Kinaxis, RapidResponse, named to the 2009 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100
Kinaxis, the provider of the on-demand supply chain management service, RapidResponse™, has been named to the 2009 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, for the fifth consecutive year, in recognition of its innovative approach to supply chain challenges. The 2009 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 recognizes supply chain solution and service providers that are making an effort to help customers and clients survive the recession and speed up growth.
Given the fast changing economy, there is a need for solutions which can address diverse and transformative business challenges and handle demand volatility. Kinaxis RapidResponse helps companies adjust easily and effectively to the market changes and thus reduces risk. RapidResponse handles the complexity of multi-enterprise supply chains and provides companies with tools in order to make critical business decisions that impact customer satisfaction, profitability and a host of other key business metrics.
The various solutions provided by RapidResponse include:
* RapidResponse establishes one version of the truth across a multi-enterprise supply chain-a key step for increasing operations performance involves regaining control over the availability and accuracy of demand and supply chain data.
* RapidResponse provides companies with a sophisticated early warning system-knowing sooner of a critical event ensures adequate runway to course correct.
* RapidResponse provides dramatic value in managing the collaborative relationships between the people involved in the supply chain, leveraging their unique insight and guiding their decisions to align with corporate goals.
* RapidResponse enables companies to execute a continuous Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, providing collaborative what-if analysis and automating the involvement of sub-teams to analyze and repair portions of the S&OP at precisely the time they go out-of-kilter.
“We are honored to be recognized for the fifth consecutive year as an industry innovator by Supply & Demand Chain Executive,” said Randy Littleson, vice president of marketing at Kinaxis. “During this downturn, the value of our solution is distinctly apparent as we help our customers dynamically align supply and demand while mitigating their risk. Our selection to this esteemed list further validates RapidResponse as an industry-leading solution for integrated and collaborated demand-supply planning, monitoring and response.”
Subscribe to the comments for this postGrowing need of web-based connectivity in Supply Chain
With the fast growing world of information and technology, the economy is facing large scale changes in customer demands, supplier viability and financial capacity. However, most of the businesses are finding it hard to adapt to sudden changes in market brought about by increasing competition and changing market dynamics.
Lack of flexibility, slow response capability, failure to anticipate and adjust to changing demands lead to loss of financial resources, diminishing performance standards and strain in customer and supplier relationships. The problem lies in traditional business operations which are based on functional competency, sequential thinking, and time consuming hierarchical decision making. These principles lead to a solid business structure but turn out to be slow and rigid when it comes to the current Information Age and recessionary times.
Now we need a broad business model makeover focused on increasing across-the-board responsiveness. There is a need to maximize customer connectivity and increase overall supply chain responsiveness. In order to get ubiquitous web-based information within a responsive supply chain business model, a new, more sustainable operating paradigm — characterized by channel collaboration, parallel thinking and processing, and distributed/networked decision making, the companies need web-based information connectivity. For this, the companies must advantage of growing social networks supported by chat rooms, blogs, Wikis, Twitter, etc., and start-up microblogging.
The market demands today that one has to stay connected to the customer and be informative about the changes and advancements taking place. Value-based connectivity can eliminate steps and risk in the go-to-market process. 21st-century web-enabled response-based supply chain management is growing, and will continue to grow, as a decisive value differentiator.
Oracle aims at SaaS and cloud computing space
Some years ago, Oracle did not want to venture into the SaaS sector because there was the problme of high sales cost and also high implementation costs. But now, it seems Oracle is trying to get into SaaS and cloud computing space.
It is seen from the fact that last quarter, Oracle Sourcing On Demand was released for efficient supply chain management and now it is going to release its Fusion applications later this year. Oracle aims to be the leading leading on-premise and on-demand application company. At present its on-demand business is now worth about three quarters of a billion dollars, while the leading on-demand company, Salesforce.com’s annual revenue was $1.077 billion. The compnay also wants to address the missing factor of software hosted and stored at a data center owned by a customer but run by the software company which its rival does not address.
Taking a look at Oracle’s Balance Sheet, Oracle has $12.6 billion in cash and investments. During the quarter, it repurchased 14 million shares for a total of $250 million. For the full year, it repurchased 226 million shares for a total of nearly $4 billion. After the Sun acquisition in April, Oracle acquired Virtual Iron, a provider of server virtualization management software. SAP recently announced a $7 billion budget for acquisitions, perhaps in response to Oracle’s successful strategy of gaining market share.
For the first quarter, Oracle expects total non-GAAP revenue to range from zero to 2% in constant currency and negative 5% to negative 3% at current exchange rates. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be between $0.31 to $0.33 in constant currency and from $0.29 to $0.31 at current exchange rates. GAAP EPS is expected to be between $0.23 to $0.24 in constant currency and $0.21 to $0.22 at current exchange rates.
The stock is currently trading around $21 with market cap of about $106 billion. It hit a 52-week low of $14.14 on March 6.
Tech Trade Chain Innovation & Productivity Center to open in Costa Rica
The Georgia Institute of Technology will open Georgia Tech Trade Chain Innovation and Productivity Center at San Jose in Costa Rica to help the companies market their products in a faster and more efficient manner thus improving foreign trade.
The executive director of Tech’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute said that the center will make arrangements to teach graduate students and company executives how to improve supply chains and logistics. There will be a constant exchange of students and staff between the center and Tech’s Atlanta campus.
The opening will take place on August 20 and will be attended by the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez.
Tech already has a center in Singapore, the Logistics Institute Asia-Pacific, and is also planning to open other centers, starting in Panama and Chile.
“Inventory ties up capital, and with the credit crunch, capital is hard to get,” said Dr. Ratliff. “There’s a lot of emphasis right now on not having a lot of inventory. If you don’t have a lot of inventory, you need to have a smooth running supply chain. The smoother the supply chain, the less inventory you need to have.”
“Supply chains and logistics are fundamental to trade. It would be impossible for anyone to be good at trade that doesn’t have good supply chain and logistics capabilities,” he added.
Importance of Supply Chain Management in apparel industry
Managing and handling supply chain has unique challenges in case of apparel industry because this industry faces a lot of demand uncertainly depending on trends like fashion and consumer preferences. With the help of innovative techniques which would require product variety, management of production systems, forecasting and inventory management, the apparel industry can meet its supply chain demands for both volatile and non-volatile goods.
If supply chain management is done properly, it can help the companies reduce their inventories which will lead to cutting of operational costs, reduce order cycle time, enhance asset productivity as well as increase the companies’ responsiveness to the market. Better and advanced SCM practices also leads to quick response which is a concept pertaining to the collaboration and sharing or information among manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, allowing them to respond more rapidly to the needs of the customers.
The relevance of supply chain management becomes even more important with regards to raw materials used in the apparel industry. Since the apparel industry requires various types of raw materials yarns, fabrics and other textile mill products from suppliers to meet their highly-diversified product lines, deal with multiple suppliers which in turn needs a highly organized SCM technique to keep track of these suppliers and also make regular assessment the quality of their services and supplies. Keeping alternation supply options open, one can reduce uncertainty in supplies of raw materials and also improve inventory performance. Data on the suppliers’ product stocks, costs, speed and reliability can be obtained through SCM.
Again, Supply Chain Management comes into prominence when these companies have to distribute their products either to the retailers or directly to the consumers. The application of an SCM system on the other hand helps in strengthening the relationship between both parties as well as in achieving positive business outcomes which is of utmost importance considering the fluctuations in demand associated with this industry. The efficient communication of the manufacturers with the retailers helps to obtain valuable consumer data such as end-customer demand levels which helps the manufacturers determine their production level and inventory performance.
How to increase your Supply Chain Velocity?
The times these days are difficult and the success of any company now-a-days depends on cutting down costs and delivering best quality service with minimal resources. The basic problem of the supply chain managers is to accelerate the Supply Chain Velocity and with the following points in mind, companies can always increase their SC Velocity.
Carefully scrutinize your key sourcing materials and services stressing more on their total value than just their basic cost. Besides cost, the total value includes the nearness of the source to key locations, assurance of best quality, past performance, standard of service provided and other things.
Look out for continuous improvement in your system. For this keep an eye for systems which move with a quicker pace and while going for bigger projects, opt for smaller incremental plans which focus on one thing at a time rather than trying to implement everything at the same time.
Reduce your Cycle Times and maintain flexibility in fulfillment by opting for systems that are adaptable to meet changing market demands. The cycle time can be reduced by proper organization of each step through which the product moves from the source to the customer right from acquiring and placing of the order to picking, to shipping, and the final delivery to the customer.
Manage your inventory and reduce your capital blockage by doing away with excess inventory. Ensure that you have right products at the right time instead of stocking products without careful analysis of demand.
Opt for Smaller or Niche Vendors than bigger names as the smaller and aspiring vendors are more willing to give you timely and quality service.
Importance of Supply Chain visibility to cut down inventory costs
It is general notion that the market for medical goods is more or less consistent and devoid of fluctuations but the fact is even medical industry need supply chain visibility to reduce variable storage costs and obsolescence and inventory carrying costs. To have the right products at right time is the key to success and reduced costs for any industry.
Here one can site the example of Terumo Cardiovascular Systems (Terumo CVS), which saved around $1 million — in one year — by reducing its inventory by 36%. Terumo CVS is a global manufacturer and distributor of more than 1,500 finished goods like heart-lung machines, disposables including blood oxygenators, and a steady flow of custom tubing pack orders.
These products face many variations and indispensable steps in its supply chain mixed with seasonal demand, it was quite difficult to track the numerous plants and distribution centers despite its efficient forecasting system.
“Believe it or not, even medical products are seasonal,” says Kevin Doughty, Director of Supply Chain Management for Terumo. “Our three biggest sales months are October, January and March because people avoid having surgery during the holiday season.”
Finally, to increase its supply chain visibility and to track the seasonal changes, Terumo CVS implemented Demand Solutions Forecast Management and Requirements Planning in 2006. This increased their visibility into supply and demand streams enabling them to reduce their inventory by more than a third in one fiscal year with an effect of a $1 million savings. Terumo CVS’ executives also hold monthly Sales & Operations Planning meetings to make strategic decisions based on the forecasts.
To conclude, one can say that the only way to save costs in these recessionary times to increase visibility in supply chain management and thus cut down on inventory costs.
CPL launches a new SCM software solution
A new supply chain management software solution has been launched by Copper Peak Logistics (CPL). CPL is a direct-to-consumer wine fulfillment, distribution and logistics services company giving service to California wineries and retailers in California. This new solution aims to enhance the processing of both wine club operations and daily wine order activity thus increasing the quality of service and new value-added applications including interactive weather hold functionality. With this application, CPL will also be able to provide faster and cheaper delivery for those customers who are seeking to forward stage wine inventories from its California warehouses to the CPL’s food-grade, temperature controlled fulfillment center in St. Louis.
Milton Cornwell, General Manager of CPL, said, “CopperLink® is designed to address the specific needs of companies involved in the direct-to-consumer wine shipping and e-commerce industry. CPL has invested heavily in sophisticated order processing, compliance management, inventory management, information services, experienced leadership, customer service and efficient national distribution reach. These investments offer a viable long-term solution for California wine producers and retailers, particularly those organizations adversely affected by the suspension of New Vine Logistics’ business operations. The initial client feedback to the new software release has been extremely positive.”
CopperLink® is integrated with all major e-commerce front ends and on-line compliance tools and with this new enhancement, CPL’s clients will be able to use cutting edge technology in placing orders, managing customers, reviewing inventory, examining order status and retrieving reports.
CPL operates three climate controlled, food grade distribution facilities strategically located in Benicia, CA., Paso Robles, CA, and St. Louis, MO. CPL is a member of the Materialogic Supply Chain Alliance.
TFI quarterly forum discuss the importance and key factors of SCM
SAP hosted The Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI) quarterly forum in their headquarters close to Heidelberg and the major focus of this forum was the rising importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM), its optimization and visibility. . A major focus of this forum was the importance and key success criteria of Supply Chain Management (SCM). The forum witness participation from all over the world, representing OEMs, EMS and logistic companies, where the participants shared best practices and discussed key issues of today’s SCM activities.
The forum had intense discussions with ample examples to deliver Supply Chain Optimization strategies and the key areas to be taken into consideration while designing these strategies.
Douglas Kent, President of eKNOWtion, showed in his presentation, that as inventory management is facing demand volatility or supply chain disruptions, a negative impact on cash flow is a real risk to business. In order to ensure inventory optimization there should be the right sync between target inventory days and product life cycle. Demand, lead times, number of products, objectives (like service levels or minimizing costs) and the general cost structure are other aspects of inventory policy. The inventory strategy could be composed of competitive requirements, like reliability, responsiveness and flexibility, and also cost requirements and asset management efficiency goals. To sum up, the forum established that each product needs its own inventory and supply chain strategy.
Hitesh Attri, Supply Chain Consultant at eKNOWtion, said that the availability and visibility of the right information to enable the right product, at the right time, at the right place to ensure cost-effective decision-making for efficient product or service delivery.
says To achieve improved customer performance and reduce internal costs, Supply Chain Visibility is needed. A clear SC Visibility roadmap is critical for implementation. Some aspects to consider for a clear SC Visiblity map are identifying the right metrics and defining targets, identifying root causes for missing information, setting up a cross-functional team and involving all stakeholders in the process.
The forum which had top 25 companies emphasized on the fact the optimized and visible SCM can help companies stay afloat, flexible, innovative and successful in the market which is witnessing an economic recession.
The various Supply Chain Models through network design methods
The strategic decisions are, for the most part, global and so the models that describe these decisions are huge, and require a considerable amount of data. The operational decisions, on the other hand, address the day to day operation of the supply chain and therefore the models that describe them are often very specific in nature.
The network design methods, for the most part, provide normative models for the more strategic decisions. These models typically cover the four major decision areas described earlier, and focus more on the design aspect of the supply chain; the establishment of the network and the associated flows on them.
These methods determine the location of production, stocking, and sourcing facilities, and paths the product(s) take through them. Such methods tend to be large scale, and used generally at the inception of the supply chain.
The earliest attempt in this network was by Geoffrion and Graves in 1974. They introduced a multicommodity logistics network design model for optimizing annualized finished product flows from plants to the DC’s to the final customers.
Breitman and Lucas, in 1987, tried to provide a framework for a comprehensive model of a production-distribution system, “PLANETS”. This was used to decide what products to produce, where and how to produce it, which markets to pursue and what resources to use.
Cohen and Lee, in 1985 developed a conceptual framework for manufacturing strategy analysis, where they described a series of stochastic sub- models, that considers annualized product flows from raw material vendors via intermediate plants and distribution echelons to the final customers.
Again in 1989, Cohen and Lee presented a normative model for resource deployment in a global manufacturing and distribution network. The cost structure consisted of variable and fixed costs for material procurement, production, distribution and transportation.
Finally, in 1995, Arntzen, Brown, Harrison, and Trafton provided the most comprehensive deterministic model for supply chain management which minimized a combination of cost and time elements. Examples of cost elements include purchasing, manufacturing, pipeline inventory, transportation costs between various sites, duties, and taxes. Time elements include manufacturing lead times and transit times.