Archive for Business Intelligence
The economy dominated the news this week, as did a flight attendant who escaped from his job in style.
- Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) Rose 0.2% in June from May
- Economists cut forecasts and see more Fed action (from Reuters)
- Productivity weakens in second quarter (from Reuters)
- Wider Trade Gap Signals Weak Growth (from Wall Street Journal)
- Firms
CSCMP published its Annual State of Logistics Report yesterday. I always look forward to this report because Rosalyn Wilson, the report’s author, does a great job of summarizing the key factors impacting logistics costs in the United States. If you’re a close follower of the logistics industry, however, none of the information in the report should be surprising. The report, sponsored by Penske Logistics, is mostly a rearview look at… Continue reading
A 3:00 AM Random Walk
· CommentsWhen you wake up at 3:00 AM and can’t fall back to sleep, your mind can take a random walk. I started my mental stroll this morning at the truck driving simulator at Swift Transportation’s corporate office in Phoenix, AZ. The visit was part of the agenda yesterday at Transplace’s Shipper Symposium (more about the event in a future posting). I sit behind the wheel, turn the engine… Continue reading
What Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should your company use to benchmark its supply chain capabilities? Another way to think about this question is to ask: What do our customers want? What will cause them to buy more goods from us? What will they pay more for?
Your customers should be grouped into cohesive channels with similar buying behaviors. So, for a consumer goods company, one channel might be its… Continue reading
Last month, I wrote a piece on explaining the value of logistics to the CEO. Earlier this week, as I was catching up on my reading, I came across this quote from Jeff Fettig, Chairman and Chief Executive of Whirlpool, in a Wall Street Journal article by Joe Barrett: “[Logistics] and investment in new product innovation are the only areas that we’re spending the same on as we… Continue reading
The most entertaining, and perhaps most acute, business book that I’ve read in several years is “The Management Myth: Why the ‘Experts’ Keep Getting It Wrong” by Matthew Stewart (you can read a short book review by Andrew O’Connell at HBR online). Matthew is a cynical ex-consultant who reports on the methods consultants use to win business, debunks management theory, and provides a strong cautionary tale for anyone contemplating… Continue reading
Lasik for Supply Chain
· CommentsIn his keynote address at last week’s SAPPHIRE 2009 conference, SAP’s Co-CEO Léo Apotheker talked about how the best-run companies will “see clearly, think clearly, and act clearly”-what SAP is calling “The Clear Enterprise.” He went on to say, “What we are seeing is a growing and lasting need for clarity and insight. Doing business within global networks has brought greater complexity and risk into the game…Executives must have… Continue reading
Making Smarter Decisions Faster
· CommentsThere is a lot of buzz these days about Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics. Three leading BI software vendors (Business Objects, Cognos, and Hyperion) were acquired last year (by SAP, IBM, and Oracle, respectively) for over $15 billion. Books like Thomas Davenport’s “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning” are best sellers, and articles like “Math Will Rock Your World” (Business Week, January 2006) are appearing in mainstream… Continue reading
