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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 [...]

As I look forward to the holiday season (yes it is hurtling towards us again), I now do all of my planning, negotiating and actual shopping from the comfort of my armchair. And as a result, my buying habits have changed over the past few years. I no longer buy CD’s, I buy Apple iTunes [...]

Want to know where the food on your table comes from and who has handled it? Then you’ll want to register for this event. Food safety encompasses the origin, processing and packaging of food so that consumers don’t get sick from the food they buy. Increased food production, growing market demand and faster delivery are [...]

From California Environmental Protection Agency: “The formal Cap-and-Trade rulemaking began with the release of the Staff Report: Initial Statement of Reasons (ISOR). The ISOR and formal rulemaking materials are available on the cap-and-trade rulemaking web page. The Board Hearing on this item was held on December 16, 2010. At the hearing, the Board approved Resolution [...]

My first CSCMP Annual Conference was in 1989 and I always try to get there every year to catch up with all my logistics and supply chain friends! As with every year, there are opportunities to learn new things and meet new people. Here’s a link to my recent tweetstream for shoutouts to some of [...]

Ever walk through a distribution center and look down a line of rack? What do you see? Lots of steel, lots of product on trays or pallets, and lots of…air. We spoke about the disadvantages of shipping air in cube utilization for pallets, so you probably know that storing air isn’t such a great plan [...]

If the mantra of the real estate industry is “Location, Location, Location”, the new mantra of supply chain executives is fast becoming “Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration”. Why? If the events of the past few months have taught us anything, the ability to create and sustain collaborative processes with global supply chain partners is crucial to properly [...]

Over the last seven years we have seen unprecedented progress in the viable development of new SCM technologies such as EPC RFID, Electronic Catalogues (GDSN) and the SCM standards which support them on a global basis. These supporting SCM standards referred to are GRAI (Global Returnable Asset Identifier) and GLN (Global Location Numbering) which are [...]

In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, supply chain leaders need to understand how financial strategies and decisions can significantly impact their supply chains’ performance, potentially determining the success—or failure—of their organizations. Learning how to develop a sound financial strategy and apply it to your entire supply chain operation will be mission critical if your company [...]

In this 3-part series, we’re looking at the procurement disciplines that can help procurement executives and teams design and execute truly effective sourcing strategies in face of whatever the global economy brings. In the first post, we looked at using spend analysis to gain visibility across enterprise-wide spend as paramount to identifying the opportunities to [...]

I keep hearing that the recovery is here. I’m pretty sure that most of us want to believe that 2011 will see the lifting of the dark and gloomy economic cloud that’s dampened our days for almost 3 years. But people I respect when it comes to these questions are pointing to real indicators that [...]

From WT100: “Supply Chain Managers who operate in the international arena are facing a very daunting, but opportunistic future in corporate America. Most companies are trending into truly global markets. They are both selling to and purchasing from world markets; along with creating assets and vested interests in most trading nations. The ability to manage [...]

Between new global serialization mandates, patent cliffs and major company consolidation the pharmaceutical manufacturing space is in the midst of a major transition. Some would say this was bound to happen, as our ‘global (supply chain) village’ continues to become more of a close-knit community. Logistics management is no longer regionally based, but handled on [...]

For those looking for some supply chain levity in the Christmas period, you may wish to check out the attached videopost from the China Supply Chain Council. It’s entitled Santa’s Bad Day in Supply Chain or how the little angel came to sit atop the Christmas tree. It was originally released in Christmas 2007! Merry [...]

Recently I was asked the question, “How do I take the steps to become more demand driven?” It prompted this response. Demand-driven value networks sense and shape demand to deliver the profitable demand response. This is a stark contrast to traditional supply chains that match demand with supply, but are blind to profitability and true [...]

In automated distribution there is always a new product that will revolutionize the industry. But most companies are still using fairly standard and traditional distribution tactics. So what will be the tipping point for whole scale automation and product-to-person distribution? Space? As land becomes more expensive and environmental concerns over development increase, will lack of [...]

So far in this series on complex sourcing, we’ve looked at the nascent trend toward collaboration in transportation sourcing and how best practices can accelerate success. In this final entry, I’ll address the use of technology in the collaborative process. Sourcing complex categories is not easy. The volume and sheer variability of the information render [...]

This was one of the few Washington DC events I have attended that fully lived up to its advanced publicity. The attendees, most of whom I found to be from their company’s upper leadership were treated to quite unique insights from an array of expert practitioners within the US military logistics establishment. The summit was [...]