With supply chain executives playing a more prominent role in the boardroom, the ability to articulate how their organization creates shareholder value is becoming an important skill. A good place to start this discussion is with the cash conversion cycle – the least understood but most important supply chain metric because it drives shareholder value and return on capital. The cash conversion cycle provides a measure of how fast a company can convert funds invested in materials into cash from the sale of finished goods. A decreasing cycle means that management is doing a more effective job using its resources…

The Power of Leadership and Empathy in Supply Chain Innovation Leaders Share Insights for Sustainable Supply Chains September 30, 2014 Laura Asiala “Empathy.” That was not the word I expected to hear at the recent conference hosted by Supply Chain Insights, Imagine: The Supply Chain of the Future, especially when CEO Lora Cecere opened her keynote with the observation that most companies have supply chains that are “stuck at the intersection of operating margins and inventory turns.” However, empathy was in sharp focus throughout the two-day event. As it turns out, what ails supply chains is what ails most businesses these…

Recently, I attended the Supply Chain Insights Global Summit. I had been impressed with the content from some of the sessions from last year’s event so I was honored to attend this year’s event as a guest blogger. The summit was a small but quality gathering of supply chain practitioners, solution providers, consultants and academics. This year’s theme was a topic that I spend much of my time thinking about: “Imagine the Supply Chain of the Future.” Thinking End-to-End Lora Cecere kicked off the conference with a warning that we don’t get to supply chain excellence with tight integrated silos;…

Behind every strong supply chain is a healthy inventory that carefully balances service with cost: too much stock ties up valuable working capital that could otherwise be used to grow the business, while too little stock compromises service objectives and impairs revenue growth. Striking the right balance is the key to achieving long-term profitable growth and is especially important in Asia where volatile markets and changes in consumer demand continually challenge manufacturers. The three fundamental drivers influencing inventory targets are service, lead times and volatility. Service levels are dictated by the customer strategy and tend to be inflexible. Lead times…

Everyone’s talking about the future of supply chain. Specifically, what it’s going to be. And we’ve been getting all kinds of answers: mobile, social, cloud, big data, real-time, predictive—the list goes on and on. And on. But even with all those answers, we’re still asking the same question. Why? Because five+ answers to one question…isn’t really an answer. What we do know about the future of supply chain, is that it should include all the things listed above. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that having the latest (and greatest) technologies can still amount to nothing—or at least,…