From Vision to Reality: Supply Chain Insights That Stand Up
As Global Trade Routes Shift, the World Notices Transformative Trends One by one, insights I have been talking about for years are coming true. And the rest of the supply chain community is catching on. No, I’m not talking about my prediction that the Kansas City...
Inflation and Disruption: Still Targeting Global Supply Chains
Turbulent Waters in the Suez Canal, Panama Canal and South China Sea Touch Nearly 40% of Global Trade Inflation’s declining. So, supply chain leaders can turn their attention elsewhere, right? Think again. True, the Federal Reserve expects inflation to drop this year...
New Independent Contractor Rules: What You Need to Know
Any Clue What ‘Totality of the Circumstances’ Really Means? What happens when your organization must provide minimum wage, unemployment insurance and Social Security benefits to all your “independent contractors”? You might find out soon. On March 11, the U.S....
3PL Supply Chain Innovation: Control Towers, Flexible Labor
A Link in a Chain Is Not Enough for Competitive Advantage in Today’s Market Sometimes, supply chain innovation is as simple as adding a third fulfillment center. Bam – with the right geographic locations, these three sites allow you to deliver 92% of your orders in...
The Challenge of Diversifying Supply Chains Away from China
The latest figures show U.S. imports from China declined in 2023. So, all those plans to decouple and diversify supply chains from China must be working, right? Not so fast. Imports from other countries often have their genesis in China. And bilateral trade between...
Ecosystems: From Swamps & Supply Chains to Business Strategy
A 30-year Evolution to a Business Model for Perpetual Disruption Remember the old line: “When I was in high school, I did not know how to spell engineer, and now I are one”? Well, in the mid-1990s, I read business strategist James Moore’s book The Death of...
Adam Smith Wants You to Redesign Your Supply Chains
Why We Went from 1 Factory for the World to the World Is Your Factory In just five years, the world has turned upside down. Leadership has evolved from believing free trade was best to a world of tariffs, export restrictions and trade wars. China has been (and largely...
From 1 Factory for the World to the World Is Your Factory
Sure, Trade with China Is Growing. But Supply Chain Resilience Means Looking Anywhere Else In 2020, China was the factory of the world. Just-in-time was the way to optimize operations. Supply chain resilience wasn’t factored in. In 2020-2021, organizations...
2023 Insights: The Top 10 Blogs on Supply Chain Leadership
Expect More Disruption and Workforce Woes in 2024 First off, Happy New Year from Tompkins Ventures! As many of us commute back into the office this week (or, better yet, walk to our work-from-home office), I figured we would kick off 2024 with a look back at some...
A 3-Pack of Supply Chain Disruptions for the Holidays
Shipping Attacks, Greedflation and ABC Make Resiliency Even More Difficult in 2024 Good things come in threes. So do bad things – like supply chain disruptions. Yemeni rebels have said happy holidays to global supply chains by firing drones and missiles at Red Sea...