Technology

You Don't Have a Big Data Problem. You Have Hundreds of Little Data Problems

February 28, 2013

Wally Powers, Director, West Monroe Partners

Many manufacturing and distribution companies are wrestling with the enormous challenge of Big Data, trying to turn mountains of data into actionable information. And while some companies curse the landslide of data overwhelming their organizations, others look to capitalize on what they realize is an opportunity to better understand their customers, suppliers and costs. But the challenge is more nuanced than sculpting a huge collection of unwieldy data.

Stung by Meat Safety Scare, Yum Brands Jettisons Some Suppliers in China

February 28, 2013

L.A. Times

Yum Brands Inc. said is dropping some suppliers of its KFC restaurants in China as it tries to reassure consumers in that country who were scared off by a chicken safety scare last month.

Consumer Products Is an Industry in Transition

February 27, 2013

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: The CPG industry's supply chain performance is middle of the pack: more mature than chemical or pharmaceutical companies and less mature than high-tech and electronics manufacturing companies. Several factors are at work to shift the processes to improve performance. Focus is shifting from inside-out to outside-in, from a vertical horizontal siloed orientation to horizontal processes that can better sense and respond, and from a supply chain focused only on product delivery to a value network focused on serving the customer. - Lora Cecere, Founder of Supply Chain Insights

From Silos to Streams - Collaboration & Integration Means Connection

February 27, 2013

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: Driving richer connectivity and communications as well as human dialogue amongst partners or team members is changing the face of business and society. We are moving from siloed enterprises to federations of partnerships and communities of ideas that think and execute in streams - not rigid processes. This is changing not only how we work, but the technologies that support us. - Sree Hameed, Vice President, ChainLink Research

Logistics Infrastructure in China Is Under Pressure

February 27, 2013

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: Pressure is mounting on logistics infrastructure in China due to increasing domestic consumption. As Chinese consumers become more sophisticated, distribution networks will have to respond with greater accuracy, efficiency and speed. The same supply chain principles that have been tried and proven in the West will, out of necessity, become more accepted in China. - Jim Serstad, Managing Director, Asia, Tompkins International

In 2013, Transfer Pricing Is No. 2 Headache for Multinationals' Tax Directors

February 27, 2013

CFO

What's been keeping tax directors of large multinational corporations up at night recently? The same issue that provided millions of dollars in tax relief a few years before: transfer pricing.

SAP Announces Plans to Acquire Inventory-Optimization Vendor SmartOps

February 27, 2013

SAP AG

SAP AG is acquiring SmartOps, the vendor of software for inventory and service-level optimization.

Chief Executive of Maersk Focuses on Improving African Infrastructure

February 26, 2013

Supply Chain Digital

The CEO of Maersk Group toured Nigeria, Angola and Ghana in a bid to focus on African infrastructure improvements. As African economies boom, infrastructure improvements become more important to turning the growth into sustainable development, and Maersk is planning to take a role in this transition.

Managing Intersection of Marketing, Operations Is Strategic Lever to Competitive Advantage

February 26, 2013

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: Simply stated, the marketing mission of any business is to profitably create "something" that a customer will buy. The operational objective of the business is to deliver the "something" to the satisfaction of the customer. The financial objective is to charge a fee equivalent to the customer's perceived value while generating a return on the capital investment the business made to create "something." - Rich Sherman, Supply Chain Discipline Expert at Trissential

Virtualization, Efficiency and Enhanced User Experience in BPM

February 26, 2013

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: Today's businesses are witnessing the evolution of business process management (BPM) applications to meet new paradigms shaped by user experience and comply with the increased number and complexity of corporate demands. The next generation of BPM applications looks to increase efficiency in all stages of process design and implementation, virtualize the work environment of its users, and enrich the user experience - thereby ameliorating their usage, deployment and development. - Jorge Garcia, TEC Senior BI and Data Management Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers