When we talk about supply chains, we may conjure up images of manufacturing plants, warehouses, trucks, and shipping docks. There is another, truly unique supply chain for a product vitally important to healthcare and life, and it is very volatile at the moment: the blood supply chain.

Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing. Business customers tend to be fewer in number, and each is more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one. But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, vs. the competition? How do you prevent defection?

Let’s look at seven strategic approaches to retention marketing that, in judicious combination, can enhance the retention of the business customer base and, in turn, drive additional revenue and profit.

Chinese goods seem to be everywhere these days. Consider this: At the Olympics in Rio this summer, Chinese companies supplied the mascot dolls; much of the sports equipment; the security surveillance system; and the uniforms for the volunteers, technical personnel, and even the torch-bearers.

Change is inevitable in every organization. Planned or not, forces inside and outside the enterprise can sometimes encumber a workforce and lead to nonvalue-added processes. Growing spurts, major technology implementations, or even small supply-chain organizational projects can present more issues than expected. However, when a company has a proactive improvement program in place, one that uses lean manufacturing and Six Sigma principles and tools, potential roadblocks can be identified and eliminated.

Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.

Disruption is a funny thing. You see it coming—kind of—but it’s hard to tell what it means. Back in the day, would you have foreseen the shift from taxis to Uber? Would you have predicted that HVAC units would be offered as a service rather than purchased as a product? These disruptive changes and many more were driven through use of the cloud, connectivity, machine learning, and mobile apps as important technologies that enabled digital transformation and the industrial internet of things (IIoT).

ASQ has recently offered a new certification, Certified Supplier Quality Professional, specifically for those quality professionals dealing with suppliers. Who are these professionals? Most often the “who” depends on the size of the company.

In today’s global supply chain, shipping a product across the world isn’t as simple as loading it onto a truck, train, or boat and signing a few papers. International shipments often involve coordination between counterparts in the countries of origin and destination, complete and accurate paperwork required for those nations and any in between, physical locations chosen strategically, and capital to create a solid supply chain with redundancies.

A production part approval process (PPAP) is used by companies to establish confidence and rules in a production process. In a sense, it gives customers a view into their suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities.