Each disruption in global supply chains seems to bring a new surprise. On March 31 of this year, it was an explosion and fire at a chemical plant in Marl, Germany. The incident at the factory of Evonik Industries resulted in the deaths of two workers and caused damage that will take all summer to repair.
Proforma IdeaPress has managed to remain competitive in the market for printed promotional items, even though its plants are in the U.S. and customer requirements can be extremely complex. Company co-owner Pratt Pande tells how it's done.
Camstar Systems Inc. has released the NPI (New Product Introduction) Accelerator for manufacturers. The tool is intended to help users design, test and speed up the NPI process.
Acuitive Solutions, provider of a global transportation-management system (TMS) portal for air and ocean freight, has introduced the Acuitive SpotManager.
Once a new technology tool becomes embedded in the business world, one tends to forget the doubt and confusion that marked its debut. As anyone over the age of 30 will recall, companies once debated the value of having websites. Early users of the internet were actively hostile to the notion of a network that was created for the defense and academic communities being co-opted by the commercial sector. Now, of course, any business that isn't on the internet is either utterly clueless or not serious about being a success. Yet we seem to be having the same debate all over again, this time centering on the proper role of social media.
Valogix LLC, a vendor of inventory planning and optimization software for small and mid-sized businesses, has created the Valogix Inventory Planning SuiteApp, built on the NetSuite Suite Cloud Computing Platform.
Avnet provides leading-edge supply chain visibility solutions to OEM customers that have extended global supply chains and significant contract manufacturing operations. These supply chains often are highly complex and very geographically dispersed.
SAP America, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Germany's SAP AG, has agreed to acquire Ariba, the software vendor specializing in procurement and business-to-business commerce.
The demand for vendor-managed inventory programs in warehouses behaves "as a pendulum swinging back and forth between supplier and retailer," says John Mayer, vice president of sales with Park City Group. Over the last six to 12 months, he says, it has swung back in the direction of favoring VMI. Mayer has seen particular interest in the technique in the grocery industry.