Operations Rules News - Aggregated operations and supply chain news site

Many companies are working on building out the foundational components of an end-to-end supply chain across disparate businesses, focusing on improving core supply chain functions, and creating more common processes and systems across them. More-advanced companies describe a wide range of initiatives that build on the foundation, including end-to-end supply chain segmentation, simplification, cost-to-serve analytics, multitier visibility and supply network optimization.

Increased competition for components could lead to price rises. It could also cause product launches being delayed, which can be a major blow in a field as competitive as the smartphone and tablet market. HTC was forced to delay the full launch of its flagship smartphone the HTC One in March due to a shortage of cameras. Analysts say that this has led to poor financial results for the Taiwanese firm, which is increasingly lagging behind the competition.

Dozens of impoverished countries make T-shirts and other very basic clothing. But only a few countries — really just China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and to some extent Cambodia and Pakistan — have developed highly complex systems for producing and shipping tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of identical, high-quality shirts, blouses or trousers to a global retailer within several weeks of receiving an order.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts.

Big retailers discovered long ago that controlling the supply chain benefited their bottom lines, which is why companies like Wal-Mart and Whole Foods sell many products under their own brands.

In the early phases, the costs are high. “But in the future, printing will allow us to be incredibly efficient by making products on-demand and eliminating large chunks of a traditional supply chain”

Have Burger King or any of the other horse meat scandal tainted brands told us why we should trust them? Addressing such issues is certainly a communications challenge, but the real strategic focus needs to be on doing real stuff first.

Consumers are increasingly alarmed that failures and abuses of this convoluted supply chain mean they have little idea what they are eating and whether it is safe. Horsemeat has ended up in so-called beef lasagnes in the UK and other parts of Europe.

The big novelty of this historic moment is that our lives are now mediated through data-collecting computers. In this world, data can be used to make sense of mind-bogglingly complex situations. Data can help compensate for our overconfidence in our own intuitions and can help reduce the extent to which our desires distort our perceptions. But there are many things big data does poorly.

Unexpected events have prompted some companies to modify the popular just-in-time style of doing business, in which only small amounts of inventory are kept on hand, to fashion what is known as just-in-case management

Shoppers have become accustomed to the steady stream of colorful clothing that so-called fast-fashion apparel chains churn out. But worker rights advocates say fast fashion has another, darker cost: Demands for constant product turns may be putting workers’ lives at risk.

Samsung has emerged as a potent challenger to Apple, the top consumer electronics maker. The two companies are the only ones turning profits in the highly competitive mobile phone industry, with Apple taking 72 percent of the earnings and Samsung the rest.

Security cameras are watching honest shoppers, too

Drones could revolutionize small freight delivery for both densely congested urban areas and less populated locations that are difficult to access.

Coke has perfected a top-secret methodology it calls Black Book to make sure consumers have consistent orange juice 12 months a year, even though the peak growing season lasts about three months. It is an algorithm that requires analyzing up to 1 quintillion decision variables to consistently deliver the optimal blend.

New research asserts that – contrary to long-held beliefs – reducing supply chain barriers and improving infrastructure could boost global GDP and world trade much more than cutting import tariffs and other customs restrictions.