Moving at the blinding speed of bureaucracy, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finally adopted a rule that requires manufacturers to report on their use of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Challenge: A specialty chemical manufacturer with seasonal market demand was struggling with limited visibility to its global operations. The company needed to integrate many different ERP systems and add advanced planning tools to improve planning, forecasting and scheduling capabilities and increase visibility to complex demand patterns.
Challenge: Our customer was struggling with unstable demand and lack of visibility across its five manufacturing plants in a mixed MTS/MTO environment. The firm needed to improve planning processes and get everyone collaborating on one set of numbers.
The worst U.S. drought in more than half a century has rallied critics of the federal renewable fuel standard, which will reserve about 40 percent of the nation's corn crop for ethanol production this year.
U.S. officials deployed new financial weapons to try to end the bloodshed in Central Africa and the exploitation of natural resources worldwide, raising the ire of corporations that said the rules could cost them billions of dollars.
A new wave of robots, far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers, are replacing workers around the world in both manufacturing and distribution. Such factories are a striking counterpoint to those used by Apple and other consumer electronics giants, which employ hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers.
Ian Darley, an inventory specialist in the mining industry, tells how he helped to pioneer a new method for storing materials on site - and eliminating a substantial amount of unnecessary packaging.
In the supply chain and sourcing domains, companies are changing the way they source, produce and distribute goods or services to their customers, in search of reduced costs and greater efficiency.
The company's sales of high-value chemicals, laboratory supplies and equipment were constrained by an inefficient order-entry and processing system. It needed a new sourcing solution for its upstream supply chain.