Quality & Metrics

Pricing Snafus on E-Commerce Sites Undermine Faith in Retailers

July 24, 2012

On July 17, a wide range of third-party products on Amazon showed special pricing: one cent. The pricing glitch was, yet again, caused by some third-party integration and a coding error.

Open or Closed Supply Chains: Which Way to Go?

July 23, 2012

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

Supply chains are just as susceptible to faddish behavior as anything else. We're social animals, so we tend to follow the crowd - especially if we believe that the crowd has a competitive edge. That's why so many companies flocked to China over the last couple of decades, in search of ever-cheaper sources of production. Or why outsourcing became such a hot trend over that same period of time.

Measuring DC Performance

July 23, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

Performance metrics for warehouses and distribution centers have steadily improved since 2003, when the Warehousing Education and Research Council first conducted its annual "DC Measures" study, says Joe Tillman, senior researcher at Supply Chain Visions and co-author of the study. Moreover, the gap has significantly narrowed between best-in-class companies and those lower on the performance scale, he says.

Managers Often Struggle with How to Structure Quality Initiatives in the Enterprise

July 20, 2012

Industry Week

Quality is an everyday conversation on the manufacturing floor. Performance measures such as first-pass yield, reject rates, and scrap and rework are displayed on white boards at cells and assembly lines, ruthlessly analyzed and targeted for improvement. Quality tools abound.

New Rules for Bio and Pharma Industries: A Briefing

July 20, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

Mike Cleland, vice president of NorthHighland, discusses what biotech and pharma companies need to do to comply with new regulations for tracking products throughout the supply chain.

More Than a Third of Global Cyber Attacks Aimed at Small Businesses, Research Shows

July 17, 2012

Symantec

Thirty-six percent of all targeted attacks (58 per day) during the last six months were directed at businesses with 250 or fewer employees, according to the June 2012 Intelligence Report from Symantec. The figure was 18 percent at the end of December 2011.

Of Zippers, Matzos and Closed Supply Chains

July 16, 2012

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

We like the term "supply chain" because it suggests a tightly interlinked series of steps that results in the uninterrupted flow of product from the raw-materials stage all the way to the consumer. But the word "chain" also evokes a burden, and that's how many companies have come to view their operations in recent years. Hence the mania for outsourcing everything from design and manufacturing to logistics.

Japanese Ministry Retains Accenture to Study Safety, Resilience of Nation's Food Supply Chain

July 10, 2012

Accenture

Accenture has announced a management consulting contract with Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for a project to improve food supply capabilities in natural disasters and emergencies.

How Procurement Innovation Can Drive Productivity Gains

July 9, 2012

Chief Executive

Innovation is required if the U.S. is to regain the level of productivity that it enjoyed toward the end of the 19th Century through the mid-20th Century. However, innovation by itself is not enough. Just as our parents and grandparents adopted electricity, the automobile, credit cards and airplanes in the period from 1870-1950, businesses and organizations of the 21st Century must embrace change.

Boosting Efficiencies in the Clinical Trials Supply Chain

July 9, 2012

SupplyChainBrain

There has been increased interest in the clinical trials supply chain, according to Michael Wallace, life sciences industry specialist with Oracle Corp., and Arun Cavale, principal with NexInfo.