Avoiding the E-Commerce Trap
If companies are to reap the full benefits of electronic commerce, they must redesign their logistics systems so that physical distribution processes work more efficiently.
Content: Article | Authors: Alberto Grando, Marco Gosso | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations
What to Move Offshore? Selecting IT Activities for Offshore Locations
Going offshore has become less a strategic advantage and more a competitive necessity. Pioneering firms are adopting more aggressive plans and the followers are struggling to keep up. Approaches that were leading edge just two years ago are little more than an entry ticket today. By all projections, offshoring should continue to see unprecedented growth and will dominate business strategies in the coming months and … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO
Offshoring/Outsourcing: Fragile – Handle With Care
Trumpeted across the headlines we have all heard about how American business has been cutting costs and seeking other benefits by moving some of its business processes to locations in other countries. But as some companies like Ford and Dell have discovered, there are risks and costs to sending part of your business to an outsourced provider. Before taking action, managers can learn from the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: A. Rao, K McKone-Sweet, W. Costello | Source: Babson Insight | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
Technology and the Value Chain
Making It Work
How to avoid some common offshoring blunders — and what to do when you can’t.
Content: Article | Author: Roy Harris | Source: CFO Publishing | Subjects: International, Outsourcing / BPO
What Drives Supply Chain Behavior?
Surprise: Managers are not always rational decision makers. In this interview, professors Rogelio Oliva and Noel Watson discuss how human behavior affects supply chain coordination.
Content: Article | Author: Sarah Jane Johnston | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Operations, Organizational Behavior
How Many Supply Chains Do You Need? Matching Supply Chain Strategies to Products and Customers Products and Customers
In the field of supply chains, there are many different strategies, fads and cures for a variety of problems. There is an abundance of information that outlines every new concept and idea on how to improve supply chain performance. But what works for one company or industry will not necessarily work for another. Given the diverse needs of different industries and businesses, one-size-fits-all or try-everything-until-something-sticks … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Operations, Strategy
The ABCs of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
If something really nasty happened, could your business get back up and running? More important, how would you continue to make money? Here’s how to plan for the worst.
Content: Article | Source: CSO Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations
Understanding the True Cost of Sourcing
Global strategic sourcing evolved as a more sophisticated approach to selecting and managing the supply base and the procurement of direct materials. In strategic sourcing, the relationships are longer-term and there is a drive for continual improvement along many dimensions. Most companies that have adopted strategic sourcing practices have developed in-depth supplier scorecards for tracking performance and driving improvements. However, tools and methodologies for measuring … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Bill McBeath, Colin Kessinger | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Finance, Operations
Outsourcing? Get In Sync
Corporate self-examination helps management select the right outsourcing partner and anticipate both the benefits and drawbacks of transformational outsourcing.
Content: Article | Author: Jane Linder | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
The Challenge of Customization: Bringing Operations and Marketing Together
Customers want more customized, personalized products and services, but companies struggle to cost-effectively deliver them. Improving communication and coordination between operations and sales and marketing is one critical path to profitable customization.
Content: Article | Sources: Knowledge@Wharton, strategy+business | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Operations
Alex Kandybin, Martin Kihn, and Cesare R. Mainardi
For too long, a black-and-white myopia has applied scale either everywhere or nowhere in manufacturing industries. We would argue for a more nuanced view – a fundamental reinvention of scale. This reinvention can be accomplished in most industries by breaking the operation’s value chain into vertical functions and horizontal product flows, examining the real cost drivers, and finding those parts of the business where scale … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Operations
Purchasing Department Roles
Resilient Supply Chains: The Next Frontier
The past two decades have witnessed dramatic improvements to supply chain performance through lean manufacturing, just-in-time (JIT) inventory, ever-increasing velocity, extreme outsourcing, and related transformations. In the ten years from 1992 to 2002, the ratio of inventories to shipments in the US fell from 1.65 to 1.35. These are enormous numbers in the context of our multi-trillion dollar economy. At the same time, the complexity … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Bill McBeath | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Operations
Service Supply Chain Strategies to Increase Corporate Profitability
“The last decade has witnessed a substantial shift in emphasis on the part of many OEM manufacturers, from a focus on the products they produce to a concentration on their customers and the value that their customers derive from ownership and use of these products after the initial product sale.
With an increasing awareness of the strategic value of service, companies are beginning to focus … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Morris Cohen | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations
ASCET – Achieving Supply Chain Excellence through Technology
Provides a snapshot of the latest thinking in supply-chain management. Analysts, academics, and executives offer a broad examination of supply-chain theory and practice as well as explore the latest innovations – in areas such as product identification and supply-chain intelligence. Offers perspectives on how to manage in the current US demand-constrained environment of slower growth and fierce competition. An impressive collection of white papers features … [ Read more ]
Content: Online Resource | Source: Montgomery Research Inc. | Subject: Operations
The Backlash
The only thing that will make the furor over offshoring worse is hiding from it.
Content: Article | Author: Kris Frieswick | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
Are You Practicing Safe Outsourcing?
Some best practices and a cautionary case study.
Content: Article | Author: Larry Ponemon | Source: Darwin Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO
Offshoring by the Numbers
Results of CFO Magazine’s survey of 275 finance executives at a broad range of companies.
Content: Article | Authors: Don Durfee, Kate O’Sullivan | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
The View from the East
India’s upstart IT-services firms face their own challenges from their giant rivals in the West.
Content: Article | Author: Justin Wood | Source: CFO Publishing | Subjects: International – Asia, Outsourcing / BPO