Articles
Supply Chain Technology
Staying Up to Speed with Non-Stop Demand
The demand side of the supply chain continues to undergo major changes in strategies and technologies. The scale of consumer demand—and the need for both accurate forecasting and a fast response to demand—acts as the driving force. Fast response time is king of the market. While the Internet has been given a lot of credit […]
Read MoreCapturing a ‘Supply Chain Moment’
A “Kodak moment” can be the moment that grandma sees the new baby or Aunt Helen gives the proud graduate a check. What is a “supply chain moment”? The supply chain deals with a very complex set of technologies and issues. Technologies are stacked over the supply chain like planes over O’Hare on Thanksgiving. Any […]
Read MoreReaching the Pinnacle of SCM Success
Leading supply chain software developers are taking a more creative and inventive view of intelligent practice in applying their solutions. The idea of one company doing it all is usually dismissed; many SCM providers are now carving out niches of specialization. But one company is taking a different approach—many companies under one parent offering an […]
Read MorePositioning the Supply Chain in a Volatile Market
The supply chain and its attendant technology is a warp-speed moving target that responds to enterprise strategy changes, the intelligent moves and vagaries of the Big Six accounting firms, the latest acronyms of the supply chain consulting community, and the shifting forces of the marketplace. The need for faster response time alone has ushered in […]
Read MoreRichter’s Model for Success
The merging of global sourcing and transportation with industry-specific manufacturing creates a golden opportunity for software providers. The apparel and fashion business in particular is prime territory. Staking its claim to this territory is Richter Systems Inc., based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1968, Richter focuses its software applications on the apparel industry. “The apparel […]
Read MoreQUALCOMM: Managing Information in Motion
While many technologies have been brought to bear on the supply chain, none have exceeded the importance of the advances in communication. It is all right and good to get products resourced, manufactured and distributed, but if the level of communication to accomplish these tasks is not of the highest order, business is not being […]
Read MoreTaking a Community Network Approach to the Supply Chain
The increasing growth of e-commerce is not just augmenting normal business practice; it is changing how people do business and what kind of business they do. The necessities of global sourcing, global selling, global manufacturing, global logistics and global distribution have placed managing a successful business in a whole new context. RockPort Trade Systems, Gloucester, […]
Read MoreMcHugh’s Road Leads to Integrated Logistics System
There are as many roads to supply chain management as roads to Rome. One road is to concentrate on integrating the various levels of logistics execution—such as warehouse management, distribution management, labor management and transportation management—which allow the product to move from its point of origin to its consumption as fast as possible, at the […]
Read MoreA Supply Chain Alliance for Progress
No single LIT vendor can meet every need of every user within the supply chain. But there’s strength in numbers. Paragon Management Systems, EDS/A.T. Kearney, Sun Microsystems, and Selectica have formed an interesting alliance offering a complete supply chain solution. Each company brings something vital to the table. Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif., provides the […]
Read MoreCrossdocking: The Supply Chain Core
Crossdocking has become a key technology in handling products and packages properly within the supply chain. For crossdocking to come of age, certain technologies had to be firmly in place, including portable and fixed bar-code equipment, data collection terminals, software applications, a dedicated database, a network or a combination of network and radio frequency devices. […]
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