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Focusing on Efficiency in Logistics is No Longer Enough: Flexibility is Key
In today’s high-risk and uncertain supply chain environment, organizations must plan for disruptions and minimize their impact by balancing tradeoffs between efficiency and flexibility in logistics. While the focus on logistics efficiency alone has been a norm, recent years have underscored…
Tips to Drive Supply Chain Success Amid Uncertainty
This is an important time for the supply chain profession. Supply chains are in the news, on governments’ agendas, and in the spotlight. Supply chain professionals are facing disruptions on multiple fronts, including rising geopolitical tensions among countries and regions, shifting maritime trade…
Develop Contingency Plans for Supply Chain Disruptions
While organizations cannot avoid the unexpected, supply chain professionals can develop a “just in case” playbook with contingency plans to activate when alternatives are needed.A contingency plan spells out the actions to take, such as reallocating money, people, equipment, and other resources,…
Top 5 Procurement Strategic Objectives
APQC research shows that procurement is changing for the better with its strategic objectives. While in the past the focus was on cost savings, now there’s also an emphasis on avoiding supply disruption. Reflecting other changes in business environments, additional notable objectives include…
ESG Changing Supply Chain Decision-Making
In the current market, the increasing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is primarily influenced by new regulations and customers' ever evolving expectations. Business customers and consumers are increasingly aware of their purchases' social and environmental impacts,…
Toy Story Telling From CSCMP
Recently I attended my first CSCMP conference, which was in Atlanta Georgia this year. It was a great event, I had virtually no expectations walking in and I was pleasantly surprised. First, it was much larger than I anticipated. I walked in to the large convention center Sunday night for what I…
5 Tips for Better Demand Planning
If you were on social media in 2013, you probably saw one viral video that was hard to miss: A Volvo Live Test featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme performing an “epic split” between two rolling Volvo trucks. It was the sixth and final in Volvo’s series of Live Test films, which pushed the…
Recent Hurricanes Highlight Supply Chain’s Struggle With Truck Driver Shortage
“What’s the biggest supply chain challenge facing you right now?” I’ve gotten some interesting answers to that question, but last week while at the APICS conference in San Antonio, I was chatting with a supply chain leader from Sysco who lives in Houston. Her response to my question gave me…
Millennial Workers Value Relationships
As I was pulling together content recently around millennials in the workforce, I realized my daughter is the youngest of the millennial range – born in 1995. Millennials, according to APQC’s study definition, are born 1980 – 1995. Why not ask her a few questions to see if her thoughts correlate…
What is Blockchain?
Much is being said these days about blockchain, also referred to as distributed ledger technology, and its impact on business. Let’s be honest with each other: are you familiar with blockchain? If you are not, then the good news is that you are not alone. And if you are extremely familiar, you are…