Technology | SupplyChainBrain

Technology: Page 1211

The Cloud and the Supply Chain

The "cloud" can be a difficult concept to grasp, given the various definitions it has been assigned by software vendors and users. Greg Johnsen, executive vice president of marketing and sales with GT Nexus, calls it "an information replica of the physical supply chain." Cloud-based technology provides one place where managers can go to monitor critical supply-chain events. When an element is updated, "everybody gets the information."

DHL Adds Flights to Asia Air Network; Expands Americas Hub

DHL has added two direct flights from its hub in Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and from Hong Kong to Chengdu, China.

Four Points to Consider When Developing An Omni-Channel Strategy

Omni-channel commerce has put the consumer in the driver's seat, with the ability to shop anywhere, buy anywhere and receive products in the manner and time of their choosing. While this revolution has been a great convenience to consumers, it has left many retailers scrambling to develop a seamless operation that not only delivers the consumer's expectations regardless of channel but does so profitably. Therein lies the rub.

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Supply Chain Finance for Emerging Markets

Analyst Insight: The awareness of supply chain finance (SCF) in emerging markets is growing. Most recently, foreign importers of goods manufactured in emerging markets, procure-to-pay software providers and financial institutions have been driving increased activity globally. Companies in emerging markets, especially in the small and medium-sized segment, stand to achieve business gains with better understanding of their end-to-end financial supply chains and proper application of available SCF strategies and solutions. - Viktoria Sadlovska, managing director and CRO, Prameya Research

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Big Data Supply Chains: Sense, Plan, Learn - and then Act

Analyst Insight: Today's supply chains are efficient, and inflexible. Market conditions change, but planning continues based on historical information. Global supply chains need better planning, but traditional technologies are not up to the task. New technologies are emerging to help to fill the gap. We are entering the era of Big Data Supply Chains that will sense before responding and learn before acting. - Lora Cecere, partner, Altimeter Group

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Descartes Debuts Cloud-Based Security Filing for Air Forwarders

Descartes Systems Group has created a pair of cloud-based services to help air freight forwarders comply with U.S. and European security filing requirements.

FreightWatch International Issues Annual Global Threat Assessment

FreightWatch International, a provider of security services for global logistics, has released its Annual Global Threat Assessment. The publication examines each region of the world and the countries that are considered major players in the global supply chain.

ToolsGroup Offers Outsourced Service for Optimizing Inventory Targets

ToolsGroup, a vendor of supply-chain planning software, has created an outsourced service which feeds optimized inventory targets to customers.

The Era of the Megaship: Is Bigger Really Better?

The year 2014 will see the debut of the Triple E, first of a series of at least 20 containerships to be operated by Denmark's Maersk Line, each with a capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Few could have imagined this behemoth at the dawn of containerization in the mid-1950s. (Malcom McLean's Ideal X carried only 58 boxes.) In the ensuing decades, containerships grew steadily in size, as operators sought to squeeze the most out of their investments. When ships became too wide to fit through the Panama Canal, builders doubled down. Between 2008 and 2015, average ship size will have risen from 6,000 TEUs to more than 11,000 TEUs, according to Lars Jensen, chief executive officer and partner with SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. Maersk's Triple Es will dwarf them all.

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Execs Still Want to Cut Costs, But Most No Longer Considering Layoffs

More than half of Fortune 1000 executives are focused on cost reduction strategies for delivering earnings and funding growth in 2012, according to a recent survey commissioned by Procurian, formerly ICG Commerce, and conducted by Harris Interactive. Administered to more than 300 Fortune 1000 executives, the survey finds that in the coming year 60 percent of respondents will focus on non-people-related cost reductions as the major source of funds for investments in innovation and growth.

Next Generation Moves Beyond Demand/Supply Balancing

Analyst Insight: It's been another year of exciting times within supply chain management, especially with regard to S&OP - as we continue to improve upon a 35-year-old process of balancing demand and supply. Approximately 85 percent of supply chain management professionals around the globe say they are exercising the S&OP process (informal polling of approximately1,000 execs over the past year). About 65 percent of those professionals are positioned in Stage I or II of AMR's (now Gartner) S&OP Maturity Model. While this is positive news, it's clear that globalization of our supply chains requires more than just S&OP basics. - Gregory L. Schlegel, adjunct professor, supply chain risk management, Lehigh University Graduate Program

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Driving Business Value Through S&OP and IBP

Analyst Insight: Economic challenges have kept sales and operations planning at the forefront of the supply chain executive's mind. Research has successfully identified the financial benefits that S&OP and integrated business planning (IBP) bring to the table: for example, the Aberdeen Group points to best-in-class companies and the two- to six-times benefits they gained in several key metrics, especially gross margin, in comparison with other companies that did not employ S&OP. Nari Viswanathan, vice president, solutions architecture, Steelwedge Software

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Photo: iStock/Anastasiia Yanishevska

How a Leading U.S. Floral Distribution Company Reduced Warehouse Labor Costs by 45% with RFID

Recycled Tagging Fasteners: Small Changes Make a Big Impact

Mobile geolocation service for track delivery, cargo shipment and freight transportation. Logistic Import Export business (Elements of this image furnished by NASA)

Enhancing High-Value Electronics Shipment Security with Tive's Real-Time Tracking

Franchise business e-commerce online e-marketplace or digital marketing branch expansion for growth or use technology to analyze product consumer data website management plan for sale service concept.

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