Today, I am proud to launch the Supply Chain Index. It is my hope that the readers of this blog will take time to either join us today to listen to the launch of the Supply Chain Index on our webinar or listen to the replay. (We will make the replay available on our website and in our community within 24 hours.) The Supply Chain Index has been two years…
Bait and switch: A form of fraud. A dishonest marketing tactic where a marketer advertises a very attractive value proposition and then switches the offer to something else after gaining interest by the buyer. Source Merriam-Webster Dictionary DDSN. DDSC. DDVN. CDSN. The acronyms keep coming…. The cadence does not stop. Everyone seems to have a new one. Today, they swirl in the market forming a fog. The term demand driven has become…
As they say in Mississippi, “Talk doesn’t cook the rice.” The essence of this colloquialism is that words have to be converted to action. It seems like yesterday that I transitioned to become an industry analyst. I have worked for Gartner Group, AMR Research, Altimeter Group and now my own company, Supply Chain Insights. I have now been an industry analyst in the supply chain management space for ten years. In this…
Last week, I attended the SAS Analyst Day at Steamboat Springs and the Logistics and SCM 2013 event in Las Vegas. (This event is owned and run by WIS Publications and features insights on SAP product developments and software.) I am currently doing research in the area of analytics (reference Supply Chain Insights Report, The Art of the Possible). I strongly believe that the future of supply chain management lies…
I have never been an athlete. At the age of 58, I buried my mother in November 2012. She died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. It was a long hard eight-year struggle that was tough on my family. One of the sad outcomes of the disease is that you don’t know how to grieve. The victim of Alzheimer’s slowly slips away. The person that you bury has very few resemblances to…
This week, I am grounded due to weather. So, I am spending my time writing. Music is blaring, my toe is tapping, and I am hard at work on what I love. I enjoy writing research. I am currently writing an article on supply chain excellence. The time off the road is allowing me to think more critically about the path that got us here, and about what drives supply chain…
Within an organization, the words “Demand Planning” stir emotions. Usually, it is not a mild reaction. Instead, it’s a series of emotions defined by wild extremes including anger, despair, disillusionment, or hopelessness. Seldom do we find a team excited about demand planning. Supply chain leaders want to improve it, but are not optimistic that they can make improvements. After two decades of process and technology refinement, excellence in demand management still eludes supply chain…
“A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” is an idiom of Biblical origin. It is used to describe those playing a role contrary to their real character, with whom contact is dangerous. – Wikipedia Buzz words filled the air at the NRF Big Show, held at the Javitz Convention Center in New York last week. The air was thick. Words like big data, omni-channel fulfillment, smarter commerce, mobility and customer-centric retail filled the room. I believe in each of these…
This week, I am attending the annual NRF event in New York. For those that have never been, it lives up to its claim of being a BIG show. Few attendees leave without blisters and the lines of people try your patience. Retailers packed the halls. I spoke yesterday on Big Data and signed some copies of the book that I have written, Bricks Matter. It is exciting to hold…
Usually in a fairy tale there is a big, bad wolf… or a hairy monster. One that is going to eat you up! In part one of this blog series, I started the saga of the supply chain fairy tale. It was a story where people believed that functional excellence leads to supply chain superiority. Year after year, well intentioned people toiled against improving metrics that reduced, not improved, the effectiveness…
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