Articles
Lean Supply Chain
Lean Six Sigma in Supply Chain: Definition, Importance, and Implementation
Lean Six Sigma blends rigorous quality controls with strategies to cut inefficiencies, making it a top choice for improving supply chain operations. It roots out waste and enhances product consistency by merging the strengths of Lean methodologies and Six Sigma principles. This approach not only sharpens competitive edges but also ensures products and services meet […]
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Back(haul) to the Future
Backhauling is a logistics strategy in which commercial truck drivers transport a load on their trip back to their origin point. It is the opposite of deadheading, which is when drivers make the return trip with an empty truck.
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Sustain the Chain With Technology
Today, more than ever, it is important that we build sustainable supply chains that positively impact business, society, and the planet. To meet customer expectations and be truly sustainable, organizations must ensure responsible business practices internally and across the entire value chain.
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Lean Supply Chain: Definition, Advantages, and Disadvantages
In today’s highly competitive business environment, a lean supply chain is more than just a strategy; it’s necessary for companies looking to enhance efficiency and customer value. By employing lean principles that originated from the Toyota Production System, businesses across various sectors are streamlining their supply chains to reduce waste, improve customer satisfaction, and gain […]
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Small Businesses Need Supply Chain Planning Tools, Too
Supply chain technology vendors historically have paid little attention to the planning needs of small “mom and pop” businesses. That’s surprising, considering there are approximately 32 million such businesses in the United States, with 2.7 million in the retail trade alone, according to the 2019 U.S. Census.
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Reader Interview: Integrated Supply Network’s Theron Neese
Theron Neese is chief operating officer with Integrated Supply Network (ISN), a Lakeland, Florida-based distributor of automotive tools and equipment.
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Autonomous at Last?
One of the most difficult and expensive areas of the supply chain is last-mile and home delivery. It can also be the most memorable and important aspect of the customer’s buying experience. So, it’s no surprise that last-mile delivery of goods is a key application for driverless technologies.
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Don’t Blame Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing has been blamed for the recent supply chain crisis, with critics claiming lean and just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing encouraged extremely low inventories of raw materials and components. When the pandemic arrived, and supplies were disrupted, manufacturers had to stop production due to material shortages. This had cascading effects all the way down the supply […]
Read MoreJust In Time to Near-Source or Nearly Time to In-Source?
As the global economy grows more complex, the concepts of in-sourcing and near-sourcing are receiving increased attention from many supply chain professionals.
Read MoreThe Supply Chain: It’s Alive! It’s Alive!
In some ways, the supply chain of today is a living, breathing organism. It’s not just links and nodes on a map, but a blend of digital and/or analog data, machines, and yes, real people who are constantly moving and adapting.
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The Future of the Supply Chain is Cloudy
We hear a lot about the cloud these days. The cloud (public or private) refers to software and services that run on the Internet instead of locally on your computer. There is a good chance that the majority of business data will eventually reside in the cloud.
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Lean Isn’t Mean and Agile Isn’t Cheap
Back in 2014, I wrote a column extolling the benefits of a lean and agile supply chain, also known as a hybrid strategy. Depending on your product or service, your supply chain may tilt more one way or the other, or it might be segmented but still exhibit characteristics of both. For example, if you […]
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How can retailers compete with the logistics dominance of the e-commerce behemoths?
Don’t view this as a competition with e-commerce behemoths, but as another sales channel in your omnichannel strategy. Treat it as such and develop your strategy to provide differentiation on customer service and trust to be able to drive direct sales, while still leveraging other channels to build brand awareness. —Scott Hebert CEO SYSPRO USA […]
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Follow the Sun
Arch Thomason basks in a mentor list 33 names long, lean principles, servant leadership, and a talented team to keep Sunland Logistics Solutions shining bright.
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Demand Accuracy In Your Supply Chain
During the pandemic, a lot of the focus on supply chain tended to be on the supply side, and rightly so, due to the highly publicized sourcing, production, distribution, and transportation issues. As a result, organizations continue to look to increase productivity, flexibility, and agility through programs such as Lean, increased automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and others.
Read MoreDoes Lean Have a Limit?
Since the 1980s, the supply chain industry has enthusiastically embraced just-in-time (JIT) inventory management and lean manufacturing in the search for cost optimization. This resulted in highly streamlined processes and impressive efficiencies. But in the past year, we’ve seen there are limits to lean operations—one being we need the ability to adapt quickly when unexpected […]
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The Road Map Out of This Mess
For years, I have been a proponent of operating a lean and agile supply chain, but some now say the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the shortcomings of a supply chain that is perhaps too lean. To be “lean,” however, doesn’t mean maintaining extremely low inventory levels with no coordination or backup plan. It also appears […]
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Bringing End-2-End Efficiency to Your Logistics Operations
With economic consequences from COVID-19 and other resulting challenges, companies are looking for ways to manage more efficiently with less—while reallocating resources to more productive activities and maximizing freight spend value. Logistics operations are a great place to start, as even the smallest percentage savings could mean triple-digit impact to bottom lines. These operations are […]
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The View From the Control Tower
As discussed in my last column, Integrated Business Planning (IBP) is a process that uses “outside-in” thinking by integrating demand forecasts, supply plans, inventory projections, and financial plans into one medium-term strategic model. That’s a great starting point. But the leading-edge way to manage your short- to mid-term global supply chain in real time (or […]
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IBP and Lean: A Match Made in Heaven
Acknowledging that we are in a “whitewater rapids” phase of today’s global economy, and hence supply chain, leads us to the question: Who is steering the ship and how?
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