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Labor and Human Rights in the Supply Chain

Jun 5, 2018

Homeland Security is Using Supply Chain Analytics to Go After Organized Crime and Traffickers

I had the pleasure of attending the Thomson Reuters Government Conference, and sat on a panel with Andy Russell, Lead Director, Department of Defense Programs. Prior to our panel session,… 

Aug 23, 2017

Needed: A New Way to Manage Risk in Low Cost Countries

Nowhere are disruptions more prevalent than in Low Cost Countries (LCC’s), which have become the focal point for outsourced contract manufacturing for major apparel brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Gap, Apple, and others. As organizations have expanded their supply chains globally, they have moved to outsourced manufacturing that reduces cost, but which also exposes their brand to greater risk. “Instead of brand versus brand or store versus store, it is now suppliers—brand—store versus suppliers—brand—store, or supply chain versus supply chain,” as Lambert and Cooper[1] highlighted in a seminal research article in 2000. 

Aug 7, 2017

Analytics Should Focus on A Culture of Factory Safety for Workers in Low Cost Country Manufacturing

For analytics to become truly effective in global manufacturing settings, veracity and consistency are critical requirements. Based on a recent interview with an executive at a large global apparel company,… 

Jan 25, 2017

What Trump's Announcement of Withdrawal from the TPP Means for US Supply Chain Executives

Here’s a new insight by Tim Barnes in a guest blog this week, after Donald Trump announced the withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership for the United States. I’ve been traveling… 

Oct 14, 2016

What is the True Cost of Sustainable Apparel from Bangladesh? Insights from Harvard "Sustainable Models for the Apparel Industry" Conference

This week’s blog is a guest blog from a PhD Student, MD Rejaul Hasan.  Rejaul is from Bangladesh, and is working on his PhD in the College of Textiles at NC State University,… 

Oct 8, 2016

It's About Time for a new "World Class Supply Chain" Paradigm

As a young assistant professor at Michigan State University in 1992, I was part of a group called the Global Procurement Benchmarking Initiative. This initiative benchmarked over 300 global companies,… 

Oct 5, 2016

Contingent Workforce is a Major Focus for Procurement

The number of workers who are “contingent is growing rapidly.  Brian Hoffmeyer from IQ Navigator, a procure to pay solution, spoke today at IBM’s Empower event on this trend, and… 

Jul 23, 2016

Beyond Collaboration: Supply Chain "Federation"

The idea that large organizations can create a “federated” network, by integrating smaller firms into their network and drive a common purpose is a concept that is emerging as key to… 

Feb 27, 2016

Academics share insights about sustainable supply chains at NC State Workshop

I had the opportunity to sit in on a number of academic presentations today, as part of the Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chain Management Workshop for Early-Career Faculty.  During the morning,… 

Dec 15, 2015

Poole COM to host the 2nd Annual Workshop on Sustainable Supply Chain Management February 26 – 28, 2016

I am excited to announce an academic conference being hosted by Professor Eda Kemahlioglu Ziya and myself on sustainable supply chain management strategies in February.  This is a follow-on session to…