Supply Chain 4.0 – The Digital Era
There is a revolution taking place. Enabled by leveraging technologies and concepts from Industry 4.0, the 4th Industrial revolution. Within the supply chain we call this Supply Chain 4.0.
Five ways to prepare your supply chain for a post Covid-19 World now
The Covid-19 pandemic has put the nature of global supply chains into sharp relief: how free and open movement of goods and services is a fine principle but one that’s loaded with risk, and that risk is accentuated at every stage when there is reliance on people. Shorter, simpler supply chains, with resilience as the priority, have become an imperative.
The danger of Covid-19 "Supply Chain Parallel Interactions"
Covid-19 "Supply Chain Parallel Interactions": How consumers substituting products can disrupt critical supply chains.
Leadership for Next Generation Supply Chain
Leadership is all about people aiming to create direction, alignment and commitment within a team. Being an effective supply chain leader is becoming increasingly challenging because a company’s supply chain has to operate in two ways simultaneously to be effective.
Brexit: A call to Action for Supply Chain Professionals
Now the United Kingdom has voted for Brexit what will be the impact on UK-Europe supply chains? Right now, across the UK—and across Europe, too—businesses are asking that very question.
The secret behind ZARA’s and UNIQLO’s Supply Chain models
The secret behind ZARA’s and UNIQLO’s Supply Chain models
UNIQLO and ZARA are two of the most profitable clothing retailers in the world.
UNIQLO and ZARA are two of the most profitable clothing retailers in the world.
Was your supply chain prepared for Covid-19?
Coronavirus (Covid-19) measures are seizing up the global supply chain and have become an emergency for board executives. Once more, the lack of risk management, resilience and agility in supply chains has been exposed. The argument for greater automation becomes stronger.
Will Supply Chain 4.0 digitisation mean integration or disintegration
Certainly Supply Chain 4.0 is going to make the numbers sparkle. Nike’s plans to move to a model that cuts lead times from 60 to 10 days are a good example: installing 1200 new automated machines and a move to nearshoring will mean big reductions in shipping expenses, import duties and the risks of over-production, as well as 30% fewer steps in the process.
Securing the Success of Strategic Supply Chain Initiatives Today and Tomorrow
Implementing new supply chain strategies and initiatives has always been recognised as a challenge. Even in the increasingly digitized supply chain to be effective, both the “hard wiring” (technical issues) and “soft wiring” (people issues) of the supply chain need to change, often simultaneously to ensure success
Four things that should be on every supply chain leaders “To-Do list”
Building on my recent blog on the “get rights” of Supply Chain Strategic Initiatives, it is worth exploring four critical headings for any supply chain leaders To-Do list.
What will supply chains look like in zero carbon Britain?
The policy commitment to make Britain the first zero carbon nation by 2050 has all kinds of implications for supply chains, how they’re set up and run.
Supply Chain Leaders - Are you ready to share leadership?
Make a Google search for images of ‘leadership’ and see what the word still implies: there’s one person at the front of the spearhead, at the top of the triangle; one leader fixing the direction and pulling the rest along with them. It’s an idea that been embedded into our thinking of managers since the 1980s - and I should also say, instilled over the years by business schools - as the ideal to aim for.
Building a resilient & risk free supply chain
Building a resilient supply chain is increasingly important for all organizations. It is however something that cannot be done overnight. It involves all areas of the business and requires an effective strategy and will impact on everything from product and service design to the cultures required within the business. If you are concerned about risk & vulnerabilities in your supply chain build the “Temple of Supply chain resilience”, this blog (and video) briefly outlines how to build this temple
The Sources of Supply Chain Risk
Our research at the Cranfield School of Management, sponsored by the UK Department for Transport, into the origins of supply chain risk and vulnerability identified the following dimensions of risk in the supply chain – these can be divided into external and internal ‘drivers’. The external drivers are demand side, environmental and supply side risks. The internal drivers are process, control and mitigation/contingency. This post will discuss these in more detail.........
Parcel Conundrum - The future of home delivery
Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to advise the BBC on a feature that went out on Radio 4’s PM show (5.50pm 05/07/2012) and was then published in more depth on the BBC website as the “Parcel Conundrum” under the magazine section.
Supply Chain "Cost to Serve" and Finance
Understanding the cost drivers in the supply chain has always been a major issue for organisations. It is critical to gain transparency of costs in the supply chain but for many organisations this proves difficult and elusive. In order to manage effectively, the relationship between service and cost needs to be clearly understood to enable profitability of all the elements in the supply chain. In this blog I thought it worth revisiting the fundamentals of “Cost to serve” and “Supply Chain Finance”.
How much does time cost you in the supply chain? The need for time based decision makinG
We all know the saying “Time is Money” but how often when involved in making procurement supply chain decisions is time taken into account? Henry Ford proposed in 1926 that “Time waste is more important than material waste in that there can be no salvage”. In other words if reading this is a complete waste of time to you your time will never be reimbursed! On the other hand, if you were to print this out, you may be able to recycle the paper and salvage some material.