Kinaxis once again positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record

MikeMcAllister

It’s important to be recognized, in life, and in business.

Gartner Magic Quadrant SCP SOR

That’s why we’re particularly excited to share the news of Gartner’s most recent research, the 2018 Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record. In it, Gartner positions Kinaxis as a Leader for the third consecutive time, providing what we think is some pretty weighty validation for our vision of what a supply chain planning platform should be.

Gartner defines an SCP SOR as a planning platform that “enables a company to create, visualize, manage, link, align, collaborate and share its planning data across a supply chain. The platform encompasses demand plan creation, the supply-side response, and detailed operational and tactical-level planning.”1

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Gamification ideas in business: Your way to a more efficient supply chain

EmilyHunt

Gamification ideas in business: Your way to a more efficient supply chainSimply put, gamification involves the application of game design elements in a business setting. Gamification uses both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to encourage users to perform at their best, fostering engagement through tactics ranging from simple – such as a progress bar, to those that are more complex – such as loyalty programs and immersive storytelling.

When gamification in business is deployed to the right audience and provides the right motivation, significant engagement follows. Take for example Volkswagen’s 2011 “People’s Car Project” in China for which the aim was to inspire the imagination of its followers by allowing them to design their own cars. Because of this project, vw.com gained 33 million hits and generated 119,000 ideas.

Which is great. But how could gamification be applied to a supply chain?

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Transitioning to Digital Supply Networks

MikeMcAllister

supply networksBy APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE

This article was originally published on apics.org, and is republished with permission.

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, supply chain professionals are expected to embrace many new technologies – from artificial intelligence and robotics to predictive analytics and cloud computing. To best integrate these technologies and share information among buyers, suppliers and partners, supply chain professionals also need to reshape their supply chains into digital supply networks (DSNs). New insights from Deloitte reveal that, although companies are aware of this necessary shift, not all of them are ready for it.

According to article authors Stephen Laaper, Glenn Yauch, Paul Wellener and Ryan Robinson, a DSN enables the integration of data from various sources to better inform production and distribution. A traditional supply chain often is visualized as a rigid, linear arrangement of supply chain partners that handle the different primary management processes of plan, source, make, deliver, return and enable. Each member of the traditional supply chain might share data with one other member, but that’s the extent of the integration. A DSN, the authors explain, has a flexible, matrix-like structure that allows the different players and processes of a supply chain to all share data with each other.

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Indiana Jones and the supply chain bullwhip effect

JoeCannata

Indiana Jones and the supply chain bullwhip effectAccording to the European Journal of Operational Research, the term ‘bullwhip effect’ was first coined by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the 1990s in reference to the order variance amplification phenomenon observed between P&G and its suppliers.”

A small shift in customer demand essentially cracks the whip, and the further a supplier is from the demand, the more significant the impact, which inevitably leads to increasing swings in inventory for suppliers.

This question of demand management led me to wonder if any bullwhip manufacturer or supplier ever ran into a situation that caused them to experience the bullwhip effect in their own supply chains.

How ironic would that be?

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How demand planning can quench our thirst for beer

MikeMcAllister

World Cup and hot summer combine to create beer bottle shortage for German brewers

On the heels of a carbon dioxide (CO2) shortage in the UK that caused some breweries to ration beer production, Germany’s long, hot summer and the revelry surrounding the World Cup have combined with suboptimal demand forecasting to create a significant shortage of beer bottles, causing breweries large and small to plea to customers to return their empties.

Case in point: Germany’s Moritz Fiege…

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The sharing economy: An effective model for supply chain management?

EmilyHunt

The sharing economy: An effective model for supply chain management?The sharing economy involves buying and selling temporary access to goods or services, usually arranged through an online platform. It is inevitably becoming a major source of revenue in today’s global economy, led by the likes of Uber and Airbnb. By using new digital platforms, the sharing economy has created an effective business model for the utilization of goods and availability of services.

To break it down a bit, the sharing economy leverages peer-to-peer, business-to-peer, and business-to-business connections to implement lending, accommodation, transportation, staffing and even music and video streaming services.

But what does the success of the sharing economy have to do with to supply chain management?

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Celebrating and Encouraging Women in Supply Chain

MikeMcAllister

Women in Supply ChainBy APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE

Since 2012, The Manufacturing Institute has celebrated women in manufacturing with its STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Ahead Awards, which recognize women in manufacturing who exemplify leadership within their companies. This April marked the sixth STEP Ahead Awards, and, once again, APICS was proud to co-sponsor the event.

STEP Ahead is a national honor that identifies the best women in manufacturing, including supply chain, and further encourages women to mentor and support the next generation of female talent to pursue these promising and fulfilling careers. On the evening of the event, STEP Ahead recognized 100 Honorees and 30 Emerging Leaders at a gala in Washington, D.C.

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Themes from the 2018 SCM World Leaders Forum

Dr. MadhavDurbha

SCM World Leaders Forum - Photo via SCMWorld.com

“Thick data” vs big data, the power of the supply chain profession, and cybersecurity

I just returned from a very inspiring 2018 SCM World Leaders Forum in London. While I attend several supply chain conferences in any given year, SCM World is a favorite of mine for a couple of reasons.

For one, this is a power-packed forum with the who’s who of supply chain in attendance. The executives in charge of supply chains for some of the most admirable companies from around the world were in attendance. With approximately 200 professionals in attendance the event is rather exclusive, which provides plenty of one-on-one networking opportunities.

Here are the major themes from the forum:

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