The Continental Tire factory in Sarreguemines, France, has increased its production of tires from 33,000 tires per day to 38,000, thanks to a real-time location system it installed in September 2011 to track tire components. The RTLS has also helped the company reduce wastage of tire components, known as "semi products," by 20 percent.
Challenge: A significant percentage of what this major chemical company manufactures is used in the automotive industry, and as a result they found demand dropping far below what any previous forecast could have predicted.
Challenge: Previously our client, one of the world's largest engines and machinery manufacturers, spent years trying to build systems and get more information from its service providers, before moving to the cloud with a pay as you go service - lower risk approach with better results.
Challenge: A retailer with 4,400 independently owned and operated stores needed to optimize their distribution network, including 100 inbound source origins, 1.5 billion pounds per year shipped through 14 regional service and six consolidation centers, while maintaining 100 percent delivery within two days.
Challenge: This retailer sought a collaborative supply chain execution platform that would create more cost-effective global logistics processes. The retailer used a single agent, based in Shanghai, who needed visibility into order and supplier milestones, in-transit shipments and trade document status.
Challenge: A major U.S. food manufacturer and distributor wanted to implement a new warehouse management system using bar code labels to track the movement of products within its warehouses and to customers. A difficult challenge for a 100,000 sq. ft. warehouse with 1,600 different products in inventory.
You could call inventory and warehouse space the twin evils of the supply chain. Both are big drags on the balance sheet. So it should come as no surprise that the two categories are lagging the recovery - or what's passing for one.
Like death and taxes, volatility has now become a fact of life. The aftermath of the 2009 recession reinforced the importance of defensive strategies against volatility in order to survive, but winning in an increasingly uncertain world requires that we learn to thrive in volatility, harness it and use this strength as a competitive advantage.
Best Buy is viewed by many analysts as being in a desperate fight for its life. In previous years its stellar financial results were strongly fueled by the collapse of such competitors as PC America and Circuit city. But now Best Buy is the last man standing and its survival is entirely dependent on its own efforts to respond to marketplace shifts.
The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the consumer packaged goods industry. Learn how consumer packaged goods companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.
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