I remember the call like it was yesterday. Four years have passed. On this cold day, I would like to walk on the beach with my friend Maddy. She is there. I am not. Let me tell you the story. In 2014, while sipping on an early morning coffee, Maddy called to ask me a question. It sounded simple, but she was frantic. Working for a large manufacturer, she was trying…
François-Régis Le Tourneau leads the efforts at L’Oreal for Standards & Prospective Process Improvement. At the Supply Chain Global Summit 2018, Francois discussed the impact of digitalization, Industry 4.0, and L’Oréal’s approach to business that has allowed the company to continuously rank as a Supply Chains to Admire winner for four consecutive years. The award, based on beating the industry peer group on rate of improvement on the key metrics of…
90, then 80, followed by 76. The highway rolls ahead of me. There are endless mile markers. It is a long day. Today, I am cruising major freeways traveling from Chicago to my new home in Pennsylvania. Against my friends’ advice, I decided to drive to speak to 120 business leaders at the GAINSystems event. The rain delays through the summer soured me on air travel. The sun is shining….
mo·jo: noun. A magic charm, talisman, or spell. “Someone must have their mojo working over at the record company.” In the 1990s supply chain had MOJO. Then it was sexy. Today, it is not. 90% of public manufacturing companies are treading water. There is a struggle. Improvement on the key metrics of growth, inventory turns, operating margin and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) is elusive. Here I want to share a perspective…
Mine sweeping is essential to warfare. Soldiers use special devices to detect underground mines and disarm them, keeping them from exploding before they cause harm. At Supply Chain Insights we have been actively working on our own mine sweeping project. Over the course of the last quarter, with help from Cloudera, we built a data lake with information from 1449 public companies (these are mainly North American-based manufacturers, distributors…
I was sitting with a representative from the United Nations on my way back from Colombia. As we took off from Bogota, we discussed the potential of blockchain to help her with feeding children in the highlands of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. I was surprised that she knew enough about blockchain to have a discussion, and I think that she was surprised to find someone who could help her to have…
When I engage with supply chain leaders , I ask, “Are you making progress?” Most will nod their heads ‘yes’, but upon a closer look at the data they admit they are stuck. Acknowledging this truth is a freeing moment. Why? It is hard work to maintain the status quo in metrics performance. Most leaders are treading water. When asked to do more, they try to deliver. They often fail. A downward-facing…
Holiday travel. Packed airports and the children screaming in unison. Today as I sit scrunched into a coach seat in 26C, working on this blog post and hoping to not spill my coffee on my neighbor, I dutifully type to complete my weekly post. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I give thanks for our clients and the ability to do what we do. Here I share insights on the work…
Slowly, more and more companies are waking up to the cold and hard facts. Financial balance sheet improvements cannot be driven by traditional supply chain processes. In the words of a supply chain leader yesterday, “Lora, please give me stories of success. I have personally experienced the failure. Lift my soul by sharing some success stories.” This is my new mission. Through the next two months I am focusing on…
It was November. I was speaking at a client site. The topic was customer-centric supply chains. We started the morning by asking attendees to share their definition of a customer-centric supply chain. I slowly wrote the definitions on the whiteboard. At the end of the sharing I had as many definitions on the board as people in the room. The only thing that was clear was the lack of definition…
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