It's been called everything from a nuisance to a necessary evil. But reverse logistics can be much more than that.

Demand planning has a big impact on business performance. Planning error can put revenue at risk by driving component shortages. Persistent planning biases can tie up cash by driving excess inventory. Furthermore, the act of planning and dealing with planning error is time consuming and drives costly overhead. In fact, it is common for supply chain management executives to cite "planning errors" as the greatest obstacle they face to achieving their goals and objectives.

Arena Solutions, a provider of cloud-based applications for product lifecycle management, has developed a new tool for discrete engineering and manufacturing.

We're all familiar with maturity curves, but how helpful are they really? Telling a company how mature they are, based on academic factors, means next to nothing if it's not rooted in practical applications that relate to a procurement professional’s day-to-day work.