SCDigest editorial staff

Supply Chain Chief of Wal-Mart’s UK-Based Asda Chain Calls For Improved Supplier-Retailer Cooperation

Andy Ellis, supply chain chief at Asda’s, the UK subsidiary of Wal-Mart,  recently said that the retailer hopes to improve product availability in the coming year by examining its flow of goods to stores, better through collaboration with suppliers, and an evaluation of its internal systems.

Speaking at the at industry summit in London last week, Ellis said that Asda intends to look at how it orders products from suppliers, optimizes its in-store space management, and improve operational accuracy and the physical flow of products into its stores in 2007.

“We have got lots of opportunities to improve availability,” Ellis said. He suggested that the best method to achieve these goals is through improved forecasting and collaboration with suppliers.

“We are all in this together as a retailer and supplier. Unless the product is in front of a customer we are all losing money,” he said. “It’s about building relationship. We need to do everything we can to get the products in front of the customer.”….

Lenovo Supply Chain Struggles to Keep Pace

Lenovo, the computer maker that last year acquired the PC business of IBM, blamed some of its disappointing 3Q financial results on supply chain problems, specifically an inability of the supply side of the house to deliver.

The Raleigh, N.C.-based company said in a webcast presentation that it had suffered from an inability to deliver products quickly enough, an issue CEO William Amelio said was being corrected.

"While we are making progress, there's a ton of work we need to do," Amelio said. "We have great innovations our customers want to buy and pay for. We get frustrated because we're not able to deliver on the demand because of some of the stubborn supply problems we have in place."

Amelio said that the company would work to drive worldwide supply chain improvements over the next 18 months, including further rollout of an SAP system, a reduction in the number of product models and SKUs in Lenovo's lineup, and "revamping our design process as well to make sure our reliance on sole source components is a lot less." ….

Nissan Has Its Eyes on U.S Factories or Equipment of Struggling Detroit Automakers

Nissan's Senior Vice President of North American Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Daniel Gaudette told Reuters this week  that his company will consider plants and assets that are being shed by U.S. automakers, as Nissan looks to expand its manufacturing capacity in North America.

"Everything depends on what's available, when it's available and then what our needs are," Gaudette said, referring to GM and Ford plant closures. "We certainly would consider any viable opportunity."

Gaudette said Nissan would also consider buying equipment from the factories that are being shuttered.

Nissan will be moving production of the Quest minivan from the Canton, Mississippi plant to a facility in Japan in 2008, in order to make room for new products –the company is in the process of launching seven new models in the U.S.

Currently, the automaker has three U.S. assembly plants….

Will Dell Centralize Supply Chain Power?

In the face of continued challenges to its leadership in the computer market, its bottom line, and stock price, reports are that Dell is looking to bring in more executive talent from the outside.

Dell may even require some new thinking in its traditional strong suit: supply chain operations. Rivals have closed the gap in efficiency, and Dell vaunted supply chain has had some stumbles. Recently, it had to delay shipping its new XPS 700 machine, blaming the problem on "an issue with the installation of the cooling assembly."

Some observers are suggesting Dell may name single supply chain czar with full authority over procurement, manufacturing, and logistics, currently divided among a number of executives and geographic units…

Duke Studies on Outsourcing Engineering Jobs Draw Conflicting Conclusions

Is outsourcing hurting America's engineering workforce? Or is it actually boosting engineering careers by making U.S. tech companies more competitive and allowing them to deploy engineers more effectively?

Researchers at Duke University recently completed two studies on this issue, and the findings - one by the Fuqua School of Business and the other by Pratt School of Engineering – draw different conclusions.

One (conducted by the business school) finds that companies are going offshore because they are desperate for talent and are shifting more complex work to nations such as India and China for strategic reasons. The other Duke study (by the engineering department) concludes that the offshoring phenomenon is all about cost and that there is no shortage of engineers in the U.S., and causing a big loss in U.S. jobs.

Our view: both are partly right.

Unilever Looks to RFID, EPCIS to increase supply chain visibility 

Consumer products manufacturer Unilever has continued aggressive efforts at better utilizing RFID data to improve supply chain visibility, most recently through a trial to see the benefits of “EPCIS.” EPCIS is standard developed as part of the EPC Global organization that seeks to standardize the way EPC (electronic product code) data is accessed by users or systems requiring RFID-related information.

Supply chain software provider RedPrairie announced this week it was working with Unilever to integrate the underlying RFID transactional data generated from RedPrairie logistics and RFID systems at Unilever into the company’s databases, information than can then be accesses through  EPCIS protocols. This data will include RFID/EPC tag “commissioning” at the time of a customer order, aggregation of individual carton tags on to a pallet identifier, shipment location and verification data.

Do you have any comments on this week’s supply chain news bites? What types of news is of most interest to you. Let us know your thoughts.