The US Military Supply System is Broken

The U.S. military's supply system has been broken for a decade and a half, and experts warn it may stay that way for years to come says an article in United Press International. This is interesting given that logistics as a science has its roots in the military. The first Iraq War triggered by the invasion of Kuwait in the last decade was one of the largest logistics excercise ever conducted by anyone on the face of this earth. Yet we find that the supply chain for the army in Iraq was so inadequate that it posed dangers to the men in the field.

Interesting read ........

There is real growth in the use of RFID in Supply Chain Management

Over the last couple of years, there was more hype about RFID rather than any real successful implementation in the real world, exception being the US Army. Even the mandate by Wal Mart was proving to be difficult as suppliers all over the world struggle to comply with their requirements.

Things are changing however, as this article about RFID printer and encoder sales shows. It would seem that the use of RFID in the CPG or FMCG vertical is really taking off. Healthcare seems to be ramping up as well. Another use of RFID that is mostly happening on the quiet is that of tracking books in libraries as this article on RFID for Libraries shows.

Accenture the best in SCM services

This is an interesting short article, Accenture beats its competitors in delivering SCM services. Almost 84% of its customers say that they will recommend Accenture to others in the market. Can you beat that ?

On-demand Solutions

On demand supply chain management solutions are more effective at reducing procurement costs than traditional licence solutions, according to research by the Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen conducts a lot of research into the global supply chain, much of these are published as free downloads on its website.

The analytical firm found that on demand solutions increase cost reduction capabilities by an average of 27.5 per cent, as opposed to 21.5 per cent for traditional supply chain management solutions. Aberdeen interviewed 135 industry executives in order to compile its On Demand Supply Management Benchmark Report.

IBM research indicates similar results with an interesting article that is tagged as "you snooze, you lose".

Bruce Richardson, the chief research officer of Boston-based AMR Research, who has grown along with the supply chain, commented on Forbes.com that "Even in the best-run companies, the demand side is not necessarily tied to the supply side".

In the coming months, lots of research and products will be released in the SCM market relating to the Demand Driven Supply Network. Watch this space.

Value Chain Management Excellence

The application of advanced technologies in all the three value chain management time horizons (Strategic Planning, Tactical Planning, and Operational Execution) will be the difference between adequate and great value chain performance.

Enterprises fail to master great value chain management because they often approach these projects in the same manner as they do enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects; they ignore the difference between an intra-enterprise transactional system and an inter-enterprise value chain execution/planning system.

Key Issues: How can supply chain planners identify the technologies and applications that will generate maximum benefit for their value chains?

Bottom line: To achieve greater Supply Chain Excellence, consider the 3 time horizons; Strategic Planning, Tactical Planning, Operational Execution.

Yet another acquisition in the SCM world - now its RedPrairie

RedPrairie has been quite active at both customer acquisition as well as business acquisition. RedPrairie will acquire BlueCube Software. The combined companies, operating under the name RedPrairie Corporation. Just earlier this year, it acquired Marc Global in an acquisition that integrates two companies which are quite alike in many ways. This move is seen to be more of a customer base expansion move rather than any technology acquisition initiative.

IBM believes that business growth is dependant on competitive supply chains

If you have been following this blog, you would have known by now that the enterprises around the world understand that their growth is very much dependant on their supply chains. With manufacturing centres relocating to lower cost countries, and sales extending globally, enterprises have no choice but to invest heavily into supply chain technologies as well as revolutionise their out-dated supply chain organisations.

IBM believes that the case for business growth lies very much in having supply chains that are competitive, click here for the article. I have long believed that the business battle today is not companies vs. companies but supply chains vs. supply chains. Just ask Dell.

Value Chain Definition

The successful competitors are those that can best manage, or even control, the entire virtual demand-supply or value chain to deliver the highest value to customers. They do this by closely evaluating costs, quality, and payback at every step along the way. They know the cost of shipping, marketing, and customer support at very detailed levels. They can enter risk analysis into the equation and optimise for time to market and profitability. In addition, they can manage their partners closely. Service and quality agreements are critical because if one piece of the virtual value chain does not deliver, the whole chain fails.

In a typical value chain, there may be links between different segments of a single, vertical manufacturing enterprise, or the links may be between independent, albeit inter-dependent, enterprises. All the enterprises in this chain work together in a closely-knit fashion to deliver value, in this case, products and services to end customers.

Each link represents a supplier and customer relationship. Each relationship involves the ordering and delivery of goods and services in response to supply and demand. Consequently, each link represents both the flow of physical goods (hard goods), soft goods (e.g. software), services, as well as information (e.g. orders, delivery notes, etc.).

The directional flow of information, goods and services through the various links and how fast they flow is what we term “product velocity”. Each flow may be subjected to “push” or “pull” forces that determine the functional characteristics of the link.

The challenge today is to maintain a visible and functional network of inter-dependent links so as to increase product velocity, thereby delivering value to the customer. This is the purpose and definition of a “Value Chain”.