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Supply Chain AI Moves From Theory To Reality
New and emerging technologies are changing the way supply chains operate. The impact of technology is compounded by all the recent disruptions affecting supply chains, like the pandemic, supply shortages, and security threats. Among the technologies impacting supply chain is artificial intelligence…
Artificial Intelligence Leading to New Skills for Supply Chain
Many organizations believe that AI drives value through its impact on the number of employees needed for the supply chain. Of the organizations surveyed by APQC, 46 percent consider a reduction in headcount to be a top driver for deploying AI. A slightly smaller percentage, 44 percent, consider…
Small Suppliers Face Pain from Changing Requirements
“This will kill small companies.” “This” refers to the increasing complexity in sales and contracting processes. Dramatic sentiment? Yes, and this statement reflects the frustration I’m hearing from small service providers dealing with large, global buyers that have adopted a “one size…
What is the Order-to-Cash Process?
Order-to-Cash (O2C) is a critical end-to-end process that, when optimized, creates a seamless value chain from customers to the business. But for many organizations, O2C has been a particularly gnarly set of processes to optimize. Its domain stretches across functions and organizational boundaries…
How Do You Benchmark Procurement?
With the ongoing disruption facing supply chains and suppliers, there has been a renewed interest from procurement professionals in figuring out how well their organization is performing and how it compares to others. Benchmarking is the competitive edge that allows organizations to adapt,…
Open Innovation Strategy Builds Resilience
Disruption may be the new normal, but how we react to it is up to us and our organizations. Over the past year and a half, as priorities and consumer needs shifted, office work moved online, and supply chains were disrupted, many organizations opened up for collaboration and innovation on a massive…
Omnichannel Strategy Can Drive Supply Chain Responsiveness
When you think about customer expectations, one thing that may come to mind is Amazon’s instant gratification business model. Consumers expect to immediately access information online about a specific product and its availability, and then very quickly obtain that product. Consumers want seamless…
How to Innovate Post-Disruption
One thing is certain in 2021: disruption persists. And another thing that is certain is our organizations must adapt and innovate to handle these challenges. So, while we may feel like we are on a never-ending roller coaster ride, the good news is that organizations are learning to innovate in new…
Starting Small with Sustainability – an APQC Story
APQC is small in terms of our physical footprint and number of employees. We deliver services; we have no products that require manufacturing or shipping. So how can we be more sustainable? The go-to idea would be to donate money – and we do donate to charitable causes – but what else could we do…
Holdup at the Suez Canal is Creating Big Problems for Supply Chain Sustainability
Three months into 2021, and we’ve got yet another unprecedented event: a massive ship is stuck in the Suez Canal. It’s the first time that’s happened in the canal’s 150-year history, and it’s already creating huge problems in terms of its: economic impact (goods can’t get to market with this…