Topic: Pearson on Excellence

根据最近的一项政策埃森哲调查urers, 82 percent plan to increase U.S.-based production, 75 percent report a significant shortage of skilled resources, and 11 percent say that they estimate an average percentage drop in earnings due to increased production costs and revenue losses resulting from skills shortages.

A growing number of manufacturing companies are warming up to sustainability—taking aggressive steps to soften and shrink their environmental footprints. However, buy-in from those companies’ suppliers has been less encouraging.

Volatile markets. Unstable currencies. Vacillating demand. Unpredictable commodity costs. Manufacturers, like most companies, have plenty to worry about.

In previous centuries, international trade volumes typically flowed east to west, with more goods, materials, and components journeying from emerging markets— largely in Asia—to mature economies in Europe and North America.

They may not recognize the term, but a lot of logistics and supply chain executives are concerned about “permanent volatility.”

Innovation isn’t the only path to prosperity. However, a growing number of companies have come to think that innovation’s risks outweigh its benefits. Thus they’ve opted to retain their “safe” business models and also focus more on product line extensions than real breakthroughs.

Every year, more products are being produced by companies whose supply chain operations are intelligently linked with suppliers and business partners. Many of the machines that make those products are guided by advanced data analysis, decision science, and other smart technology. The people who consume those products are probably using digital connections to guide their choices and ultimately make a purchase.

This is no magic bullet that makes it possible for organizations to suddenly excel at end-to-end inventory management: to hold the right amount at the right place at the right time; to maximize enterprise-wide responsiveness to shifting demand; and to ensure crystal clear views of in-transit, in-process, and finished-goods inventories.

A lot of global companies are hoping that emerging markets will prop up their bottom lines. They could be disappointed.

Some large companies believe that their commitments to risk management stifle innovation.

Supply chain decision makers are well-positioned to help the world become a more habitable place, and to benefit financially from their efforts.

This is the final column in our series about dynamic operations, or global supply chains imbued with the ability to alter the function and focus of key processes (manufacturing, transportation, distribution, etc.) in response to changing events.

In this column—the fourth in a series of five articles focused on dynamic supply chain operations—we look at the role and importance of “flexible innovation.”

In this column—the third in a series of five articles focused on dynamic operations—we look at the role and importance of adaptable structure.

In our previous column we introduced the concept of “dynamic operations:” supply chain networks that respond quickly and smoothly to changing business conditions. We also identified dynamic operations’ four enabling capabilities and looked briefly at how they work together to help companies identify, accommodate, and even benefit from supply chain disruptions. The first of these capabilities is “insight to action.”

Dynamic operations—supply chain networks that respond quickly and smoothly to changing business conditions—sounds like something every company should desire. Who wouldn’t want a supply chain whose processes, people, capital assets, technology, and data are always positioned to surmount the primary challenges of the day?

One hallmark in the era of permanent volatility is fluctuating commodity prices: everything from aluminum (variations up to 30 percent in 2012) to zinc (variations up to 25 percent in 2012). The result is endless headaches for people and departments in virtually every industry: the procurement folks buying materials; the logistics and transportation staff moving it; the finance guys forecasting expenses; and even the sales and marketing staff struggling to pass unanticipated cost increases on to customers.

Effective use of business analytics—using quantitative methods to derive forward-looking insights from data—is essential for companies that are serious about supply chain excellence. Why? Because with analytics, supply chain managers gain a deeper understanding of what is happening upstream and downstream. As a result, they’re better able to assess the operational impacts of prospective supply chain decisions.

Today more than ever, innovation is a top priority. Sixty-two percent of executives questioned in a recent Accenture survey noted that their business strategy is “largely” or “totally” dependent on innovation. Nowadays, however, companies don’t only need to innovate, they also need collaborators—partners—to help make innovation happen.

In last month’s column, we presented some dramatic research insights about emerging markets. By 2020, 57 percent of the world’s economic growth could come from emerging markets. Emerging market household incomes are expected to increase by a total of $8.5 trillion between 2010 and 2020. And if emerging-market-to-emerging-market (E2E) exports continue to increase at their current rate, they will outpace developed-country-to-developed-country (D2D) volumes by 2013.