T-shaped towers
As far as forward-thinking companies are concerned, control towers are passé in 2021. There has been considerable confusion about the term ‘control tower’ in recent years. Does it refer to the global central procurement of …
Blogs
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 …
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 …
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…
