A thing of mystery to some and a place of utmost security to others, cloud computing and "the cloud" have entered our lexicon as something to be either feared or revered.
One of the biggest opportunities to dramatically improve supply chain performance occurs when traditional supply chain functions are decomposed and reinvented as integrated business processes. Few supply chain practitioners would dispute that notion. However, when it comes to their technology strategy, too many practitioners fall back into deploying the TMS, WMS, route planning, mobile and other technological silos developed in the 1990s that don't ultimately support their vision.
Easier access to information is pushing the retail sector closer to what 18th century economist Adam Smith described as "perfect information" -- the idea of having equal information from all providers in order to make a choice.
As most shoppers have experienced, ordering clothes online can occasionally be a shot in the dark – not every item fits the way they'd hoped, nor does every color match the description exactly. This not only annoys consumers, but also retailers when those disgruntled customers send their unwanted items back.
Many ERP customers, with their installations getting long in the tooth, are considering canceling their vendor maintenance agreements, some of which can run into the millions or tens of millions of dollars.
Every supply chain manager knows that moving freight globally is a high-risk business. In a world beset by severe weather events, worsening natural disasters and pervasive terrorist threats - on top of the usual traffic tie-ups, rail derailments and port slowdowns - disruptions are a fact of life.
Small to mid-sized companies are better positioned than large corporations to take advantage of cloud-based solutions because they have not made big investments in enterprise systems, says Yogesh Pathak of Technoforte. The supply chain is one of many areas where cloud solutions promise to change the game, Pathak says.
When Esquire Express got into the same-day delivery market 25 years ago, it primarily moved documents for law firms, says President Steve Howard. The internet killed that business, but it also created a new market in same-day delivery of tangible goods. Esquire has thrived by partnering with 3PLs and their retail clients to deliver the same day.
Today's supply chains are so complex and change so rapidly that optimization efforts often are overtaken by events, says Mike Comstock of Grand Canal Solutions. Planning needs to become much more dynamic, with analytics adapted to make optimization a continuous process, he says.