Filed in MayJune_2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Conventional wisdom is that most companies today, particularly the larger ones, have adopted the practices associated with sound supply chain management. But that may not always be the case.
New research reveals a clear gap between adopters and the laggards—or the “sophisticated” and “less sophisticated” practitioners. This article explains what differentiates the two groups on key dimensions, and tells what you can do enhance your level of sophistication.
Many large companies still procure services at the local level, believing that this spend category is best managed and measured there. Yet this approach forecloses on some important opportunities. Organizations that have successfully moved from a local to an enterprise-wide approach to services procurement report savings of 15 to 20 percent—plus key operational improvements. The Strategic Sourcing approach described here can help guide that transition.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Although sales and operations planning (S&OP) has been practiced for several decades now, many companies still struggle to succeed with their programs. A big part of the problem is that the
requisite building blocks to success are either faulty or lacking. The five success principles described here can get an S&OP program on the right track and delivering the kind of results expected.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Supply chain decision making is fraught with difficulties, largely because decision making frequently is regarded purely as a mental process in which there is an illusion of knowledge. Supply chain
managers rely too much on guts and intuition, the authors contend, and not enough on structure and information. They offer seven steps to improving that problem in your supply chain.
For PolyOne Corp., the secret to survival and success is in the supply chain. This global provider of specialized polymers was burdened by excess inventory and production capacity, poor on-time delivery performance, and a sharp downturn in key markets. A series of targeted supply chain improvement initiatives took these challenges head on—and in the process got the business back on the path to profitability.
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