Master and talent
Now that most employees are working from home because of COVID-19, it is more important than ever to keep an eye on their engagement and the risk of a burnout. Apparently, North American supply chain …
Blogs
Wolves and ships
Are logistics matching platforms a wolf in sheep’s clothing for freight forwarders? That’s the question posed by Rob Zuidwijk, Professor of Global Supply Chains & Ports at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, in a recently published …
COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of value chains
For me, the year 2020 will always be a turning point in history due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 caused a seismic shift that put supply chain management in the spotlight worldwide. The …
Digital twin
A digital twin – who wouldn’t want one of their own? A virtual copy of yourself that effortlessly takes care of the tax returns and other boring administrative activities. Then you could spend more time …
Bol.com versus Amazon
In terms of their business models, Dutch web shop Bol.com and Amazon are very similar. But the strategy of Bol.com, the Netherlands’ e-commerce market leader, is fundamentally different from that of Amazon. This became clearer …
The sustainability slog
The path to sustainable supply chains is proving to be a long, hard slog with numerous obstacles along the way. Firstly, there is a gaping hole between the rhetoric and the reality. According to a …
IBP is a strategic weapon in times of crisis
“Now, absolutely everyone’s convinced of the value of our new IBP process!” said the IBP manager at a client where we set up an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process last year. The company is now …
Crisis was inevitable according to chaos theory
During our Trend Dinner just under a year ago, which was attended by almost a hundred supply chain directors, I predicted that we would find ourselves in an economic crisis around this time. Anyone with …
Do shorter supply chains really cost more?
Shortening global supply chains will lead to significant extra costs, claimed Steven Brakman, a lecturer in international economics at the University of Groningen, in the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad recently. However, all Brakman’s …
Pandemic paradox
The coronavirus pandemic has created an interesting paradox. The lockdown has given numerous directors and managers a broader perspective on their companies and the world in general. In between the countless digital meetings in Zoom …
Career, Content, Reports, Trends
Supply chain salary surveys reveal gender wage gap
The results of an inaugural survey published by Apics, an American association for supply chain management, in May 2018 reveal…
