The Road Ahead: Business, Supply Chain & The World Order is Available
Special Report: How Companies Should Reshape to Succeed in 2023 & Take Advantage of Huge Opportunities Coming Down the Pike
The Economy & Manufacturing: What Do the Statistics Say?
According to this week's GDP report, the real growth rate was minimal (around 1.1%) during the first quarter. On the other hand, inflation remains high, around 5.3%. This seems to reflect stagflation. Unfortunately, business equipment spending was around -7.3%, and inventories are down. PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index), an [...]
Supply Chain Issues Critical to Address in Today’s Volatile Global Environment
CLAREMONT, Calif., April 11, 2023 /ExpertClick/ - Integrating supply chain technology, addressing supply chain talent scarcity, and unifying end-to-end port platforms are the biggest challenges for companies today, according to the Supply Chain Special Interest Group of The Society for the Advancement of Consulting® (SAC). Successful companies are adapting by [...]
West Coast Ports are Losing Volume: What Are the Successful Doing
According to PMSA (Pacific Merchant Shipping Association), the five big West Coast ports have lost volume - 702,083 fewer loads and empties were handled in January and February 2023 than in the same period pre-pandemic in 2019. This equates to close to a 16% reduction. Specifically, the Port of Long Beach was off by 18.7% from January 2019 [...]
Silicon Valley Bank’s Failure Kicked Off a Liquidity Crisis
Silicon Valley Bank's Failure kicked off panic in the financial markets and banking system. They had too much money tied up in long term bonds paying at low interest rates, and they didn't have the liquidity to keep up with the depositors requests to take money out of the [...]
Manufacturing Opportunities in e-Commerce
Originally published in Brushware, March-April, 2023 According to Insider Intelligence, the US B2B e-commerce sales will be over $2 trillion by 2024. Digital Commerce 360 said that manufacturers’ B2B e-commerce sales have been growing at an annual rate of 16% since 2016 which is almost 1.5 times faster than [...]
Take Control of Your Manufacturing to Wrestle Volatility to the Ground
What is clear is that VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is continuing in the forefront and will continue to be our "new normal". As I recently debated with the Wall Street Journal, we are in an era of non-stop disruptions. Look no further than the escalating war of Russia [...]
Dealing with Rising Inflation and Interest Rates
Listen to find out how some of the top supply chain consultants around the world are working with their clients to help them deal with rising inflation and interest rates.
Proactive Approach to Navigating Transportation Woes
Transportation has been in chaos since the pandemic. It started with logjams at the ports that persisted for multiple years, continued with atypical events such as the ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal and truckers blocking the border of US and Canada, and continues to rage on with labor shortages across the board in rail, trucking, and all transportation sectors.
Chinese Spy Balloon & Much More Traversing the U.S.
As has been all over the news, the Chinese sent a spy balloon which floated across the U.S. for about a week. According to US senior military officials, it is confirmed that the balloon is tied to a major surveillance program run by China's military. It has politicians and citizens up-in-arms about the potential impacts, and it bolsters concerns about China.