Top of mind for supply chain executives - Lean, green and seen

from emsnow.com

By Pamela Gordon, for TFI’s blog

“These are three areas I see consistently challenging supply chain executives as they focus on profitability, efficiency, and conscientiousness of our impact on the environment,” says Toby Harris, event director for Quartz.

The informal survey, taken in September to help Quartz determine topics for the supply chain and materials handling trade shows it organizes, verifies what the organization has been hearing for sometime now.

Revolutionary Concept in Strategic Sourcing Revealed

from prweb.com
In the first ever book on the subject, author Stephen Guth has revealed the emerging organizational concept of the Vendor Management Office, which turns traditional purchasing concepts on their head.

While buyers have traditionally focused on price, Mr. Guth has turned things upside down by claiming that price does not matter. Mr. Guth says: “There’s an old adage that you get what you pay for. People in the purchasing profession have focused too much on price, walking over dollars to pick up pennies. My philosophy, and that of the Vendor Management Office concept, is to get what you pay for.”

US Postal Service Receives Aberdeen Achievement Award

from prnewswire.com

CombineNet, the leading provider of advanced sourcing and optimization technologies, announced today that the United States Postal Service, a CombineNet customer for nearly 5 years, was presented with a Global Supply Management Award at the Aberdeen CPO Summit. The US Postal Service received the Achievement Award for Technology Innovation, recognizing its innovative use of CombineNet’s advanced sourcing technology to reduce costs and increase efficiencies across its entire supply chain.

E2open Beefs up Multi-Enterprise Platform

from sdcexec.com

Supply chain solution provider E2open has rolled out new capabilities aimed at helping companies accelerate the cycle time of transformation initiatives in the supply chain, adding business intelligence, logistics, quality and demand management functionality to its flagship Multi-Enterprise Platform solution.

E2open’s platform, offered on a software-as-a-service model, provides a transactional network linking such companies as Boeing, Celestica, Hitachi and IBM, among others, to their supply bases with the goal of promoting visibility and control over global supply networks. E2open started by targeting the electronics vertical but has more recently moved into other industry verticals, such as aerospace and consumer products/retail.

Viewpoint — China’s Evolving Supply Chain

from industryweek.com

By Bradley A. Feuling, CEO, Kong and Allan, LLC

When companies first entered China nearly 30 years ago, cost was the primary driver. In one sense this hasn’t changed. A large number of companies still compete on price. Many soon realized quality was increasingly important in work environment and production, so the advantage shifted. Now quality is a topic of current consideration that manufacturers continues to develop. As the gap quickly closed between these two differentiators however, the focus evolved, this time to machinery investment, and internationally recognized certifications such as ISO and Six Sigma. A fundamental adaptation had occurred, but today, this gap is closing as well. The advantage is nearly gone. So where to turn next? Today, companies must further explore process improvement paying particular attention to the China supply chain itself. But what does it really look like?

Optima Central and Informance Form Alliance

from marketwire.com

Optima Central, a leader in business process management, and Informance International, a leader in Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) solutions, announce a partnership to help customers throughout Latin America build and expand efficiencies in manufacturing to drive supply chain performance. Fortune 1000 companies can now leverage Optima Central’s deep domain expertise in supply chain strategy together with the Informance Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence Suite (including patented analytics), and IMPACT Advisory Services to drive greater efficiency without added capital expense, and translate manufacturing operations gains into increased competitive advantage in the supply chain.

Sterling Commerce Shifts from EDI to the Supply Chain

from industryweek.com

The one constant in the supply chain technology marketplace ever since it blossomed in the 1990s has been change, namely market consolidation. While the acquisitive enterprise solution providers — particularly SAP, Oracle and Infor — have rapidly expanded their portfolios by purchasing other companies, that strategy has worked out well for other technology companies, too. According to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, the global market for supply chain management software and services was $6.5 billion in 2006, and that number is expected to reach $11.6 billion by 2013.

The Flat Supply Chain

from sdcexec.com

Global Supply Chain — Changing Landscape

Globalization is unstoppable. Regardless of geography, industry focus, size or revenues, companies in the developed world and in developing countries are globalizing to gain new customers and access new markets. According to the ninth-annual global CEO survey done by Pricewaterhousecoopers in 2005, globalization and complexity emerged as the two most powerful and inevitable forces (1). Globalization has created a massive increase in the complexity of supply chains. Companies are vigorously revisiting their supply chain strategies to achieve the desired business objectives. In this article we will discuss the direct cause and effect relationship that complexity has added to the supply chains.

Corporate Strategic Sourcing - “Looking From Outside The Fishbowl”

from abnnewswire.net

The strategic sourcing value chain diversifies the growth portfolio of companies. Leadership thought is focused on the strategic procurement in a holistic way. Strategic sourcing is about making smart dollars, growing innovative solutions and reaching maturity in cost reduction.

Strategic business sourcing, a transformational business philosophy promising to better the cost position as well as the strategic market position of companies, goes beyond cost savings. The traditional sourcing methodologies are re-engineered to benefit businesses with constant outsourcing, contracting, purchasing and development needs. Sourcing is instrumental to a firm’s value chain; at least it should because there is new methodology described as ‘Business Procurement’. This idea is challenged by the origin of sourcing and driven by the need to apply holistic management models to deliver best value sourcing solutions to secure the future of your business.