Briefs
Supply Chain Planning: Where’s the Magic?
In a word: S&OP. Or even better, SIOP. What’s so magical about these processes? Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), or SIOP by adding Inventory to the mix, is a critical business discipline. It drives service effectiveness and operating efficiency by...
Supply chain moves in a volatile world – Best SC priorities now
Consumer brands have been badly buffeted, between supply shortages, shipping challenges and now weakening sales. Too little inventory or too much? Whither demand? Is supply assured? Supply chain (SC) management stands at the crosshairs of business success as never...
Third-party logistics RFP best practices
Shippers are busy restructuring challenged supply chains today, including their third-party logistics (3PL) provider relationships. Importers face a seemingly never-ending list of concerns – geopolitical, inflation, interest rates, freight rates, network resilience,...
Getting landed cost right
Have pandemic-driven supply and demand shocks adversely impacted your in-stock and customer service performance? We highlight five situations that can upend your forecasting and inventory system, suggesting the need for a tune-up.
What to do when ocean rates go sky-high?
Have pandemic-driven supply and demand shocks adversely impacted your in-stock and customer service performance? We highlight five situations that can upend your forecasting and inventory system, suggesting the need for a tune-up.
Time for an inventory system tune-up?
Have pandemic-driven supply and demand shocks adversely impacted your in-stock and customer service performance? We highlight five situations that can upend your forecasting and inventory system, suggesting the need for a tune-up.
June 5 2020: Ports & Intermodal Insights
Port and intermodal data has turned upwards, and ocean carriers managed capacity aggressively. After the scare, shippers are likely to consider de-risking supply chains.
Sourcing strategy refresh? Five steps to a diagnosis
Has the pandemic shutdown raised questions about your company’s sourcing strategy? We offer a five-module framework to a practical diagnosis: A+ or B-?
Supply chain risk and reward – A rebalancing imperative
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of many global supply chains. Supply plummeted first from shutdown factories in China, then demand collapsed worldwide as countries adopted stay-at-home orders. These unprecedented events surfaced a level of...
May 1 2020: Ports & Intermodal Insights
How are ports and freight systems weathering the pandemic? Fairly well, so far. Interesting strategies are emerging – both to counter the acute shock, and to mitigate the longer term risks. We highlight some of these in our Brief.