Despite reports of a slowdown in the number of companies outsourcing manufacturing to Chinese factories, and the country's economic downturn, China remains a popular location for contract manufacturing. This is evidenced by the decision of at least two Western...
Whether you work for a manufacturer or brand owner with its own logistics operation or you are a manager for a 3PL provider, mechanical handling equipment is probably a critical element in your storage and transportation activities. When buying new...
Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is a simple enough process, yet it's one which many organisations struggle to implement and maintain successfully. To some extent this is perfectly understandable, since a successful S&OP process requires unfettered...
Some of my previous posts on this blog have provided tips for developing an RFP/RFT in order to select a logistics outsourcing partner. In this post, I want to focus a little on the next step: evaluating the logistics outsourcing proposals from your RFP...
Are you a finance manager or leader in a company with supply chain involvement? If so, how well do you understand the role of supply chain functions in your company? More importantly, do you know how well those functional teams understand their impact on company...
How much do you know about CPFR? If you’ve never heard of it, have a quick read through this post and you’ll understand the basics of CPFR in the supply chain profession. CPFR is the acronym for collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment, a practice...
While marketing and logistics are both critical components of any commercial enterprise, at first glance they seem to have little direct relationship to one another. However, the two functions are inextricably linked and in fact, the actions of marketing directly...
In an earlier post on this blog, I addressed the question “what is a supply chain?” As the post was intended to provide the answer in a nutshell, I simply explained that the supply chain starts with some raw materials and ends with a finished product in the hands of a...
If you work in a procurement or purchasing role, you’re probably involved in purchasing inbound materials. These might be raw materials for a manufacturing facility or perhaps finished goods (if you work for a retail organisation). In any event, you and your team can...
Are you an IT guy or girl in a logistics or supply chain organisation? If so, radio frequency identification (RFID) might become a feature of your project activity in the future—that is if your company hasn’t already implemented RFID. The adoption of...