Strategic fork
The world is at a historic crossroads. The outcome of the US presidential election will have a major impact on import tariffs and thus on global trade and international supply chains. Additionally, the re-election of …
Blogs
Unintended side effects
Starbucks is in big trouble. In recent years – especially in the US – placing orders online for subsequent pick-up in its outlets has grown substantially. This has resulted in long queues that also irritate …
Understanding costs comes first
When we think of visibility, we tend to think of sophisticated systems that provide insight into the functioning of the entire supply chain. Such systems offer all kinds of advantages but, in my opinion, they …
Infinite visibility
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, calls for end-to-end supply chain visibility were common among internationally operating manufacturing companies. Indeed, for most businesses, visibility did not extend beyond their own perimeter fence in practice. Supply chain …
Difficult choices about sustainability
In the past year, the European Union (EU) has adopted various sustainability directives, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), …
Focus on process design
With the wave of consolidation among vendors of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and planning software, many supply chain improvement projects have now become more like software implementations. Central to this is that operational and …
CO₂ Subway Map
Measuring one’s own CO₂ emissions seems to be more popular among consumers than among businesses. According to news agency Bloomberg, smartphone apps that track individual CO₂ emissions from purchases are very much on the rise. …
Crippling decision-making
Many companies are currently wondering whether they should not relocate some or all of their suppliers or their own production from China or Taiwan to other Southeast Asian countries. For instance, I recently spoke to …
Emergency response plan
How do people react when acute danger is imminent? And how can organizations prepare for potential calamities? Just a while ago, I experienced a fire drill at a well-known brewery located in a shared office …
Safe-space battlefield
Two factors contribute to good performance for learning organizations: making mistakes and having a safe working environment. With these research findings, US Professor Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School captures the importance of psychological safety …
