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Richter’s Model for Success
The merging of global sourcing and transportation with industry-specific manufacturing creates a golden opportunity for software providers. The apparel and fashion business in particular is prime territory. Staking its claim to this territory is Richter Systems Inc., based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1968, Richter focuses its software applications on the apparel industry. “The apparel […]
Read MoreQUALCOMM: Managing Information in Motion
While many technologies have been brought to bear on the supply chain, none have exceeded the importance of the advances in communication. It is all right and good to get products resourced, manufactured and distributed, but if the level of communication to accomplish these tasks is not of the highest order, business is not being […]
Read MoreTaking a Community Network Approach to the Supply Chain
The increasing growth of e-commerce is not just augmenting normal business practice; it is changing how people do business and what kind of business they do. The necessities of global sourcing, global selling, global manufacturing, global logistics and global distribution have placed managing a successful business in a whole new context. RockPort Trade Systems, Gloucester, […]
Read MoreMcHugh’s Road Leads to Integrated Logistics System
There are as many roads to supply chain management as roads to Rome. One road is to concentrate on integrating the various levels of logistics execution—such as warehouse management, distribution management, labor management and transportation management—which allow the product to move from its point of origin to its consumption as fast as possible, at the […]
Read MoreA Supply Chain Alliance for Progress
No single LIT vendor can meet every need of every user within the supply chain. But there’s strength in numbers. Paragon Management Systems, EDS/A.T. Kearney, Sun Microsystems, and Selectica have formed an interesting alliance offering a complete supply chain solution. Each company brings something vital to the table. Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif., provides the […]
Read MoreCrossdocking: The Supply Chain Core
Crossdocking has become a key technology in handling products and packages properly within the supply chain. For crossdocking to come of age, certain technologies had to be firmly in place, including portable and fixed bar-code equipment, data collection terminals, software applications, a dedicated database, a network or a combination of network and radio frequency devices. […]
Read MoreThe Summit Group: Logistics Pros
Functions that used to operate in silos, such as warehousing and transportation, must now answer to the greater demands of the supply chain. In turn, the supply chain must answer to its primary driver—the customer. Providing satisfaction to the customer has become the means by which an enterprise achieves its own business goals. Providing exceptional […]
Read MoreOptum Inc: SCM Execution Solution
We used to talk about warehousing as a place; now we talk about it as a process. New supply chain strategies and technologies are capturing this process. The architecture of logistics information systems is changing as different software applications take possession. For example, MRP II’s replacement, ERP, functionally provides a suite of applications that handles […]
Read MoreJD Edwards: The Fourth Wave of Supply Chain Management
The dynamics of the supply chain as a strategy, as a market, and as a set of technologies are creating a tidal wave of change. One company riding the crest of the wave is J.D. Edwards, Denver, Colo. Best known for its very strong position in the ERP market and recent phenomenal growth surge, J.D. […]
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Can Competitors Unite On Your Behalf?
In 1997, DSC Communications Corporation, a $1.6-billion telecom equipment maker based in Plano, Texas, decided to get radical. In an attempt to streamline the number of freight forwarders not only swarming its docks, but swamping the progressive company with paperwork, DSC turned to outsourcing. Putting its domestic, international, and van line segments out for bid, […]
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