Author Archives: Teddy Nee

Top fashion labels save millions from China’s sustainable supply chain

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A leading group of Chinese textile mills, which create clothing for major high-volume apparel brands and retailers including Target, Gap, Levi Strauss and H&M, are saving $14.7 million each year by adopting simple efficiency measures in their production processes, according to a new analysis by the US Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

These improvements have dramatically reduced the pollution generated by these mills, cutting up to 36 percent of water use and 22 percent of energy use per mill and a total of at least 400 tons of chemicals.

The 33 mills are part of NRDC’s Clean By Design program, a global model for manufacturing sustainability that is working with major fashion retailers and designers to green the fashion supply chain industry-wide.

“Great fashion can also be green fashion. Although apparel manufacturing is among the largest polluting industries in the world, it doesn’t have to be,” said Linda Greer, Ph.D., NRDC senior scientist and director of Clean By Design. “There are enormous opportunities for the fashion industry to clean up its act while saving money, and Clean By Design offers low-cost, high-impact solutions to do just that.”

Over the past two decades, China has become the epicentre of global manufacturing, and it currently produces more than 50 percent of the world’s fabric, totalling more than 80 billion meters annually.

As a result, the country is suffering from increasingly serious pollution problems while also contributing significant carbon into the atmosphere. Textile manufacturing, particularly the dyeing and finishing of fabric, is incredibly water and energy intensive as the process swallows up to 250 tons of water for every 10,000 meters of fabric produced and consumes 110 million tons of coal every year.

Read more at Top fashion labels save millions from China’s sustainable supply chain

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Preventing a talent gap in supply chain management

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When you hear about skills shortages and talent gaps, the discussion tends to surround STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — professions. However, a new concern also is breaking through.

Supply chain management has become a far more complex and skill-demanding ordeal for businesses in a wealth of industries operating in virtually every location around the globe. This has been driven by the fact that commodities markets, global trade and regional economic conditions have been volatile at best, and show no signs of simplifying or stabilizing anytime soon, meaning that managers of the supply chain have a lot more variables to worry about today than in the past.

Thankfully, it appears as though many businesses, including those operating within the manufacturing sector, are working to nip this problem in the bud by providing their own types of training for supply chain managers to digest. After all, the greatest weapon in the fight against any talent gap is increased investment from the private sector in training and development, and this medicine appears to be more commonly embraced in the modern era.

Automotive excellence
Manufacturing Business Technology magazine recently reported that a new study from DHL revealed automotive giants are likely to face what it calls a “perfect storm” that will wreak havoc on supply chains from around the globe. According to the study, supply chain management professionals, specifically those looking to get a job at an automotive manufacturing firm, already are few and far between, and this problem is expected to become more complex in the near future.

Read more at Preventing a talent gap in supply chain management

How do you deal with the talent gap in supply chain management? Share your thoughts with us in the comment box.

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Secrets To Success: How Supply Chain Services Tripled Its Business

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Five years ago, Chip Emery, a retired big-business CEO, bought a small-time, 8-year-old reseller startup, Supply Chain Services.

At the time, the bar-coding VAR was profitable, with $9 million a year in revenue, but Emery, the owner and CEO of the company, simplified the business. Five years later, the company has just come off its most profitable year in its history, pulling in $25 million in revenue, and is set to make an additional $30 million this year.

So what radical changes did he make to drastically grow the company? Well, as Emery said, it was really quite simple. He just had the company focus on what it did well.

“One thing that we did when I bought it was to focus on where our expertise is,” Emery said.

“I learned very quickly that our expertise was in warehouse, distribution and manufacturing, so I made the leap of faith and decided, ‘Why don’t we focus on what we know and stop talking about selling to hospitals and municipal government, and point-of-sale equipment in the retail world, and health care? Let’s just stop all that stuff.”

Emery had the Minneapolis-based company focus its energy on just three major markets, as he said you can only do two or three things really well at the same time. If you try to take on more than that, you’re taking on too much, he said.

Read more at Secrets To Success: How Supply Chain Services Tripled Its Business

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Connecting the Dots: ISO 45001, the Supply Chain and Risk

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ISO 45001, inspired by the well-known OHSAS 18001, is designed to help companies and organizations around the world ensure the health and safety of the people who work for them. ISO 45001 currently is at the committee draft stage of development, the first consultation phase. During this stage, the countries (ISO members) that have chosen to participate in the standard’s development have two months to form a national position on the draft and comment on it.

Many experts in occupational health and safety have lobbied for an ISO standard that would help integrate occupational safety and health into sustainability, quality and management systems efforts.

Kathy A. Seabrook, CSP, CFIOSH, EurOSHM, recently spoke about supply chain accountability, the market economy, sustainability/corporate social responsibility (CSR), materiality reporting and the ISO 45001 management system standard for workplace safety and health at the Standards and the Global Supply Chain event hosted by ANSI.

“Risk is the common thread connecting supply chain accountability, the market economy, sustainability, materiality reporting and ISO 45001,” said Seabrook, adding, “ll of these risks can have an impact public policy. This interconnectedness of risk impacts society, the economy and trade, an industry, an organization, its reputation and brand, its shareholders, business processes, product and service delivery capability, its workers and its supply chain.

Read more at Connecting the Dots: ISO 45001, the Supply Chain and Risk

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The Big Interview: Ian Livsey, CEO, Institute of Risk Management

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Every business in all sections of the economy has risks. Companies need not only look within their own organisation when it comes to managing risk, but also to things that could influence it on the outside.

In his first interview since joining the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) as its new chief executive, Ian Livsey tells me companies should be looking at the wider issues in the supply chain when it comes to managing risk. And one of the key risks he believes businesses face there is from human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Figures from the International Labour Organisation show almost 21 million people worldwide are been victims of forced labour, generating $150 billion in illegal profits per year, with almost 19 million of these being exploited by private individuals or enterprises and two million by state or rebel groups.

In the UK, a survey last year by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) of British businesses revealed nearly 75 per cent of supply chain professionals admitted they had “zero visibility” of the first stages of their supply chain. Eleven per cent acknowledged it was “likely” that slave labour was used at some point in the process.

Says Livsey: “Wider society does not quite understand human trafficking is a serious issue. You could be a hotel, restaurant, food manufacturer or a construction site – it is quite possible you’ll have a risk in your supply chain on trafficked labour. Businesses need to think forward about what these risks might be.

Read more at The Big Interview: Ian Livsey, CEO, Institute of Risk Management

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Resilinc to Unveil the Top 10 Supply Chain Risk Management Insights of All Time

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The Top 10 Supply Chain Risk Management insights of all time are the most impactful conclusions, lessons learned, and heuristics that all SCRM practitioners should be acutely aware of in order to maximize their chance of success in achieving risk management and resilience performance excellence. Bindiya Vakil, founder and CEO of Resilinc, and Ann Grackin, CEO of ChainLink Research, will lead the discussion.

“These are the insights born from real-life experience in the trenches, battle scars, and “ah hah” moments,” said Vakil. “They are based on Resilinc and ChainLink Research company experience—working with the most complex supply chains in the world as solution providers, consultants, and practitioners in previous lives—as well as crowd-sourced contributions from risk thought leaders and luminaries in industry and academia.”

The top 10 insights will each be presented as important threads in an overall strategic-framework fabric. When implemented in their totality, the top 10 insights may form the backbone of a successful best-practice-driven SCRM program.

Participants in this Webcast will have the opportunity to:

1. Gain insights and best practices to improve SCRM and resilience program performance.

2. Apply insights as part of a strategic framework for success.

3. Benchmark their organization’s resilience program best practice adoption against the top 10 insight list.

Read more at Resilinc to Unveil the Top 10 Supply Chain Risk Management Insights of All Time

Will you take part in the event? What are your expectations ? Share with us in the comment box.

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Fairtrade Foundation assesses female participation in international supply chains

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As the world prepares to celebrate International Women’s Day this Sunday (8 March), Equal Harvest, a new study published by the Fairtrade Foundation, states that enabling more women to join the organisations that grow produce such as bananas, cotton and tea, could benefit businesses and support global development, as well as bringing gains for women.

Although women make up almost half the agricultural workforce in developing countries, they account for just 22 percent of the farmers registered as members of the 1,210 small producer organisations that are certified by Fairtrade.

Legal, social and cultural norms often act as barriers to women’s participation, for example, membership of co-operatives can be dependent on owning land or crops, some agricultural work may be deemed inappropriate for women, and women may be expected to undertake most of the domestic work in the home, giving them less time to participate in producer groups.

Although the Fairtrade Premium is often invested in projects that benefit women, such as access to childcare or training to help them diversify their income, Fairtrade says that increasing the participation of women farmers could boost productivity, improve development outcomes for communities and provide opportunities to launch new products such as the ‘Grown By Women’ range marketed by Equal Exchange.

A female banana producer in the Dominican Republic said that enabling women to become members of producer organisations is important because “it gives women the right to vote, to participate in decision making, to receive benefits and to live with dignity.” A male cotton producer in India said that women should be supported to take up leadership positions because “women are more disciplined and organised and will run these institutions better, whereas men fight amongst themselves and let egos come in the way.”

Read more at Fairtrade Foundation assesses female participation in international supply chains

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Seven Supply Chain Resolutions for 2015

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Map your Extended Supply Chain: Our collective supply chain eyes were opened in 2011 as a result of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, and then severe flooding in Thailand that decimated key suppliers in the high-tech sector.

Model Your Supply Chain: A relatively small but growing number of companies maintain an active network model of their supply chains that they use for on-going decision-making, from inbound supply flows to what products to make where.

Develop a Talent Strategy: Do you really have a plan for finding and developing supply chain talent? A few leaders do – but not many. A few years ago, Pepsico took a look at this – and wasn’t happy with what it found.

Start Benchmarking: In general, we do far too little benchmarking in the supply chain. I am referring not just to maybe participating in some survey or service that allows you to compare your results (sort of) with those of others, but meeting with companies to see how they do things, and swap and compare ideas and practices.

Review Your Technology Portfolio: Do you know exactly what software you have where? Do you have any “shelfware,” meaning software you paid for but never implemented, either in total or at certain locations?

Paint a Vision for becoming Demand-Driven: In the early 2000s Procter & Gamble came up with the “consumer-driven supply chain” concept, which the then AMR Research morphed into its demand-driven supply networks.

Start Lunch Time Education Meetings: I know a few companies – Campbell Soup used to be one of them and maybe still is – that hold weekly or monthly Friday “brown bag” lunch days focused on education. Could be an internal team member presenting insight into their area of operation.

Read more at Seven Supply Chain Resolutions for 2015

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It’s 2015, Are You Ready for the Chinese New Year?

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It’s 2015, Are You Ready for the Chinese New Year?

According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2015 is the year of either the Goat, Sheep or Horned-Animal (i.e., Ram). You may designate either animal, as you think best.

But whichever one you choose, Chinese New Year (CNY) is nearly around the corner, and transpacific shippers must once again prepare themselves for the inevitable annual impact it will have on their supply chain operations.

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the biggest holiday of the year in China. This year, the Chinese New Year begins on February 19, and most Chinese will have eight days or more of vacation, commonly referred to as Golden Week.

Because this traditional holiday brings families together to celebrate the New Year, it is common for many companies to extend their shutdown periods prior to and after CNY to allow employees to travel home to celebrate with family.

Customary activities include fireworks, red decorations, the New Year’s Dinner and an exchange of red monetary envelopes. But the planning for CNY goes beyond these traditional celebrations as transpacific shippers have come to grasp the real effects of the extended holiday period. Let’s examine some things to consider:

  1. Take the opportunity to communicate your production deadlines early in order to avoid potential delays.
  2. The increase in inventory and the pressure to get those goods underway prior to the CNY shutdown can create a backlog of goods awaiting export from Chinese ports.
  3. Some factories may also not experience a 100-percent return of their workers until after the holiday – further extending the time to return to full capacity.
  4. Shipments should arrive at the ports no later than 10 days prior to the CNY in order to ship before the holiday.
  5. It is particularly wise to book shipments two weeks in advance to ensure space on vessels.

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US Supply Chains More Vulnerable to Climate Risks

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US Supply Chains More Vulnerable to Climate Risks

Lack of preparation currently leaves supply chains in Brazil, China, India and the US more vulnerable to climate risks than those in Europe and Japan, according to a report by CDP and Accenture.

Supply chain sustainability revealed: a country comparison also finds suppliers in China and India deliver the greatest financial return on investment to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate the strongest appetite for collaboration across the value chain.

The research is based on data collected from 3,396 companies on behalf of 66 multinational purchasers that work with CDP to manage the environmental impacts of their supply chains. They account for $1.3 trillion in procurement spend, and include organizations such as Nissan and Unilever.

Analysis and scoring of suppliers’ climate change mitigation strategies, carbon emissions reporting, target setting, emission reduction initiatives, climate risk procedures, uptake of low-carbon energy, and water risk assessment efforts, as disclosed by suppliers to CDP, were used to create a sustainability risk/response matrix that shows how well prepared suppliers across 11 major economies are to mitigate and manage environmental risk in their supply chains.

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