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…
The Supply Chain Insights Global Summit is over, but we hope the energy to define Supply Chain 2030 is just beginning. Our goal is to build a guiding coalition to think differently to improve outcomes. Today only 12% of supply chain teams are driving improvement, performing better than their competitors and driving value (as determined by Price to Tangible Book Value). As companies prepare for Supply Chain 2030, we think that it…
Market-Driven Value Networks: An adaptive network focused on a value-based outcomes. The network senses, translates, and orchestrates market changes (buy- and sell-side markets) bidirectionally with near real-time data to align sell, deliver, make and sourcing organizations outside-in. Today’s supply chain processes are inside-out with a focus on orders and shipments. We have automated transactional data; but there are no systems available to take independent demand data (channel data) and move…
Functional silos define today’s supply chain organization. The silos compete. They lack alignment, and a result, cannot effectively collaborate. This lack of alignment is an impediment to improving balance sheet results. I am a product of traditional, silo-based thinking. My first job was in manufacturing in the 1980’s. I did not understand warehousing and transportation until reassignment to a logistics role in 1985. I needed to experience it to understand…
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