Tag Archives: Service

Cargill – matching global supply and demand of agricultural commodities

Posted on November 20, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in Fortune (Nov 7, 2011) describes Cargill’s role inmatching global supplies of soyabean, cotton, palm oil, beef and salt from Indonesia, Australia, Argentina and North America to customers. Charter ships are routed to minimize empty miles – as … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged agriculture, Capacity, commodities, competition, Global, Outsourcing, regulation, Service, shipping, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Global Impact on the US oil pipeline supply chain configuration

Posted on November 18, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (17 Nov, 2011) describes the ripple effect of decreased Venezuelean crude supply (due to the political stress in Venezuelan-US relations) on capacity utilization at Texas refineries that process heavy crude. The alternative crude … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capacity, Design, Global, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

US auto jobs growth and supply chain impact

Posted on November 7, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in bloombergbusinessweek (Nov 7,2011) describes growing employment in the us auto industry, projected to be 88,000 by 2015. The reasons – a 10 % sales increase this year, production to rebuild inventory lost due to the earthquake in … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged automobiles, Cost, exports, Global, manufacturing, Service, Suppliers, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Apple’s use of supply chain as a strategic weapon

Posted on October 25, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (24 Oct 2011) describes Apple’s low price strategy – iPhone 4GS priced at $199, iPads at $499 etc, with competitors barely managing to match prices for similar or lower specification products. The article suggests that … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capability, Capacity, competition, Global, manufacturing, Risk, Service, Suppliers, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Increased restructuring and manufacturing’s future

Posted on October 25, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street journal ( Oct 24, 2011) states that while close to 70% of S&P companies beat earnings, significant number are focused on restructuring operations. The size of this spend varies from $100 million at Danaher, … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capacity, Global, Infrastructure, manufacturing, productivity, Service, Supply Chain, technology, Trends | Leave a comment

Strategies to decrease procurement costs – not just a price focus

Posted on October 23, 2011 by aviyer2010

In a talk by Mr Haaije van der Brug, Procurement Manager for Shell in Russia, on October 18, 2011, he described the 40/40/20 practice at Shell. The claim is that cost savings are generated only 20 % of the time … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Global Contexts, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capability, Collaboration, competition, Cost, Design, Global, Service, Suppliers, Supply Chain | 21 Comments

Using cell phone minutes to save cash in Kenya

Posted on October 4, 2011 by aviyer2010

A Bloombergbusinessweek article (Sept 12-18, 2011) describes M-PESA – a service offered by Safaricom – Kenya’s largest cell phone company. The system allows a phone owner to save money in the form of cell phone minutes which can be transferred … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Global Contexts, Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged cellphone, Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Kenya, regulation, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

The US Navy’s concern about sole suppliers for defense

Posted on October 2, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (Sept 5, 2011) describes the worry in the Navy that their sole sourced contract for the Aegis Combat System with Lockheed Martin may not have delivered the best deal. Past contracts to Lockheed have been under … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Collaboration, competition, Cost, Design, Dual Sourcing, manufacturing, Navy, Outsourcing, Service, Suppliers | 1 Comment

How did Amazon manage to price the Kindle Fire for $ 199 ?

Posted on October 1, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (Oct 3, 2011 edition) suggests that Amazon’s new Fire tablet’s amazing $ 199 price point may be related to its smaller screen but also subsidy from potential margins from sale of toys, diapers and electronics. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Amazon Fire, competition, Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Growth, Margins, Retail, Service, Supply Chain | 1 Comment

“Surge and Purge” contractors for defense services

Posted on October 1, 2011 by aviyer2010

A BloombergBusinessweek article (Sept 5, 2011) describes the approach in the Pentagon to use “surge and purge” services offered by CACI International and ManTech International. These companies provide the capability required for the specified time frame and are available on … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capability, Capacity, Cost, Demand Surge, Global, military, Outsourcing, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment