You might think that the top Internet retailers ranging from Amazon, Staples and Apple to daily-deal purveyors like Ideeli or Groupon have turned Orwellian as they serve up shoes, watches, printer ink, HDMI cables and restaurant offers as if they can read your minds. Well it is likely that they are just executing a meticulously orchestrated Next [...]
Read More» I had the opportunity to serve alongside Marianne Timmons and Bob Engel on a keynote panel yesterday at an event called ”Supply Chain Vision 2020″, organized by Resources Global Professionals, here in the Washington DC area. Participants at the round table included supply chain practitioners and thought leaders from a diverse set of organizations ranging from retail, [...]
Read More» Japan marches ahead as its citizens, families, businesses, economy and society start to emerge from disastrous, deadly and destructive impacts of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. A uniquely Japanese institution that will also need to emerge from scathing and in my view unfair criticisms leveled on it in recent days is the Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing and inventory management [...]
Read More» 2011 will witness the emergence of supply chains that distinguish themselves from their peers by being always aware. Manufacturers, retailers and logistics providers in the past decade have invested in technologies and processes to gain better visibility into consumer demand, supply chain assets and goods in-transit. This paradigm of enhanced supply chain visibility has equipped organizations [...]
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One of the top challenges supply chain executives list in any survey is lack of visibility. Whether it is the status of orders, location of shipments or quantity of inventory, managers struggle to have the latest information about goods in the supply chain. The lack of visibility contributes to a significant amount of inefficiency and [...]
Read More» It is true. MAGIC Marketplace – the fashion industry’s semiannual and biggest trade event wraps up in Las Vegas today. Neither shaken consumer confidence, uncertain economic outlook nor the shaky job market has prevented a massive turnout at the event this week. This is where retailers go shopping and global apparel, footwear and accessory manufactures [...]
Read More» 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» I attended the 3PL Summit in Atlanta last week. This conference was organized by EyeForTransport - a provider of Logistics and Transportation-related information and services and attracted executive-level participation from several leading third-party logistics companies (3PL), Shippers, Retailers, Manufacturers and technology providers that serve the global logistics industry. The 3PL Summit was co-located with the [...]
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 [...]
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