Is your supply chain immature? Does it resemble a 14-year-old boy, as a planner I met at an Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning event described his company’s supply chain? Grown up beyond diapers but not yet making good decisions consistently. In an immature, disconnected supply chain, planners operate inefficiently and in reactive mode. Not […]
Today’s headlines are filled with disheartening news about climate change, resource depletion, pollution, hunger, access to clean water, and poverty. The world is paying a high price for the traditional “take, make, use, waste” philosophy that failed to consider the long-range social and environmental consequences of mass consumerism. In response, in 2015 more than 190 […]
There are some young supply chain technologies that are getting a lot of buzz. But how mature are these technologies? Do they have a proven ROI? Are they worth piloting? Or can we safely ignore them for a few more years?
Oracle and SAP are the two largest suppliers of enterprise applications are also leaders in the supply chain planning (SCP) market, but the leadership is being contested. Their arguements for why customers should choose their planning solution go beyond their applications functionality. Interestingly, over time most enterprise applications markets consolidate. This is not happening in the SCP market.
The new competitive imperative is true supply chain autonomy – one that senses disruptions in real time and takes corrective actions with no human intervention. This concept might seem visionary, but it’s increasingly within reach. The important thing to remember is that full autonomy is a journey — and you’re probably already taking one of […]
I am finishing up my latest market study on global transportation execution and visibility systems. Transportation Execution Solutions (TE) allow shippers to connect to multiple carriers and then tender, track, and pay in the system. Visibility solutions allow real-time asset tracking across the entire distribution network. This enables improved estimated arrival times of goods. Visibility […]
5G connectivity will shape tomorrow’s fulfillment operations – nullifying latency, extending the cloud’s reach, enabling real-time inventory status updates, supporting real-time analytics and more. It will provide at least ten times faster data transfer compared to 4G cellular networks. Event management of in-transit goods offers a great example of 5G’s value.
What is Digital Transformation? A digital transformation requires that companies transform their decision-making processes with technology to enhance customer experience and employee productivity and ultimately improve business performance. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, and virtual reality can aid in this transformation. Digital transformation implies shifting the way organizations interact with […]
I’m coming to you live from Naples, FL at the 2019 Descartes Evolution Conference. This was my third time attending the event and as always, it did not disappoint. This year marked the largest conference yet, with more than 650 attendees; in fact, it has outgrown its old location in West Palm Beach and from […]
There was a time when even the largest shippers employed clerks to look up rates on wall charts and handwrite ship-to addresses into logs. Then came manifest systems that printed reports and labels, and after that, multi-carrier shipping systems. Those days are long gone, as eCommerce has caused an explosion in parcel volumes worldwide and […]