Emerging Issues in Supply Chain
Counterfeit products are exploding on Amazon
A recent WSJ article highlighted a fact that confirms much of what we found in our study of counterfeit products in the supply chain a year ago: if you’re buying on Amazon, beware of counterfeits. Too cheap means too good […]
Global Sourcing and Human Rights Go Hand in Hand
Low-cost country (LCC) sourcing is now a commonplace strategy for shrinking bottom line labor and material costs in most consumer products industries, including apparel, footwear, toys, and other manufactured products. Organizations continue to scour global markets for even lower labor […]
A Brief History of the Founding of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC)
The following is a transcript of the speech I gave to individuals who attended our SCRC 20th Anniversary Event this past April 2019. It covers a bit about what motivates our team and how this organization evolved to what it […]
The Strange Relationship Between Oil Prices, Tariffs and Biobased Innovation
Oil prices have been rather volatile as of late, and are hovering around $58/bbl, down from an average of $65/bbl in 2018. Oil prices impact a lot of things, one of which is the drive to innovate new biobased products […]
First NCSU Procurement Leadership Program a Great Success!
We held our first ever Procurement Leadership workshop this week, hosting a group of executives from Altria, American Red Cross, Cheniere Energy, Smith & Nephew, RSCS (YUM! Brands) and the US Air Force. The mix of executives from both the […]
Is Blockchain Living up to Its Promise? Thoughts on How Companies Need to Begin Exploring Blockchain
A recent Gartner survey predicted that by 2023, 90% of blockchain-based supply chain initiatives will slow down. These results may sound like the thud of falling bricks in terms of the expectations and hype that has been surrounding blockchain in […]
Guest Post: An MBA student’s perspective on the ISM Meeting 2019
This week’s guest post is from my MBA student, Nikhil Singh, who accompanied me to the recent Institute for Supply Management conference in Houston. I enjoyed hearing his perspectives on the sessions, and invited him to post to my blog. […]
SCRC Meeting: Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Procurement
Our upcoming SCRC meeting on April 25 will explore a topic that has been top of mind for me and several other people for some time. To give you a clue as to what this is about, consider the typical […]
Addressing Labor Shortages in Warehouse and DC Operations
A group of executive joined SCRC faculty and staff for a one-day workshop held on February 28, 2019. Companies represented included Advanced Auto Parts, John Deere, Hanes Brands, UPS, FHI, Lenovo, GSK, Altria, and UNC Healthcare. The topics of discussion […]
IBM Watson Intelligent Supply Chain Workshop Brings Executives Together to Share Thoughts on Deployment
On January 29th, the NC State Supply Chain Resource Cooperative held a one-day workshop, bringing together executives representing a number of industries, including Lenovo, UPS, Duke Energy, Toshiba, Caterpillar, YUM Brands, American Red Cross, MetLife, and IBM, to compare notes […]