In my previous blog, I had alluded to the iPhone4 story to highlight how an outsourced supply can become a key constraint in the world of High Tech Supply Chain. With High Tech now cross-pollinating every other vertical segments such as Auto, Military, Transportation, Recreational and Green Technologies., the extended Value Chains are awaiting to face [...]
Read More»Four recent events are clearly undermining the most successful product launch of iPhone4. First, given the predictable brand loyalty of the fan-boys network, AT&T and Apple chocked on pre-orders. AT&T could just not take the surge in web-orders. Despite this hiccup, Apple did manage to sell 1.7 million units within 3 days of its launch. [...]
Read More»20 Apr 2010. Catastrophe strikes 42 miles SE of Venice, Louisiana. Historic BP Oil Spill. Duration: Unknown. BP engineers sweating to seal the oil leak. Gulf coast economy experiencing a ‘free fall’. Close to 1 million projected job losses in the next 5 years. Closure of gulf waters fueling the price-increase of local sea food [...]
Read More»Having spent significant number of years professing the need for continuous Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), it was sheer co-incidence that four of my customer meetings in the past seven days involved conversations on topics that in some ways impacted S&OP, and most importantly around Excel being used as its technology enabler. The meetings raised [...]
Read More»Feb 11 2010: Super snowball buries mid-Atlantic. Panic creates a race for perishables, retailers struggle to replenish, and supply chains gets a hiccup. Apr 14 2010: Venire, videre, vincere. Eyjafjallajokull erupts, spews ash, and conquers the European air. Air travelers get stranded, inventory-in-motion stalls, and supply chains gets disrupted. Current: The so-called neck-to-neck ‘Acts of [...]
Read More»Consumerism has been nourished and nurtured by the underlying economic principle that a progressively greater consumption of goods is beneficial to the collective economy. Behind such a free market of commercially-minded demand-driven supply chains is the heavily-priced tag of a ticking time bomb in fine-print, nothing short of an aneurysmal hemorrhage, that threatens to wipe [...]
Read More»Incident 01 – I recently stumbled upon a fitness magazine at a gym that carried an elaborate article on how to trim the fat and get lean by taking a few magical pills. The marketer’s extravagant promising note appeared convincing enough to allure a substantial crowd to fall for the quick-fix trap. But what captured [...]
Read More»The critically acclaimed 3-part “Supply Chain Winter Olympics” series, directed by Steve Keifer (VP Global Marketing at GXS), is a big hit now at the DC Supply Chain festival. Meanwhile, riding on its success wave, here’s my review of the flick. Trust me; there are no spoilers in here. Following the historic mid-Atlantic Snowmageddon 2010, [...]
Read More»It’s about time the defensive driving courses across the globe start including lessons on how to tackle the ‘Drive-by-Wire’ challenges. The Toyota recall was soon followed by Honda’s expansion of a previously announced recall due to lingering concerns on airbag hazards. Blame it on the supplier who provided the faulty part or the software program, [...]
Read More»As I read the recent recall notice by Toyota for the gas pedals, I questioned myself if I should have written my previous blog the way I did it because Toyota was a data point when I referred to supply chain operational excellence. Before I pronounce a verdict upon myself, here’s a few top attention-grabbing [...]
Read More»