Archives March 2022

Service levels require careful planning. If supply chains are to be resilient businesses have to be responsive to customer demand and agile to supply goods and services when required. To provide excellent service means meeting customer demand and that requires inventory management.  Planning service levels to meet dynamic demand is key. Serving customers means businesses have to have inventory available. Holding inventory ties up working capital so the trick is to keep inventories low whilst still meeting demand. There is a trade-off between cost and availability and balance is necessary.  It is a dilema betweem just-in-time or just-in-case. The latter is costly. but the former can also be costly if you lose customers. Contemporary supply chain systems are dynamic. We no longer design systems and processes for long time periods. Systems are dynamic and so must design of the systems be responsive to change. In this episode Tony Hines discusses some key aspects of planning service that gives value to customers and is profitable for the network. 

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

In this episode Tony Hines introduces the topic of supply chain skills necessary to enter careers in supply chain management. In conversation  with two special guests Dr Regina Frei, Associate Professor at Southampton University Business School and Dr Eoin Plant-O'Toole, Associate Professor at Napier University, Edinburgh he asks them what they think are the skills needed to build a career in supply chains. Both guests have new courses that they have developed in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and they speak about the curricula they have developed to support new entrants and experienced managers too.

Dr Eoin Plant-O'Toole is also involved with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and transport (CILT) and he leads the Policy Committee in Ireland and he told us a little about that work and why it is important to network to build contacts to support your career development.

Oil prices steadied this week but consumer and business costs are still rising as a result of recent increases. Food inflation is giving cause for concern.
This week as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues many of the world's largest brands have pulled out of Russia closing plants, retail stores and pausing operations. Payment system providers such as Visa, Mastercard and Pay Pal have also withdrawn. Shipping volumes to Russia fell by 40 per cent in the first week of March. Many Russian flagged or owned ships have been turned away from UK ports in the past week. Some big freight companies such as Maersk are no longer sailing in or out of Russian ports.

Maersk is also developing green fuels to power its new ships. Sony and Honda have formed a joint company to produce electric vehicles. Container dwell times have led to increased criminal activities at seaports.

Link to report mentioned in podcast:
This report explores the use of EPR, which sees producers cover the costs of dealing with textiles at their end of life, as a mechanism through which to drive circularity in the textiles market. The report recommends the implementation of EPR alongside supporting measures that incentivise eco-design.

https://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/driving-a-circular-economy-for-textiles-through-epr/ 

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

In this special edition we take a look at the adoption of redistributive manufacturing(RDM) as a means of making health care supply chains more resilient. Tony Hines speaks with Professor Wendy Phillips who is professor of innovation at Bristol Business School, University of West England and a leading researcher in this field.

RDM has potential to engage local communities to become co-producers in providing products and services at the point of consumption and to customize them to meet the specific need of service users. Professor Phillips talks about her research giving many examples of the benefits that such a supply chain reconfiguration can bring and also discusses the wider potential application of RDM across different sectors.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine dominated news headlines this week.  We take a look at the implications for global supply chains.

We also take a look at California's 22 point plan to combat plastic waste along with a new tax on plastic packaging in the UK.

Public procurement may need to take a look at the wider geopolitical implications of procurement and not simply choose suppliers offering the best price.

Listen to the full round up here.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

This is a short extract from a forthcoming episode on resilient supply chains in healthcare where Professor Wendy Phillips from Bristol Business School discusses redistributed manufacturing as a strategy to improve timeliness to meet patient needs better.