The operations and financial performance of supply chains are often top-secret affairs, particularly in retail and high tech where it can literally offer a huge strategic differentiation.
One unfortunate side effect of this is it’s difficult to benchmark your supply chain’s financial performance against your industry peers. A new Supply Chain Index is designed to address that data gap.
Supply Chain Digest Editor Dan Gilmore proposed a different way to look at supply chain technologies in a recent editorial: The pain to gain ratio.
“The gain is related to both the size of the benefit and the consistency of achieving it,” he explains. “The pain part has to do with the ease of implementation, and the percent of projects that just don’t seem to go very well.
“In other words, we do not accept the “no pain, no gain” concept. We want low pain, lots of gain.”
Business revenues may be rising, but companies still are cutting procurement budgets this year, according to a recent study by the Hackett Group.
While revenue growth is projected to rise by 6.5 percent, the study found that procurement budgets will be reduced by .4 percent. On top of that, it’s expected staff numbers will also decline by about half a percent, reports Procurement Leader.
At the same time, chief procurement officers are being asked to make innovation a top priority with reducing procurement costs, the article states. For Chief Procurement Officers, this will mean aligning tightly with business objectives. So how can CPOs accomplish all of that?
Adopting green practices can help supply chains cut costs, but if you want to realize long-term benefits, don’t treat green as a one-time project, advices supply chain expert Yves Leclerc.
“For decades, many manufacturers turned to Lean as the answer to cost savings and efficiencies with little focus on sustainability,” writes Leclerc, who directs West Monroe’s supply chain practice across North America. “Unfortunately, many of these Lean initiatives only eliminated waste on a temporary basis. Without an internal Lean team to oversee processes constantly, waste can creep back in, disrupting process flow.”
Streamlining Procurement Advice
One of the topics I'd like to explore is what gets in the way of your procurement process. What would…
May 2, 2012
General Supply Chain Discussion
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October 12, 2011
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Companies can achieve B2B visibility by following these five integration building blocks.
How B2B Integration Supports Lean Supply Chains
Lean supply chains offeres strategic advantages over traditional supply chains; to reap the benefits, supply chain managers must invest in B2B technology.
EU Horse Meat Scandal Highlights Need for Modernized Supply Chains
Europe’s horse meat scandal is raising concerns about supply chain…
