining Change Leadership

In the last decade, the growing adoption of ecommerce has been swift–and ruthless. Huge retail market players like Best Buy and Toys R’ Us are shutting down huge chunks of their physical locations due to plummeting revenue and poor customer experience.

Not only is this a result of not embracing ecommerce early in its wave, they are also now competing with ecommerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba who sell the same or competing products online.

Traffic drought in physical stores could be attributed to the rising number of purchases made over the internet for certain customer and product segments. For some, the revenue drop is significant. And yet another part of the challenge big box retailers face as publicly traded companies is that they have to answer to their investors–and with ecommerce delivering superior results, the patience afforded to big box retailers is just not as generous.

So, where does the success of ecommerce lie?

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