Commodities forecasting

Feb 3, 2014

The Origins of Category Management

I was fortunately enough to have a fascinating discussion with Steve Zimmer, who currently leads a team at US Car. For those who may have been around for a few…

Nov 25, 2013

Student projects focus on supply management segmentation, risk analytics, and predictive cost models.

My MBA 541 students presented results from their projects this semester. One team on a project for Bayer Crop Science focused on supplier segementation methodologies – reviewing current Bayer methodologies,…

Aug 18, 2013

Another Fall semester brings a new batch of 50 SCRC company projects…

As we go into our 2013 fall semester, the SCRC team is pulling together the list of project summaries from our 15 corporate partners. This is indeed a busy time…

Jun 15, 2013

Applying Porter Five Forces Analysis to Drive Category Management Insights

In the past two or three weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of organizations seeking to drive insights into their supply markets, as they attempt to…

Mar 5, 2013

College grads – trouble finding a job? Think welding….

We recently worked on a study examining the market for pipeline construction services. Across North America, projects like Keystone are only the beginning of growth for pipelines in oil and…

Nov 29, 2012

Bio-based Feedstock Supply Chains: Subject Matter Experts Speak in Washington

I attended a conference today in Washington DC hosted by Duke University and Yale University on Biobased Feedstocks. The discussion led to some interesting observations about the tradeoffs and opportunities…

Oct 25, 2012

A Sustainable Energy Platform for the EU and the World

At the BVL conference, I had the opportunity to speak to the group, and provide them with an overview of the insights and trends from the global logistics study that…

Apr 24, 2012

The Global Phosphate Supply Market: Risky and Getting Riskier

An MBA student team in my supply market intelligence class this week presented their supply market intelligence study on phosphate production. One of the key points was the volatility of…

Apr 10, 2012

How to Read the Inventory Tea Leaves…

An article in the WSJ provides an interesting set of perspectives on what increasing or shrinking inventory numbers might mean in terms of an organization’s supply chain performance. As I…

Mar 22, 2012

Prediction: More volatility in oil and commodities

There appears to be more unrest in the world this week, which of course brings with it the increased nervousness of analysts and speculators. One of the real questions arising…