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…

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…

“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…

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…

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…

Digitizing the supply chain is continuing to unfold. In the past week, I’ve spoken to a few organizations about their progress to create the digital supply chain – running the gamut from getting it started in earnest, to full on using it. One thing was clear – no plans are in place to change…

Within this decade, no organizational function will experience greater transformation from the Internet-of-Things than supply chain management. The digital transformation is allowing all parts of the business to collect data that will drive decisions and operations. But the supply chain is the…

This post is part of a short series that will walk you through the 14 principles of Toyota’s production system (TPS) as described in Jeffrey Liker’s book, The Toyota Way, and provide you with practical tips on how and why to apply these principles at your own workplace. We live in a world of…

Can we learn from emergency supply chains? A few weeks ago there was a large condo fire at the building next to mine. I had the opportunity to watch firsthand the “supply chain” of fire rescue. Few people are involved in such an important supply chain where seconds can mean people’s lives, but…

With delivery drones, autonomous trucks, and crewless cargo ships dominating the news, much has been discussed about transforming the delivery—more specifically, the last mile—of retail in the supply chain. But for supply chain professionals, much of the focus right now is on the immediate impact…