North American supply chains became more complex in 2012 as the economy continued to recover. Rapid innovation, higher seasonal sales and increased reliance on promotions contributed to make forecasting more challenging. These and other findings are contained in the Terra Technology Forecasting Benchmark Study, now in its fourth year.
New implementation guidelines for leveraging GS1 standards in apparel and general merchandise ecommerce have been released by GS1 US. The Voluntary Guidelines for Exchanging Extended Attributes for eCommerce were developed in collaboration with more than 15 retailers, vendors and solution providers participating in the GS1 US Apparel and General Merchandise Initiative and are available at www.gs1us.org/eCommerceExtendedAttributes.
Foxfire, a warehouse management software provider, recently announced the availability of Foxfire Inventory Pro, a cloud-based inventory management software for small to mid-sized businesses.
Argentinean container-terminal operator TecPlata is installing an RFID-based solution to track and manage conditions within the refrigerated containers (known as reefer units) stored at Buenos Aires's La Plata Port, making it one of the early adopters of a new system provided by Identec Solutions. The terminal is scheduled to open at the end of this year.
Companies today have more powerful supply chain visibility tools than ever. Solutions exists that leverage web technologies and allow various supply chain departments in an organization to get real-time and accurate information about inventory, orders and shipments in both their inbound and outbound networks.
Joseph A. Sedlak, who in 1958 founded Joseph A. Sedlak Management Consultants Inc., one of the earliest consultancies in the material handling and warehouse industry, died Sept. 9, 2013, at the age of 90.
Many large, global organizations are concerned about the risk of serious physical disruption of their supply chains due to high-impact natural disasters, extreme weather or political turmoil. Over the past two years supplier risk has been receiving more attention from organizations as natural disasters, and their effects on global supply chains, have had wide media exposure.
Sixty-seven percent of surveyed chief procurement officers say their departments are more focused on building collaborative relationships with suppliers than on obtaining the lowest costs, according to a survey by Consero Group, an international player in events scheduling for senior executives. The results were reported as part of its Fall 2013 Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Data Survey.
A new cloud enterprise resource planning software supplier guide from ARC Advisory Group includes both selection criteria and guided workflow steps for choosing the correct cloud ERP system and supplier.
