I interviewed John Sobeck, Vice President Material Management Services and Supply Chain 4.0 at the ZF Group, about their digital supply chain transformation journey. It turns out ZF has been on this journey for over 20 years! They began this journey before the term “digital transformation” was even being used. ZF is a Tier 1 […]

In February, Klaus Niebur, the director of global supply chain risk management at Autoliv, and Jan Thiessen, the managing director at targetP!, spoke on best practices on supply chain risk management at ARC Advisory Group’s Digital Transformation in Industry conference. Autoliv is the world’s largest safety system supplier in automotive industry. This global, Tier 1 […]

The phrases “transitory inflation” and “supply chain disruption” have been frequently used in the general and business news media this summer. And they have at times been used together to describe the general economic environment. Certainly, supply chain constraints are a partial cause of the current above trend inflation. Furthermore, there is much discussion about […]

Additive manufacturing use cases, by definition, are not defined by the technology itself, but rather the value they create within an organization.  This value can come in the form of operational efficiencies, creation of new products and services, or even the transformation of the customer experience.  The early days of 3D printing use cases was […]

While the impact of coronavirus on Indian industry has so far been moderate, India’s extremely high import dependence on China means there are significant ramifications for Indian industry. Of the top 20 products that India imports from around the world, the average Chinese share is close to 30 percent. Sectors in India that have been […]

Earlier this week, the death toll from the Wuhan coronavirus rose to over 1,000 people, invoking memories of the 2003 SARS outbreak. While the human aspect of this outbreak is clearly the biggest story, the virus is causing major disruptions in global supply chains as well. As my colleague Steve Banker pointed out yesterday, the global high-tech supply chain has been hit particularly hard. But other industries are feeling the impact as well.

The CEO of OTTO Motors, a provider of autonomous mobile vehicles (AMRs), has some provacative ideas about what is occurring in the AMR market. Mr. Rendall also pointed out that the automated guided vehicle market in the U.S. has grown to less than $200 million in thirty years. Bolted to ground warehouse automation has its limitations. “There is a pressing need for flexibility.”