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Tag: supply chain

The MSC Chain of Custody Standard

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

The Chain of Custody Standard provides assurance that all seafood sold with the blue MSC label comes from a fishery that has been certified as sustainable.

47,800


supply chain sites certified to handle MSC certified seafood

20,000+


products sold with the blue MSC label

66


countries where labelled products are available

Why certify supply chains?

Seafood products can pass through long and complex supply chains between the ocean and reaching consumers. At each stage, there is a risk that products will be mislabelled or that products from an MSC certified fishery will be mixed up with non-certified products.

Certification to the Chain of Custody Standard ensures an unbroken chain where certified seafood is easily identifiable, separated from non-certified products, and can be traced back to another certified business. 

This system allows businesses and consumers to be confident that seafood with the blue MSC label has come from a fishery certified as sustainable. 

Find out more about our Standard


For <a href=supply chain companies”/
Chain of Custody

For supply chain companies

Demand for sustainably caught seafood is increasing. Find out how to get certified and sell and promote MSC certified products.


For certification bodies
Chain of Custody

For certification bodies

The MSC Chain of Custody Standard and General Certification Requirements documents for certifiers.

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How Huawei Transformed Its Supply Chain In the Digital Era

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

Huawei transformed its supply chain with digital technologies and innovated its operations and management models, taking customer experience and revenues to new heights.

Now is the time for digital transformation

As well as enabling rapid growth, digital technologies help enterprises transform industrial value and reshape business models globally. Comparing the market capitalization of the world’s top-ten companies in 2010 and 2020 shows that digital natives, such as Apple, Amazon, Alibaba, and Tencent, are edging out companies in traditional industries like Shell and ExxonMobil.

The time is now for enterprises to digitalize if they hope to survive and thrive.

Objectives of Huawei supply chain’s digital transformation

Focusing on improving customer experience and creating value through digital and proactive supply chain, Huawei launched its integrated supply chain plus (ISC+) digital transformation project in 2015. To transform its operations and management models, the project comprised an intelligent two-layer supply chain business system, service-oriented processes and IT, and scenario-based algorithm modeling

Transformation covered six areas that centered on transitioning from:

  1. An offline-focused business model to both offline and online.
  2. A working model based on transmitting information in series to an operations model based on the collaborative and parallel sharing of information.
  3. High volumes of manual operations to automated system operations.
  4. A decision-making model based on personal experience and intuition to a decision-support model enabled by data analytics, unified data warehouses, and data models.
  5. Push-type planned allocation centered on Shenzhen HQ to pull-type resource allocation driven by forecasts.
  6. A centralized management model to one that facilitates independent decision-making by field offices, with capability support and supervision from HQ.

Our digital transformation journey

ISC+ supply chain transformation has moved through the phases of digitalization and intelligent digitalization. Digitalization built the foundation of Huawei’s digital capabilities, including its data foundation and service-oriented processes/IT. Intelligent digitalization builds on

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SAP’s Empowering Women in Supply Chain Seeks to Elevate a New Generation of Leaders

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

Women have been climbing the leadership ranks of supply chain for several years, but more work needs to be done. In a survey released this summer by Gartner, women now make up 41% of the total supply chain workforce. At the frontline level, though, women make up only 31% of senior manager positions and 34% of managers/supervisors, up just one percentage point year-over-year in each category.

Significant gains were made in the C-Suite (CSCO, SVP, EVP, CPO), where 26% of roles are now filled by women, up from 19% in 2022. The 26% is an all-time high in the 8th Annual Women in Supply Chain Survey, and up significantly from 2019 when the number was in the single digits.

“It’s particularly encouraging to see women make gains at the senior executive level, as we know that when a woman holds the top supply chain position this has a positive correlation with more women in leadership and in all roles through that organization,” said Caroline Chumakov, director analyst in the Gartner Supply Chain Practice.

At SAP, elevating women into leadership roles is a primary mission, and it is headed up by Darcy MacClaren, chief revenue officer of SAP Digital Supply Chain. In an interview with Supply Chain Management Review at the CSCMP Edge 2023 conference in Orlando, MacClaren explained the goals behind SAP’s Empowering Women in Supply Chain group.

“We clearly have a diversity issue with women, both in the U.S. and globally,” she said. “We are missing out on a [great workforce].”

As a leader in SAP’s supply chain business, MacClaren was feeling the impact that lack of diversity was having, but it was when she spoke with other supply chain leaders that she realized “they all had the same issues.”

Identifying the root cause

The root

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What Is Value Chain Analysis and How Do You Use It?

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

Value chain analysis is a tool that business owners use to break down each process their business uses. This analysis can be used to improve the business’s individual processes, enhancing the company’s efficiency and establishing a competitive advantage.

Value chain analysis is used by businesses of all sizes, ranging from sole proprietors to enterprise-level companies. Every business uses various processes to accomplish its work, and they all can use value chain analysis to study and improve these processes.

What is value chain analysis?

A value chain is the full range of activities – including design, production, marketing and distribution – that businesses conduct to bring a product or service from conception to delivery. For companies that produce goods, the value chain starts with the raw materials to make the products and consists of everything added before the product is sold to consumers. Value chain analysis finds any deficiencies in these processes and improves them, saving money, improving quality and expediting time to market.

Value chain analysis can create change within a business, improve the products and services it offers, and expand connections with other companies and their customers or clients. The United States Postal Service (USPS) explains the purpose of value chain analysis is “to create value that exceeds the cost of providing the product or service and generates a profit margin.”

Value chain vs. supply chain

A supply chain and value chain are similar, but the value chain takes a few more things into consideration.

“The supply chain generally looks at the parts or materials that go into a product, where a product is manufactured, and the transportation logistics of getting it from the factory to the store,” said Jon Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. 

The value chain “takes into

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Key sustainability areas to drive supply chain groups

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

Many other industries have already started integrating sustainability within their operations, companies with vast supply chain management function in Vietnam might face more challenges than others.

Key sustainability areas to drive supply chain groups
Pham Duy Khiem,
General manager of Supply Chain Management, DKSH Vietnam

There are three actionable areas we believe companies that handle supply chain management should focus to advance in their sustainability commitment in emerging markets like Vietnam.

Firstly, transportation contributes significantly to environmental pollution, responsible for 70 per cent of total dust and gas emissions in Vietnam. It is vital for supply chain management companies to pay close attention to routes planning and energy consumption to minimise its emissions to the environment.

DKSH invests its efforts in order combinations, route planning, and vehicle choices to make sure we continue to offer consistent delivery services, guaranteeing reliable access to thousands of high-quality products while optimising energy consumption for every delivery we make.

In Vietnam, our delivery processes adhere to standardised procedures forged through strategic partnerships with local transport providers. Across all our partnerships, we continually advocate for the adoption of eco-friendly vehicles and renewable fuels in their transportation activities. We are also actively negotiating a climate commitment agreement to formulate optimal solutions for environmental protection within the transportation sector.

Presently, we collaborate with local transport vendors on initiatives and resources designed to monitor carbon emissions resulting from vehicle usage. Our delivery operations are optimised through the meticulous examination of factors such as vehicle types, schedules, and delivery routes, all tailored to the volume and frequency of delivery points. This approach enhances our operational efficiency and maximises cost-effectiveness in our delivery endeavours.

Under the sustainable transportation area, besides the environmental aspect, we believe it is vital for every supply chain companies to ensure the safety, health, and wellbeing of the employees, especially when they are on

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How It Works & Why It’s Important

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

What Is Supply Chain Management (SCM)?

Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of managing the flow of goods and services to and from a business, including every step involved in turning raw materials and components into final products and getting them to the ultimate customer. Effective SCM can help streamline a company’s activities to eliminate waste, maximize customer value, and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Key Takeaways

  • Supply chain management (SCM) is the centralized management of the flow of goods and services to and from a company and includes all of the processes involved in transforming raw materials and components into final products.
  • By managing the supply chain, companies can cut excess costs and deliver products to the consumer faster and more efficiently.
  • Good supply chain management can help prevent expensive product recalls and lawsuits as well as bad publicity. 
  • The five most critical phases of SCM are planning, sourcing, production, distribution, and returns.
  • A supply chain manager is tasked with controlling and reducing costs and avoiding supply shortages.

Investopedia / Alex Dos Diaz


How Supply Chain Management Works

Supply chain management represents an ongoing effort by companies to make their supply chains as efficient and economical as possible.

Typically, SCM attempts to centrally control or link the production, shipment, and distribution of a product. By managing the supply chain, companies can cut excess costs and needless steps and deliver products to the consumer faster. This is done by keeping tighter control of internal inventories, internal production, distribution, sales, and the inventories of company vendors.

SCM is based on the idea that nearly every product that comes to market does so as the result of efforts by multiple organizations that make up a supply chain. Although supply chains have existed for ages, most companies have only

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Data becoming increasingly important in supply chain functioning, competitiveness

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

As stakeholders work – as part of the National Logistics Crisis Committee – to resolve the most prominent issues impacting on the South African logistics system, including cable theft on rail lines and overloading on roads, it is more important than ever for businesses to optimise their supply chains.

Experts participating in a dialogue hosted by the Transport Forum on August 23 agreed that, by actioning data insights, businesses themselves can help to mitigate overloading on the country’s roads, for example.

In providing the context that South Africa, with its 12 227 twenty-foot equivalent units transported across the country each day, operates in, business intelligence company Crickmay MD Jayce Lane pointed out that the $105-trillion world economy was being influenced by large trading blocks, including the US and China.

He mentioned that, although global weak growth impacted on the South African supply chain, trade in services had shown some resilience compared with goods, particularly in the information and communication technology (ICT) space. He added that African trade had shown more resilience amid global crises than many first-world regions.

Lane said there were nonetheless external factors affecting the South African supply chain, including a global move to regionalisation or localisation, away from globalisation, which had been driven by the need to build resilient supply chains owing to recent events such as Covid-19.

Other impacting factors on the supply chain include the green transition, which could cause market access issues in the near future, as well as geopolitical factors, fluctuating commodity prices and the high interest rate environment.

For example, geopolitical events in Africa increased considerably between 2000 and 2023, including in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, which impacts on transport corridors and logistics decisions.

Border crossing times between Gauteng and Mozambique have also been getting longer, while South African ports

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How Supply Chains Can Reduce Food Waste and Improve Your Triple Bottom Line

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler
Bottom Line on a sticker beside a calculator and a pen. Finances and business concept.

By Hugo Fuentes Diaz, Founder, The Owl Solutions

Did you know that 30-40% of food in the US is wasted every year? Food waste can occur at the supply chain level for several different reasons such as surplus inventory, new product launch failures, unpredictable consumer demand, packaging changes etc. 

Most of the products wasted in the supply chain typically result in inventory write-offs or obsolescence, which is a product that a business can no longer sell. This ends up negatively impacting an organization’s finances and sustainability efforts.

To reduce the amount of financial, time, and environmental waste that expired food is creating, companies can focus on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) – a framework that encourages organizations to consider the social, environmental, and economic impacts of their business. 

TBL allows organizations to measure their business impact by focusing on 3P’s: people, profits, and planet.  Reductions in inventory waste can improve the 3Ps, fostering a better outcome for each.

People

A major reason inventory expiration is so prominent in food companies today is the extensive use of old processes. For example, many companies use multiple supply chain IT systems, which end up creating siloed data. 

These old processes typically result in reporting styles that involve extracting data from each separate system that is often exported into spreadsheets, vetted, and compiled into a report. 

This type of manual reporting consumes a lot of productive work hours and leads to inefficiency for employees. 

It is easier and more productive for inventory professionals to adjust their processes with improved technology that centralizes data sources and provides real-time analytics into everyday inventory levels. Not only will this help employees reduce associated write-offs risks, but it cuts the amount

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Data-Driven Sustainability: How Supply Chain Efficiency and Clienteling Drive More Sustainable Operations and Customer Choices

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

Luxury retail brands are making sustainability a priority more than ever before. From choosing more eco-friendly materials to incorporating energy-saving technologies, these companies have seen the importance of creating better environmental practices and have acted accordingly. As luxury retail continues to move with the times, increasing sustainability is sure to become an even bigger part of their strategies for success going forward.

Consumers are becoming increasingly mindful about sustainability when it comes to shopping habits, and luxury retail is responding by investing in sustainable initiatives that will protect the environment while still allowing them to continue delivering luxurious items. With sustainability set to continue its growth in influence in the industry, upscale retailers must be prepared — or miss out on this particular trend. The brands we work with are pursuing a multitude of sustainability initiatives, from improvements in their supply chain to innovative ways to extend the usable life of their products through curated resale channels.

Sustainability can be highly data-driven. Sustainability has become more important than ever in the retail industry, and within the supply chain, retailers now have access to technology that provides them with a 360-degree picture of their inventories and customer preferences. They are already making sustainable and ethical supply chain decisions with regard to material sourcing and labor, and by layering in data they can also make intelligent decisions about pricing, discounting and future inventories so they can reduce unsold inventory at the end of a season.

With this deeper insight into both their sustainability initiatives and inventory stocking, businesses can better tread the line between meeting customer demand and minimizing waste to stay competitive in an ever-changing and complex market.

When delivering goods, luxury retailers can also reduce their carbon footprint by offering BORIS, BOPIS and BOSS (buy online, return in-store, buy

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The Psychology of Supply Chain Negotiations: Using human factors to attain superior outcomes

Posted on by Betty R. Sattler

The editor of Supply Chain Management Review made an unusual request for the May 2023 edition. He asked this married couple to write an article about psychologic principles to empower negotiations. This topic does fit us. Mark regularly teaches conference audiences and corporate procurement groups on best practices in negotiations. Melanie is a medical doctor practicing in the field of psychiatry and teaching at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels as a tenured professor, as well as regularly speaking in the educational and medical communities on matters relating to intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. So, let’s get started.

The place of negotiations in today’s procurement toolbox

Despite all the “eTools” in today’s supply management toolkit, negotiations are still the most utilized way to establish (and improve) complex business relationships. Most senior supply management professionals agree that negotiations are the preferred methodology for dealing with alliance and strategic types of supplier relationships—ones that account for a large proportion of supply chain expense.

This truth has been further compounded during the last two years as the balance of power in typical commercial relationships has shifted toward the suppliers, in combination with COVID supply chain disruptions and energy-induced inflationary price increases.

Let’s face it, a greater portion of the average firm’s procurement relationships have been exposed to renegotiations than ever before. It was decades ago that we last saw force majeure language being deployed in the commercial contracting environment anywhere close to current levels.

With so much pressure on buyer/supplier relationships, how can procurement leaders be more successful in the process of negotiations? How can professionals expand the power of negotiations beyond the boundaries of MDO (most desirable outcome), LAA (least acceptable agreement), and BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)? A greater understanding and incorporation of psychological elements may be the key to

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