The tobacco industry is changing. Traditionally, the industry has been stable. The prevalence of smoking is going down, but the world’s population is increasing; the net result is that the forecast for the number of smokers is essentially flat in 2025 as compared to 2010. Because of this stability, at Philip Morris International (PMI), one […]
Supply chain modeling is essential to substantiated resiliency analysis and to the planning of risk responses. A supply chain model is the digital representation of the structure, product flows and policies of a physical supply chain. It is created by transforming data into predetermined structures, so that such data templates can be used in conjunction with mathematical algorithms, to determine improved future state structures, product flows and policies. Here’s a look at four areas of risk that can businesses can address through modeling and analytics.
Multinationals need war rooms to deal with the trauma being inflected on their supply chains. A key application needed in these war rooms is supply chain design.
I recently wrapped up my Supply Chain Collaborative Networks (SCCN)market study which looks at the total size of the market, the forecasted growth through 2023, and the leading suppliers across a number of categories including industry, region, and customer size. The study includes a holistic view of the SCCN outlook. Supply Chain Collaboration Networks are […]
Two of the biggest and often overlooked challenges facing enterprises today are knowing where to set up shop and how to best leverage enterprise assets across the supply chain network. In the globalized economy, most supply chains are complex and geographically dispersed, serving multiple markets. However, even the small business owner – who markets “farm-to-table” […]
Product and service innovation, driven by digital technologies, is key to gaining extra value from new product introductions. One particularly interesting development is the emergence of modular plants. Forecasting a NPI can be very difficult. Modular plants help companies to scale economically.
There is terrific payback from supply chain design solutions. At GM, the supply chain design team is an in-house consulting group. Annually, the projects they take on save between 5 to 10 percent of the in scope spend. They have done many projects in the logistics area, some on an ongoing basis. Logistics costs as a percentage of revenue decreased every year from 2013 to 2018. That is a remarkable feat in today’s freight environment. Considering the size of GM’s transportation spend, $6.5 billion, and the length of time they have been at this, it would not surprise me at all if this small team has saved GM over a billion dollars.