Removing Cost from your Supply Chain - Push it OUT not DOWN
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The Infosys global supply chain management blog enables leaner supply chains through process and IT related interventions. Discuss the latest trends and solutions across the supply chain management landscape.
March 03, 2010
February 27, 2010
Technical Architecture and the silos thereof....
I was recently sitting in a café a flipping through a magazine on Green Architecture for Retailers. It included the entire gamut of retailers - apparel vendors through grocery vendors and how they wanted their stores to be green; Emphasis on green paints, green lights, recyclable paper towels and so on; the investments and the returns thereof; testimonials that justified the idea, the ones that stressed on the longevity of these implementations and those that cautioned the reader.
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February 24, 2010
Supply Chain Predictions for 2010 - how far are we from our end-state vision?
Last month, Infosys got a call from Supply Chain Digest magazine, courtesy the editor-in-chief Dan Gilmore to air our views on the key trends for Supply Chain Management in 2010. Supply Chain Guru Predictions for 2010 published earlier this month covered a set of 5 other eminent folks from MIT, Gartner, Descartes and so on, so I was happy for the opportunity to be featured amongst these industry thought leaders.
As primarily a package supply chain enabler, I stuck to my knitting and covered my theme along two lines (a) Improving efficiencies in the back-end supply chain to reduce costs and (b) Enhancing end-customer experience by augmenting the front-end supply chain. People ask me where the relentless pressure to slay every efficiency killer would end up. What next after Multi-channel commerce, end2end procurement, green asset management... whither goes SCM end-state?
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February 14, 2010
Y2010 & Ahead – value chain trends in emerging economy – Part 2 (Technology Trends)
February 11, 2010
Y2010 & Ahead – value chain trends in emerging economy – Part 1
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January 29, 2010
Leveraging SRM techniques to build business teams
One of the key objectives in the existing challenging environments is to develop long-term, productive relationships with the internal customers who are stakeholders within the procurement business team. This is interesting observation and SRM techniques can help organizations in building strong relationship with internal customers through foothold strategies that leverage long term relationship.
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SCOR -S Certification; a boon for students
January 28, 2010
Automotive manufacturers of 2009: Numbers convey their Supply Chain behavior
So the “Report cards” of the automotive manufacturers in US are out!! There are contrasting realities and some startling facts!!!. Do the Japanese and American car manufacturers behave the same way in the face of recession? How do their manufacturing and supply chain strategies reflect on their overall performance? Are there any “dark horses” among the American manufacturers who would pose the biggest threats to the Japanese in future? Are there laggards among the Japanese who would have to face the threat of survival in future? The numbers convey their behavior!!
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January 27, 2010
The Pit Stop - An Agile Supply Chain
I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on "How to Gain Competitive Advantage with End to End Supply Chain Visibility" sponsored collectively by Sterling, Deloite and GS1 held at Oxfordshire, UK sometime in November last year.
Deloite presented how important it was to maintain focus on business operations, with a clear emphasis on working capital optimization.
GS1 (They design and implement global supply chain standards) delved on the need of standard based solutions that enable organizations to gain visiblity of specific assets and how this in turn is driving process improvement throught the entire supply chain.
Decide where you integrate: MCO does not equal MCC!
It’s the beginning of the year and our campus here at Bangalore is abuzz with client visits, with sometimes the Bangalore campus alone hosting 4-5 client visits in a single day. Budgets are being cast, everyone is looking for the right drop box to put their IT dollars and wait for maximum magic for the amount spent. While I am not involved in a majority of these visits, there's one industry vertical where SCM practice consistently gets invited to present their point of view, viz., Retail. My reasoning for this is that there’s really no other industry where one encounters so many best-of-breed SCM packages strung together by each of these retailers in a collage uniquely their own.
Continue reading "Decide where you integrate: MCO does not equal MCC!" »
January 25, 2010
Profiling Paradigm Shift in the Package World
The way applications are resourced these days have a number of applications on a single virtualized bed of infrastructure be it private, public or hybrid deployment models. Application vendors are talking about multitenant models. Service providers are hosting tailored application platforms for their clientele. The dynamics of hosting, appropriation of resources, and application customization is quiet different. In my previous blog here I urge on a stronger and proactive production environment. So what is necessary ingredient to bring that level of sophistication? The answer is the ‘profiling horizontal’. So how and why is it relevant to particularly SCM and generically packages. I take Sterling OMS as a case study to convey my view points.
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January 22, 2010
Being Lean in Supply chain
Well, this blog of mine is different in many ways, from the ones that I have posted so far. I am not going to write too much to describe this topic but I am more interested in knowing what you all know. I want to reach out to each one of you to know what you have seen in industry either as an operations guy or as a consultant. Even if you have not seen it being practiced in real life, I am sure you would have some serious opinion on this matter.
The topic is very simple and well-intuitive. My question is: Have you seen “lean principles” being practiced in supply chain in any industry (preferably consumer goods/discrete manufacturing). I know the term “lean” has been used or mis-used very often, but I am open to hear anything from you – just take a pick, think and find out instances from your experience, that you can bucket under being “lean in supply chain”. Do not just restrict yourself to manufacturing...
Let me give you one example: recently, I had a discussion with a Supply Chain Head of a leading consumer goods organization and they intend to implement a “pull based” system in their supply chain.
Consumer goods companies have been pioneers in supply chain and their performance in supply chain has been best-in-class by any standards. Traditionally, we have seen organizations especially, consumer goods, running a typical push model where sophisticated forecasting is done to predict demand, goods are manufactured and distributed to various POS locations as per the dispatch plan. The product is actually pushed down in supply chain and focus is to improve forecast accuracy because that really drives everything else.
On the contrary, here is this company that would like to implement “pull system” and do away with forecasting to the maximum possible extent. To me, this is one true example of being lean in supply chain. I have always seen companies focusing on improving traditional push model that I described, but I have never seen a “pull model” running anywhere and hence this blog…
Going back to my question to all of you:
Do you think such practices exist in companies (esp. consumer goods)? I don’t know any company implementing a pull methodology in supply chain (please provide examples other than Toyota)? How do you marry push and pull in the supply chain, and where does it exist? Where is the Customer decoupling point? What tools do you use? How do you drive this initiative – what are the critical success factors?
Please share your experiences and insights – looking forward to hear from this great group of supply chain leaders…
December 15, 2009
Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) – How to manage multiple supply chain dilemmas
I have always wondered about how a Supply Chain head is able to manage multiple strategic issues simultaneously and what could be the approach that he/she could be taking to drive critical projects or initiatives to tackle most of such issues. There are various questions that I have in mind and would like to seek your opinion for each of them. Questions like:
- How does one identify the issues that are more critical? What are different parameters that influence issue identification process?
- What’s the approach for deciding the list of best-fit actions?
- How does one prioritize these actions – what’s the typical decision framework?
- How does one decide the modus operandi – what could be the best operating model to execute those actions at the ground level?
I am not sure if I have answers for all of them and I do believe that the answer for each question will vary across companies since every single company differs in the way it is structured and the way it operates. But these questions are equally valid for all companies. Generally speaking, what has been your experience? Put yourself in the shoes of a supply chain leader and then think about your approach within a set of constraints, uncertainties and performance pressures that a CSCO has to deal with.
December 07, 2009
SCM cross pollination: Ikea and the Indian bi-cycle manufacturers
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November 27, 2009
Buffett’s bet on railroads- basically, a bet on America?
Hope you had a great time with your family this Thanksgiving. For me, Thanksgiving was an excuse to maximize my time with my family before they left for India this coming Sunday on a three month long vacation.
Anyway, coming to the topic of this blog, today I watched this amazing show on CNBC called Warren Buffett and Bill Gates - Keeping America Great, where the two greatest legends of the current times took questions from Columbia B-School students on various topics ranging from the economy to philanthropy.
Continue reading "Buffett’s bet on railroads- basically, a bet on America?" »
November 21, 2009
The Death of DRP- an eyewitness’ account
I simply loved reading Lora Cecere’s blog titled The Death of DRP. I loved it, because it brought me a feeling of déjà vu. You see, for the past few years, I was part accomplice and part eyewitness to the slow murder, while working on a supply chain transformation program for a leading CPG.
Continue reading "The Death of DRP- an eyewitness’ account" »
November 12, 2009
Nostradamus, 2012 and Cloud Computing!!!
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November 08, 2009
Impact on Warehouse Management systems in context of gATP implementation
Global Available to Promise is one of the most promising modules of SAP to manage a sales order. The module has far-reaching impacts on business processes right from Sales Order acquisition to the warehouse level fulfilment strategy. In this blog, we will try to understand how gATP implementation (one of the core supply chain modules of SAP) is having far reaching consequences on warehouse management processes.
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November 07, 2009
Being Unique with MCC: Can Something Buried Under The Hood Be A Differentiator?
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October 28, 2009
So is SCM Transformation an Oxymoron or a Holy Grail to aspire to?
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October 26, 2009
Resolving the Constant Debate of Build vs. Buy of IT Applications Addressing Supply Chain Needs
Product-focused and service-related supply chains continue to face unprecedented challenges. The ongoing effects of the global recession, rapidly shifting markets, increased global presence, and more empowered customers collectively place extraordinary challenges on supply chain business process capabilities. The notions for fostering the most efficient, as well as agile supply chain capabilities, can sometimes be at odds, and flexibility in desired capabilities often becomes the overriding objective.
In my consultations with supply chain and IT executives, I often encounter a constant debate regarding contrasting needs to augment information technology capabilities on either a “develop internally” or “externally buy” perspective. The debate is often embedded among two different situational approaches.
October 23, 2009
Thoughts on CSCMP 2009
October 13, 2009
Getting to the heart of Supply Chains : CSCMP Conference 2009
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China’s Supply Chain: The currency factor
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September 23, 2009
Visualization: What is in store for service providers?
It was again time to return to India after an assignment at the client site and as most of us know, that means it is shopping time. So I logged on to some of the apparel websites. I found the experience to be very agile. AJAX and all. Intuitive too as if there was a sales-fairy-god-mother looking over me.
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September 17, 2009
Video:Accurate fulfillment or A Smooth Checkout Experience? Now you don’t really have to choose...
Online shopping has been less impacted from recessionary pressures and has continued showing upward growth. While online shoppers take quick and often impulse decisions, there has been a marked increase in shopping cart abandonment due to uneven user experience. This trend has been largely attributed to a slow and cumbersome checkout processes. In crafting the right shopping experience, retailers are caught between speed and efficiency of check-out process on one end and the need to have accurate inventory picture at the other, with this picture sourced from back-end supply chain applications on a near real-time basis. In this video blog, I share an easy-to-implement approach to front-end inventory visibility by striking a balance between website performance and accurate fulfillment using item/inventory classification principles coupled with inventory synchronization rules. I also talk about a differentiated inventory visibility strategy through which one can do away with the need to maintain inventory positions for 100% of the catalog. The complete paper on this paper was published by Manufacturing & Logistics IT and can be read here
September 13, 2009
What drives China’s Supply Chain – Quality, Cost, Time or Flexibility
Fresh from a study tour to China and tired after submitting a lengthy thesis on China’s Industry context, let me quickly pen a few lines on the competitive priorities that drive China’s Operations and Supply Chain.
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Keep it simple and Stick to basics
This time I am going to share something that I have observed over a period of years working in industry and now as a consultant in supply chain domain. And, it is not based on just one or two experiences, but something that I have really seen at many occasions. I am sure, most of us would have experienced it too, that business users don’t need and talk those ‘big and heavy’ words or jargons. On the contrary, they look out for some simple solutions to take care of their business problems. The problems could be and in fact, are multi-dimensional and fairly complex but what they need is a ‘simple and basic’ solution that works fine for their set of constraints.
In my opinion, lot of times, people tend to talk in air without actually understanding issues that the client is facing, and use such heavy jargons as if that’s one quick pill that will solve all the problems. I personally feel, that we should be extremely careful and cautious of ‘just’ talking jargons; I am sure if we just stick to our basics, it will be more than enough for most of the problems that people face in business. Let me share few instances that made me felt so…
September 04, 2009
Contract Manufacturing - A New Kind of 3-Way Match
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August 27, 2009
Tapping Collective Maintenance Wisdom - An EAM Route?
I recently got a chance to go through an interestingly titled research report from Bill Polk of AMR going by the headline "Asset Management Algebra: EAM = ROI". In these times of increasingly deficient attention-spans, reading a 2-pager is always better than reading a 20-pager with authors belaboring the same point in multiple ways.
Apart from the usual benefits of EAM (ROCE, efficiency improvements, structured information etc) and its new found importance (movement from tactical to strategic), an interesting point which I haven't come across in many other places was about "Capturing and preserving data from an aging workforce". While implementing EAM systems, we typically think of labor management (thru the EAM app or via a little help from more high brow "Workforce Management Systems or WFMs") as a way to capture skills of the maintenance personnel thus making sure the right party is assigned to the right work order.
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August 26, 2009
Supply Chain “Proverbs-to-ponder”
IDENTIFYING CAUSES FOR UNSUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOR
Efforts for sustaining supply chain benefits have been under fire. Business requires supply chain programs for implementing their strategies. Variability, especially uncertainties in operations dim the chances for even the best solutions to return results in a consistent manner. Sustainability, is taking center-stage for CXOs and I see them scramble for ideas that have demonstrated results.
August 21, 2009
Is Software Really A prerequisite in running a supply chain – Part 2
This is part 2 of my blog on evaluating the role of software / IT systems in running a supply chain.
In the prior blog I had highlighted a few questions on what are the pre-requisites for enabling great supply chains and while software is indeed a key enabler, it is not sufficient alone to make a successful supply chain.
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August 17, 2009
Poll on type of delivery model adoption for implementing TMS application in your organization
Global organizations are unlocking business value from their TMS by deploying them either via the on-demand or the on-premise space.
The common measures considered for narrowing down to one of the delivery models are faster reporting, non disruptive implementation and shorter lead time for higher ROI.
Is your TMS implementation a success in your organization via the on-demand or the on-premise delivery model..
Participate in our on-going series of Supply Chain polls to gauge the trend across the industry in order to provide organizations insights on key areas of supply chain.
August 12, 2009
Is Software Really A prerequisite in running a supply chain – Part 1?
“Software is not a prerequisite in running a supply chain”. I heard this statement while attending SCOR framework workshop sometime back in Chicago. This sounded interesting and my first reaction was “off-course, look at the mess around the businesses today despite having most sophisticated software in place”.
Having said that, I was not ready to accept that supply chains can survive in today’s world without software systems. Organizations have made significant investments in implementing automation and software systems in supply chain and it is practically impossible to visualize a supply chain in today’s world without IT or software system.
Yet, there was something about this statement which I couldn’t completely discount. So, I started probing this a little deeper and in the process the following questions emerged: if software is not prerequisite, then why organizations keep on spending millions of dollars on IT systems, what is really needed to run a supply chain, how software / automation / IT systems add value to supply chain and what is required to derive the value out of these systems. My post aims to put some perspectives around these questions.
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August 10, 2009
Is the decision maker VP-Supply Chain or VP- Marketing?
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July 21, 2009
Are your customers reaching out to you for repairs?
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July 17, 2009
Big brands doing online war-dances mean more SCM components to fix
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July 07, 2009
Is “Supply Chain function” a critical function to business?
This blog is a representation of my feelings and thoughts about the significance of supply chain as a function. I have been associated with supply chain for little less than a decade now, and based on my experiences and interactions with supply chain practitioners, I feel that supply chain function has slowly started gaining importance in the industry. We know that companies are driven by functions that drive business, get revenue and manage money. And therefore, functions such as Sales, Marketing and Finance have always been the pillars of any organization, independent of its size and scale. Having said that, I feel that over the past few years, supply chain as a function exists as a more formal organization and has grown from a mere supporting function to the one that has a direct impact on a company’s balance sheet. As per one of the articles in AMR Research, the average tenure of a supply chain organization in consumer products is eight years. So, there is still a long way to go from here.
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June 15, 2009
Smarter Planet makes Smarter SIs too, especially if it's EAM
One of the major thrusts we have been seeing with IBM of late is the "smarter planet" campaign. Stripped off the hype (justifiable for any marketing campaign), its a terrific way to differentiate oneself from mundane IT related offerings to something truly (in the real sense of the term) transformational. Back in April, CNN Money had am exhaustive article on the same topic titled "IBM's grand plan to save the planet", with the byline "Here is CEO Sam Palmisano's formula for changing the world: Find problems, throw in billions of dollars in R&D, add consultants and an earnest ad campaign - and watch the profits roll in."
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June 10, 2009
Key themes at Customer Connection 2009 - “Connect & Collaborate”, designing applications for the 3G/4G mobile handsets, On-demand & multi-tenancy…
June 08, 2009
“Help! I urgently need to improve my supply chain performance and I have no money!"
This current economy is certainly challenging all of us to do more with less. As supply chain professionals, how often in the last year have you heard, “Cut costs, downsize your workforce, reduce procurement costs, and scale back inventory, and do it all without impacting revenues or customer service? Sound familiar?
We hear from our customers again and again that they need to quickly improve their supply chain performance. However, customers with large ERP and legacy system investments have difficulty responding to critical business initiatives in a timely and cost-effective fashion. These projects can take 9 to 12 months and cost over a million dollars. No supply chain executive or CIO who values his or her job would dare take this traditional mega-IT project to the CEO for approval in this market.
June 05, 2009
How do they do it? Strategies for staying in the AMR Top 25
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June 01, 2009
Amazon for Cloud Computing is as Starbucks for Coffee??
I’ve been globe trotting lately - India, UK, US and such. Living in Seattle puts a tacit yet obliging pressure on you to visit Starbucks. Ordering a cup of coffee after 9 months was an all new experience from the previous time I was there. Double-tall, non-fat, de-cafe, extra-hot cappuccino for instance, Sugar free, soy, cinnamon dolce, and no-whip latte for another. So I couldn’t stop but notice the granularity of the orders and what Starbucks had accomplished in the past 9 months.
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May 19, 2009
Is Supply Chain Planning still the top most priority of investment during uncertain times?
In the current downturn, organizations are typically looking at spending only on sustenance and not wanting to start any new projects/initiatives- however there are organizations which have a clear focus of ensuring that they make the right investments in a downturn to overcome the challenges faced and also be ready when the economy revives. Organizations are always thinking of planning and optimizing their investments and this is more relevant in the current economic scenario. Areas of investment in Supply Chain during the current dark period’ gave us some interesting outcome.
May 16, 2009
Alignment in Supply Chain – is it really possible?
Recently I read a great news article in Supply Chain Digest titled “Triple-A Supply Chain” that actually talks about the article published in Harvard Business Review in the year 2004 by Hau Lee. I am sure most of you would have read it but for those who haven’t, I sincerely suggest that it is a must-read for all supply chain practitioners. Although the article is more than four years old, it is very pertinent in current business environment. Let me just provide the objectives of the three A’s mentioned in the postingf and then, I would like to share my viewpoints with respect to one of the A’s that I feel is the ‘most relevant and critical’ capability for all the companies. The three A’s that have been talked about are:
a) Agility – it is about how quickly a company can respond to any change in its business environment. It refers to short-term changes.
b) Adaptability – it is the capability of a company to adapt to business changes that are more permanent in nature and therefore, it is strategic and has a long lead time.
c) Alignment – it is the ability to have common and shared interests across the supply chain including vendors and customers.
Continue reading "Alignment in Supply Chain – is it really possible?" »
May 02, 2009
Sterling Commerce Customer Connection - TMS in an on-demand world
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April 30, 2009
Reporting from Sterling Commerce Customer Connection
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April 24, 2009
Agile SCM Cloud - How to implement one?
In the previous two blogs I have talked about the possibility of creating a cloud of SCM functions and commoditizing’ em to relieve the user from the tedious task of choosing, procuring, implementing and customizing SCM functions for his business. The general trend these days with the advent of grid and cloud computing is to focus more on the application and its use for the business rather than worry about scalability, reliability and security which are now an integral part of the cloud offerings.
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April 22, 2009
DNA Therapy for Strategic Cost Reduction in Supply Chains
My recent hunt for stem cell banking information in South India got me excited on a subject of high interest in the biomedical world. Stem cell therapy is the latest medical wonder discovery and supposed to be a cure for 70 odd complex maladies of humans, especially interesting because till late these ill’s were supposed be hard to win over with the conventional medical treatment methods - treatments which were more focused on treatment of the symptom or providing a patch solution for the life threatening diseases, not usually a permanent cure.
DNA is the building block of all life and living on this planet. They are the smallest finite elements which determine the characteristic and personality of any individual. DNA or gene therapy gets to the root cause of the problem. They provided the paradigm shift in medical treatment from the symptomatic treatment of the yesteryears to treating or correcting the diseases cells at source.
What has DNA therapy got to do with Supply Chain Management?
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April 01, 2009
Poll on key sustainability initiatives embarked on by your organization across supply chain function
Global organizations are embracing environment sustainability initiatives like never before. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is perhaps the primary choice for companies hoping to realize benefits from green initiatives.
SCM offers great potential for green initiatives in green sourcing, logistics and transportation optimization, packaging, warehouse management, inventory reduction, asset maintenance and product design.
Participate in our on-going series of Supply Chain polls to gauge the trend across the industry in order to provide organizations with focus areas as they embark on greening their supply chains.
March 17, 2009
This Pharma major is doing the right thing by “talking” to its suppliers
Pharmaceutical industry - defensive and an inelastic sector as far as demand is concerned - is known to be relatively less impacted by this recession. But then, it is far from remaining immune and certainly cannot escape unscathed. The lay-off announced by the leading pharma players (Sanofi 650 US sales reps, Novartis 550 US sales reps, Merck ~8000 jobs, AstraZeneca 1400, Wyeth ~5000 and GSK 1000) is proof enough of the problems present in this industry. Though the problems stem from poor drug discovery and expiration of patents, the recession is certainly compounding the situation. Naturally, belt-tightening is high on the corporate agenda with inefficient supply chains ranking at the very top among all the belt-tightening opportunities available.
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March 13, 2009
Is IT really a primary driver for making your supply chain ‘World-class’?
There have been numerous articles or reports written on building a ‘world-class’ or a ‘best-in-class’ supply chain that you would have surely read. Few of them definitely outclass others in terms of the focus and clarity they provide to the supply chain enthusiasts and practitioners. One such report that I would like to bring to your notice is recently published by McKinsey & Company called “The Race for Supply Chain Advantage” – an outcome of an intensive research done, with large multinational companies participating from multiple industry segments. The report provides the six key practices that would drive supply chain performance, and make companies world-class with outstanding results in some of the most critical parameters such as customer service, cost and inventory. I wouldn’t like to comment anything on the practices listed but I do feel worth mentioning an interesting finding in this report and that’s about the better performance of companies with fewer formal IT systems as compared to the ones that have invested heavily into technology.
Continue reading "Is IT really a primary driver for making your supply chain ‘World-class’?" »
March 12, 2009
Has widespread adoption of advanced supply chain solutions reduced the ability to differentiate?
March 04, 2009
Poll on the type of delivery model you plan to adopt for your Supply Chain applications
How is your organization adapting to the current economic environment ? Tightened budgets across the board are making organizations wary about not only their organization’s financial viability but also their suppliers and competitors.
But most companies are cautiously progressing towards application investment with lots of options /variations, Capitalize the investment in the application vs. Expense, Utilization of IT resources vs. placing the burden of implementation and ongoing management of the application on third party, Customize and interconnect solutions vs. configure and use as OOTB, do the same for less money vs. more for the same price.
Participate in our on-going series of Supply Chain polls to gauge the trend across the industry in order to provide organizations with focus areas as they embark on streamlining their supply chains.
February 27, 2009
Supply Chain - A strategic lever in a weak economy
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February 26, 2009
Supply & Demand Forces behind Food Commodity prices: During boom and bust
Thanks to my involvement last month in devising an enterprise application strategy for a food supply chain major – experience is detailed here and here - I had the opportunity to understand the food commodity market a lot better. And like any other market, the forces of Demand and Supply are much at play to decide the market price equilibrium. Let’s look at those forces on the back-drop of the unprecedented food prices last year and then see the impact of recession on these forces. A run-down on the demand forces at play first:
Continue reading "Supply & Demand Forces behind Food Commodity prices: During boom and bust" »
February 20, 2009
From Customer-Facing to Customer-Serving: Keeping the Supply Chain investment focus
February 16, 2009
AGILE SCM CLOUD – Why do we need one?
Because we do. Is it that simple? No way.
I guess the answer to this question manifests when we take a close look at any SCM application environment and the landscape of the hardware and software technologies associated with it and the amount of effort required to integrate these applications.
February 10, 2009
What IT hooks do 3PLs hang their business coats on?
The global economy is changing. That's arguably the only thing that can be stated as fact about this change. The only other thing that could be stated as fact is the continuous need for corporations to make profits, serve customers and to provide value to shareholders. This is true for 3PL providers and their customers too. So, what do 3PLs do to be prepared for the coming change? What are the IT hooks they hang their business coats on?
I will be sharing my experience with the facets of 3PL IT force multipliers on 24th Feb 2009. Please register here to be a part of the webinar.
Continue reading "What IT hooks do 3PLs hang their business coats on?" »
January 27, 2009
Poll on key Supply Chain investments areas in your organization
January 15, 2009
AGILE SCM CLOUD – What could it mean?
First of all I must let you all – the readers, know that this is the first of the three parts blog on Agile SCM Cloud. So please stay tuned for the “AGILE SCM CLOUD – Why do we need one?” and “AGILE SCM CLOUD – How to implement one?”
We are living in great times as far as Information Technology is concerned. There is a wave of information explosion and a corresponding need to process it efficiently and effectively. For example, search for new energy source or satellite downloads for weather forecasting. On the other hand almost contrasting to the computing needs Moore’s law is reaching its limits considering atomic sizes of the transistors leading to dual, quad and 8 core processors. Companies like Intel are even rolling out instruction sets to support multiple operating systems. All of this has an impact on the way we have been computing so far – a piece of software tied to a piece of hardware and both of these tied to a business need. We are now thinking of dynamic environments that grow and shrink to meet the demands. Not to mention the biz terms like Grid Computing, Virtualization, Software-as-a-Service, Utility Computing, Green Computing and Cloud Computing in that order to go with it.
January 09, 2009
Hypermiling your supply chain
Over the past few days, I've been reading up a bit on hypermiling, a term coined by Wayne Gerdes, considered to be the father of this science (art?) and its foremost proponent. Hypermiling is all about extracting every last mile from your gallon (or kilometer from your liter, if you may), way higher than what's advertised in the mileage sheets and then you push further and get some more. I was going through jaw-dropping antics of hypermilers raising 100mpg figures on hybrids, 60mpg on typical 30-35 mpg high fuel efficient cars like Civics and Corollas and even doubling the performance of the usually riled about gas guzzling SUVs, all as if it’s the most natural thing to do.
December 04, 2008
Outsourcing in supply chain – a unique way to deploy global supply chain programs
This is based on my recent project experience with one of the leading networking companies in US, which is running its strategic supply chain performance improvement initiative globally. Usually, companies tend to implement such initiatives as a pilot for a select few customers and markets and once the pilot is run for a certain period of time, it is rolled out to other areas incorporating learnings from the pilot phase. The rolling out of such strategic initiatives to all the markets globally is imperative to achieve the desired financial benefits, finally leading to revenue and profit growth. The key is the global execution that becomes a real challenge in a global scenario, especially when it demands a significant amount of investment in terms of time, cost, talent and effort from teams located regionally.
November 13, 2008
Good and bad news in Supply Chain improvement programs
I have had several discussions with clients and prospects in the last few weeks regarding their supply chain related transformation initiatives. Despite (or perhaps driven by) the macroeconomic challenges, most of the companies I have come across are moving forward with such transformation initiatives. It’s possible that there’s a sampling bias here and I may only be in touch with those companies that are actively pursuing a supply chain related transformation program. Irrespective, I consider that the good news.
However, as you might have guessed, there’s some bad news too. Let me illustrate the bad news with a specific example of a client that I recently met. This is a large F100 class company with a well-known track record in supply chain excellence. The client organization is expanding in new markets and channels and is clearly hurting in the supply chain aspect of that expansion. The challenges exist at multiple levels – strategic issues of where/how to compete at one end and tactical issues of supply chain execution at the other. The challenges the client organization faces are, however, so significant that the organization seems completely consumed by it. Each individual seems to have their own view of what the #1 issue is. There doesn’t seem to be a clear prioritization based on shareholder value (or similar metric) and no clear roadmap that helps resolve the various perceived #1 priorities. So the bad news is that some clients are finding themselves in a situation of panic where “we are so busy that we don’t have time to prioritize”. Are you seeing a growing sense of ‘do something’ panic around you?
November 11, 2008
SCM in a time of downturn
November 05, 2008
Are Green Supply Chains here to stay?
After doing a deep-dive into the procurement professional’s role in green supply chains in my previous post, I cannot resist but take a step “up” to offer my view on whether Green supply chains are here to stay
I have come across several voices, discussions, posts and opinions that speak about the “falseness” of this entire green movement. That companies are resorting to green initiatives not because of their new found love for environment but instead, are suavely marketing their cost cutting initiatives under a green cloak to win some social brownie points. Compounding this situation is the fact that some companies are blatantly misleading the public on their green campaigns (Terrachoice, an environmental marketing agency, in a survey on green claims of six category leading big-box stores reviewed 1018 products and found all, except one, making a claim that mislead audiences).
October 20, 2008
End2End SCM can go deeper than the just functions
Last month, I was at the IBM Consultants & System Integrators (CSI) conference at Goa, a wonderfully event-managed event where to my utter delight, even verbose senior folks were brutally cut down from their loquaciousness by the time-keeper's flag. I was invited since Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is one of the domains I head in my portfolio here at SCM practice. IBM, as many of you would know got into EAM in a big way post acquisition of Maximo app from MRO software. But this post is less on EAM and more on a topic I'm thinking and reading up a little bit these days - end2end SCM and more specifically - why should it just remain at a domain level and not be inclusive all the way down at a deeper infra level?
Continue reading "End2End SCM can go deeper than the just functions" »
September 30, 2008
Do the Supply Chain improvement projects justify the investment?
While I’m not aware of a precise estimate, I’m sure that several billion dollars are invested each year in hardware, software, and services by companies across industries – manufacturing, distribution, retail, utility services, and others – to improve their supply chain performance.
Continue reading "Do the Supply Chain improvement projects justify the investment?" »
September 24, 2008
Hasn’t it always been about sustainability
If I were “environment”, I wouldn’t have had it better. At-least not since the dawn of the industrial revolution. The two words - “environment sustainability” - have been in circulation like never before (thanks, I must say, to the humongous success of the award winning documentary “An inconvenient truth”). No wonder then that a Google search gives more than 3.3 million results.
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September 23, 2008
CIO's view of Integration of Supply Chain Applications
Very recently I had the good fortune of having an hour long conversation with CIO of one of our very reputed client organizations. The organization is a leading 10 billion USD+ entity with an illustrious history in the area of Imaging. The client organization has 3 concurrent tools for forecasting used by different internal businesses, a few mainframe applications involved in doing factory level production planning and SAP's evolving solution in the area of supply chain in general. The organization has thus lived and evolved with its supply chain landscape starting all the way from mainframe applications, to best-of-breed and now ERP II planning applications.
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September 01, 2008
Energy Sector and the Supply Chain
Demand and Supply go hand-in-hand. One would be forgiven to associate such a statement with best-in-class supply chain supported by best-in-class IT support systems. This could be a distant dream for few other aspirants. However what I am referring to is the not-so-obvious-but-omnipresent power sector.
The advent of "on-demand" SCM
SaaS aka Hosted : I think, thats where everyone's heading, how apprehensive do consultants feel?
....everyday, i get 4-5 articles, saying -("A" is looking at Hosted) ("B" is already performing on hosted) & for ("C" its hosted, all the way), i really wonder if thats the way ahead for product companies to have that "Non-Linear growth pattern", but if everyone goes the hosted way does this mean that, no more consulting, no more consultants
Is the future just going to work in a way "that customers give master and related data en routed through secure VPN's to get businesses running in future, will there still be Business Blueprinting" will there ever be a necessity for consultants to help customer's adapt to Products, still bringing in their domain expertise to mash the product to suit their requirements", will the services companies merge with the product companies, Will there ever be any work for consultants any more, read more.....
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Recent Posts
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