American Shipper will be hosting a webinar that will address the findings from the recent Import Operations & Compliance Benchmark Study: Risky Business, published by American Shipper and BPE.
The increased complexity of global supply chains has led to longer lead times, more pipeline inventory, and the need to control downstream and upstream logistics. In the Aberdeen Group’s most recent supply chain visibility survey, the growing supply chain complexity was the top business pressure (44%). This, in turn, has contributed to increased supply chain management costs. It is not surprising that in the situation of global economic turmoil that visibility is taking center stage.
Aberdeen’s brand new report, Supply Chain Visibility Excellence: Fostering Security, Resiliency and Efficiency focuses on gaining visibility into critical elements across the end-to-end logistics network for improving cost and service. Before a company can reduce inventory or landed cost, it needs visibility into them. Only then can it apply tools to agilely adapt to the information it collects.
A few key takeaways from the report are:
Best-in-Class companies experienced a 3% decrease in supply chain execution cost as a percent of revenue (inbound /outbound transportation, pipeline and staged inventory and SC management costs).
Best-in-Class companies experienced a 3% decrease in total landed costs per unit handled.
Best-in-Class companies are between 19% and 42% more likely to respond to non-catastrophic supply chain disruptions within hours.
AberdeenGroup has released a brand new report, Strategies for Mastering Trade Compliance and Supply Chain Complexity, which reveals the findings of a survey they did with 136 importers and exporters in August and September of this year. According to the survey, trade compliance teams are actively revamping their Global Trade Management (GTM) programs, specifically their trade compliance systems, to stay current with supply and demand fluctuations, growing global operations, increasing operational complexity and risk, and trade lane changes.
This report provides an in-depth and comprehensive look into process, procedure, methodologies, and technologies with best practice identification and actionable recommendations. A few notable statistics from the survey are that:
58% of respondents indicate that internal stakeholders outside of the compliance department do not understand the risks of non-compliance
42% indicate that manual processes are becoming too cumbersome
28% claim they are mostly manual and spreadsheet driven, while 64% claim manual or spreadsheet on some components
34% cite total landed costs among the top three ranked improvement areas for compliance in 2010
There is no silver bullet for a successful GTM/GTC program – it is a combination of excellence in the areas of access, enablement internally and externally, process/technology, and proactive planning and execution. When these things are aligned, in proper combination, they yield superior results.
Despite the recession, Apple has once again topped AMR’s Top 25 Supply Chain list, followed by Dell, P&G, IBM, and Cisco Systems. AMR Research defines three broad principles that weigh into the ranking of these supply chains: supply management (manufacturing, logistics and sourcing), demand management (marketing, sales, and service), and product management (R&D, engineering and product development). An organization’s overall rank was determined by how successful they are at achieving and integrating all three.
Interestingly enough, a few of those top-ranked companies use Management Dynamics for their global trade management needs. P&G uses Supply Chain Visibility for Shippers to ensure visibility, communicate with carriers and suppliers, and make optimal sourcing decisions.
Here’s an intersting article that originally appeared in the very first issue of Supply Chain Management Review, back in 1997, and again in 2007: The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management. The article, written by experts from Andersen Consulting (currently Accenture), starts out by giving seven tips on managing the supply chain, and then goes into detail on strategies companies can take to achieve those principles. It’s a great read and provides some useful best practices, so go check it out!
![[Facebook]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.supplychainvisibility.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
