Managing your inventory in an effective and efficient manner is a goal that many businesses continue to strive for. One such idea that has been developed and is now in full use is the vendor managed inventory (VMI) system, which if implemented correctly can drive distinct competitive advantage.
Without further ado then, let’s look at how VMI has evolved, its business advantages and how it could play an important part in an effective inventory optimisation program.
It may come as a surprise that many companies have still not reduced the amount of inventory they keep in their supply chains.
In a recent post by Dan Gilmore at Supply Chain Digest, he details by industry how many companies have not appreciably reduced their inventory since 2004.
In a day and age when investment and the resultant ROI are critical, maybe people need to take a closer look at how to optimize their inventory levels throughout their extended supply chain.
Supply chain management software solutions can help and in recent projects customers have experienced inventory level reductions by as much as 60%. Viva la savings!
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Perceptant provide next generation Supply Chain Management, B2B e-commerce and EDI solutions that drive the integration, synchronisation and collaboration of global supply chains. For more information, please visit http://www.perceptant.com
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Few companies until lately have paid much attention to reverse logistics—the management of merchandise returns (including repairs and final product disposition). These days, the financial benefits of reverse logistics are well known, and third-party specialists in the discipline abound.
So is there anything new going on in this field? There is indeed, as was learnt during a recent conversation with Dr. Dale Rogers, chairman of the Reverse Logistics Executive Council and director of the University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Logistics Management and the Sustainable Supply Chain Management Project.
“I think this is a great time to be working in reverse logistics, because new models for managing it are being developed,” Rogers said. “People really are thinking more about the end of life of products. Some of that is regulatory in nature, and some of it is because people are trying to be good stewards of the environment.”
New (as yet unpublished) research by Rogers and his students also found that the economic downturn has spurred demand for reverse logistics services. The study showed that the recession has pushed so many people to shop in secondary markets—retailers that sell discounted merchandise—that those markets now account for 2.28 percent of U.S. GDP. That’s a good sign for the profession. “Reverse logistics is the supply chain that feeds the secondary market,” Rogers said. “In fact, reverse logistics processes are what make that market possible.”
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Perceptant (http://www.perceptant.com) provide next generation Supply Chain Management, B2B e-commerce and EDI solutions that drive the integration, synchronisation and collaboration of global supply chains.
Hospitals expanding use of transaction sets beyond purchase orders to automate more aspects of their purchasing and supply chain management processes, but there is still room for growth
While the healthcare industry is often accused of being slow to change, a new study conducted by HIMSS Analytics and sponsored by GHX found that there is widespread use of e-commerce by U.S. hospitals in the purchasing process, with 95 percent of acute-care hospitals with more than 150 beds purchasing at least some of their medical-surgical supplies electronically.
HIMSS Analytics surveyed hospital purchasing officers to understand the extent to which hospitals are automating various aspects of the purchasing process through the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) transaction sets and the percentage of medical and surgical purchasing that is handled electronically. Researchers also asked where respondents believe automation provides the greatest value and what they believe to be the biggest barriers to increasing the use of e-commerce.
The findings revealed that, in general, acute-care hospitals have embraced e-commerce and are automating a variety of business processes with multiple trading partners.
However, there is still work to be done before the industry can achieve full value from e-commerce. Key findings include:
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