Supply Chain Radio

Can a major manufacturer of consumer goods be as agile as a startup? Popular new brands like Everlane have proven that customers care about the supply chain. They want to know where products come from, who makes them, and what kind of impact businesses have on the ecosystem. And it's caught the attention of some of the world's biggest brands. Here's how companies like Unilever and Apple are injecting purpose into their brands and improving the bottom line along the way.

Why shop at a brick and mortar store? Traditional retailers are finding themselves in the tough position of having to answer that question, as ecommerce giants like Amazon eat away at their customer base. Ecommerce has many advantages - the convenience, variety, cost, and now fast and excellent delivery. But all hope isn’t lost for brick and mortar - technology can help traditional stores keep up.

Resistance to cloud adoption used to be a question of cost or simplicity. Now companies are eager to solve complicated problems using the cloud. They want to see what’s happening, and gain visibility in real-time. They want to use cloud to orchestrate and optimize, and learn how to move products and information faster through the network. There’s still some barriers, but there’s been a huge step change in cloud adoption.

We are seeing a convergence of several powerful technology trends: cloud computing, big data analytics, IoT, robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones. Their performance increases while the costs continue to fall. Put these together, and you have a perfect storm of digital disruption. Boris Felgendreher and Greg Kefer discuss new research on the impact of digital transformation in supply chains in this podcast. Read the full report here: http://www.gtnexus.com/digitaltransformation.

The kinds of problems large companies are seeking to solve with their supply chains are more involved and complicated than ever before. However, supply chain visibility is also becoming more powerful thanks to the Internet of Things and big data.

Europe is an important global hotspot for the movement of goods. Greg Kefer and Boris Felgendreher discuss some unique trends and challenges for European supply chains in this podcast, including managing cross-border transportation, consumer demand for traceability and sustainability, and how companies approach cloud technology.

In this podcast, Leela Rao and Suhas Sreedhar take a broad look at sustainability in supply chains. Companies are integrating sustainability into their supply chains due to a variety of pressures – from consumer demand, to increased regulation, to the drive for efficiency and reduced costs. Financial institutions are showing the role the economy can play in promoting sustainability, by funding suppliers to create more efficient factories with better working conditions. One of the challenges standing in the way of sustainability for global supply chains has been tracking goods through all the n-tier suppliers. But now technology brings greater visibility, connecting all end-tier trading partners, making it possible to achieve an end-to-end sustainable supply chain.

The Internet of Things and other big data technologies have already started to impact businesses. Global companies are looking for ways to experiment with how to use these technologies, from RFID to analytics to GPS tracking, to get ahead of their competitors. Greg Kefer and Mac McGary discuss how supply chains can harness big data in this podcast.

Greg Kefer and Richard Barnett discuss the risks and advantages that come with the arrival of megaships in this podcast. From economies of scale to increased lead times, megaships will have a major impact on logistics and global supply chains.

Unless existing players in logistics change their outlook on technology, it’s going to be difficult to compete with disruptors like Uber or Amazon. The basis of Uber’s ability to disrupt markets is their investment in sophisticated cloud-based information networks that enhance visibility and enable optimization. Companies that embrace the future will look at how to get their systems in the cloud, agile, and connected.

This podcast features Leela Rao-Kataria discussing her viewpoints around what changes consumers can expect to see in 2016. She combines highlights collected from the RILA conference, journals and articles, as well as retail studies to hone in on the retail landscape and what actions Target, Lucky Brand Jeans, and Amazon are taking to understand their consumers and pioneer a new retail way.

Data has changed the way we deal with finance. As consumers, it’s placed information about our transactions, habits, and histories at our fingertips. And in the world of supply chain finance, it’s having an even bigger effect: creating healthy, sustainable, ethical suppliers who can deliver goods to buyers reliably.

If it can happen to Toyota, it can happen to anyone. A recent explosion of a steel furnace in eastern Japan is going to set Toyota's production back by 30,000 fewer vehicles this year. Supply chain disruptions are a growing problem in today's globalized economy. They're frequent, they're unpredictable, and they come at the worst times possible. How will businesses cope?

This is the last episode of a three-part interview that Boris Felgendreher conducted with Mick Jones, former head of supply chain and logistics at Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker. Mick talks about the intersection of a number of technology trends that will dramatically change the areas of logistics and supply chain in the next five years. From 3D printing and the Internet of Things to the role of data and how disruptive new business models will threaten the established players in the market – this interview covers a lot of ground and is full of great insights for everyone in the fields of manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and transportation.

Manufacturers anticipate major supply chain challenges and risks in 2016. Many factors are behind this, from internal ones like labor and technology issues, to unpredictable external forces like port strikes and natural disasters. Companies often fall into the trap of looking solely at cost cutting, instead of viewing their supply chains holistically, in order to mitigate the huge losses that come from disruptions. Listen to this podcast to find out how this disconnect often starts at the top level, where 76% of manufacturers operate entirely without a Chief Supply Chain Officer.