Blog

Blog Entries: Demand-driven

• You can get more value from VMI, even with imperfect forecasts

  Rob Schoenthaler, Senior Vice President, Deployment, E2open - Thursday, December 15, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  A recent article in Supply Chain Quarterly suggests that some consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers are cutting back on their use of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) because accurate demand forecasts, upon which VMI depends, have proven elusive. This isn’t completely shocking, given that effective forecast collaboration is a cornerstone of any VMI program.  More »

• Three ways to leverage your supply chain for better customer service

  Brent Proud, Program Director, E2open - Thursday, December 01, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  When it comes to cutting costs, customer service often receives a big blow. Despite its importance, the current economic conditions have led many businesses to pull back on customer service initiatives and measurements. Below are three strategies for enhancing customer service by leveraging the supply chain. More »

• Consumers seeking Black Friday tech deals may be disappointed this year

  Rich Becks, General Manager, High Technology, E2open - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  Today, the term "Black Friday" has evolved into an unofficial holiday nationwide, marking the start of the holiday shopping season. For those hoping to snag the newest, hottest tech toys this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your best intentions may be thwarted by an act of nature thousands of miles away. More »

• Top 5 reasons to start thinking multi-tier…

  Sean Rollings, Vice President, Product Marketing, E2open - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  I'm sure you've heard it before: linear supply chains are a thing of the past. Today's marketplace is run by sprawling trading networks, and that means it's no longer good enough to keep tabs on your most critical suppliers. In today's outsourced and unpredictable manufacturing landscape, even your Tier-2 suppliers have the power to make or break a new product launch...  More »

• Outsourcing, cloud, and multi-tier visibility: Final thoughts from Scottsdale

  Sean Rollings, Vice President, Product Marketing, E2open - Friday, June 03, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  Talk about closing with a bang! The final day – and a Friday, no less – of the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference was loaded with lots of great content. I walked away with a ton of notes, but there were three sessions on topics that I felt would resonate with the E2open community. Here were the highlights... More »

• Sail a ship while you’re building it? Research In Motion is doing it.

  Jane Paolucci, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, E2open - Friday, April 29, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  Research In Motion (RIM), better known as maker of the BlackBerry (including the cool new PlayBook tablet) product line, is living proof that supply chain contributes to brand equity. I’m sure the hundreds of people who attended our webinar yesterday – from supply chain and IT professionals to marketers and C-level executives alike – would back me up on that statement. More »

• How many supply chains do I need? A quick Q&A on supply chain segmentation

  Rich Becks, General Manager, High Technology, E2open - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  Supply chain segmentation is a simple yet powerful idea. The basic concept is that an organization’s supply chain can be categorized (“segmented”) along various dimensions in order to create multiple distinct, more operationally efficient and profitable supply chains. Supply chains can be segmented by product, market, supply/distribution characteristics, variability, and more.  More »

• Is a demand-driven supply chain really possible? RIM (BlackBerry) thinks so.

  Brent Proud, Program Director, E2open - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - 0 Comments
  

  Over the past six months or so, I have been working closely with E2open customer Research In Motion (BlackBerry) to plan and implement their supply chain transformation initiative, Value Chain Express. And while Waterloo, Canada is not exactly New York City or Paris, I must say that I’ve begun to form quite an attachment to the home of RIM’s headquarter operations.  More »

• What makes VMI work?

  Richard McCluney, General Manager, Telecommunications, E2open - Wednesday, December 08, 2010 - 2 Comments
  

  In my last blog post, I discussed forecast collaboration as the foundation for any successful VMI program. Today I’d like to focus on a broader set of key characteristics, which helps to answer the question, what makes VMI work? Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of helping to implement and manage a number of effective VMI programs. Here’s what they all had in common... More »

• VMI, VMR, SMI…getting it straight

  Richard McCluney, General Manager, Telecommunications, E2open - Monday, November 29, 2010 - 2 Comments
  

  Whenever I talk about the topic of VMI (which seems to be more and more frequently), I am asked about the various acronyms associated with inventory management, such as VMI, VMR, and SMI. In this blog, I will offer my definitions of these terms and then share some rules of thumb for ‘When to do VMI.’  More »