Every large global company has implemented enterprise planning systems to help keep their supply chains running, and research shows that billions of dollars are spent each year on upgrades and new implementations of these planning systems. So why does nearly every company still do much of their actual “planning” using offline spreadsheets or rely on […]

Presidential election years always bring with them a certain level of uncertainty, and this year’s election cycle may have ranked near the top of that category.  Every new administration brings some amount of expected change, and while the range of policy changes are yet to be fully understood, there are already early signals — and […]

Redesigning overall retail strategy through the eyes of the consumer with a seamless shopping experience at the core, necessitates an ‘outside-in’ supply chain perspective and often big adjustments to supply chain operations. Retailers are turning to supply chain modeling as a way to effectively design and test omni-channel fulfillment strategies prior to execution. Modeling can […]

What if you could accurately predict how your supply chain will perform in the future? Know how a strategy change will impact your service levels or costs? Predict when you will stock out or be late with a shipment? To do this you need ESP. Not extra-sensory perception, but it’s the next best thing from […]

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) present an incomparable number of options for the design of the new organization’s supply chain, so it’s not altogether surprising that so many of these projects fail to meet executive and shareholder expectations. Depending on which report you consult, M&A initiatives have a failure rate of anywhere between 50 and 85 […]

Finding the balance between overstocks and lost sales is necessary for operational growth and health. With so many flavors of inventory optimization applications available, why do so many companies still struggle with inventory inefficiencies? It’s because traditional inventory applications fall short in three key areas: They assume that all demand is smooth and normally distributed […]

Is there anything better than putting on last year’s jacket and finding money in the pocket? The money was right there, but hidden just below the surface of that coat pocket. There are a few things that make this “found money” so great: it’s fast – you just reached into your pocket and there it […]

Not too long ago, companies considered supply chain design as a project to conduct once every three to five years—if at all. It was also uncommon for companies to do such analysis themselves, often hiring third-party firms to do one-off studies. Today, there is a strong and ever-increasing trend of companies making supply chain design […]