Ford Motor Co. recently announced it is phasing out the eVEREST Internet-based purchasing software system after four years. Ford said the system would not connect with existing systems within Ford and the company received complaints from suppliers that the system was difficult to use. "We are going back to the proven legacy systems that are still in place," said Ford spokeswoman Joan Witte in a recent news report. Witte said the company has been trying to integrate the system, which was provided by ERP provider Oracle, for more than four years but did not reveal how much Ford has invested in the software. About 300 to 350 people working on the eVEREST project will be reassigned to other technology projects, Witte said.

The productivity boom in recent months is shifting the job of supply chain managers from cost cutting to customer service and meeting demand, according to a new report from AMR Research. According to the report, as companies focus more on profitable growth and less on cost cutting, the supply chain manager's role shifts from responsibility for product movement (inbound and outbound) to overall responsibility of the integrated supply chain from customer to supplier, including product and information movement. The AMR report also said demand forecasting and lean principles are key to supply chain success in the new market.

"Underlying all of this, the technology that is required is also changing," the report says. "Most companies placed their bets on the potential of optimization technology to overcome constraints, but leaders have targeted execution systems that let them respond to changes faster. Practitioners have also recognized the limits of historical data as a predictor of the future, and are increasingly using real-time information to get closer to demand."