Originally posted in Supply Chain Management Review

Supply chains, like the products that pass through them, are subject to stress. Those internal stress points can be identified, re-evaluated and repaired.

A standard practice in engineering and product design is stress-testing. Commonly thought of as an engineering process for determining whether a particular product will hold up under extreme usage, it seeks to answer the question, “How harshly can consumers treat this product before it breaks?” But stress testing isn’t just for hard goods, the practice is also used to test the limits of processes and procedures and is especially useful in procurement, logistics and operations. Operational processes can break just as easily as a plastic toy on Christmas morning.

Originally posted in Supply Chain World

Know where you are today. Know where you need to be.

A recent research paper from the Global Supply Chain Institute (GSCI) found that increasing complexity across the supply chain and cost-savings fatigue is driving the need for a new approach to achieving competitive advantage. Supply chains that are not adopting this new approach risk being left by the wayside as new technologies and more collaborative ways of working come to the forefront. The question for supply chain leaders is this: How well is your end-to-end supply chain truly positioned to adapt to new technologies and capitalize on growth opportunities?

Originally posted in Innovation Enterprise

How domestic manufacturers will prepare for the coming changes

Steel and aluminum tariffs have taken analysts and observers by surprise due to their sweeping and sudden nature, and the long-term impact – and what exclusions may eventually be put into place – remains to be seen. Most economists agree that in today's global economy, punitive tariffs and the trade war that will ensue will come to no good end.

Originally posted in Supply Chain World

Steven Bowen has been involved in consulting for most of his career. Fifteen years ago, while serving as president and CEO of Alaris Consulting, an Illinois-based firm that specializes in strategic sourcing and logistics, Bowen began to formulate the idea that would lead him to start his own consulting business. He realized that no one had properly addressed the end-to-end supply chain from an implementation perspective in a way that also valued doing the right thing, even when no one was looking.

In founding Maine Pointe, Bowen had an opportunity to build a firm based on his own operational values. The Boston-based company focuses on helping clients solve end-to-end supply chain challenges for procurement, logistics and operations using data analytics and supporting technologies. “I see that as one of the biggest bottlenecks every company faces,” says Bowen, Maine Pointe’s chairman.