You cannot manage supply chains. At the heart of an effective supply network is your IT system. As supply chains become a more critical part of successful businesses, so responsibility for the effectiveness of the supply network will rest with the supply chain vice president/ director/manager. Changes in the business climate will continue to force changes in business models; with … Read More
ERP systems may not give your business all the answers
Working within complex systems. Supply chain planners should be able to access more than transaction data from company IT systems. There is streaming data from instruments and unstructured data from the Internet. These are in increasing amounts; but can your current ERP system turn this additional data into information that is of value to planners? The selection and implementation of ERP … Read More
Know the Logistics Service Providers that support your business
Global trade and increased complexity. Global trade continues to increase, together with the length of trade routes, increasing the complexity of supply chains. This in turn, increases the reliance that shippers have on their logistics service providers (LSPs), that can change the power structure in supply chain relationships. There is an old saying which states ” It is not the … Read More
Speed the flow of money in your supply chains
Know more about your money flow. Aiming to be ‘excellent’ through the supply chains in which your business operates, requires that you address the three flows of each supply chain. A logistics professional is expected to know a lot about the flow of items, be they materials, components or finished products. Increasingly there is an expectation that knowledge of information … Read More
Your Supply Chains group will affect Working Capital
Be noticed at board level. To ensure the board of directors at your business take notice of Supply Chains and Logistics, the board must review financial performance measures that are the responsibility of the supply chain group. The most applicable measures are: cash flow, working capital and return on investment (ROI). Of these, working capital and its derivative, the cash … Read More