Category: Supply Chain Trends
Christmas is Canceled?! Supply Chain Impacts
Just when you thought the supply chain couldn’t get any worse, CHRISTMAS IS CANCELED!
Supply Chain Disruptions Ripple from War in Ukraine
As the 2nd quarter of 2022 approaches, the world continues to confront massive supply chain disruptions. Oddly, 2022 showed some promise of calm and stability in world markets. The latest Covid surge was slowing, allowing for production and manufacturing to return to normal in southeast Asia. American ports were finding relief in their previously heavily congested cargo bays and berths. The American economy continued adding jobs and surging ahead with strong earnings and low unemployment. The rest of the world started to echo these moves. And then a disruption that has threatened to crater these gains: War. Russia invades [...]
Omicron and the Supply Chain
An already stressed supply chain labor pool Impacted by Covid19 The combination of lockdowns, shift in ecommerce buying habits fueled by government cash injections, an already depleted labor force, and production evolutions with real time issues like a Suez Canal blockage created a perfect storm of supply chain issues. Now, the world faces further issues due to omicron and the supply chain. Let’s start with the labor force. A US Census article from November 2020 forecasts a manufacturing labor shortage due to the average age of manufacturers being 55 and above. In 2015, two thirds of the US workforce [...]
Diversity in Supply Chain – (DEI) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Supply Chains
Managing diversity in your company’s supply chain workforce can be challenging. However, the overall benefits of a diverse workforce improve your company’s worth. In business, the bottom line indicates the health and growth of a company. Most return on investment (ROI) numbers can be calculated fairly easily, but there are some intangibles that improve ROI and aren’t so easy to correlate. One such “intangible” is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in a company’s workforce. In this article, we make a case for actively pursuing DEI (sometimes called just D&I for Diversity and Inclusion), in supply chains and business. Multiple guests on the Supply Chain Careers Podcast have emphasized how diverse backgrounds and viewpoints positively enhance the ability for supply chain [...]
Outstanding Operations Leadership Program: O2L
Operations Leadership Program (O2L) - Introduction Extensive research on the performance of Fortune 500 companies has shown that the key to driving sustainable long-term performance is to place an equal emphasis on the performance and “health” of an organization.1 The research notes that companies that balance the two outperform their peers by three-fold. In this context, “organizational health” refers to all the systems, processes, and cultural elements that are a part of executing the business priorities. An example from a recent engagement is expanding the S&OP process to manage inventory build-up to support new business development. This led to improved [...]
7 Strategies to Navigate the Trade and Tariff Volatility
Ever since the first tariffs were enacted on imports from China, many retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers have been in a panicked state. The tariffs have increased import prices on various products, leading to the choice for companies to absorb the costs themselves or pass onto consumers. This has also driven down consumer confidence as well, which is contributing to a slowing economy. Even with the talk of rollbacks, both economies have already suffered billions of dollars of losses. One recent study shows the tariffs threaten almost 1.5 million US jobs and more than $180 billion of nationwide economic activity. So, [...]
