World-class procurement organizations now deliver services at 17 percent less cost than typical companies while offering improved effectiveness, largely by becoming more customer-centric, according to research from The Hackett Group Inc.
Having undergone a raft of acquisitions and name changes over the years, the pharmaceutical giant formerly known as Actavis scraps its legacy manual processes and embraces formal demand-planning and advanced-scheduling technology.
The big merchandiser looked to Genco to provide a system for the rapid and efficient processing of merchandise that's designated for redeployment, return to vendor and liquidation.
Several years ago SanDisk realized that its build-to-forecast model was causing excess inventory and poor on-time delivery. The company decided to transform to a pull supply-chain model based on actual demand and postponement. Kehat Shahar, vice president of operations and supply chain planning at SanDisk, talks about this journey.
Ted Diamantis, an importer of Greek wines who is based in Chicago, has been helping his suppliers stock up on bottles, labels and printing ink. The barrels, though, have him worried.
The dynamics that have long favored China as the world's center of low-cost manufacturing are changing. And no one - not even China - seems to have a problem with that.
Many companies have become adept at using supply-chain management to increase their competitiveness, yet the function remains under-utilized in one vital area: working capital management.
Mergers and acquisition in the 3PL industry are on the upswing, with deals in the first two quarters of this year outpacing all of last year, says Ronald Lentz of G2 Capital Advisors. Lentz looks at factors driving this trend and other issues impacting the industry's financial health.
Even though the invoice-to-cash cycle is critical to corporate health, many companies give little attention to the billing process, says Sean Smalley of Billtrust. Many opportunities exist within that process, however, to speed payment and reduce costs.
