Analyst Insight: Today's chief supply chain officer (CSCO) is beset by pressures on all fronts, struggling to understand and meet customer demands for cheaper, faster and efficient logistic processes from source to final delivery. Under omnichannel competitive pressures, web and mobile orders tendered by 2 p.m. must be fulfilled and shipped in the same. These growing B2C fulfill-to-deliver flows add shipping and labor costs and, if not optimized, impact margins and profitability. This constitutes a call to action! - Bob Heaney, Research Director and Principal Analyst, Aberdeen Group
Analyst Insight: Sales and operations planning is almost sacred to those who have it, but still fuzzy to those who don't. Those who do, cannot imagine running their business without it, while those who don’t, are still debating the merits and are not clear about the value. Whether you have it and are looking for tips to improve, or are seriously considering but yet unsure, read on. - Bryan Ball, Vice President and Group Director, Supply Chain and Operations Practices, Aberdeen Group
It's not enough to track goods domestically; supply chain managers must monitor shipments around the globe and account for the added complexity of moving goods across international borders.
When global automotive supplier Inteva Products was spun off from its parent company, the new enterprise opted for a cloud-based ERP solution. Ben Stewart discusses this decision and its benefits to the supply chain and other functional areas.
The complexities of managing global trade are many, which may be why a lot of companies overlook savings available in Free Trade Agreements. Scott Byrnes explains how to leverage FTAs and discusses other strategies to optimize global trade.
Trade automation software can help reduce total landed costs by streamlining processes and boosting productivity, then a compelling business case for investment can be made in any organization.
Knowing how to effectively manage fuel costs is an important skill for 3PL providers, particularly in the current environment of volatile and spiking oil prices, says Skip Wendel, global vice president for consumer and retail at UTi Worldwide.
