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| • The Supply Chain of Tomorrow (not yesterday!) Crafting your supply chain / logistics strategy for the future. More • Foreign Affairs: Where In the World is Your Supply Chain? Interpreting (and helping you navigate) your offshore logistics options. More • Today’s Specials: Supply Chain Variety (or the appearance of it!) Strategically positioning value-added processes and product line tweaks. More • The Supply Chain “Check-up” Reducing risk with preventive care & a prescription for healthier performance. More • Change Management and Organizational Culture Removing cultural obstacles to supply chain effectiveness. More |
• The Supply Chain of Tomorrow (not yesterday!)  Crafting your supply chain / logistics strategy for the future. |
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Designing a supply chain based on historical data is folly: when it comes to supply chain logistics, what worked yesterday isn’t likely to work tomorrow. The only constant is change. Plans for distribution networks, facilities, supply sourcing, transportation modes, material handling – the works – must be made with an eye on the future and the flexibility to respond to changes and challenges as they occur. But how can you do that? The secret is to plan for, and build to, the future state. It’s like Wayne Gretzky said about hockey: it’s about skating “to where the puck is going to be.” (It’s infinitely more complicated than that, but, in another sense, it’s that simple.) And how do you know “where the puck is going to be?” It’s about 5% vision, 10% analytical thinking and 85% experience. At The Progress Group, we’ve helped a long list of successful companies get into position to win the supply chain game with: - Long-term, customer-focused solutions. - Analytical modeling of networks, facilities and inventories that will support the strategic process with better comprehension of the variables and risks, and greater confidence in the solution and transition plan. - Planning and executing the interim steps that will get you there. For more information, contact: Bruce Strahan, 770-804-9920, bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com CASE STUDY 1 CASE STUDY 2 |
| • Foreign Affairs: Where In the World is Your Supply Chain? Interpreting (and helping you navigate) your offshore logistics options. |
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If you don’t have global links in your supply chain, there’s a good chance you’re going to need them to remain competitive. Being able to operate across borders, between continents and over oceans is becoming an essential core competency for companies competing on an increasingly planetary playing field. But global realities are complicated; the topography isn’t what we’re accustomed to. Regulations are different, as is the role of government. And cultural differences – even something as simple as an accident of manners – can leave a “great deal” dead in the water. The Progress Group has the international experience to help companies who are facing global issues in sourcing and supply chain operations. As a founding member of The Supply Chain Group, a consortium that does supply chain logistics consulting in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, we have relationships with leading global service providers that allow us to offer solutions world-wide. For more information, contact: Art Van Bodegraven, 770-360-5817, avan@theprogressgroup.com. |
| • Today’s Specials: Supply Chain Variety (or the appearance of it!) Strategic positioning of value-added processes and product line tweaks. |
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Variety is the spice of life in today’s merchandising environment – and that’s not just in retail stores. Today, if it’s not new, it’s old news. Customers and consumers are conditioned to expect new programs, products and services. Marketing and product development organizations have made this bed, and everybody has to lie in it. Yet, the way most supply chains are organized, efforts to add variety in products and services tend to wreak havoc on inventory control and increase obsolescence of products already in the pipeline – negatively impacting performance and profits. So how do you inject enough “newness” to meet the variety challenge without wiping out your profits in the process? The answer is with fresh and innovative approaches that don’t rely on unhealthy increases in inventory – for example, building in options that increase flexibility in the supply chain. This way, you can create the appearance of tailored customer solutions without customizing each one . . . in other words, you can create “mass customization.” The Progress Group team can share with you our knowledge and experience in developing creative strategies to the “variety” challenge based on the uniqueness of your business and your existing supply chain. These include: - Postponement philosophies. - Flexible manufacturing. - Distributed assembly. - Merge-in-transit. - Distribution-based packaging, - Network optimization. For more information, contact: Bruce Strahan, 770-804-9920, bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com |
| • The Supply Chain “Check-up” Reducing risk with preventive care & a prescription for healthier performance. |
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Health-conscious people go to the doctor periodically, even when we feel good, just to make sure there’s nothing wrong. And your supply chains needs this kind of “well patient care” as much as you do. Even when its performance seems okay and there aren’t any glaring symptoms of trouble, a consultation with a Progress Group team can help you foresee pitfalls down the road and plan for them before they get out of hand. We can help you identify the hidden problems and wrestle the sneaky ones to the ground. We can show you where direction is less than optimal and out of synch with your supply chain objectives. We can point to places where prompt attention is needed – with consideration for your resource limitations. A Progress Group “Check-up” can give you an accurate reading on where you stand with the whole supply chain – organization, service performance, inventories, transportation, manufacturing, physical distribution, technology, third-party providers – and help you find the best overall balance of cost and performance solutions. For more information, contact: Bruce Strahan, 770-804-9920, bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com |
| • Change Management and Organizational Culture Removing cultural obstacles to supply chain performance upgrades. |
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Ever seen a great idea fall flat for lack of “ownership” by the corporate culture? We have, and we know it’s an entirely preventable disorder. No matter how good the plan, it can’t deliver the performance you need unless your organization ready – intellectually and emotionally – to adopt it. The Progress Group understands the subtleties of informal corporate culture and knows how to use them to help a great plan meet its potential. Using a consulting approach, our Progress Group team can help assure the success of your supply chain redesign or upgrade implementation through: - Two-way knowledge transfer to build early ownership in the plan through internal training and gain feedback for ongoing plan improvements. - “Sell in” of the plan via engaging leading players in concepts and analytic techniques. - Recommendations for organizational changes and skill set upgrades to support the plan. For more information, contact: Art Van Bodegraven, 770-360-5817, avan@theprogressgroup.com. |
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Copyright © 2004 The Progress Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
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