Posts tagged ‘Supply chain challenges’

Supply Chain Challenges Brought on by M&A’s

June 16, 2010, 2:30 pm

In today’s business environment, one of the trends we’ve been seeing lately is an increase in mergers and acquisitions. If you’ve experienced this at your organization, then you already know that when two companies combine, major changes are in store as new business practices are integrated, some existing practices are dropped, and the supply chain is no exception. Tompkins Associates has released a new white paper, Integrating Supply Chains from Business Combinations: Principles and Best Practices of Mergers and Acquisitions, that discusses challenges and best practices for supply chain teams faced with M&A activity.

The white paper discusses the importance of having supply chain strategy on the primary integration agenda, as it can be a fundamental value driver for a company. Additionally, when companies combine, the supply chain itself will have to adapt to potentially different suppliers, operating procedures, warehouse locations, etc.

The authors make several key points about how to overcome supply chain challenges when dealing with a merger:

The imperatives for true and lasting success with supply chain integrations are few; yet their achievement is challenging. The real keys to success in integrating supply chains in M&A are:

  • Assign strong and experienced team leaders;
  • Focus on enabling the business and operations strategies;
  • Decide on the new organization and processes with the right criteria;
  • Apply sound principles and best practices to all the work; and
  • Establish a performance-based culture and a self-assessing DNA.

To learn more, please download the full white paper here.

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Manufacturing Industry Expected to Pick Up in 2010, But Not Without Challenges

October 20, 2009, 12:11 pm

A 3% increase in manufacturing production is expected in 2010, according to Stan Gwizdak from the consulting firm, Celerant. According to an article in Supply & Demand Chain Executive, Mr. Gwizdak gives a few main factors that will contribute to this upturn:

  • Declining imports as companies review their supply chain strategies;
  • Continued market consolidation and acquisition activity; and,
  • Green products and companies in the solar, wind, and geothermal space.

So, good news! However this will not come without challenges. Mr. Gwizdak states that the biggest challenge for manufacturers will come from “the complex supply chain with global operations, logistics, warehousing and reduced time available for new product introduction and time to fulfill a customer order.” Not too surprising. Anytime a company increases operations or expands globally, there will be new supply chain issues that need to be addressed. And, most importantly, the more complex a supply chain is, the more imperative it becomes to communicate with trading partners so that no one is left out of the loop.

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