Industries > Consumer Packaged Goods | SupplyChainBrain

Consumer Packaged Goods: Page 261

Collaborative Purchasing, Revisited

So collaborative purchasing appears feasible for the restaurant industry. But what about other business sectors? Can different companies - even direct competitors - really band together to get better deals from their suppliers?

Think Tank 28

EDI Communication: The Language and Standard of Business

Analyst Insight: EDI continues to grow steadily each year. And with markets in growing economies yet to penetrate (Asia and South America), EDI has had a challenge making a firm beachhead in emerging markets, though EU and North American business partners from the retail, automotive, healthcare and financial services industries, to name a few, rely on and require EDI as their language of trade. - Ann Grackin, CEO, ChainLink Research

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Dunavant Creates Custom Solution for International Heavy-Weight Shipments

Challenge: A $12 billion retail consumer goods company approached us in need of a cost-effective way to ship heavy-weight products from China. In addition, they wanted a complete review of their replenishment model to improve inventory turns and reduce safety stock.

Linking Sustainability with Financial Outcomes in CPG

Analyst Insight: Sustainability has been on consumer packaged goods executives' minds - and part of their strategic plans - for some time now. In the past, many companies have pursued sustainability because they saw it as the right thing to do. At the same time, sustainability also creates positive morale among employees, helps to meet regulations such as those for emissions, and boosts companies' reputations. But only recently has sustainability truly been connected and aligned with financial performance. - Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director, Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium

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Focus on Product Grows, But Cost Reduction Remains Key in CPG Industry

Analyst Insight: In a recent supply chain survey conducted by IDC Manufacturing Insights, consumer products manufacturers consider themselves stewards of product quality more frequently than of either cost or service. Interestingly, the gap between companies that consider themselves primarily stewards of product quality versus cost is narrowest for the large enterprise manufacturers, suggesting that for the smaller players, it is the product itself that drives competitive success in the marketplace. - Simon Ellis, Director, Supply Chain Strategies Practice, IDC Manufacturing Insights

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Lean Is About More Muscle, Not Just Less Fat

When people are asked to define lean, as often as not the definition centers on waste. But lean isn't all about waste. It is more about building organizations than trimming them. A popular definition is "do more with less."

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Consumer Products Is an Industry in Transition

Analyst Insight: The CPG industry's supply chain performance is middle of the pack: more mature than chemical or pharmaceutical companies and less mature than high-tech and electronics manufacturing companies. Several factors are at work to shift the processes to improve performance. Focus is shifting from inside-out to outside-in, from a vertical horizontal siloed orientation to horizontal processes that can better sense and respond, and from a supply chain focused only on product delivery to a value network focused on serving the customer. - Lora Cecere, Founder of Supply Chain Insights

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How Ambidextrous Is Your Company, Especially in Dynamic, Emerging Environments?

Managers today face an apparent contradiction. On one hand, austerity in the developed world and intense competition push them to cut costs and drive efficiencies. On the other, the increasing pace of change means they need to emphasize innovation. Resolving this contradiction requires ambidexterity"” the ability to both explore new avenues and exploit existing ones.

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Are Robots Taking Over the Warehouse?

It seems like a cruel joke. At the same time we hear about the return of manufacturing jobs from Asia to the U.S., we are inundated with stories about the growth of robotics, which threatens to take away those very jobs for good.

Think Tank 27

Leaders Must Develop Value-Creating Strategies Across the Supply Chain

Analyst Insight: In order for businesses to succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace, they must find new ways to add value. At John Deere, that means collaborating with dealers to expand the brand from selling equipment to offering solutions that improve the productivity of farming. For leaders in supply chain management, it means developing strategies that create value across the supply chain through innovation, responsiveness and agility. - Robert D. Boyle, Director, John Deere Chair, APICS The Association for Operations Management

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BizSlate Launches Small Business Supply Chain Assistant

New York-based BizSlate is launching its cloud-based resource planning tool to give small business a hand with their supply chain challenges. Unlike legacy vendors in that sector, including SAP and Netsuite, the technology is specifically designed for department stores, retail chains, small boutiques and the like. Chief executive Marc Kalman says BizSlate is ideal for companies that have "outgrown QuickBooks" but don't have ample resources at their disposal for IT.

Ahold To Share Data With CPGs

Ahold USA plans to launch a vendor collaboration initiative next month that will include sending POS, supply chain and merchandising data via a third-party to some number of its CPG suppliers in order to improve product availability and customer satisfaction.

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