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SCM Insights

How to implement an efficient risk management system

The coronavirus pandemic has posed enormous, unprecedented challenges for companies. Efficient risk management plays a central role in meeting these challenges. It is not so much a question of whether the current situation could have been anticipated and planned for. Rather, the focus is on how companies can now best protect their core processes and increase the resilience of their operations. (more…)
How to implement an efficient risk management system
SCM Insights

Real-time transport visibility: what really matters

Nowadays, everything is getting ever more complex and volatile. Today’s characteristic all comes down to "disruption is the new normal". But the key is to defy all odds in the best possible way. To stay agile and resilient. Be it a traffic jam, a shipwreck, a container shortage, a strike, severe weather, a volcano eruption or a pandemic that throws everything into disarray. No matter the cause, companies need to ensure smoothly functioning supply chains. (more…)
Anja Weber · July 15, 2021 - reading time < 6 Min.
Real-time transport visibility: what really matters
SCM Insights

Transport ahoy! Securing supply despite high volatility

For more than a year now, logistics and supply chain managers around the world have been struggling with unprecedented challenges. The impact from the first coronavirus-induced shutdowns, when supply chains and transportation networks around the world collapsed, continues to ripple through the industry. High volatility in demand, natural disasters and vessel incidents such as the recent one blocking the Suez Canal have further aggravated the situation.Problem is, transportation capacity is extremely scarce and in hot demand. Numerous aircraft are still grounded. Container shortages continue to persist for quite a while. All of this is not only hampering sea and air cargo, but also road transports.As a result, freight rates skyrocketed, as did uncertainty for manufacturers that rely on smoothly functioning logistics chains. In many cases, it's unclear or at least hardly possible to plan when exactly their materials are going to be transported. So, the ever more pressing question is: How can companies best secure their shipments and thus ensure the flow of supplies to their plants and customers? (more…)
Transport ahoy! Securing supply despite high volatility
SCM Insights

No more out of supply: how capacity management builds resiliency into supply chains

"High demand, low supply": what a nightmare for supply chain managers. And this doesn't just happen in boom times. In economically uncertain phases, too, supply bottlenecks are more than painful for businesses. This can currently be witnessed for the microchip shortage the automotive industry (among others) is battling with.Thus, it is all the more important to safeguard production by having a sophisticated capacity management system for critical components in place. But what does this mean in practice? What is the difference to conventional demand collaboration with suppliers? And which aspects do manufacturers need to consider? (more…)
No more out of supply: how capacity management builds resiliency into supply chains
SCM Insights

Four reasons to accelerate your digital transformation in times of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has put supply chains under pressure. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, through all kinds of industries, the impact on operations and planning activities was and remains real. Supply and demand forces have been tremendously shaken by the accentuation of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) driven by the pandemic.As for digital transformation, the question is not if or what, but when. (more…)
Four reasons to accelerate your digital transformation in times of Covid-19
SCM Insights

How to successfully steer your supply chain through a crisis: Quick response measures

Recently, in the first part of my blog article series "Supply Chain Risk Management - far more than just a way out of the current crisis", I highlighted the importance of linking the two disciplines of Risk Management and Supply Chain Management when managing crises. There is another important aspect to not just surviving times of crisis, but to come out of these strengthened. And that is the time factor.For this reason, the second part of this blog article series is dedicated to the following questions: Where do I start? What ad-hoc measures can I implement to mitigate impact? What can I quickly do to protect my supply chain? (more…)
How to successfully steer your supply chain through a crisis: Quick response measures
SCM Insights

How to better cope with demand volatility

The coronavirus crisis has revealed a long-standing challenge for suppliers even more clearly: How reliable are the demand forecasts they receive from their customers? High volatility and uncertainties in demand forecasting are not limited to pandemic times. Even in the "normal state", the originally reported requirements can differ considerably from the materials actually called off. The decisive question is therefore: How can you improve forecasting and thus also achieve a higher level of planning accuracy? (more…)
How to better cope with demand volatility
SCM Insights

Supply Chain Risk Management – far more than just getting out of the current crisis

The current coronavirus crisis clearly shows how vulnerable and susceptible to disruption supply chains are today. It also shows how important it is to anticipate disruptions of any kind in order to minimize their impact. In this context, supply chain risk management plays a major role. Essentially, it is a matter of finding answers to the following questions:What risks is my supply chain exposed to?How can I identify problems in my supply chain as quickly as possible, catchword early warning system?What do I need to do to minimize loss and to be even stronger in the end?As well as the lessons learnt: Which measures should I implement to ensure that I can effectively respond to any future risks? (more…)
Supply Chain Risk Management – far more than just getting out of the current crisis
SCM Insights

Restarting production: How to ensure the flow of materials

The coronavirus pandemic has turned everything upside down: Plants around the world had to shut down production. As a result, supply chains and thus transport networks often collapsed across the board. This is precisely what is now confronting companies with a major problem when they re-start production: even if suppliers are producing the required materials again, how do these get from the supplier's premises to their plants?Transportation problems are not limited to shipping and air freight, but also to road transport, which has so far been easy to manage. The transport networks that companies could previously use no longer exist for the most part. As a result, the processes with the carriers that used to work well are no longer functioning. So, what to do? (more…)
Restarting production: How to ensure the flow of materials