Sat.Feb 10, 2024 - Fri.Feb 16, 2024

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14 Reasons Why Procurement Shouldn’t be in Charge of Valentines Day

Procurement Templates

Happy Valentines day, here is some procurement satire for February the 14th! Lack of Emotional Sensitivity: Procurement departments are typically focused on logistics, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency, which may not align with the emotional nuances and sentimentality of Valentine’s Day. Limited Creativity: Procurement professionals are trained to streamline processes and optimize resources, but they may lack the creativity needed to plan and execute romantic gestures and surprises effect

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CPO Crunch: It’s not easy being green

Procurement Leaders

If you live in the UK or keep on top of the British news agenda, you may have seen a story over the past few days concerning a political party announcing a U-turn on its signature green investment policy. What was said? Sir Keir Starmer, leader of opposition Labour party, announced that its flagship £28bn/year green investment pledge would be reduced to £15bn/year, of which only £5bn would be new money.

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The Role of Customized Packaging and Labeling in Building Brand Identity for Your Retail Business

All Things Supply Chain

Marketing is the art of the four “Ps”: Product, promotion, pricing, and placing. Another overlooked “P” falls under the umbrella of “Product”: Packaging.

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How 3D Printing Will Change Supply Chains and Improve Sustainability

Supply Chain Brain

As the technology has advanced and become more available, 3D printing is expected to become an integral part of many industries’ operations and could ultimately help companies achieve sustainability goals.

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Load Optimization: A Sustainable Way To Reduce Transportation Costs

Discover strategies to optimize load building and achieve significant transportation cost savings. Plus, learn how load optimization can help reduce CO 2 emissions and align with climate regulations and consumer expectations. Finally, discover best practices for sustainable load optimization.

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Generative AI use cases for the enterprise

IBM Supply Chain Blog

Remember how cool it felt when you first held a smartphone in your hand? The compact design and touch-based interactivity seemed like a leap into the future. Before long, smartphones became a way of life for organizations worldwide because of all they offer for business productivity and communication. Generative AI ( artificial intelligence ) promises a similar leap in productivity and the emergence of new modes of working and creating.

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Retail and apparel groups call for secured travel on the Red Sea

Supply Chain Dive

The trade organizations cited rising rates, delays and at least $80 billion in cargo that has been diverted around the region amid attacks.

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The Red Sea Crisis Could Disrupt the U.K.’s Tea Supply

Supply Chain Brain

The British Retail Consortium said that it had noticed a “temporary disruption” to some black tea lines, while an industry source suggested that some flavored lines had been delayed.

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Supply Risk Solutions: Vendor Analysis — Supplier Risk Management solution overview, roadmap, competitors, user considerations, analyst summary

Spend Matters

In this Spend Matters Vendor Analysis, we provide an overview of Supply Risk Solutions and its solution for supplier (chain) risk management. Supplier risk management is crucial for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it helps organizations identify and mitigate potential disruptions in their supply chain. Imagine relying on a single supplier for a critical component — if they face a problem, it could jeopardize your entire production process.

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Accenture to acquire procurement consultancy Insight Sourcing

Supply Chain Dive

The consulting giant sees an opportunity to help private equity firms tackle management of spend, cost and suppliers across their portfolios.

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Composing the Ideal Supply Chain Symphony

SCMR (Supply Chain Management Review)

With all the technology, labor issues and innovation taking place in supply chain, making it all work together is akin to a large-scale musical production.

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Autonomous AI Agents Are the Future of Procurement and Supply Chain Operations

As early as next year, procurement and supply chain operations will begin to adopt AI agents, often called “agentic AI,” to work alongside employees to make and execute decisions with precision across procurement and even the most complex global supply chains. Unlike LLM-based generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, these AI agents do not require prompts from humans.

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Study Reveals Gap in AI Adoption and Sustainability Goals in Logistics Industry

Supply Chain Brain

Further, despite the global emphasis on sustainable practices, the study reveals low prioritization of sustainability among logistics companies.

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Nicole Glenn on the Power of Hope and Transforming the Logistics Industry

Let's Talk Supply Chain

2024 is coming at us fast and the supply chain is front-and-center when it comes to geopolitical tensions and wars plaguing the globe. Just this week, retail brands called for safe travel on the Red Sea amidst growing rates and delays and regional fighting that has cost over $80B in inventory. Yes, don’t forget the pirates. Just as piracy has eased up on other shores along Somalia, it’s on the rise again there and elsewhere.

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Warehouse rents poised to keep climbing after record 2023

Supply Chain Dive

Lease rates jumped more than 20% to reach $9.72 per square foot last year, according to data from Colliers.

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Beginner’s Blueprint: Barcoding Simplified

Finale Inventory

Inventory is the lifeblood of your business. If you’re a retail brand, wholesale distributor, or manufacturer, inventory is the core of your business. You buy inventory, bring it into your facility, and then hope to sell it for more than you paid to generate a profit. As your business grows, your catalog grows, your sales channels grow. As this happens, maintaining accuracy and efficiency becomes increasingly difficult.

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Freight Procurement Simplified: Bids from Hours to Minutes

Speaker: Eric Berdinis, Ran Sun, & Chris Chmielewski

Procuring freight can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone. If you’re frustrated with the complex and manual processes for obtaining bids for your contract and spot freight, you’re not alone. In today’s fast-moving supply chain environment, optimizing these processes is critical to staying competitive and cutting costs. Join this exclusive webinar with experts from Uber Freight to learn how the latest digital tools and automation can transform your freight procurement strategy by strea

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Three Critical Steps Toward Mastering Total Inventory Optimization in 2024

Supply Chain Brain

Just months after snarled supply chains led to widespread inventory shortages, the proverbial pendulum has decidedly shifted to the other side.

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Killer App: The UK Post Office Scandal

Art of Procurement

In today’s digital age, jokes are often made at technology’s expense. I have multiple calls each week where someone apologizes. The post Killer App: The UK Post Office Scandal appeared first on Art of Procurement.

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Dollar Tree COO takes on supply chain oversight

Supply Chain Dive

Mike Creedon “will have full end-to-end accountability for delivering a best-in-class store experience for our customers," the discount retailer's CEO said.

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The customer experience evolution: Today’s data-driven, real-time discipline

IBM Supply Chain Blog

An evolution of customer experience (CX) was to be expected. Throughout modern history, organizations have encountered internal and external challenges that changed how they interact with customers and how customers view those organizations. Advancements in technology mean customers can order virtually any product and receive it in less than a week.

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How To Align Product Management And Supply Chain Operations For Successful Product Launches

Speaker: Shalini Dinesh

Effective cross-functional collaboration and communication heavily influence product launch success. Research shows that as many as 70% of product launches fail due to inadequate coordination among stakeholders, including supply chain, product management, legal, marketing, and change control teams (Gartner, 2022). The 2023 Supply Chain Insights Report highlights that 60% of supply chain disruptions are caused by poor communication and misalignment among cross-functional teams.

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Staff Shortages Remain Top Challenge for Supply Chain in 2024

Supply Chain Brain

Respondents expressed optimism in the economy, and more than 50% say they’ve seen a “greater focus and understanding of supply chains” from those in the C-Suite.

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The India Advantage: 6 Reasons Why Supply Chains Are Leaving China

SCMR (Supply Chain Management Review)

A new survey found U.S. C-Suite executives are over three times more likely to choose India over China for their future supply chain needs.

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ArcBest debuts line of automated forklifts, reach trucks

Supply Chain Dive

The company has piloted the remotely operated equipment in customers' distribution centers and manufacturing facilities, CEO Judy McReynolds said in an interview.

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Reducing defects and downtime with AI-enabled automated inspections

IBM Supply Chain Blog

A large, multinational automobile manufacturer responsible for producing millions of vehicles annually, engaged with IBM to streamline their manufacturing processes with seamless, automated inspections driven by real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI). As an automobile manufacturer, our client has an inherent duty to provide high-quality products.

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The Ultimate Guide to Transportation and Load Building Optimization

Enhance your transportation and load building efficiency with our comprehensive guide. Learn to tackle today's supply chain challenges and optimize your approach with advanced planning strategies. This guide covers: Supply Chain Challenges: Discover how transportation planning can address critical issues and improve efficiency. Load Building Benefits: Understand how effective load building can enhance your transportation processes.

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A Look Ahead: The Top 3 2024 Predictions for Third-Party Risk Management

Supply Chain Brain

By leveraging advanced and predictive analytics, organizations will be able to identify potential disruptions before they materialize.

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The re-rise of conversational AI for procurement efficiency and how to integrate it into your processes

Spend Matters

Neither oral nor text-based conversational AI (also known as conversational user experience [CUX] and conversational interfaces [CUI] the latter of which include chatbots) is by no means new, despite the relatively recent prolific uptake by procurement solution vendors. CUIs and CUXs were hot topics 10 years ago due to the popularization of Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft), Alexa (Amazon), Google Assistant and Facebook’s M.

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Walmart lands further FedEx Ground discounts for third-party sellers

Supply Chain Dive

The lower rates through Ship with Walmart come in a soft demand environment where carriers are more amenable to reduced rates.

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Customer service vs customer experience: Key differentiators

IBM Supply Chain Blog

In many organizations, but not all, customer service is treated as part of the customer experience. Both are interested in driving customer satisfaction, but they focus on different parts of the customer journey to achieve it. So what are the key differences in customer service vs. customer experience? And why do both matter for your business? Customer experience , or CX, is a holistic accounting of customers’ perceptions resulting from all their interactions with a business or brand, whet

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How Hellenic Bank Transformed Its Indirect Procurement Operations With GEP Software

Financial institutions must navigate a complex web of policies, procedures and regulations to ensure compliance and manage risk. When Hellenic Bank, a leading retail lender in Cyprus, set out to transform its procurement operations, it needed more than just software deployment. It required a partner that would help embed its intricate buying processes — with all its validations, risk assessments and tiered approvals — into a unified system.

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Shipping Bosses Warn Maritime Security in the Red Sea Getting Worse Not Better

Supply Chain Brain

Military ships in the region have been attempting to thwart missile strikes on merchant vessels over the past few weeks, but the Houthis have continued their attacks.

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How Smart Supply Chain Management Boosts Brand Identity

SCMR (Supply Chain Management Review)

Supply chain’s growing importance in the customer journey has companies looking at the once-behind-the-scenes processes in a new light.

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CPKC, Bison Transport ink intermodal services agreement

Supply Chain Dive

The deal is among several partnerships between segment players to capitalize on growing cross-border shipping traffic.

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Pactum: Vendor Analysis Update — Autonomous negotiation solution overview, roadmap, competitors, user considerations, analyst summary

Spend Matters

This Spend Matters Vendor Analysis Update provides an overview of Pactum and its solution for long-tail negotiations. Once a Spend Matters Future 5, Pactum has continued to grow in recent years to make negotiation autonomous for large organizations. It focuses on reaching win-win deals autonomously via its AI system that, without procurement involvement, can negotiate with human supply-side representatives.

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The Evolution of Control Towers to Command Centers

Are fragmented control towers hindering your supply chain’s growth and response time? Attempting to manage disruptions through various departmental control towers with basic analytic overlays hinders agility and, ultimately, your resiliency. Today’s volatile landscape requires inherent visibility across your entire value chain and the ability to orchestrate course corrections within a unified platform.