ivalua
SEPTEMBER 29, 2015
This week we announced the launch of Directworks 2.0 , our new sourcing and supplier management platform. Back in February of this year, I published a post about the beliefs and principles guiding our product vision at Directworks. Now that the product has been launched, I thought it would be interesting to assess how well we lived up to those beliefs and principles.
All Things Supply Chain
DECEMBER 13, 2015
It’s that time of year again. The deciding moment is upon us: will Santa Claus stuff our stockings with wonderful goodies or a lump of coal?
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Supply Chain Opz
MARCH 6, 2015
'As pressure to improve supply chain cost performance increases for many companies, the evaluation and selection of competent suppliers becomes a key concern. In this article, Professor Burcu Keskin from University of Alabama will share 7 trends that procurement and supply chain management professionals should watch. Typically, total cost, quality, and delivery performance appear as critical factors in the supplier selection process.
Supply Chain Collaborator
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
Omni-channel retail selling does not involve the same list of considerations as omni-channel fulfillment for logistics planning, but it does correlate. Whenever a truly disruptive business development impacts an entire industry, it is almost certain that there will be ramifications for other industries. In this case, the transformative effect of the internet and ecommerce has radically reshaped the nature of retail and, as such, the nature of supply chain logistics for retail operations.
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The Network Effect
JANUARY 13, 2015
'Mike Behnken/Flickr. Note, this is part two in a series on demand sensing. Part one is here. . At some point most forecasting methods will hit the law of diminishing returns where the forecast accuracy will tend to flatten out, regardless of the formulae or analytics that are applied. Mathematicians have traditionally approached forecasting based on various time series and curve fitting techniques which create a forecast based on data such as prior sales history, drawing on several years of dat
Supply Chain Action Blog
OCTOBER 23, 2015
There is a process that is fast becoming a necessary and key component of both demand planning and sales and operations planning. I have heard it described as “forecastability”and “demand curve analysis”, among other terms, but, here, I will call it a “Demand Plan Sanity Check” or DPSC for short. I am seeing this across industries, but particularly in consumer products.
Purchasing & Procurement Zone brings together the best content for professionals in the purchasing and procurement field from the widest variety of thought leaders.
ivalua
AUGUST 26, 2015
In my last blog post , I talked about how the need for better supplier information was a dominant theme across the automotive industry, as well as for many other discrete manufacturers. The impact suppliers have on the products you make and sell, good and bad, is just too significant to be ignored. That post also detailed the fact that there are many potholes along the road to better supplier information.
ivalua
AUGUST 18, 2015
The term “supplier collaboration” can mean many things to many people depending on your functional perspective. Let’s examine three ways that better collaboration with supply partners creates value for a manufacturer from product design through demand planning. 1. Innovating. If you work in product design or engineering, supplier collaboration is focused on integrating strategic suppliers into your product innovation efforts.
ivalua
AUGUST 10, 2015
Recently, I had the pleasure of hanging out with 16 different Tier 1 automotive manufacturers in the same evening. Quite a few of our customers are located in the Detroit area where we recently hosted a networking event featuring Nexteer Automotive. Nexteer talked about how they have adopted technology to automate and standardize the sourcing function, while eliminating inefficient processes and empowering their employees.
ivalua
OCTOBER 7, 2015
From the moment that manufacturers began outsourcing the making of parts and components that go into their products, supplier segmentation took on extreme importance. Suppliers were quickly categorized in many ways… by quality, performance, price, riskiness, and so on. As the manufacturer’s pool of suppliers grew, they also segmented their supply base by how much they spent with each, their overall value contribution, and how critical the supplier was to their supply chain.
Advertiser: GEP
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.
ivalua
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015
In this challenging business environment of moderate growth, leading manufacturers remain focused on a simple fundamental: applying a greater focus on margin expansion efforts to boost profitability. Unfortunately, most manufacturers are already operating in a lean environment. The fat has been trimmed and rising market costs make it difficult to demand better pricing from their suppliers.
ivalua
SEPTEMBER 8, 2015
Accenture’s recently published “ Is Yours a Procurement Organization of One? ” provides a bold look into the near future of procurement organizations. Accenture predicts that in the next 5-7 years procurement teams will leverage digital platforms and technologies to transform the way they do business and “become one” with other business stakeholders, with an extended enterprise of innovative suppliers, and with re-imagined processes made possible by the evolution of digital technologies such as
ivalua
AUGUST 5, 2015
Recently, I asked the leaders at Spend Matters to address how they have seen the cost structure of the supply base change over the past decade. Both Lisa Reisman and Pierre Mitchell had some interesting insights. To read their response, click here. This content was originally published on Spend Matters. It has been reprinted with permission. The post How has a supplier’s cost structure changed?
ivalua
JULY 27, 2015
The always astute Pierre Mitchell from Spend Matters recently called out an unnamed solution provider for “trying to create some thought leadership about upstream value creation and downstream value capture.” This reminded me of a prior post I wrote about the subject and I wondered if Pierre was writing about me. If so, in my (imperfect?) attempt to make a point about the relative value of strategic sourcing, I failed to realize that thought leadership is apparently the exclusive domain of pun
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
ivalua
JULY 22, 2015
In last week’s blog , I began discussing telltale signs that you have entered the new age of strategic sourcing. Leading manufacturers have proven that best-in-class strategic sourcing can create measurable and sustainable shareholder value by contributing to top line growth and bottom line profitability. The first two signs dealt with goal alignment and understanding internal customer needs.
ivalua
JULY 15, 2015
Since its inception in the late 1980s, strategic sourcing has always been about getting the best value for the goods and services purchased from third party suppliers. Strategic sourcing requires an intense focus on the total cost of ownership, while incorporating customer needs, organizational goals, and market conditions. The decision making process used to select suppliers must be fact-based and driven by a rigorous analytical approach.
ivalua
DECEMBER 2, 2015
Product manufacturers have become increasingly dependent on their strategic suppliers to create a competitive advantage in the market. As products have become more sophisticated, development efforts now extend outside the manufacturer to selected suppliers who contribute specific expertise and services that differentiate offerings and provide a competitive edge.
ivalua
SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
Recently, I asked the folks at Spend Matters…”If you were advising sourcing and supplier management professionals in the manufacturing industry, what external data sources would you suggest they look at acquiring and integrating into their tools and processes?”. To see their response regarding the types of data you should consider integrating into your manufacturing procurement activities… click here.
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.
ivalua
JULY 6, 2015
The strategic sourcing technology market is a crowded space. Walk the exhibit floor at the annual ISM conference and you’ll easily find more than 40 providers offering a wide variety of e-sourcing solutions. From simple to complex, general to industry-focused, you have a lot of choices. So how do you know if you have the right sourcing technology for your business?
ivalua
JUNE 24, 2015
Big data is more than a buzz term, and if you are a strategic sourcing professional, it is a concept that should not be ignored. Big data is about synthesizing and making sense of information — better and quicker than your competition. Within the manufacturing industry, data can now be gathered quickly in amounts that were unfathomable a generation ago.
ivalua
DECEMBER 10, 2015
Apple has long been known as a leader in supply chain management with Gartner consistently ranking them number one in its annual report identifying the Top 25 Supply Chain Leaders. Apple’s sourcing and supplier management practices are under a constant microscope and have certainly taught us many valuable lessons including: The importance of keeping your supply chain as simple as possible.
ivalua
DECEMBER 16, 2015
For manufacturers, key functions such as sourcing and supplier management have become more challenging as the result of increasing supply chain complexity. Such complexity puts a lot of strain on your organization and a need for more senior oversight, direction, and prioritization. One area that manufacturers need to focus on is improving supply chain visibility.
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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.
ivalua
NOVEMBER 19, 2015
If you happen to be a strategic sourcing professional within the manufacturing industry, you probably are experiencing many challenging days at the office. For example, bad supplier choices can hurt your company’s reputation, lead to production line shutdowns, and contribute to loss of profits. And the C-suite knows just who to come see and hold responsible when such events occur.
ivalua
JULY 2, 2015
A Nation’s Strength. by Ralph Waldo Emerson. What makes a nation’s pillars high. And its foundations strong? What makes it mighty to defy. The foes that round it throng? It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand. Go down in battle shock; Its shafts are laid on sinking sand, Not on abiding rock. Is it the sword? Ask the red dust. Of empires passed away; The blood has turned their stones to rust, Their glory to decay.
All Things Supply Chain
DECEMBER 20, 2015
Another year has come and gone, and we here at the ISCO Blog would like to take the opportunity to thank all our readers and guest bloggers for helping our blog grow over the past 12 months.
ivalua
NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Today in many executive boardrooms, the conversation often centers on how to improve the overall customer experience. Why? Simply put, it’s a lot more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep one. And if you produce multiple products, selling into your existing customer base is far easier than making that first sale to a new customer. So how do you economically keep and grow existing customers?
Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions
In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. ♻️ Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets. 📊 Join us for a practical webinar hosted by Kevin Kai Wong of Emergent Ene
ivalua
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
For product manufacturers, the concept of ‘supply partners’ has changed dramatically in the last 50 years…and they will change more than ever in the next ten. Business models have evolved to a point where suppliers are so important to success that they are now considered an extension of the manufacturer’s enterprise. What has changed? Let’s look at a quick history of the manufacturing business model evolution and the shifting nature of supplier relationships.
ivalua
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
One of the biggest challenges for any company is dealing with the phenomenon of ‘that’s the way we have always done it’ This is especially challenging if the practice or approach produced meaningful results in the past. But the business environment is always changing and what worked five years ago may no longer be making a true meaningful difference for your company.
ivalua
OCTOBER 28, 2015
Suppliers have never been more important. Driven by a desire by manufacturers to insulate themselves from spiraling labor costs, manufacturers shifted production of parts and components into the supply chain. As a result, your suppliers now have a very significant impact on the price and quality of your products, your company’s reputation and ability to innovate, and even the success of the new offerings your company introduces into the marketplace.
ivalua
OCTOBER 21, 2015
With these carefully selected words, Andy Grove fostered a culture of continuous innovation at Intel. He wanted his senior leaders to encourage experimentation and prepare for inevitable market changes that would threaten Intel’s dominance. Grove abhorred complacency and urged his people to test new techniques, new products, new sales channels, and new customers, to be ready for unexpected shifts in business or technology.
Speaker: Scott Campbell and Molly Feller
As the demand for your products skyrockets 🚀, you're likely experiencing logistical challenges that are preventing you from scaling your business. The sudden surge in demand can be exciting, but it can also put a strain on your supply chain and logistics operations. In this webinar, join Scott Campbell, Vice President, Logistics & Demand at Mark Anthony Services and Molly Feller, VP Logistics as a Service Operations at e2open, as they explore the challenges that arise when companies expe
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