When you envision eating at Burger King, Del Taco, TGI Fridays or White Castle, nutritious plant-based food probably isn’t part of the picture. But in an effort to attract new diners — particularly people seeking healthy, sustainable foods and those following special diets — about 20,000 restaurants across the United States now offer imitation meats such as those produced by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.
Hailed as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation” by Esquire magazine, Fareed Zakaria is host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria Global Public Square (GPS),” a Washington Post columnist, contributing editor at The Atlantic and a bestselling author. He was recently named a “Top 10 Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy magazine.
If you are in the United States, chances are excellent that there is a Dollar General within a five-minute drive. In fact, the discount chain’s enormous footprint reaches so many rural areas that 75 percent of its stores are in towns with 20,000 or fewer residents. This is by design.
“The sticker price of bananas seems to remain remarkably steady, almost if by magic,” writes Joe Fassler in The New Food Economy. In reality, bananas are cheaper today than a decade ago. But the lower grocery bills are making things a great deal tougher for banana plantations, their employees and the environment.
Mismanaged waste causes hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people to die each year, according to a recent article in The Guardian. Many of these deaths are easily preventable, particularly those that stem from the dangers of discarded plastic.
My daughter and I have been looking at colleges recently, and I must admit that I’m both proud and a little dismayed that her top choices are thousands of miles across the United States. But traveling with her and exploring new parts of the country together has been a wonderful experience that I know will bring us both fantastic memories.
The escalating tariff war between China and the United States is set to shake up the consumer electronics and agricultural industries.
The “hidden job market” can be a confusing expression, as most employers aren’t going out of their way to actually hide available jobs. In fact, the hidden job market simply refers to open positions that are not listed in the public domain for candidates to discover and apply for. So, why would a business choose not to publish an open position? There are many reasons:
Grocery shopping, though a necessary part of life, can be a chore. You write a shopping list, perhaps check the supermarket website for what’s on sale, try not to forget your reusable shopping bags, drive to the store, fill your cart, wait in the checkout line, scan your coupons or loyalty app, pay, load your groceries in your car, drive back home, and put everything away.
“In the first three months of 2019, employees got so much more work done that they smashed productivity forecasts,” writes Alexia Fernández Campbell for Vox Media. “That’s great for businesses (they earn more money) and for the economy (GDP grows faster). The problem is that companies aren’t rewarding their employees for the extra hard work.”
Recently, I found myself thinking a lot about the challenges that women still face when it comes to proving to others that we can be impactful. Having served in a variety of positions in my 19 years at IBM — and now as chief technology officer at global power solutions company — I have faced the many challenges associated with achieving leadership success. I have also learned that, oftentimes, women doubt ourselves and stand in the way of our own success.
First identified in the early 1900s, African Swine Fever (ASF) has been responsible for the deaths of countless domestic pigs around the globe. According to the 2018 report African swine fever: A re-emerging viral disease threatening the global pig industry, the virus increased rapidly in throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last century.
As I go through life, I see naturally recurring cycles. Ideas, concepts, music tastes and even foods fall in and out of favor. (I’m still waiting for disco to make a comeback so I can bust out my hustle.) Similarly, every four or five years, the conversation about supply chain and sales and operations planning (S&OP) metrics circles around, creating a brief flurry of activity.
Marketing brings to mind campaigns that build brands, hone customer awareness and increase sales. But for transportation companies, targeted marketing has strong potential to create a completely different outcome — identifying and engaging prospective truck drivers.
Most of us cringe when vendors show up at our front steps. We crack open the door begrudgingly or even pretend we aren’t home. However, those of us in the United States are eagerly awaiting the sound of the doorbell these days. It’s that wonderful time of year when door-to-door salespeople become welcome guests: Girl Scout cookie season.
The 2019 ASCM Awards of Excellence deadline is fast-approaching, so I thought it would be useful to reshare a blog I wrote last year, which includes 10 tips on what really makes an entry stand out. To do so, I first asked our judges what they’re looking for. Then, to get the inside scoop, I spoke with two-time winner Michael Morand, CPIM-F, CSCP-F, CLTD-F, senior manager of supply chain at Johnson & Johnson.
As supply chains become longer, more dependent and extraordinarily complex, cybercriminals are finding alarmingly innovative ways to attack them — and these strikes often trickle down to business partners, processes, information technology (IT) and equipment. Taylor Armerding writes in a recent Forbes article that attackers are increasingly aiming to leverage the relationships among supply chain stakeholders in order to breach every facet of the primary victim’s network.
Connected cars, machines, wearables, home appliances and other consumer electronics comprise the internet of things (IOT). These innovations are on the brink of surpassing mobile phones as the largest category of connected devices.
With headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis has a global reach of approximately 129,000 associates worldwide and sells products in 155 countries. The company offers a diversified portfolio consisting of medicines, generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals, and eye care.
Last night, several ASCM board members, key women team members and I joined 130 remarkable women, who were recognized at the annual Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Awards gala. The 100 honorees and 30 emerging leaders embody excellence from the factory floor to the C-suite and — perhaps most importantly — are committed to mentoring and supporting the next generation of female talent.
The market for software with generative design tools will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent, reaching $44.5 billion by 2030. According to a new report published by ABI Research, these sales include licenses and subscription revenues for computer-aided design (CAD) products with generative design tools or standalone generative design software products.
The question I’ve been asked most often, in my 25 years as an APICS volunteer and staff person, is “Which of the APICS Certifications is right for me?” APICS is recognized by corporations around the world as the premier provider of certifications in Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and, now, Logistics, Transportation and Distribution Management, and it can be a little confusing determining which of our certifications will most help your career.
For those of us in the field, it’s no surprise that supply chain encourages innovation and generates high-paying, rewarding jobs. Thanks to a new joint research project by the Copenhagen Business School, Harvard Business School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the value of the supply chain economy is now evident to people of all backgrounds and disciplines.
With the gathering storms of trade wars, extreme and unpredictable weather conditions, a record-breaking driver shortage, and upended retail practices and customer expectations, there are clearly some momentous shifts coming our way. Supply chain professionals will need to be rethinking their networks, strategies and processes, with four areas in particular deserving our attention:
When was the last time you sat down with your team to thoroughly review your supply chain organization’s progress and future direction? These days, some professionals are so busy that they fail to notice when they’re running to stand still. If most of the work you do involves decisions and activities that affect the next 30 days, then being reactive is your norm. Furthermore, you probably want to do everything yourself because trust is lacking, which may cause high levels of employee turnover.
Unfortunately, according to Gartner’s four-stage, higher-maturity, S&OP model, nearly 70 percent of companies are stuck operating in the reacting and anticipating phases. These areas are most often centered around making a plan and maintaining a regular S&OP meeting in order to balance supply with demand for the good of the enterprise. Consequently, they are totally focused on inward processes and tend to require at least four years to solidify.
General Motors (GM) designs, manufactures and distributes vehicles and vehicle parts. One of its specializations is technologically advanced cars, such as those with built-in 4G LTE connectivity, semi-autonomous vehicle and electric vehicles.
The majority of people credit diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs with boosting both innovation and employee retention at their companies, according to an executive survey by global consulting firm Korn Ferry. Nevertheless, 59 percent of respondents say they still experience unconscious bias, which is defined as forming social stereotypes about certain groups outside of our conscious awareness.
There are approximately 190 million women working in supply chains around the world today. The jobs they hold assembling products on factory floors, packing cartons in warehouses, and harvesting crops in farm fields should translate to economic independence and a brighter future for their families. Regrettably, that is too often not the case.
Innovation is difficult to come by. It is a fleeting concept that eludes most companies. In fact, experts say the odds of a new product idea reaching full commercialization are less than 4 percent. That said, innovation is difficult, but not impossible. Chances are, if your organization is struggling to innovate, you’re doing one or more of the following:
Everybody remembers their first car. Mine was an old Lincoln Continental with doors hinged at the rear, often referred to as “suicide doors,” which are apparently being brought back by the automaker. It was a behemoth of a car — barely getting nine miles per gallon, at a time when the United States was dealing with a gas price spike from 38 to 55 cents!
The Red Queen is a fictional character from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. In the book, the Red Queen explains to Alice that her world works differently: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
As supply chains becomes longer, more global and increasingly complex, supply chain management professionals need a bird’seye view of their networks to ensure that all of the parts are moving together and performing as expected. Some industy experts believe digital supply chain control towers are the best approach for end-toend management.
Today marks the beginning of International Women’s History Month, a global celebration of the social, economic and political achievements of women, as well as a call to advance gender equality worldwide. This is a significant time to reflect on where we have come and what still must be achieved:
The sharing economy is no longer just a catchy turn of phrase; today, sharing, renting and subscription services are everywhere. AirBnB for your holiday rental; WeWork for freelancers who prefer the office environment; Rover for the pup’s midday walk; Uber and Lyft when you need someone to drive you places; and Zipcar, LimeBike or Bird Scooters when you’d rather do the driving yourself. The potential applications are endless.
If smart manufacturing vendors hope to fulfill the potential of their solutions and platforms for digital factories, they must build environments where apps can deliver immediate results with stream processing and cloud integration at the edge.
Although the second-most popular Valentine’s Day confection was missing from store shelves this season, the conversation was kept alive — largely thanks to agile competitors who saw a market need and filled the emotional void with comparable offerings. Sour Patch Kids produced hearts with teen slang, such as “BAE” and “TOTES.” Krispy Kreme baked up doughnuts with pastel icing and more traditional phrases of affection. And Rival Brach’s has long made nearly identical conversation hearts to the Sweethearts variety.
