All Features
Joby George
Driven by market expansion, financial pressures, and the need to accelerate innovation, today’s manufacturers have expanded their global operations and supply partners. This evolution has only amplified the manufacturer and supply-chain relationship, which is often characterized by a delicate…
Giles Hutchins
Globalization, disruptive technologies, pressure on finite resources, increasing social disparity, and demand for business transparency: Enter the age of uncertainty. These transformative times are reshaping the workplace in profound ways, demanding the crossing of thresholds at myriad levels. …
MIT News
In March 2011, Leonardo Bonanni was preparing to defend his Ph.D. thesis about Sourcemap, software that lets consumers map every connection of a product supply chain on a digital map, when tragedy struck in Japan. Although the deadly earthquake and tsunami occurred half a world away, the events…
In the race to design smaller handheld devices and smartphones, a key factor is decreasing the sizes of components. As the demand for thinner and lighter microelectronic devices increases, manufacturers often are limited by how oddly shaped the energy sources must become to make them conform to…
Thomas R. Cutler
It’s no surprise that multinational companies have complex global supply chains. What’s less obvious is how to simplify supply-chain processes and arrive at a lean, consistent, reliable, and cost-effective solution. One global leader, ITT Corp., has taken on this challenge with the help of Ultriva…
Manufacturing Extension Partnership MEP
Whether it’s for performance management or for risk, it’s important to know who your suppliers are and have a close business relationship with them.
It’s a given you should already have a strong relationship with your key suppliers, but how often does your supplier request the following items? •…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working with drugmakers in a new way to help the industry adopt scientifically sound, novel technologies to produce quality medicines that are consistently safe and effective—with an eye toward avoiding drug shortages.
When manufacturing problems…
Ryan E. Day
The words “plastic,” “polymers,” and “environmental responsibility” rarely bump consonants in the same sentence, but public sentiment and keen competition can nudge a company into exploring all kinds of plastic substitutes. Of course, a $160 price tag on a barrel of oil is also rather compelling.…
Dawn Bailey
I heard the example that best helped me understand work systems and supply chains at a Baldrige training event right after the very sad 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A colleague was talking about automakers in the United States and elsewhere whose suppliers were located in the devastated…
Sonal Sinha
In a recent poll, employees (22.9%) were identified as the top source of supply chain fraud risk, followed by vendors (17.4%) and other third parties (20.1%), including subcontractors and their vendors. In calling new attention to the old cliché of “an inside job,” the statistics may prove to be…
Lou Washington
I came across a couple of interesting articles related to the Airbus plant that recently opened in Mobile, Alabama. The first, by Justin Fox, is found in BloombergView, and the second was written by Jon Talton from The Seattle Times. Both pieces sought to explain why Airbus would build an assembly…
Brian Lagas
Embracing sustainable and green principles is not just a trend. Cultivating such practices helps organizations become more efficient, competitive, and profitable. It’s more than simply a good thing to do. Manufacturers are realizing the many short- and long-term financial benefits from…
John Niggl
On the morning of Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, I woke to find dozens of posts from netizens clamoring about events that had occurred late the night before. There had been two massive explosions reported from a warehouse in Tianjin, a prominent port city in northern China.
Shockwaves were felt several…
Sonal Sinha
Competitive pressures affecting bottom-line profit margins have risen dramatically in today’s global economy. As a result, an increasing number of U.S. companies have turned to outsourcing of goods and services to reduce manufacturing and operational costs.
Although international supply chain…
Ryan E. Day
True, “Marco Polo” is a great tag game played in a swimming pool, but Marco Polo the man is probably better known in connection with the trans-Asiatic trade route known as the Silk Road. That, however, was the old Silk Road. Yes, there is a new Silk Road, and no, it shouldn’t be confused with the…
Benjamin Mack
Suppliers play a major role in bringing products to market. This means that the product received from suppliers must be safe and of the highest possible quality, which is a must because stakeholders not only rely on their suppliers to help bring products to market—they also rely on them to help…
Ron Brown
Consumer packaged goods companies have a number of challenges to face in the global marketplace, including managing higher costs of raw materials and labor, complying with global regulatory requirements, and capturing market share through mergers and acquisitions. They also need to determine how…
Joe Humm
Many hands and companies touch the materials required to get a finished product to market. With the growth of supplier networks and contract suppliers, much of the quality process is out of the manufacturer’s control. If materials shipped from any vendor aren’t up to spec and a faulty product…
Rich Thomas
Manufacturers may be able to produce their products more cheaply overseas, but that option has its pitfalls, including supply-chain logistics and security issues. When deciding how and where to manufacture your product, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons carefully. Particularly for small…
Jordan Katz
For suppliers, one question comes up again and again in their distributor relationships: Should you treat your distributors like employees, or should you treat them more like customers? The answer isn’t always clear.
Distributors seem like employees because they sell and deliver a supplier’s…
Steve Banker
What resolutions are you making in the New Year to improve your supply chain? Here are a few of mine.
To remember that supply chains should be built backward from the customer
One way to do this is to use a perfect order metric as a key way of measuring the supply chain organization. The question…
Calin Moldovean
T
he modern supply chain is becoming more complex, and many different levels of skill and oversight are found among suppliers and purchasing companies. Some suppliers do an excellent job of implementing lessons learned and maintaining a high level of quality, production, and safety. Other…
Sonal Sinha
There’s a reason why companies like Coca-Cola, Disney, Gap, and GE consistently rank among the world’s most admired organizations—and it has to do with more than just the strength of their products and services.
These companies have demonstrated their commitment to the local communities and…
Danei Edelen
Manufacturers today report that their biggest challenge is satisfying customers who demand more detailed product information. For larger companies with many suppliers and remote locations, this is an important issue.
To maintain profitability, manufacturers rely on production automation, and in …
Andrew Savini
Global supply chains are growing significantly larger and more complex for many companies across the globe. At the same time, the regulatory environment is quickly evolving, requiring these companies to have more visibility into the behaviors and practices of their suppliers. As a result, elements…