Supply Chain Management Blog : Supply Chain

Closing the Loop, The Operational Side of Things

christianverstraete — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:41:00 GMT

In Supply Chain, we have to keep the business flowing, regardless of the variations in demand. Integrating key partners, sharing information and events, using dashboards and identifying alternative options to react to the unexpected help operations and...(read more)

Closing the Loop, Optimizing the Supply Chain

christianverstraete — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:50:00 GMT

I'd like to start a series of blog entries titled "Close the Loop" and addressing how, through a better use of supply chain information, companies can improve their operations, creating a more agile ecosystem while reducing risk. In this...(read more)

The Cost of Cloud

christianverstraete — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:33:00 GMT

Does the cost of cloud computing limits the usability of a community cloud to support a supply chain? This is really the question I'd like to address today. Last April, McKinsey and last September, IDC have done an exercise of costing the difference...(read more)

Culture and the Supply Chain

christianverstraete — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:10:00 GMT

In my previous post, I spoke about the tangibles and intangibles of Supply Chain Collaboration , but intentionally did not address one element, the cultural aspects of Supply Chain Collaboration. Companies have increased the outsourcing of their manufacturing...(read more)

The Tangibles and Intangibles of Supply Chain Collaboration

christianverstraete — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:38:00 GMT

The latest recession has gotten a profound impact on many supply chains and forced rethinking strategies . In a quest to reducing costs, many have diminished safety buffers, established lean thinking, and redesigned their flows. In that process they have...(read more)

Is Supply Chain Data safe in the Cloud?

christianverstraete — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:28:00 GMT

At the Gartner Symposium, last week, HP's CEO Mark Hurd was quoted about the lack of security in the Cloud . This is only one of the voices heard about cloud computing security. So, should we stop thinking about linking our partners in the cloud to...(read more)

End-to-End Supply Chain and Metrics

christianverstraete — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Last week, I was in Singapore at the SCM Logistics World 2009 . My presentation was around how to build a weatherproof Supply Chain through the increase of visibility across the ecosystem. Having talked about the subject previously on this blog, I'd...(read more)

Could Community Clouds improve Supply Chain Collaboration?

christianverstraete — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:17:00 GMT

As President Obama announces a cloud computing initiative for the US , it is interesting to note that in their definition of Cloud Computing , the federal government includes an interesting deployment model, called community cloud. In their definition...(read more)

Don't forget the Cloud Supply Chain

christianverstraete — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:09:00 GMT

There are an increasing number of cloud based Supply Chain services, offered as SaaS, appearing on the market. But that is not the subject of this blog entry. Actually the question is way simpler. Are you aware of all the players participating in providing...(read more)

Merging Supply Chains, lessons learned

christianverstraete — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:23:00 GMT

A couple weeks ago I received the Quarter 2/2009 release of CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly, where I found a really interesting article titled: " When Supply Chains merge: 5 mistakes to avoid " by Harpal Singh. Reading the article, I was...(read more)

Building an ecosystem information backbone

christianverstraete — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:19:00 GMT

A couple posts ago, I discussed the role of IT in manufacturing outsourcing . I'd like to come back to this topic, and discuss more in details the need for a cross-enterprise backbone allowing the companies members of the ecosystem to share information...(read more)

Ecosystem collaboration, from tools to an integrated approach

christianverstraete — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:13:00 GMT

Delays encountered by both Airbus and Boeing have demonstrated the importance of cross-enterprise collaborations as eco-systems become increasingly global and complex. As both companies continue battling for the number one position, they rely increasingly...(read more)

Trade-offs between Supply and Demand

christianverstraete — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:45:00 GMT

A lot is written about S&OP, Sales & Operations Planning , and I will not resume it here, but S&OP only goes as far. Fundamentally what COE's are confronted with is balancing supply and demand to maximize revenues while delighting customers...(read more)

Should Manufacturing Companies move to the Cloud?

christianverstraete — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:13:00 GMT

As already stated in earlier entries, the Cloud started with Web 2.0 and the Social Networking phenomena. Since, it has taken a life of its own, and is attracting many SMB's (Small and Medium Businesses) allowing them to fully rely on a cloud provider...(read more)

Cloud Computing in Manufacturing

christianverstraete — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:02:00 GMT

I have been asked to write a short page on the potential role of Cloud Computing in Manufacturing and would like to share with you some of my findings in this area. First, let me remind you that HP works with a very specific definition of Cloud Computing...(read more)