SupplyChainBrainMore from SupplyChainBrainAll TechnologySales & Operations Planning... Business Management in Near Real Time?Analyst Insight: The sales and operations planning process has evolved from manufacturing conflict resolution in the late 1980s to data- and visibility-enhanced strategic demand and supply balancing for retail executives today. This is a remarkable evolution for a concept. As visibility continues to increase, could S&OP become the primary tool for managing supply chains or, for some, complete businesses? - Ralph Cox, principal, Tompkins InternationalMarch 5, 2012All TechnologyOpportunities Driving Product Lifecycle Management ForwardAnalyst Insight: For as long as we can remember, product lifecycle management technology has evolved in an incremental way, absorbing and exploiting new technologies as they've come along and steadily gaining in capability to meet the challenges of multi-organisation product development efforts and supply chains. Currently, the PLM solutions industry is being subjected to a looming confluence of pressures that represents both a major challenge to established approaches and a substantial opportunity for harnessing new technologies to drive further benefit. - Tony Christian, principal analyst, CambashiMarch 5, 2012All TechnologyThe Cloud's Message Continues to EvolveAnalyst Insight: In recent years, Software as a Service and hosted solutions have made some significant in-roads in the supply chain application space, but their success has been somewhat limited. Continuing IT budget and resource constraints are causing many firms to take a serious look at on-demand supply chain applications. And software vendors have responded by increasing the number and variety of services provided. This mixture is expanding the horizon of on-demand supply chain IT solutions. - Tom Singer, principal, Tompkins InternationalMarch 5, 2012Global LogisticsForging a Risk-Tolerant Supply ChainMarch 5, 2012All LogisticsHave You Figured ALL The Costs of Inventory?Analyst Insight: Inventory working capital reduction is a wonderful concept; however, it is important to understand all of the potential financial impacts before beginning. - Ralph Cox, principal, Tompkins InternationalMarch 2, 2012All LogisticsInsight vs. Oversight GovernanceAnalyst Insight: Signing a contract and getting the business ramped up is just the beginning of an outsourcing deal. The real work is shaping the relationship and making the parties operate not only as a high-performance team, but also to allow the companies to embrace the dynamic nature of business and keep the parties aligned as "business happens." It's essential to have a flexible and cooperative governance framework. - Kate Vitasek, faculty of the University of Tennessee's Center for Executive Education, and founder, Supply Chain VisionsMarch 2, 2012Logistics OutsourcingIs 2012 The Year of Supply Chain Excellence for Pharma and Bio-Tech Industry?Analyst Insight: Recently, Big Pharma went through a significant period of mergers and acquisitions to gain a global market presence and product offering expansion. Now it appears the tides may be shifting. A segment of Big Pharma is shedding non-core business units and focusing on core profitability. But the acquisition strategy is not dead. These diverging paths are both focused on increasing flexibility and profitability to adapt to market uncertainty. Supply chain planning and adaptability have moved forward as integration of business units has increased in all regions of the globe. - Brian Hudock, partner, Tompkins InternationalMarch 2, 2012Global LogisticsDow Chemical Beefs Up Supply-Chain Resiliency: Case StudyMarch 2, 2012All TechnologyVolatility: An Enemy of Consumer Product Companies and Their Supply ChainsAnalyst Insight: Volatility is a huge factor for business today. From the stock market to local economies, these volatile times impact world events and play havoc on supply chains. Companies that do not learn to manage the volatility of their supply chains will continue to be at the mercy of external influences. - Bruce Tompkins, executive director, Tompkins Supply Chain ConsortiumMarch 1, 2012All LogisticsOutsourced Logistics: Lessons from the Best in ClassAnalyst Insight: The pressure of increased supply chain complexity, a byproduct of more trading partners and global geographies, is the top factor driving best-in-class companies (cited by 59 percent) to further increase their outsourcing to logistics service providers as one key solution to managing increasing supply chain costs. This direction is compelling when performance considerations for the best-in-class companies (top 20 percent) compared to average (50 percent) and laggard (30 percent) are taken into consideration. - Bob Heaney, lead research analyst, supply chain execution, and Bryan Ball, supply chain management vice president and principal analyst, both of Aberdeen.March 1, 2012Previous PagePage 541 of 590Next Page
