Category: Supply Chain

S&OP, Supply Chain

The Trusted Chain

In a recent online article on S&OP at Sony, http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/topics/Strategy/scq201101sony/, Vice president of Supply Chain Operations Yuka Yu uses the term ‘trusted chain’ rather then supply chain. According to Yu, this term emphasizes that the strong relationships between Sony and its partners depends on mutual trust and communication. As many of us will know, implementing CPFR and S&OP like Sony did, requires internal and external … Continue reading The Trusted Chain

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Supply Chain

The Supply Chain insight generator

Last week I was reading some research on global Supply Chains. The research itself had some great insight, but I just had problems with the way the insight was formulated. It seemed that every sentence that described the insight had to meet some complex linguistic criteria. Was it my own Denglish (Dutch-English) confusion or did supply chain get so complex overnight? Although I have been … Continue reading The Supply Chain insight generator

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Supply Chain

The value of certification

What’s the value of (Supply Chain) certification in times that MBAs can be done online, hardly facing another person during the course? According to Wikipedia, twice as many master degrees are awarded in the US as compared to the 1970s. Not all of the MBAs awarded will be of the same value as an INSEAD or Harvard MBA. A smart marketer would differentiate its brand … Continue reading The value of certification

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Supply Chain

Are you a leech or a seeder?

In peer to peer file sharing terminology a seeder is somebody who shares content like movies or music with his peers. A leech however, is a person who uses the kindness of the seeder and only downloads content for his own use, without adding or sharing content themselves. The same type of behaviour is visible in businesses and in our new way of communicating in … Continue reading Are you a leech or a seeder?

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Leadership, Supply Chain

Talk trends or lead trends

The new decade starts with economic recovery after the biggest economic downturn in our global economy since the internet bubble busted. Soon there will be enough money, confidence, interest and blind trust to start new trends and hypes, which many will follow, spend money on and some will make rich. Trend watchers, thought leaders and bloggers are coming up with the hottest and newest trends. … Continue reading Talk trends or lead trends

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Leadership, Supply Chain

The behavioural Supply Chain

Supply chain professionals love telling one another how important the supply chain is. In magazines, at congresses and online, we convince each other of the importance of our professional field. And as supply chain professionals, we can honestly be rather proud of how far we’ve come. From MRP and DRP via JIT and multi echelon inventory on to CPFR. From supply chain via demand chain … Continue reading The behavioural Supply Chain

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Supply Chain

Supply Chain trend of the decade

As we are at the start of a new decade we are still recovering from the largest worldwide economic crisis in generations and the latest flu pandemic, swine flu. It is worth thinking about what will be the Supply Chain trends for this new decade. What should, beside increased financial risk management be our focus and where do we have to excel to live through … Continue reading Supply Chain trend of the decade

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Supply Chain

The change paradox

In last year’s second edition of the McKinsey quarterly, an article about change management revealed that according to a 2008 McKinsey study of 3,199 executives around the world, only 30% of change transformations are successful. The article mentioned that the groundbreaking 1996 change study – Leading Change – from John Kotter, found the same success rate for change programs.  Although the scope of a change … Continue reading The change paradox

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