When multiple vendors compete for your business, you can expect to see aggressive pricing. But with your existing suppliers, competitive sourcing is not always an option, and without that you may be paying an above-market premium.
In a digital age where a delay of seconds or one human error can be the cause of lost revenue, wasted resources or unhappy customers, good technology becomes critical to run a business.
Twelve years after the ocean shipping industry adopted e-commerce tools that resulted in an average savings of $100,000 per year and hundreds of thousands of labor hours per week, the final steps in the shipping process - invoicing and payment - are still catching up.
John Bowersox, manager of customer service with Kohler Co., relates how the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals is reaching out to young professionals, to offer them guidance and support in managing their career lifecycles.
United States freight carload traffic gained ground during the week ending March 16, 2013, up 0.5 percent measured against the comparable week in 2012, said the Association of American Railroads.
"Multichannel" (or even better, "omnichannel") is something almost every self-respecting retailer wants to be. But most pure-play internet vendors resist the idea that actual stores, with their rents, payrolls and security cameras, ought to be one of those channels. The thought of having the same costs as bricks-and-mortar competitors "scares the living daylights out of me," says Charles Hunt, owner of Duvet and Pillow Warehouse, a fast-growing online retailer. Yet things are changing.
The U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding proposal to allow states to collect sales tax on internet sellers that have no presence within their borders.
In order to prepare for increased customer-driven demand, many small and mid-sized manufacturers are planning to increase capital spending and hiring in the coming year. But to maximize the benefits of staffing and investment growth decisions - and to ensure that operations can support spikes in demand as quickly as possible - CFOs and other financial executives should first consider implementing a comprehensive cycle-time reduction program.
Managed services have added significant value to users' overall B2B integration programs, according to 96 percent of he respondents to a survey by Stanford University's Global Supply Chain Management Forum.
Once one accepts the importance of manufacturing, the next question is how is it doing? Is U.S. manufacturing healthy and not in need of a national manufacturing policy or is it in trouble and in need of smarter policies?