Briefs
Staff -- Purchasing, 2/19/2004 2:00:00 AM
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A new study from Best Practices LLC shows how cutting-edge manufacturers use software to reduce inventory and speed product delivery through remote monitoring of plants. The report found that performance to some key measures such as on-time delivery and fill rate sometimes comes at a penalty, since some measures can be contradictory, if not mutually exclusive. For example, a high fill rate can be achieved by having a high inventory days on-hand measure. Several companies in the study, however, have optimized their systems to achieve excellent performance across the board. "Each of the top companies we studied showed an uncanny knack for performing exceedingly well across over 20 dimensions of supply chain performance," said Keith Symmers, vice president at Best Practices. "The common denominators were extensive employment of performance initiatives and sophisticated use of Internet and other communication tools to streamline the material and information flow and performance across the supply chain."
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A new report from ARC Advisory Services found that supply chain execution suppliers are reporting that their pipelines are starting to fill and that a recovery from the downturn in IT spending is in the beginning stages. The worldwide market for supply chain execution is expected to grow at 9.7% over the next five years, according to ARC. The market was $3.3 billion in 2003 and is forecasted to be $5.2 billion in 2008. "ERP suppliers are steadily gaining market share at the expense of the best of breed vendors," according to Steve Banker, ARC Service Director for Supply Chain Management. "However, this is not true in all SCE application areas. Certain areas (an example is production management applications for process manufacturers), have been much less likely to lose market share to ERP vendors."
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Supply chain technology firm Arzoon recently acquired Vigilance, a business process management software provider. Vigilance proactive event management solutions will be available as an optional module of Arzoon LIFE or as a standalone product.
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