mThink

The difference between success and failure in many campaigns these days comes down to how well the conversion process has been optimized. But doing optimization well can feel complex and confusing. SEOgadget has put together a great infographic that takes you through 10 steps to making your next campaign profitable. You can see the full [...]

Increasingly unique and unpredictable customer demands for innovation, speed, quality and service compel supply chain participants to rapidly adopt new e-business practices. These practices allow companies to lower costs, increase velocity and drive new business, enabling them to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Creating a supply chain that fosters collaboration and offers [...]

Mapping customer delivery requirements against the realities of supply chain capability is often an endless source of friction. Demand forecasts are constantly changing, customer needs are ever more specific, and service requirements are rising in every industry. Growing overseas sourcing makes seasonal fluctuations tougher and places greater stress on intra- and inter-organizational communications. Supply chain integration has long promised to smooth the wrinkles between sales and operations planning.

ASCET: What has changed in Crate and Barrel’s inventory management process since 4R and Crate and Barrel began working together? Ed Rennemann (ER): We had not changed our store replenishing process since 1984. Historically, we have given our store managers the visibility to see what was available in the DC along with rates of sale [...]

We may never see a television series about supply chains. However, nearly everyone is familiar with Survivor, where the best players develop fast-changing strategies to outdo competitors and persevere through shifting conditions. “Outwit, outplay, outlast” is the show’s motto. So perhaps Survivor can be viewed as a good model – a template, in fact – [...]

Smart warfare. We never stop trying to fight battles better – to increase the effectiveness and lethality of our Marines when confronting the enemy. By doing so we accomplish our missions faster and save lives. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the battlefield, on a much less visible front, we never stop trying [...]

View The buzz surrounding radio frequency identification (RFID) is getting louder. Last week Wal-Mart announced that its initial use of radio-transmitting inventory tags has reduced out-of-stock merchandise by 16 percent at the company’s stores where those tags are in use. According to Linda Dillman, Wal-Mart’s chief information officer, the company is able to restock RFID-tagged [...]

The sales and operations planning (S&OP) process has been around for decades. I have discussed it in most of my presentations on demand planning and forecasting since the mid-1990s and have been polling audiences along the way. One-third of the early audiences were composed of individuals from companies that had implemented S&OP, while for recent [...]

Assessment Increasingly, OEMs, manufacturers and distributors are realizing that their decisions regarding demand, supply, capacity and products can carry unintended consequences. Often they make decisions without anticipating what prove to be inevitable trade-offs, such as the effect that taking an unplanned order may have on purchase cancellations and overall profitability. The source of the problem [...]