Category Archives: Supply Chain

AMR Reads the Supply Chain Tea Leaves …

… and probably proves that that they have not yet mastered the art of tasseomancy because, if I was going to bank on any predictions on who will rise in the coming year, I’d rather take my advice from a cartoonist than bank on their supply chain top 25 predictions.

Of their seven “rising” predictions, I wouldn’t bet on the following four:

  • Research in Motion (RIM)Apple & Droid are both taking the market by storm, taking turns leading the monthly sales numbers … and neither are fans of Microsoft (Apple is a direct competitor and Google has banned windows from its campuses), who continues to take a beating in the marketplace; in contrast, RIMs back-office integration is Microsoft (Exchange) heavy
  • Hewlett-Packard (HP)HP might be doing well in the enterprise (server) market, but it faces tough competition from IBM, Dell, and Sun, which now has the financial clout of Oracle behind it; on the consumer side, it’s Windows-centric, and Apple keeps rising while Microsoft keeps falling
  • NokiaWith six of the top ten cell phone manufacturers in Asia (3 in China, 2 in Korea, and 1 in Japan), and with the output of the Chinese manufacturers rising rapidly with a rapidly increasing local market size, how much longer do you think Nokia is going to retain top spot?
  • Johnson Controls (JC)This kind of says it all: the company dropped like a stone this year, as the weak economy hammered its financials. It’s unlikely this US-based company is going to see a quick recovery.

And while I expect the following two to hold rather steady, I don’t see a rapid rise:

  • KraftKraft is solid, but given their primary vertical, I don’t see a rapid rise in demand for their products.
  • General MillsGeneral Mills is also solid, but given their primary vertical, I don’t see a rapid rise in demand for their products either.

    Plus, both these companies are heavily dependent on retailers, whom AMR expect, as a group, to fall this year!

In fact, the only “rising” prediction I’d agree with is:

  • LG Electronics (LG)This Korean electronics giant is currently the third largest producer of mobile (smart) phones in the world and is aggressively pushing its way across the electronics vertical(s), backed up by a serious effort to revolutionize its supply chain.

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Upcoming Webinars from the #1 Supply Chain Resource Site

The Sourcing Innovation Resource Site, always immediately accessible from the link under the “Free Resources” section of the sidebar, continues to add new content on a weekly, and often daily, basis — and it will continue to do so.

The following is a short selection of upcoming webinars over the next two weeks that you might want to check out:

Date & Time Webcast
2010-Jul-6

 

15:00 GMT/WET

 The Hidden Risks and Benefits when Implementing and Managing a Shared Services Center in LATAM

Sponsor: SSON
2010-Jul-7

 

11:30 GMT-05:00/CDT/EST

 What Makes Best-in-Class Retail Supply Chains?

Sponsor: Supply Chain Digest
2010-Jul-7

 

14:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Using Surety Bonds to Protect your Company

Sponsor: Federation of Credit and Finance Professionals
2010-Jul-7

 

14:15 GMT/WET

 Environmental strategies for cost reduction in pharmaceutical facilities

Sponsor: WTG
2010-Jul-8

 

10:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Align International Payroll Outsourcing with Your Global Strategy

Sponsor: SSON
2010-Jul-8

 

14:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Reliability and Quality Planning: a QLM Framework

Sponsor: PTC
2010-Jul-13

 

2:00 GMT-05:00/CDT/EST

 eSourcing – Automate your Sourcing Process

Sponsor: EC Sourcing Group
2010-Jul-13

 

14:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Tired of Working With Cumbersome Spreadsheets?

Sponsor: Silico
2010-Jul-13

 

13:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Best-in-class Strategies for EHS Compliance and Sustainability

Sponsor: Environmental Leader
2010-Jul-14

 

14:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 External Economic Risk Measurement

Sponsor: FICO
2010-Jul-14

 

14:00 GMT-05:00/CDT/EST

 Trade Promotion Management Takes on Microsoft Excel

Sponsor: MEI
2010-Jul-14

 

11:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 2010 Risk Management 101 Webcast: Basics of Property

Sponsor: Marsh
2010-Jul-15

 

8:00 GMT-07:00/MST/PDT

 Asset Disposition Strategies to Eliminate Excess Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) Inventory

Sponsor: IHS
2010-Jul-15

 

14:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Using EPCIS Data Sharing for Full Supply Chain Visibility

Sponsor: RFID Journal
2010-Jul-15

 

11:30 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

 Industry Trends in Compliance Training 2010

Sponsor: Brandon Hall
2010-Jul-16

 

10:00 GMT-07:00/MST/PDT

 Strategic Account Planning

Sponsor: Relationship Economics

They are all readily searchable from the comprehensive Site-Search page. So don’t forget to review the resource site on a weekly basis. You just might find what you didn’t even know you were looking for!

And continue to keep a sharp eye out for new additions!

Only One More Week. Give Dave Your Support!

On July 6, 2009, Dave Carroll shared his story with the world about how United Airlines carelessly smashed his guitar on March 31, 2008, when he was on the way to a week-long tour of Nebraska, and how United refused to accept any responsibility or fix it. (Full story.) As you may recall, his story, first expressed in a music video on YouTube, was an overnight sensation that quickly received over Three Million views in the first week. It was such a sensation that it even inspired the Harvard Business Review to do a case study on how viral videos spread and what firms can do about them.

 

To date, the trilogy has garnered over 9,942,000 views!

United Breaks Guitars Views (June 29, 2010)
Song 1  8,733,989
Song 2  1,036,185
Song 3  172,070
TOTAL  9,942,244

 

Since the first video was released on July 6, 2009, this means that we’re only one week away from the one year anniversary! It’s time to step up and thank Dave by ensuring that his fantastic efforts receive the Ten Million Hits they deserve before the anniversary is reached … because the airlines, as a whole, still haven’t gotten the message. United Breaks Guitars, Northwest Breaks Dulcimers, and now Delta Smashes Bicycles, proving that they just don’t care whether or not you TriAndGiveaDam or whether or not the children in Africa have water.

Share the links and spread the word! Surely 58,000 views in a week isn’t much of a challenge!

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Want More Supply Chain Profits? Take a Page from David Suzuki’s Notebook.

David Suzuki recently gave the keynote at SAP Canada’s Sustainability in Business Summit. ComputerWorld has been kind enough to put the most relevant part of his keynote on the web on the ITBusiness.ca site. In brief, he says nature has to be the bottom line, and he’s right.

Think about the following facts:

  • Every time you use a gallon of water, that costs you money.
  • Every time you use a watt of energy, that costs you money.And now that carbon tariffs are coming on-line, it costs you even more.
  • It costs money to mine raw materials.Which get more expensive as supply decreases.
  • It costs money to produce and distribute products.Energy costs, carbon costs, and oil costs.
  • It costs you money to dispose of waste.No one wants a landfill, and someone has to hall it away.
  • It costs you money to dispose of end-of-life products.

Now, if you would design for recycle:

  • You’d use less water producing every component you re-used.
  • You’d use less energy producing components.
  • You’d need less raw materials, as you’d be getting them back every time your customers upgraded.
  • Production would cost you less.
  • You’d have less waste to dispose of.
  • You wouldn’t have to worry about disposing of end of life products.They’d be recycled into next generation products.

Plus, your profits would soar as your green brand gained share in the minds and hearts of consumers everywhere. So take a page from David’s notebook. Put nature first and watch your bottom line improve. Going green saves green.

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Why a Sourceror’s Job is Never Done!

As pointed out in this recent piece on “responsive supply chains thru flexible warehouses” over on the ChainLink Research site, “optimal” does not last long. Demand changes, product mix changes, freight costs change, available carriers change, available suppliers change, raw material costs change, and so on.

It’s not just the warehouse. It’s the end-to-end supply chain operation. That’s why it’s crucial that not only are sourcing projects conducted for each category consistent with the cost cycles (and, specifically, when they tend to hit their low points if the organization is able to source at that time), but that each time the project is conducted, serious effort is put into analyzing and optimizing the buy. Because if the organization simply makes the same decision it made last time, it likely is not making the optimal one.

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