The procurement profession has been working to take its rightful place in strategic planning for the organization. Although we've moved forward, with more large organizations naming a chief procurement officer (CPO), the reality of business pressures remain, keeping procurement pros focused, to some extent on pricing rather than strategy. That was a key takeaway from…
The retail market, especially the electronics retail market, is among the most cutthroat of all. CEOs who transform their business models with an eye to delivering a seamless omnichannel shopping experience will pull ahead of the competition, a new survey from JDA Software Group done by PwC, predicted. “Certainly, every retailer is grappling with how…
The robots are coming! This is something we've known for a while. Industrial robots, mostly used on assembly lines, have been around for decades, and their use is still growing exponentially. Consumer robots, on the other hand, have been moving into our lives at a slow pace. But that is about to change. Recently, Juniper…
The dairy industry estimates that it loses $80 million per year due to stolen milk crates. So severe is the problem that the International Dairy Foods Association set up an entire website dedicated entirely to keeping milk crates in the dairy supply chain. But the dairy industry isn't alone in its quest to locate these…
Prime Advantage polled US manufacturing executives about their financial concerns of industrial manufacturing companies and found that they believe the prospects of their individual companies exceed that of the general economy. “The results of our 2016 CFO Survey indicate a continuing state of manufacturing optimism, coupled with strong expectations for increased revenue for our members…
The business of the supply chain is rife with risk, and few organizations are truly ready for it. It's not that these OEMs don't care. Rather, their priorities get mixed up and the best road to successful execution can be hard to chart. And most don't have executive representation in the C-suite. “Supply chain disruptions…
As the supply chain and procurement departments become increasingly strategic, large OEMs should start looking at employee happiness. Research indicates that happy employees are productive employees. Researchers in the economics department at the University of Warwick, in fact, found that happy individuals were approximately 12% more productive than average. Further, satisfied employees are healthier, more…
Companies that focus on logistics and warehouse management perpetually search for better ways of increasing productivity, cutting costs, and improving safety for both workers and goods. With indoor positioning system (IPS) software and a handheld device such as smartphone, IPS technology can assist manufacturing staff by helping them get where they want to go within…
Wireless-charging-enabled wearable devices have already been introduced by high-profile volume manufacturers, and the potential for growth is immense
While Apple continues to lead fingerprint sensor manufacturing, Fingerprint Cards (FPC) rose quickly to challenge second-ranked Synaptics in 2015.