Tag: supplychain

supplychain is the tag associated with every aspect of Supply Chain Management, Planning, Technology, Logistics, Procurement, and more.

What is Big Data?

5 Seismic Shifts in Supply Chain Technology!

I remember manually plugging 16kB (that’s right “kilobyte”) memory chips into an original IBM Personal Computer.  The crunching sound they made was unforgettable.  I was ecstatic that I had increased the total memory to 128kB, and then to 256kB … WOW!   At that time that was a lot of memory.  Who could ever need to store that much data?  That was “Big Data“.

Let’s fast forward to today.  The memory on your handheld smartphone and other devices is measured in Gigabytes (GB).  Over 2.5 quintillion bytes of information are generated every day.  Every move, every transaction, every image, every event and every location in everyone’s  lives are recorded.

That is Big Data!

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Cash Is King! Creating a Culture Focused on Money Management

The Supply Chain Detective™! In Search of Broken Supply Chain Clues!

“We have to make a decision.  We only have enough cash to either pay our employees or our suppliers next week, but not both.”  The old saying was true:  Cash is King!

Wow!  This was what my Controller just told me.  We had just acquired another company.  The decision was made to operate it at arm’s length from the parent company.  And this meant that we had to fund the operation with our own cash, which was at a dangerously low level.

Neither option that the Controller just mentioned was palatable.  We needed a strategy to tackle the immediate cash shortfall and to then create a strong cash position moving forward.

We had the Call to Action!  This would prove to be my first real lesson in Cash Management which could not have been made more intense and immediate!

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The Future of Procurement!

The Future of the Chief Procurement Officer … Is Already Here!

There has been transformation in the Procurement function over the past decade. From the starting point of the traditional buy-sell, transaction-based purchasing, the practice has moved through stages of change that redefines most aspects of the business and the future of Procurement.

A typical Purchasing Function is limited to the transactional job of collecting information about the requirements of user departments and carrying out commercial checks and balances to finally procure the product & service based on cost reduction only and focused on supply continuity.

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Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with Michael Massetti, VP at Gartner!

Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain List! Is it Relevant?
Michael Massetti
       Michael Massetti, Gartner

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 Michael Massetti, Vice President for General Managers – High Tech, at Gartner.

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Double Inventory Turnover In 9 months!

World Class Inventory Turnover Infographic!

“We are a Supply Chain Services Company,” I was told.

“If we are truly a Supply Chain Services Company, then why is our Inventory Turnover only at 7?”,  I asked.

I had just joined the company and in studying their financial performance it stood out to me that if we were truly a Supply Chain Services company then having only 7 Inventory turns was extremely uninspiring.

We needed to be dramatically better at managing Inventory to convince ourselves, and our customers, that we were a trusted and leading Supply Chain Services partner.  Could we double inventory turnover?

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What Exactly Is Supply Chain Management? 10 Different Definitions!

What Exactly Is Procurement? And What is Purchasing?
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When I began my  career there was no such thing as “Supply Chain Management“.  Supply Chain was not a title to be found anywhere on any organization chart.

Yet all of the functions that we now associate with Supply Chain have been around for a very long time:  Planning, Inventory Management, Logistics, Procurement and Purchasing, Warehousing and many more.

So what exactly is the definition of “Supply Chain Management”?  Interestingly there are many views on how to define Supply Chain.

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Truck Drivers are a Vital Part of the Supply Chain!

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

Take a quick look around your home or office and you’d be hard-pressed to find a product that has not seen the inside of a truck or delivered by truck drivers at some point in its existence.

In truth, many aspects of everyday life are made possible through the supply chain industry, with trucking alone responsible for 70% of America’s freight volume by weight. This is achieved through the hard work of truck drivers, the unsung heroes of the industry, who travel 430 billion miles per year hauling 10 billion tons of goods that people all need to live.

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The Guinness Book of World Records for 3D Printing!

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing!

Technology and creations go hand-in-hand. The former is fundamental in building anything that can impact development, lifestyle, and economy. Take for instance, the 3D printing technology and how it rewrites the Guiness Book of World Records.

Though it was introduced three decades ago, it is recently that its impact is felt in industrial and manufacturing sectors. It has paved ways for testing and trying many things that has changed the traditional manufacturing methods.

All that invention and creativity that went into it, have enabled in developing many “worlds first.”

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The Hottest Supply Chain Jobs! (Infographic)

Supply Chain Compensation is on the Rise!

It’s an exciting time to be involved in the Supply Chain and for Supply Chain jobs.  Across every industry, every geography and every country there are advances in Technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain and more.

But none of this can function without Supply Chain professionals.  Your expertise and experience are the backbone of developing the strategies and action plans for making these evolutionary and revolutionary improvements .

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Farmville – It’s Really a Supply Chain Game!

The Supply Chain Detective™: The Case of the Unpaid Invoices!

Several years ago my Granddaughter asked me to load FarmVille 2 – Country Escape on my iPad.  She was playing it and she wanted me to be able to play it together with her.  I eagerly obliged!

I don’t really play any other video games but Farmville caught my attention.  First and foremost was my Granddaughter’s desire to do this with me.  But I also found that the ability to grow your Farm by adding capabilities and features, by controlling the way in which you buy and sell things, and managing your inventory levels of all of the materials was both fun and interesting.

And then I realized it.  In playing FarmVille I was really just managing a digital Supply Chain!

Farmville was a Supply Chain game!!!

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The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Over the Next Half Decade!

The Top 5 Impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Logistics!

Why half? For those who may find awkward the reference to “half a decade” and not the “next decade” here is why: AI is evolving at such a staggering rate that it is simply not possible to foresee the impact of Artificial Intelligence in 10 years’ time.

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Spend Aggregation Obstacle Course for Procurement!

Enable Spend Aggregation in Procurement!

The theory is simple!  If you can increase spend levels through centralized spend aggregation across entities then you increase your leverage in negotiations. This leverage should translate to lower costs and better terms and conditions.  But there is a spend aggregation obstacle course to be overcome first.

These entities may be different departments or facilities within your own company. They may be different companies under common ownership. They may be disparate companies within an industry. Or they may be unrelated companies spanning many industries.

The benefits seem clear. So why is there so much resistance when it comes to trying to aggregate spend across these entities?

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The Amazing Supply Chain of Chocolate Easter Eggs

The Baby Supply Chain!

At the end of this month, the festival of Easter will begin. Aside from the religious connotations, many people automatically associate Easter with the legend of the Easter bunny delivering chocolate Easter eggs to children. I, for one, am a big chocolate lover, so I am fascinated by this amazing supply chain.

Originally, eggs were included in ancient pagan practices and these have, to some degree, been adapted to create some Christian Easter traditions with the egg symbolizing new life.

Chocolate Easter eggs are more of a modern tradition and somewhat of a substitute for the former custom of decorating Easter eggs by dyeing and painting chicken eggs in bright colors using vegetable dye or charcoal.

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World Class Inventory Turnover Infographic!

Featuring Our 10 Best Inventory Management Articles!
Get Our Inventory ManagementEBOOK HERE

Achieving World Class Inventory turnover performance is an aspiration, a requirement and a challenge for many companies.  We’ve written several blogs on this subject to share our experiences in achieving truly game changing results in inventory management.

Attacking just a single element of inventory has, in our experience and observation, proven to be an insufficient approach to making significant, sustainable changes.  The entire ecosystem of processes, variables, and stakeholders requires taking a holistic approach enlisting a variety of tools and techniques (eg. lean inventory management) to drive game changing inventory performance.

Given the breadth, depth and complexity of the Inventory Turnover management ecosystem it is not surprising that there is much to be addressed in this area.  We’ve captured much of this in our article Featuring our Top 10 Inventory Management articles. 

In this blog article we’ve captured much of this content in a single Infographic

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Indirect Procurement – It’s Time to Rise and Shine!

What’s the Difference between Procurement and Purchasing? (Infographic)

Indirect procurement of goods and services can be one of the largest areas of expenditure in any company.  And the operational impact that the provision of Indirect goods and services can have on a company can be significant, either positively or negatively.

Yet the lack of attention and focus that Indirect Procurement is often given is inconsistent with the true importance of this area.  Indirect Procurement takes a back seat to Direct Procurement unfortunately.

But it is time for Indirect Procurement to stand up and be counted!

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