A lack of talent, technology issues and geopolitical risks are amongst procurement leaders’ main business concerns, according to Deloitte's fourth annual global chief procurement officer (CPO) survey.
Speed, Efficiency, Optimization. For many companies, actualizing this powerful trio can seem more like a dream than a concrete, achievable supply-chain goal. There are ways to realize all three, and the evolving excellence of supply chain technology is providing more and more opportunity to do so. Enter Big Calculations: the act of optimizing your business in real time, to create fast and efficient results.
Aligning supply chain planning with execution is now a competitive necessity and essential for all organizations, according to a new study. Results from the 2014 Supply Chain Benchmarking Study reveal investment priorities and top challenges of more than 300 supply chain professionals from a wide cross-section of the market.
A recent survey shows a clear disconnect between large manufacturing companies and mid-sized ones when it comes to so-called Big Data, with 96.3 percent of the latter finding the phenomenon to be either difficult to understand or only somewhat understandable.
Despite ongoing economic and business environment challenges, world-class procurement organizations continue to outperform the peer group by a wide margin, up to $6m in cost savings for the typical large company. They deliver services at 19 percent lower cost with greater effectiveness and require 27 percent fewer full-time-equivalents (FTEs) per $1bn in spend. For many, efficiency gains have reached their practical limits. What's next?
Lack of visibility into their manufacturing processes is cited as manufacturers' most prevalent issue, according to a survey by Ubisense, a provider of location intelligence solutions. The survey, conducted by SME and Manufacturing Engineering Media, says 40 percent of manufacturers have no visibility into the real-time status of their manufacturing processes.
While numerous retailers have collected years of customer data, only 9 percent are leveraging the information in a structured, usable way, according to HRC Advisory (HRC), a strategic retail advisory firm and unit of Hilco Global.
Much like the early clamor surrounding "Big Data," it has become next to impossible to avoid the "Internet of Things" (IoT) as the latest cross-industry catchphrase. However, while all the hype might imply that IoT is new, the term has actually been around since 1999, when Kevin Ashton, cofounder of MIT’s Auto-ID Center coined it in his seminal article, "That 'Internet of Things' Thing."
Retailers are prioritizing immediate investments in customer-facing tactics such as price, marketing and customer service over strategic infrastructure, according to research released from eBay Enterprise.