Global Supply Chain Management

Enabling Real-Time Decision Making

May 24, 2012

Freeing data from functional silos and making it available to decision-makers throughout the supply chain in real time is the elusive key to true, end-to-end supply chain optimization, says Kristi Montgomery of Kenco Management Services, a third-party logistics provider.

Cloud-Based Contracts Deliver Cost-Efficiency, Ease to Supply Chain Pros

May 24, 2012

Mangesh Bhandarkar, Senior Product Manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated

The term "logistics" can sometimes take on a negative connotation. When people want to imply complexity and hassle, they often say, "There are a lot of logistics to work out." However, for the logistics industry itself, better business processes can transform the experience of managing goods and services as they move from supplier to recipient domestically and internationally. Technology and the advent of the cloud facilitate easier, less costly operations for logistics companies.

TSA: Dec. 3 Is the Day That All Air Cargo Is to Begin Receiving Some Degree of Security Screening

May 23, 2012

Air Cargo World

Two months after the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed that they're moving forward with their joint Air Cargo Advance Screening pilot program, the TSA announced that it set a December 3 deadline for screening all cargo on U.S.-bound passenger flights.

Were China, Japan, South Korea to Establish a Free-Trade Agreement, It Would Pose a Challenge to U.S.

May 23, 2012

The Economist

A first reaction to the announcement on May 13th that China, Japan and South Korea are to open talks on establishing a trilateral free-trade area is to shrug. The idea has been around for a decade. There are many obstacles to its realisation. And not so much as a date has been announced for the talks to begin.

Apple Polishes Its Sustainability Credentials with Commitment to Renewable Energy

May 23, 2012

News Factor

Some Apples will be green. Apple data centers, that is. The technology giant has announced that its new half-million-square-foot data center in Maiden, N.C., will only use electricity that has been generated by renewable energy. The company said that the Maiden facility will be "the most environmentally sound data center ever built."

Mastering Traceability in Milk Supply Chain

May 23, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

Traceability always has been important to dairy cooperative Agri-Mark, but it has become even more of a focus since passage in 2010 of The Food Safety Modernization Act, which gives the Food and Drug Administration the right to make product recalls mandatory, rather than voluntary.

Worldwide Supply Chain Management Software Market Grew 12.3 Percent in 2011

May 22, 2012

Gartner Inc.

The worldwide supply chain management software market totaled $7.7bn in 2011, a 12.3-percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner Inc. It was the second year of double-digit growth for the SCM software market as supply chain investments kept their priority status and moved forward, despite caution from IT budget decision makers.

U.S. Orders Tariffs Beginning at 31 Percent on Chinese Imports of Solar Panels

May 22, 2012

The Los Angeles Times

The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry.

How Celestica Enables Supplier Collaboration

May 22, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

As a leading contract manufacturer of electronics, Celestica works with a diverse supply base comprised of thousands of vendors. Six years ago, the company began a major initiative to gain better visibility and control of supplier performance, an effort that led to creation of a proprietary supplier collaboration tool known as Live Share.

Pick the Perfect Plan. Then Add People

May 21, 2012

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

How we love our information systems, our management theories, our best-laid plans. And how often they fail us. It reminds me of what the playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett once said about his work. "Each time one thinks one starts fresh, new," he mused. "Yet each time one reaches the same impasse. There are many ways to begin, many roads to it, but always the same impasse at the end."