SupplyChainNetwork.com

Everyone has bad habits, but for procurement, bad habits can put a major dent it in the ROI of your sourcing tools. That’s because strategic sourcing is complex and challenging – success requires more than fancy software purchases. You must have a plan in place to measure how well (and how much) your team is using the technology.

At 30,000 feet, answer these questions to drive improved adoption:

• Have we trained everyone? If the answer is no, or the training was year’s ago, chances are that the team isn’t leveraging the full functionality of your tools and are leaving significant efficiency and savings on the table.
• How many of our sourcing events are run through the system? Tools like eSourcing generate maximum results when used on a continuous basis.
• Is usage increasing according to plan? When usage stays flat, it’s a sign that ongoing training and skill development is necessary.
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Damco, part of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, one of the world’s leading providers of freight forwarding and supply chain management services, has selected LLamasoft’s Supply Chain Guru® and Transportation GuruTM to support their crucial supply chain design challenges and initiatives.

With its corporate office in Copenhagen, Demark, Damco provides logistics services to over 10,000 global customers through its network of over 300 offices worldwide. Damco manages and services some of the most complex supply chains in the world across a diverse range of industries.

“Damco differentiates itself by supporting its customers with a supply chain strategy tailored to their businesses. We want to help customers make the right choices at the right time,” said Simon Kristensen, Head of SCD Operations for Damco. “To assist this effort, we have chosen LLamasoft’s solution because it provides us with a full range of tools for design, analysis, optimization and simulation of our customers new supply chain scenarios. The result is a supply chain with the right balance between service, risk and cost for our customers.”

The freight forwarding business is complex and requires constant analysis of transportation networks—not only to create short-term efficiencies for the end customers, but also for long term competitiveness. Continue Reading »

JDA®Software Group, Inc.(NASDAQ: JDAS), The Supply Chain Company®, today announced the release of JDA® Shelf-Connected Cloud, a revolutionary new solution that offers the unparalleled scale needed to connect manufacturers’ supply chains to the retail shelf.

JDA® Shelf-Connected Cloud is designed to help supplier and retailer trading partners effectively collaborate at the shelf level to improve on-shelf availability, remove unnecessary inventory across enterprises and set new strategies that leverage cost savings across the entire value chain. Trading partners that collaborate using this new paradigm will be able to offer their joint consumers a new level of competitive pricing by connecting their supply chains.

In a shelf-connected supply chain, suppliers collaborate with their distribution and retail customers to plan an optimal product assortment and planogram for each store or store cluster, then develop and synchronize their demand and inventory replenishment plans driven by consumer sales. This framework integrates a supplier’s planning and execution processes with a retailer’s planning and execution processes to better align all processes with consumer demand. By having a view of the cross-enterprise supply chain flows, partners can develop strategies that consider the cost savings across enterprises and leverage it to deliver more value and innovation to their consumers. Continue Reading »

Hewlett-Packard is trying to figure out what happened as the technology giant warned customers that some of the HP ProCurve switches shipped last year contained malware-laden flash cards.

While the malware couldn’t do anything to the 10 Gbps-capable line of LAN switches, if the customer ever decided to re-use the card and insert it into a computer, that computer would likely be compromised.

It’s not that unlikely a scenario. The switches ship with 1GB cards, and someone frantically looking for a flash card could conceivably borrow the card to perform a quick task.

Business owners don’t always think about the integrity of the supply chain when buying hardware and software components. Even the biggest brands can ship infected components if a computer in the factory is compromised. See full post at PC Magazine.

From EBN: “Here’s something you don’t see every day: A Fortune 100 company and big-name technology business is shifting its distribution operations because of a lawsuit.

According to various news sources, including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is moving its European logistics activities from Germany to the Netherlands as a risk-avoidance measure related to its ongoing legal battle with Motorola Mobility Inc. (NYSE: MMI).

Microsoft says that, even though it would prefer to stay in Germany (an important regional technology center and Europe’s largest economy), the risk was too great to stay there. It is reportedly concerned that a court decision expected April 17 on patents could halt sales and distribution of its Xbox gaming consoles and Windows 7 software. To sidestep any potential business fallout from the ruling, the company opted to head across the border, where it’s considered safer to warehouse physical goods, because there’s less of a chance of facing court-imposed injunctions.” See balance of article from Jennifer Baljko at EBN.

Intelleflex, a leading provider of on-demand data visibility solutions for supply chains and asset tracking, today announced the Intelleflex CMR-6100, the first fully integrated cellular-enabled, GPS-equipped multi-protocol RFID reader with support for the ISO Class 3 battery assisted passive and EPCglobal C1G2 passive standards. Intelleflex ZEST™ Data Services, a cloud-based repository for aggregating, warehousing and sharing information across the supply chain, facilitates on-demand access to actionable data for improved supply chain operations to provide a complete picture of data spanning the entire supply chain. These new offerings will allow customers to profitably improve delivered freshness for food, ensure efficacy and quality of pharmaceuticals, and improve asset utilization. The CMR-6100 and ZEST Data Services offering, which is being unveiled today at RFID Journal LIVE!, has been named a Best of Show award finalist. Continue Reading »

Coca-Cola is a globally recognized brand, and the company consistently delivers its products. Their scale is huge and the territories they cover vary from congested urban settings to remote rural areas. Clearly, this company knows a thing or two about supply chain management. Not only do they respond to the times and maintain flexibility in their operations, they also work toward recyclable packaging and water sustainability. How do they do it all?
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From CNN: “Amazon is buying Kiva Systems, a manufacturer of bright orange robots that scuttle around warehouses filling orders, for $775 million.

The all-cash deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, will be Amazon’s (AMZN, Fortune 500) biggest acquisition since its purchase of Zappos in 2009.

Kiva, which was founded in 2002, makes robots that scoot around warehouse floors and pick up items from shelves to help fulfill customer orders. Amazon is already a customer, along with other major retailers including Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500), The Gap and CrateandBarrel.com.

Snagging those customers wasn’t easy, Kiva CEO and founder Mick Mountz told CNNMoney in November.

“Fulfillment is the core of these operations, so when we were pitching them, they were hearing ‘heart-lung transplant,’” Mountz said.

The orange Kiva fleet doesn’t come cheap. A “startup kit” of robots costs $1 million to $2 million, and a large warehouse operation with 1,000 robots costs $15 million to $20 million.” See full article and video at CNN

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) in partnership with Auburn University and with sponsorship from Accenture, released the third annual State of The Retail Supply Chain Report today. The report findings reveal a heightened urgency by retailers and supply chain management (SCM) executives to shift from cost cutting to growth. The report also places emphasis on multichannel retailing and explores how retailers are working to meet the increased consumer demand for continual access to products from any channel. @RILAtweets will moderate a live Twitter Chat today from 12-1pm EST via #RILAchat to discuss the report findings. Just follow the hashtag #RILAchat to join in the conversation.

The report data was compiled through a series of executive interviews and industry surveys with retailers across every segment of retail, with the goal of understanding the capabilities that drive exceptional retail supply chain performance. One hundred and ninety-nine retail supply chain executives took part in the research. The criteria for participation included: company revenue exceeding 1 billion, multichannel operations, and Director-level or above responsibilities. The respondents have 17 years of retail experience, on average. Continue Reading »

In the past two months, IBM has made three strategic moves that bolster its SmarterCommerce portfolio. Acquisitions of Emptoris and Demandtec expanded sourcing and pricing portfolios while the new version of IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus XE further enhances supply chain network capabilities. These actions move IBM closer to achieving the technology requirements to support matrix commerce.

New channels such as social, mobile, and virtual goods create new business models that disrupt and expose the weaknesses and rigidity in existing models. Our research helps guide clients on how to optimize and deploy Matrix Commerce for the right customer audiences. Matrix Commerce extends beyond the sales and customer focus to include management and optimization of supporting sourcing and supply chain facets.

Specific focus of the Matrix Commerce research theme at Constellation Research will be:

> Market landscape of next generation products
> Relevant use cases by customer type
> Nature of Matrix Commerce
> Vendor selection criteria
> Future of Matrix Commerce

Stay tuned for more details as we prepare to launch Matrix Commerce and see summary of the three IBM announcements mentioned above and our POV in relation to Matrix Commerce.
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With M&A season in full swing, there’s a new epiphany driving (and nixing) acquisitions that goes far beyond the typical high-level revenue and cost savings projections.

Market volatility is ruling today’s economy, making timely acquisitions difficult. Complicating M&A negotiations are commodity prices – like metals, oil, food, and real estate – which are trading far outside of typical ranges.

Weighing over all negotiations, though, is the economy. Companies may look cheaper than ever before, but swinging and missing on a major acquisition could be the beginning of the end for a corporation. No longer is it acceptable to base M&A recommendations off of high-level, best guess estimates of the cost savings and future revenue that might be achieved. Rather, companies need to dive a little deeper and quantify, with relative certainty, the hard savings that could be seen if an acquisition were to be completed. Continue Reading »

It’s that time, once again, when everyone predicts what will happen in the coming year. But 2012 is an extra-special year; it carries heavy historical baggage chock full of dire predictions. Nostradamus painted a bleak picture of massive destruction and mayhem brought about by a comet in 2012. The Mayans take it one step further since they simply stopped their calendar on December 21st signaling the end of the world. Gulp!

Thankfully, the learned analysts, writers and soothsayers I follow aren’t quite as depressing. Let’s take a look at what some of the modern day prophets have been saying and the common themes that appear.

In the tradition of David Letterman, (in no particular order) let’s hit the Top 10 Supply Chain Predictions for 2012. Continue Reading »

President Barack Obama is directing the Departments of State and Homeland Security to come up with a plan to protect the $14.6 trillion U.S. economy from interruptions in the supply chain. The White House released a National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security today that gives officials from those departments six months to make recommendations on identifying risks and making commercial infrastructure more resilient.

“We have seen that disruptions to supply chains caused by natural disasters — earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions — and from criminal and terrorist networks seeking to exploit the system or use it as a means of attack can adversely impact global economic growth and productivity,” Obama said in a letter dated Jan. 23 and released by the White House today. Continue Reading »

GPOs have the difficult task of reducing spend while sourcing for healthcare goods. As anyone who’s made purchases with someone’s health at stake knows – this is not an area you can cut corners. At the same time, physician preference items can be some of the costliest categories of spend facing the industry.

For healthcare procurement executives looking to bring in costs and improve compliance, a new trend is arising. GPO executives are deploying spends analysis more regularly to gain better visibility into areas of savings leakage and improve compliance tracking but they are also tapping the strategy for a new care quality purpose by aligning physician supply preferences with patient outcomes. Continue Reading »

Charming Shoppes Inc announced the following executive leadership announcements.

Bryan Q. Eshelman has been promoted to Executive Vice President – Chief Supply Chain Officer, effective immediately. Eshelman joined Charming Shoppes in 2010 as Senior Vice President – Operations, with responsibility for technology, logistics, technical design and quality assurance.

As Chief Supply Chain Officer, he will retain responsibility for the aforementioned functions and assume the additional responsibility for the Company’s global direct sourcing operations, including, its buying offices in Hong Kong, China, and India, strategic sourcing across all product categories and brands, vendor compliance, and international trade and customs compliance. Continue Reading »

Ryder System, Inc., a leader in transportation and supply chain management solutions, today announced that it has published a Corporate Sustainability Report highlighting Ryder’s progress towards improving the communities and environments where the Company does business. The report profiles Ryder’s efforts to drive business growth in economically viable, environmentally sound, and responsible ways. It is organized across five categories: Governance, Ethics and Compliance, Environmental Stewardship, Safety and Security, and People and Community. A one page “Progress at a Glance” provides readers an easy to digest snapshot of Ryder’s accomplishments and goals.

“As a leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions, our stakeholders expect us to be stewards of real-world efficiency and sustainability,” stated Ryder Chairman and CEO Greg Swienton. “We take this expectation seriously and will continue our commitment to achieving results the right way, and delivering on our promises with character and accountability.” Continue Reading »

Progress Software Corporation (PRGS), a leading software provider that enables companies to be operationally responsive, announced it has named Henry Hicks as Industry Vice President, Supply Chain. A long-time advocate for the optimization of the virtual supply chain, Hicks will drive the market strategy and solution development for Progress Software’s global Supply Chain Practice, helping customers gain real-time foresight into disruptions and offering them the ability to conquer supply chain complexity and meet service level agreements.

Hicks’ unparalleled expertise in sales and marketing strategy and supply chain management has been honed through a breadth of strategic positions. Recently, Hicks was the Vice President of Worldwide Services Sales and Marketing for Lenovo Computers and was responsible for long-term growth strategies and overall sales performance of the division. Prior to Lenovo, Hicks was a Vice President at Capgemini Consulting and led the West Supply Chain Practice, where he advised clients on how to optimize and virtualize their supply chains. He has also held key roles with Deloitte, Dell, Frito Lay and UPS. Continue Reading »

As companies seek to achieve smarter commerce and put their customers at the center of their commerce processes, one of the primary challenges they face is dealing with complicated and extended supply chains. With the complexity and volatility of today’s supply chains, companies are turning to supply chain analytics to optimize their networks on a more frequent basis.

To help clients with this challenge, IBM is leading the industry again in supply chain analytics with its latest release of the IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus supply chain design solution. This solution provides powerful optimization and scenario analytics to determine optimal supply chain configurations, sourcing strategies and production plans. It takes into account all cost and constraint variables, whether manufacturing, transportation or warehousing, across multiple tiers of even the most complex networks. Continue Reading »