What is Supply Chain Risk Management, Exactly? Stepping Back to Address the Challenge
As usual, Paul Teague recently penned an insightful column on his weekly blog Procurement Leaders, this time covering supplier/supply chain risk management. In it, he tosses out what might seem like a soft question, but is not: “W…
BravoSolution: More Applause Deserved (Part 1)
If BravoSolution were one of your smart kids, it would be the one who could care less about going to Harvard or Yale (or Cambridge or Oxford), but quietly instead opt to head for a school like the University of Chicago or Cal Tech…
A Novel Way of Dealing With Apple Supply Shortages: Bring Component Production Back Onshore!
As anyone who closely follows procurement and supply chain management knows, production for many supply categories has moved entirely offshore in the past decade. From certain textiles to TV/monitors to computer hardware and peripherals, it’s all but impossible to find domestic sources of supply. Low cost countries aren’t an option for these spend areas — [...]
DHL Extends Into Procurement BPO — But Will It Get Past Logistics to Become More Than a 3PL?
DHL, one of the worlds largest freight providers and 3PLs, just announced its intent to pursue the procurement BPO market by delivering solutions to both public and private sector companies. From the location and direction of the announcement, it appears that much of the new venture’s focus will be on the UK market. According to [...]
Gauging the Economy: Supply Chain Snapshots (Part 1)
Image by didbygraham via Flickr Courtesy of supply chain expert and unfortunate malware perpetrator Bob Ferrari — Google blocked access to his site for over a month even after he solved a malware issue in a number of days — I came across a number of useful logistics numbers that provide insight into the overall [...]
Chinese Enterprise Software: CDC Software Acquires its Way Into the Supply Chain
Last week, CDC Software Corporation announced a potential new acquisition in the supply chain sector. According to their press release, CDC “signed a term sheet to acquire a leading provider of on-demand software as a service (SaaS) supply chain management solutions,” which represents “the latest move by CDC Software to expand its growing portfolio of [...]
The Advent of the Social Supply Chain
I have been writing about and working with open supply chains for some years now, specifically how businesses are increasingly opening up their borders to much more dynamic, scalable, and valuable supply chain and partnership scenarios. Up until recently, the story of advancement when it came to supply chains has been one of technological improvement. Most recently, large enterprise suites and hand-crafted proprietary solutions have started to give way to SaaS and cloud approaches to supply chain management, which will be state of the art much sooner rather than later.
How business hoodwinks itself
When you create a new company you have an idea, some sketches, then you develop a product or a service while trying to understand your potential customers by listening and testing. Then the production/service org gets cranking, channels established and…
Friday Rant: The Receivables Exchange Needs to Market Less Like a Loan Shark
I’m a big fan of collaboration between supply chain financing and procurement/accounts payable to reduce supply risk and enable vendors to access working capable at more reasonable rates. I’m even a fan of The Receivables Exchange, one of the pioneer…
Is Business Intelligence the Answer to Supplier and Supply Chain Management?
Over on Supply Chain Management Review, an article by two Wipro consultants suggests that business intelligence (BI) software, such as the kind acquired by SAP and Oracle in recent years, is key to building supply chain visibility. The two argue that…
