Analyst Insight: The growth of e-commerce, the evolution of consumer expectations, and the globalization of e-commerce have resulted in many changes in the requirements of retail supply chains. These changes demand that retail supply chains handle more volume, quicker, and around the world. Supply chains are at a crossroads to either constrain an organization’s success or to enable the organization’s profitable growth. - Jim Tompkins, CEO, Tompkins International
AE Industrial Partners, a private equity investor in aerospace, power generation and specialty industrial companies, announced that its wholly owned AE Materials Group has acquired The Aircraft Group, a provider of aircraft consulting services for the purchase, sale or leasing of commercial aircraft as well as fleet asset management. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Here's a question for U.S. exporters who were grievously harmed by the West Coast longshore labor slowdown in late 2014 and early 2015: Would it make you feel any better to learn that you were the victims of "a street brawl"?
Analyst Insight: Network design, network planning, network analysis, network optimization, or network studies - these terms have been used over the past 25 years to represent the work to determine how to set up logistics networks, how to analyze them for cost reductions, and how to re-plan them when something important changes. - Gene Tyndall, Executive Vice President, Tompkins International
Analyst Insight: Manufacturers are under greater pressure to improve product reliability and reduce cost-of-quality non-conformance, while increasing product functionality. This can be done through increased use of software, mechatronic systems, new materials and manufacturing technologies. Still, more pressures await, as manufacturers struggle to reduce a product’s time-to-market, all while keeping capital investment low. Doing more with less requires manufacturers to reduce the time from detecting a product issue to correcting it, known as detection to correction (D2C). - Kevin Reale, Senior Manager, Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP
Analyst Insight: The U.S. trucking industry is experiencing unprecedented change that is spurring consolidation in the fragmented market. For shippers, the upheaval can be both good and bad news. Acquisitions can offer shippers the opportunity to expand operations to new areas without the need to change carriers. Conversely, consolidation reduces competition in the marketplace and may have a negative impact on rates or service levels. Throughout this shakeout, shippers will need to determine how the market adjustments will fit into their strategic growth plans. - Brian Broadhurst, Vice President of Transportation Solutions, Spend Management Experts
Analyst Insight: Ever wonder why a majority of inventory optimization projects struggle to completely realize potential benefits? Most companies focus solely on inventory strategy, without taking a comprehensive, holistic approach. Taking the holistic approach introduces two additional levers to inventory optimization - business alignment and execution excellence - which, coupled with inventory strategy, enable supply chains to achieve strategic and targeted performance improvement goals. We call these the three rings of inventory optimization. - Rodrigo Cambiaghi, Principal; Claudio Menegusso, Senior Manager; Mark Johnson, Manager; and Saurabh Jha, Senior, all in the Advisory Services of Ernst & Young LLP
Analyst Insight: Given today's intensely competitive business environment, as well as consumers who are more informed and demanding than ever, it's imperative that companies develop customer-driven operations that create a distinctive experience through supply chain capabilities. Simply put, product/service features and pricing are no longer enough to meet customer expectations. And since customers in different segments often have very different needs, generic supply chain capabilities won't cut it. - Joseph S. Roussel; Global Operations Advisor, PwC; Brad Householder, Principal, PwC
Analyst Insight: It is important to recognize that a consumer packaged goods company's network determines its supply chain efficiency and customer satisfaction. Designing an optimal supply chain network means the network must be able to meet the long-term strategic objectives of the company. Most business units or functional areas within a company are impacted by network design efforts; therefore, the involvement of key stakeholders is imperative. - Bruce Tompkins, Partner, Tompkins International
The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the consumer packaged goods industry. Learn how consumer packaged goods companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.
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