Over the past several weeks, encouraging news has emerged for some of us in the supply chain business and should have many others wondering if they’ve planned accordingly. The media tends to focus on the doom and gloom, but let’s focus on a few bright spots and opportunities that signal the better times around the corner.

Retailers have been on an emotional roller coaster trying to balance prudent business decisions with inconsistent consumer demand. In fact, many would rather forego sales rather than run the risk of carrying too much inventory. Frankly, I think that’s an overly cautious strategy that illustrates poor planning and inadequate forecasting in inventory management. There are far too many tools available where leaving money on the table is simply not an option. For example, collaborative flowcasting provides a high-level of visibility so that changes at the store level are immediately visible to the manufacturer. I’ve often talked about the importance...

Disruptions in the supply chain are not uncommon whether they are due to human influences or Mother Nature. China hasn’t been immune to these types of disruptions, but as of late, these have typically been due to production quality issues—until now. The economic success may finally be catching up as the cheap labor force there may no longer be so cheap. In the past two weeks, worker stoppages at supplier factories have been severe enough to halt auto production at Toyota and Honda plants. Could this be a sign of things to come? It’s definitely worth close attention as the busy season starts and the floating Yuan goes into effect.

China’s labor force is the largest in the world, and with such a large pool, worker salaries are low ($191/month for the average worker at an auto parts supplier). A few weeks earlier, a factory owned by Foxconn which manufacturers Apple iPhones also came under scrutiny for the long hours and questionable working conditions employees faced,...

Here we are near the midway of 2010, and many of us are still struggling to get a grasp of this economic recovery. Plenty of different government reports are available and depending on which one you happen to come across or the day, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a solid bet. Of course, the best measurement is the state of your own financial life because that’s ultimately the only gauge that matters.

From a business perspective, that’s why the Gartner annual supply chain study is especially interesting, if not redundant this year. Why redundant? Frankly, the same obstacles that have hindered survey respondents in the past continue to be same obstacles this year. The three top barriers preventing companies from achieving their supply chain goals are forecast accuracy, supply chain network complexity, and lack of internal collaboration and visibility.

This begs the question “What are companies actually doing when these are the same...

Inventory is an area that businesses of all types deal and struggle with on a regular basis. Regardless of whether you’re dealing with items such as office supplies that are used internally to equipment sold to customers, that is inventory. Typically we manage inventory as it travels within the supply chain or as it sits in a facility in order to reduce costs. But, avoiding unnecessary and extra inventory in the first place is probably the most effective and fastest way to see results.

Common sense tells us that extra inventory is eventually sold or jettisoned, but the time before that happens can be costly. When you hold inventory, it’s a cost that ties up capital, wastes valuable storage space and ultimately impacts the bottom line. Rick Pay provides some food for thought in his article discussing the importance and tools for avoiding obsolete inventory. The fundamental message here is that advanced planning now can save plenty of money and frustration down...

Today is the start of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference here in San Francisco, and we all know that Steve Jobs always gives fans something to get excited about. The Apple iPad, (and you can probably now add a newly revamped iPhone to that list), has no doubt become the runaway hit this year selling more than 2 million units in less than two months. Analysts are already predicting sales to exceed 6 million for 2010.

Of course, the degree of success heavily depends on the supply chain especially in Apple’s case. AMR Research recently published its Supply Chain Top 25, and Apple was named the #1 company for a third consecutive year. The list is determined based on a number of variables including ROI, efficient SC management, revenue growth and peer feedback.

All you have to do is look at the impact of the iPhone on the ultra competitive mobile device space and Apple’s ability to provide an ample supply of product worldwide. From overseas...