SupplyChainBrain 2015 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide Includes articles by Kate Vitasek and Karl B. Manrodt at pages 46, 74, 77, 86 and 92. Here’s the link to the entire 116-page issue: http://tinyurl.com/owavn3r
supply chain
Apple’s Lose-Lose deal with GT Advanced is a No-Win Situation
We all hate lose-lose games. And I am guessing Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is asking himself how his company got into its recent lose-lose situation with GT Advanced Technologies – Apple’s manufacturer of sapphire glass for phone screens and consumer electronics that filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on Oct. 6. It was only a little over […]
A Lesson in Maintaining Supply in the Wake of a Key Supplier Scandal
OSI Group LLC, a leading supplier of beef to fast food giants McDonald’s, KFC, and Starbucks – fell under scandal when production at a Shanghai Husi plant was suspended by Chinese officials in July after workers were caught repackaging and selling chicken and beef past their ‘sell-by’ date. No health issues were reported due to […]
Catching Up on Ketchup
Because I’m so familiar the McDonald’s “System” and its “three-legged stool” philosophy, I was somewhat taken aback by a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news report that McDonald’s is dropping Heinz ketchup from its menu—after more than 40 years. The article implies that the breakup came about at least in part because Heinz recently hired Bernardo Hees as […]
General Mills, Suppliers, Innovation Strategy and the Power of We
Some interesting and encouraging insights regarding the company-supplier interface came out of the recent General Mills 2013 Supplier Summit where Tim Coats, vice president of Worldwide Sourcing for General Mills, kicked off the spring event by sharing his belief in “The Power of We” with a theme of Connect, Create, Elevate! Maerenn Jepsen, an external […]
RVCF Link – September 2013
Five and Ten: Five Rules and Ten Steps for a Successful Supplier Contract Article on the Five Rules and 10 Elements by Kate Vitasek and Joe Tillman. Alignment, communication and collaboration are crucial for an effective buyer-supplier retail value chain. That’s easy to say, not necessarily easy to accomplish… Here’s the link: https://www.rvcf.com/page/RVCF_LINK_13_09_02/?
Collaboration: Trending at No. 1
Adrian Gonzalez, founder and president of Adelante SCM and director of Logistics Viewpoints, recently talked about his favorite presentation at the Crossroads 2013: Supply Chain as Future Enabler conference at MIT, and collaboration was a big star. His post gave the fave-rave to A Vision of Supply Chain Evolution by Tom Linton, Chief Procurement and […]
Dell’s Journey to Vested Innovation
Dell is much in the news lately, and for good reason, what with founder Michael S. Dell’s controversial plan to buy out the company and take it private for $24.4 billion coupled with mounting opposition to his plan from no less an eminence than the financier Carl Icahn and other major shareholders. I’m not here […]
Tweaking the Kraljic Model
More than 25 years ago Peter Kraljic published his seminal “portfolio purchasing model,” which has been both a widely critiqued and widely accepted method for assessing procurement demand, risk and profit factors for supply chains. The model distinguishes among four product categories: leverage items, strategic items, noncritical items, and bottleneck items. My take on the […]
Logistics Quarterly, Nov 2010
In their article “Playing to Win“, Kate Vitasek and Mike Ledyard outline what it takes to build stronger relationships and gain greater value from your outsourcing relationships. In a nutshell, Kate and Mike explain how best companies WIN at the game of outsourcing their supply chain.
