A familiar situation What is your response to risk in business? Would you buy an IT system with a high risk of failure? An article by the consulting firm McKinsey considered that more than 60 percent of supply chain planning IT transformation implementations do not achieve anticipated business outcomes and take more time and/or money than expected. This figure may … Read More
Supply Chains data accuracy and new technology purchase
‘New’ technologies in 2025 One skill that technologists have in abundance is promoting terminology that potential users will hopefully accept and use. Technology products promoted as a ‘must have’ for supply chains in 2025 include ‘agentic AI’ (or AI agents) and ‘AI-powered decision intelligence data platform (DIDP)’. What are they and are they needed? A brochure states that “AI agents … Read More
Procurement Category Management for smaller businesses
Analysis of supply markets is needed Disruptions to supply markets can occur at any time and not always with warning signs. It is likely there will be increasing supply disruptions due to climate change events and heightened geopolitical tensions, and these are less likely to be one-off events. With the global trading situation containing multiple risks, Procurement professionals must be … Read More
Supply Chains group can use Inventory Velocity metric
Inventory Management term A question for supply chains professionals is “How much finished goods inventory should be held”? But should the answer be provided as a financial value or as physical quantities? And is the answer readily available? As with other aspects of supply chains, a discussion of inventory must commence with an assurance that definitions agreed at the organisation … Read More
A defined role for AI when planning Supply Chains
Business Analytics and AI And still the seminars and articles extolling the promise of AI continue to tempt the unwary. It appears that all problems known to mankind can be solved with AI – or is it the ‘snake oil’ salesman at work to enhance the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO)? An example is surveys that indicate a high percentage … Read More