Supply chain management across industries is being revolutionized at a rapid pace by technology. By implementing technology systems, supply chain organizations aspire to eliminate waste, meet customers’ needs at reasonable costs, and ensure profitability. Enterprise Resource Planning systems facilitate in processing unstructured data at an aggregated level. However, at workflow or micro level the data […]
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Top Grants by State for Businesses Struggling to Survive
It goes without saying that it’s been a tough year for everyone, but for small businesses especially. The global pandemic has caused a huge shift in lifestyle and movement, resulting in an economic recession that’s been felt around the world. The World Bank has described the COVID-19 recession as perhaps the worst economic downturn the world has […]
How to Utilize Internet of Things (IoT) System to Expedite Decison-Making in the Manufacturing Sector?
Manufacturing today entails immediate yet informed decision making. However, with increasing levels of sophistication and production, senior leadership often has limited time to make optimum decisions pertaining to the number of unanticipated issues surfacing from time to time. These issues—if not managed properly and timely—can lead to defects and wastes. Top global enterprises are utilizing […]
Learning Organization – Gaining Competitive Advantage through Supplier Networks
Large manufacturers are often reluctant to share knowledge with suppliers. However, supplier networks are considered a great source of gaining competitive edge by Learning Organizations. A Learning Organization is founded on innovation, free flow of ideas, and a consistent focus on transforming the ways of doing business in order to achieve the desired results. For […]
A Robust Approach to Downturn Management and Transformation
Financial crisis, adverse supply shock, technological disruption, or natural hazards and disasters significantly affect global businesses. Recessions caused by these global incidents and problems have serious outcomes on commodity prices, stock markets, economies, and even countries. A Downturn can be described as a contracted business cycle with a significant decline in economic activity across markets […]
Target Costing: An Effective Approach to Pricing Products
Cost-based Pricing is fast becoming a relic of the past and being substituted by the concept of Target Costing. Target Costing is referred to as an organized process to determine the cost at which a proposed product must be developed so as to generate profits at the product’s anticipated selling price in future. In highly […]
The Growth of a Giant: The Logistics Clusters in Supply Chain Management (SCM)
In the late 1990s, business strategist Michael Porter argued that clusters make business more competitive by increasing the pace of innovation and stimulating new business formation. National and regional governments quickly embraced the idea and immediately supported its development by providing the necessary funding support. As expected, good things started to happen: businesses became interested […]
Why Companies Need to Take a Serious Look at Factory Audits in Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Factory Audits are often conducted by companies to confirm whether the supplier is delivering the supplied goods per agreed-upon terms and standards (e.g. quality, safety, ethical, environmental, etc.). This has become an important undertaking for companies to continually ensure that it consistently meets it’s quality and performance standards. In a time where there is global […]
When Survival in the Midst of Chaos Calls for Supply Chain Sustainability
In the modern age, organizations are striving to form a sustainable Supply Chain system to cope with the challenges that are arising. Such issues include the emission of hazardous substances, excessive resource consumption, Supply Chain risks, and complex procedures. Through Strategic Planning, organizations around the globe are adopting strategies to become a sustainable organization. In […]
Continuous Improvement Initiatives: High ROI Delivery Through Guidelines Prescribed by Lean Experts
A recent report from AlixPartners posited a surprising finding in the field of Process Improvement Programs for manufacturers: Most companies engaged in Lean Management, Sigma Six, or another management philosophy are achieving a poor return on their investment, and appear to be only partially engaged in the process itself. Considering that the entire purpose of […]
The Rules of Competition Are Changing – Advantages of a Pan-Industrial Strategy
Digital Transformations has set forth a change in leadership thinking, which is now changing the rules of competition. For several decades, Corporate Strategy Development has been founded upon the notion of Strategic Focus. In fact, Michael Porter, known as the Father of Modern Strategy, wrote in 1980 that Strategy targets either Cost Leadership, Differentiation, or […]
Solving the “Great Divide” – 5 Step Approach For Successful Supply Demand Integration
The “Great Divide” as referred to by Peter Drucker is the perennial issue of disconnect between Demand and Supply side within organizations. Companies are trapped in a pattern of reacting to the whims of the marketplace without developing a proactively designed supply capacity. Curiously enough, such companies are often the victims of their own success […]