Management

Management (228)

The Supply Chain is Everywhere

3d printed dressIt wasn’t long ago that Apple was lauded for it’s finesse in managing its supply chain. Getting its bazillions of iPhones from China to the US and everywhere else required some groundbreaking advances and a lot of tight controls. Those lessons have gone mainstream as the world took notice and of the company’s strategies and success. And partly because of that expansion, the supply chain now extends to areas as unexpected as social media. Read more...

What's Amazon Up To?

amazon-prime-stock-photo 1280.0I was considering writing an article about which company will be most disruptive to supply chains over the next few years, when lo and behold what pulls into my driveway but an Amazon-branded panel truck delivering a drill I ordered a couple days ago. Is that fate or what? At the very top of my list in the ‘Disrupter Hall of Fame’ would undoubtedly be Amazon, and their recent moves in logistics represent yet another supply chain area that ought to be preparing itself for disruption from this ecommerce giant.

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A New Home for Google+

social-network-linksThere are plenty of social networks beyond Facebook. Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, and Pinterest have made themselves useful but haven’t been able to gain the traction of Facebook. But Facebook is gaining a reputation as ‘grandpa’s’ network as it becomes almost a public utility. The younger population that was responsible for popularizing the site is moving to newer systems like Snapchat, Kik Messenger, oOVoo, WhatsApp, Vine, Tinder, and others that specialize in fast paced interactions. Read more...

Fearless Predictions for 2016

561-futurecrystalballYep, it’s that time of year…. time to reflect on how our predictions for 2015 turned out and to look in our crystal ball to guess what may be the compelling stories of 2016. It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it!

2015 was big for supply chains, electronic commerce, and all the technologies ec-bp.com readers follow. Around this time last year, I wrote that we’d see lots of interest in cloud technology, omnichannel consumers, driverless vehicles, robotics, drones, 3D printing and, most importantly, Big Data and IoT. In retrospect, that was like shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel. We indeed witnessed high levels of activity for all those topics, but allow me to make a few quick observations......

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Using Behavior to Your Advantage

irrationalIt’s the start of a new year and once again, I set goals for the year. These are different than “resolutions” as I fully intend on meeting them. Some of these goals are the same from year to year: get in better shape, spend more time with my family, work smarter (not necessarily harder), decrease expenses, increase revenue,  be the change I want to see in the world,  end world hunger, get a super power... and this year I added a new goal to the list. I will walk 1,000 miles in 2011. Instead of approaching this goal rationally, like I’m prone to do for any project, I wanted to apply the ideas in the book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, by Ori and Rom Brafum. If I behave irrationally naturally, as the authors point out, I may as well behave irrationally in a way that helps achieve my objectives.

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How's Your Trading Partner Meeting Working Out?

merging"Both sides would get what they wanted; that has always been our mantra." That sounds like a worthy goal in any relationship. How successful in real-world practice, though, is cultivation of the retailer-supplier pairing?

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Supply Chain Management Dashboards Growing

dashboard onlineThere’s nothing necessarily new about dashboards – software that serves as a control panels for enterprise applications and provides high-level views of a variety of performance and data-intensive information. But what’s clear is their growing importance for supply chain managers. Read more...

Outsourcing EDI Is The Way To Go, Says Expert

outsourceAccording to James H. Davis, director of sales of Amosoft, an EDI provider, a vast majority of “all commerce is done through EDI.” Because of its unparalleled importance to the success of supply chain communications, it is imperative for trading partners to speak the same shipping language or hire an outside resource to communicate for them. Read more...

Scorecards vs. Continuous Compliance Monitoring

cycle-300x300Monitoring vendors for compliance is, obviously, a key to both good business and good business relationships. Relationships between retailers and vendors are, at best, complicated and difficult; at worst, as many buyers have painfully learned, the partnership can become chaotic and nearly impossible. Read more...

Outsourcing Compliance Optimization

optimizationAll suppliers, including the ones who communicate in a clear and timely fashion, and who consistently deliver on time, need to be monitored. Compliance optimization, which includes tracking and identifying performance issues and communicating issues to suppliers, pays off for both parties. When supply chain problems are identified at a detailed level, addressed, and fixed, the retailer-supplier partnership benefits. It becomes more efficient and more profitable. Read more...

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