Supply Chain Management Review

I've discovered recently that supply chain management is conspiring against my efforts to maintain a healthier lifestyle, at least when it comes to grocery shopping.

Well, ok, my zeal for pretty much anything with peanut butter in/on it is nobody's fault but my own, but everyone has noticed lately the price of fresh produce, milk, and other perishables has gone up. Clearly, rising fuel costs are the primary factor to blame for it, but it also serves as a reminder that it's not just the flabby people among us who are inclined to taking the quick, cheap, most pleasant way out. 

And can you blame the corporations? In some ways, especially factoring in higher fuel costs, it costs a whole lot more to get fresh fruits and vegetables, many of which come from South America, into this country in a hurry. Waste too much time, and your product rots on the dock....Read More

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Well, as I noted in a previous blog post, it seems Wal-Mart is trying to tell China (or at least the company's suppliers in China) what to do with regard to green technology, and now it seems the airline industry here in the US is feeling the same pinch, this time from Europe. According to this article from Wired Magazine, the EU has set up some new legislation regulating carbon emissions by airlines traveling within Europe, but it doesn't stop there. The laws also affect any airlines that travel to and from Europe as well, meaning American air carriers are going to have to get on board, whether they like it or not. If they refuse, they will be barred from flying to Europe.

Needless to say, US air carriers are unhappy. Hmm, Wal-Mart bullying the Chinese, the EU bullying the airlines, I wonder if this is what Al Gore had in mind?

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It seems China is feeling the heat from greener pastures, so to speak, according to the Vietnam Supply Chain Council.

American companies are under growing pressure, both from environmentalists and from their own interest to find innovative ways to boost profits, to seek out "greener" ways to do business.

Since another trend has pushed American companies, and companies everywhere else, for that matter, to outsource to China, it only follows that the pressure to "go green" would migrate to the Far East.

One sign that it has is this article from the council. Citing Reuters reports, the council says Wal-Mart is once again taking a "tough love" approach, this time with its Chinese suppliers, and this time to enforce Lee Scott's mandate to green up the co...Read More

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As I indicated in a prior post, I met recently with David Sievers, a principal at Archstone Consulting, a firm that co-wrote this piece we ran back in January.

One topic that came up was an online survey conducted by a committee of corporations and AMR Research that is attempting to determine, among other things, where the college graduates with the best supply chain management skills were coming from.

One executive I spoke to at the time said he and his company were interested in the study because they were tired of hiring people who didn't seem to have the requisite supply chain skills.

Sievers was careful not to say the surv...Read More

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I was going to call this post "On the Road," but since I couldn't figure out how to write about supply chain management and still sound like a beat poet I abandoned the idea. Insetad, I'll just sum up where I've been the past two weeks and what I found relevant.

As I indicated last week (or two weeks ago if you're reading this on Monday), I attended the SCOPE East event in Philadelphia, held at the posh art-deco Loew's hotel, which used to be a bank lo so many years ago. The place still bears trappings of the good old days, right down to a large vault door mounted on the wall of the lobby. Interesting place.

The event was useful, too. There was an overall theme of green technology, with plenty of detailed presentations, many with real practical value. Of note was the presentation on the current en...Read More

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This week, I attended the Supply Chain Operations Private Exposition (SCOPE) East event in Philadelphia. I was particularly intrigued by this year's topic, "Lean, Green and Visibility."

The event's format was split between lecture sessions and private one-on-one networking meetings between attendees, so most of the presentations were repeated during the two-day event. The good news for me, however, is I saw pretty much all of them, which is rare for me at events like these. I didn't need to pick and choose what I took in.

Presenters varied from AMR's Roddy Martin talking about strategic growth and supply chain transformation to Kathryn Sachs, representing the nonprofit group e4energy, speaking on the current energy climate in the U.S. 

Most of the presenters had a "how to" theme going, with specific examples...Read More

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It's not often that I go out of my way to plug software, but this article from IndustryWeek shows that the supply chain is defnintely getting serious about getting "green." Predictions at the end of 2007 indicated software and other technology will focus more on carbon footprint measurement this year. Word is that carbon footprinting will be a household word among supply chain analysis software providers, and the product mentioned in the article is a prime example, offering managers the chance to get accurate carbon impact measurement. It's an interesting sign that the predictions are coming true.

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One alternative to China, it seems, may be on its way out of the low-cost country sourcing race. Central and Eastern Europe, referred to in an article from Supply Excellence as "CEE" (like we need yet another acronym in the business world), has a number of advantages. According to the article, workers in that part of the world are closer to Western Europe than their counterparts in Asia (read: China, and now India), are more likely to speak our language, and are members of the EU.

But cost of labor there, while still cheap enough to be a bargain, is going up, which is going to turn some supply chain managers off in the next few years. China, by contrast, is not going anywhere. Many managers have told me that the country has some disadvantages, namely that most of the manufactur...Read More

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It seems that supply chain management has made it into the mainstream press, though for an unpleasant reason. According to this article on the New York Times' Web site today, officials in the U.S. and China are probing the supply chain for the drug heparin, a blood thinner commonly prescribed here in America. After about 400 patients began developing complications possibly connected to the drug, investigators are trying to figure out whether raw materials such as pig intestines used to make the drug are being contaminated in China.

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File this under "Now I've Seen Everything."

In what has to be the ultimate marriage of classroom exercise and college culture, MIT is using a 1960s-era game to illustrate key points of Supply Chain Management.

The Beer Distribution Game, created four decades ago by MIT's Sloan School of Management, pits teams of four against each other as they try to manage a complex supply chain that moves cases of -- yep, you guessed it, beer -- to meet customer demands. The catch: team members aren't allowed to talk to each other, leaving them to do a lot of guesswork while trying to make the respective ends of their supply chains work.

The game is used, in part, to teach about the bullwhip effect and other common problems in supply chain management today. There's even a Wikipedia article on it.

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As Christopher Sciacca routinely points out, supply chain management isn't just a corporate buzzword -- it's a real process that affects all of our lives, even those of us who need to pick up flowers for our sweeties on The Most Romantic Day of the Year.

Like me. I spent a large part of my lunch hour today waiting in line at a local florist, trying to explain to the frazzled clerk that I wanted to buy a bouquet with my girlfriend's favorite flower in it. Stargazer lilies, to be precise.

I think the fact that I was one of the few people who didn't come in looking for roses threw the clerk for a bit of a loop, and while she scrambled to put something together, I noticed a sheet of paper taped to the wall of the shop discussing the problems with supply and demand regarding roses. Rea...Read More

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You should check out this article from Perdue University, "Green" Power to the Supply Chain, if you're still getting your feet wet when it comes to greening up your supply chain. In short, it describes the concept of green supply chain management beyond the "green" buzzwords, offering detailed descriptions of how you can make your supply chain more environmnetally friendly.

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