Supply Chain Innovation

Jul 10, 2013

Using RFID Two Bin Kanban at the University of Chicago Medical Center: Healthcare Analytics Innovation!

When Jon Stegner walked in to his first week at the University of Chicago Medical Center, one of the first places he visited was the Emergency Room, and the nearby… 

Apr 15, 2013

Coaching Suppliers and the Implications of Doing So

“Supplier Relationship Management” is a term that’s thrown around a lot in procurement, and generally assumes that the relationship with the supplier is “managed” by the buyer.  This doesn’t leave… 

Apr 10, 2013

Patrick Hopkins at Coupa: Coca Cola’s four truths of procurement to pay in action

At the Coupa INSPIRE procurement conference in San Francisco this week, the Chief Procurement Officer of Coca Cola Consolidated, Patrick Hopkins, shared his views on the “4 Truths of Procurement”,… 

Aug 27, 2012

The Power of Bloomberg in Creating Supply Chain Intelligence and Risk Alerts

Supply chains are difficult to study.  People do not want analysts knowing about their supply chains.  So creating market intelligence around supply chains is extremely challenging.  Yet analysts rely on… 

Aug 15, 2012

Using the Influence Model to Improve Quality and Cost in Product Design

I recently spoke to an individual whose title was Director of Engineering Operations at a major technology company.  He shared with me details regarding his role, and the relationship to… 

Aug 7, 2012

Key Forces to Consider that will Impact the Future Global Logistics Environment

Today’s global logistics environment is characterized by increasing complexity and a much greater number of parameters shaping the logistics environment. The speed of trends is breathtaking and increasingly complicated –… 

Apr 4, 2012

Random Thoughts on the Impact of Frugal Innovation on the Supply Chain

In this week’s Economist, an article by Schumpeter provides some interesting views on the emerging concept of “frugal innovation”.  He cites the example of the Tata Nano, a $2,000 car…