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Importance Of Digital Transformation Projects: Start With Your People

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 27, 2022 1:57:31 PM

Know you want to transform but don't know where to start? Want to gain $9-12 for every dollar you spend? Read on to find out why starting with your people is the best first step to prioritizing digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation is at the top of the to-do lists of most companies, but one topic that is often missing from a discussion on digital transformation is which areas to prioritize. Most businesses can’t afford to completely overhaul a core function of the enterprise top to bottom, along with the technology that supports it, at any one time. Instead, they’ll target specific areas for transformation. That approach minimizes disruption to the business, keeps costs manageable, and helps the business apply lessons learned to future transformation projects. The question, though, is which areas to target first?

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Topics: Digital Transformation, ERP, Manufacturing, Distribution, Rentals & Equipment, Supply Chain, Fashion & Apparel, Industrial Manufacturing, Digital Manufacturing, Infor M3 ERP, Enterprise Software, Retail Supply Chain, WMS, Supply Chain Management

Four Key Steps for Navigating Supply Chain Disruption

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 21, 2022 5:33:50 AM

Supply chain disruptions caused by black swan events are by nature unforeseeable events that can be utterly catastrophic. Due to their destructive potential, these unfortunate events justifiably draw attention to how critical supply chains are to sustaining business success and essential daily functions. Unfortunately, they also draw attention to how vulnerable supply chains tend to be when faced with sudden adversity.

Studying the kinds of companies that can weather such catastrophes provides many key lessons about how enterprises can implement resiliency solutions and strategies to respond to, and mitigate, the deleterious effects of a black swan event.

There are four key steps enterprises can adopt to ensure that they are able to respond and react with the flexibility needed to minimize the impacts of black swan events and the “ripple” of disruption occurring at numerous levels of magnitude.

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Topics: Manufacturing, Distribution, Supply Chain, Warehouse Management Systems, Enterprise Software, WMS, Supply Chain Management

Asset Management Best Practices In The Chemicals Industry

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 14, 2022 3:44:52 PM

The average lifespan of assets in the chemicals industry has increased over time, and as a result, the associated maintenance work has significantly increased along with it. As per some estimates, 50% of fixed costs for a typical chemicals plant are the result of continuous maintenance work. This maintenance work can be classified into three categories: reactive, preventive, and predictive.

Reactive maintenance

As the name suggests, reactive maintenance is performed after something breaks down. When a company dedicates a significant amount of its time, money, and resources to conducting reactive maintenance, the company typically “pays for it” in the form of schedule interruptions, rescheduling, lost volume/sales, lost customers, lower pricing power to attract new customers, fines and charges, etc. While cutting maintenance costs may look profitable, a complete assessment of all side effects would likely prove otherwise. In fact, the total cost of reactive maintenance can turn out to be two to three times higher than a preventive maintenance approach.

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Topics: Manufacturing, Chemical, Supply Chain, Chemical & Life Sciences, Enterprise Asset Management, CloudSuite

Pressing Needs To Improve Supply Chain Health Are Abundant

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 7, 2022 9:49:08 AM

For years, digitization has been considered an optional strategy by many companies, thus resulting in static and disconnected buyer-supplier collaboration points across supply chains. For many organizations, processes continue to be highly manual across fragmented systems, resulting in inefficient, error prone workflows.

Reliance upon Excel®, email, and phone calls remains common across a staggeringly significant amount of business, thereby resulting in delays, non-compliance, and friction between buyer and seller. Time and resources lost synchronizing simple concepts like purchase order confirmations, negotiation, documentary compliance, and invoice approvals cripples flexibility and agility, all while locking up millions, if not billions in working capital.

Anywhere paper or manual processes exist a lack of visibility follows, leaving missed opportunities to harness real-time supply chain data that optimizes decisions and mitigate risks.

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Topics: ERP, Manufacturing, Distribution, Rentals & Equipment, Supply Chain, Fashion & Apparel, Infor M3 ERP, Enterprise Software, Retail Supply Chain, WMS, Supply Chain Management

Three Essentials for Sustaining Supply Chain Health

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 6, 2022 1:04:28 PM

When it comes to ensuring supply chain health, there are three key approaches your organization can do to improve processes and build resiliency into your network. Not only will this help you minimize uncertainty during times of disruption, it will also help streamline improvements during times of prosperity.

Supply chain essential #1: Digital documents, data, and settlements

Companies must focus on network connectivity and process automation to drive agility and responsiveness while continually investing in predictive and proactive sense and respond capabilities.

Economic sustainability includes multiple key components starting with digital connectivity and collaboration as the digitization of documents and workflows enables speed and agility. Multi-enterprise collaboration enables strategic programs such as providing suppliers access to capital through a multi-bank network. This helps the entire supply chain endure dynamic liquidity shortages that often stem from a crisis and a period of economic recovery.

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Topics: ERP, Manufacturing, Distribution, Rentals & Equipment, Supply Chain, Fashion & Apparel, Infor M3 ERP, Enterprise Software, Retail Supply Chain, WMS, Supply Chain Management

Shorten The Distance To Your Customers Using Smart Network Factory

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jul 1, 2022 8:07:34 AM

Judging by the headlines, continuous logistics issues, continued pandemic restrictions, and rising prices for raw materials will mean that manufacturers have their work cut out for 2022. In addition, the drive towards sustainability is adding pressure to readjust the manufacturing footprint. Most manufacturers are still stuck with a geographic footprint, which was driven by labor arbitrage around the globe, rather than by factors such as closeness to customers or ecological concerns.

To increase efficiency, many producers have started to implement Industry 4.0 technologies. Industry 4.0 came with the promise of a smart factory being profitable at the production lot size of one unit. The concept was introduced at the brink of the millennium change with the introduction of cyber-physical systems to share, analyze and guide intelligent actions for various processes in the industry to make the machines smarter and to lower downtime. Analytics can also be used for other aspects like logistics, demand forecasts, production scheduling and quality control, capacity utilization and efficiency boosting.

But we still stand at the beginning for leveraging the true potential of Industry 4.0. Smart technologies offer no less than the possibility to redesign the global manufacturing footprint, to position factories closer to markets, reduce logistics nightmares and increase visibility of the ecosystem partners, including suppliers and customers.

 

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Topics: ERP, Manufacturing, Industrial Manufacturing, CloudSuite Industrial, Digital Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Industrial Revolution, Infor Cloudsuite Industrial, CloudSuite Equipment, Infor CloudSuite ERP

Creating A Functionally Integrated Supply Chain.

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jun 24, 2022 10:10:14 AM

The competitive landscape of the wholesale distribution industry is fiercer than ever before. With brand-new, internet-based distributors of all sizes seemingly popping up as quickly as mergers and acquisitions are building new distribution powerhouses, the competition just keeps getting more intense. Adding to the mix are an increasing number of manufacturing companies that are selling direct to retailers and offering online shopping options for consumers, bypassing distribution companies entirely. And let’s not forget the impact big box stores and e-tailers can have on the distribution channel as they leverage their purchasing power, large retail networks, and extensive B2C experience.

Of course, no discussion about distribution competition is complete without addressing the elephant in the room, Amazon® Business. With the ability to sell millions of SKUs with flexible shipping options at low price points, Amazon is setting a high bar for customer expectations. Amazon is very good at responding to how buyers buy today by offering a powerful customer experience that uses modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence (A.I.) and data science.

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Topics: Manufacturing, Distribution, Supply Chain, Warehouse Management Systems, Enterprise Software, WMS, Supply Chain Management

Infor SyteLine for Chemicals

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jun 23, 2022 3:27:36 PM

Chemicals and life sciences manufacturers like you have unique requirements when it comes to your manufacturing operations. Infor SyteLine® for Chemicals is built on 30 years of manufacturing solution expertise and a Process Industry Pack, making it easy to adjust formulas, build batches based on exacting manufacturing specifications, and monitor and respond to the evolving regulatory environment.

Flexible formula management

Process manufacturers like you need a formula management system that helps develop formulas that account for factors like solubility and total yield. You need a system that has the flexibility to resize formulas to produce batches based on percentages, not quantity amounts. Infor® SyteLine for Chemicals provides the unique materials management and product customization functionality you need.

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Topics: Manufacturing, Chemical, Supply Chain, Chemical & Life Sciences, Enterprise Asset Management, CloudSuite

Best Sales and Catering Software - Must-Have Characteristics

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jun 21, 2022 9:24:37 AM

The hospitality and gaming industries require specific functionality when it comes to sales and catering, and event management. The same goes for family entertainment centers like bowling centers, laser-tag spaces, and others.

What are those factors? What should organizations in these sectors look for in software solutions to manage these important aspects of their business. The cloud has emerged as a proven alternative to the legacy systems used by the hotel industry.  One by one and group by group, independent hotels and chains alike, are seeking out a cloud-based platform to provide integrated solutions for their hospitality management needs. 

Beyond cloud technology, let’s look at some other event sales and catering software characteristics that contribute to the success of hotel and casinos as legacy systems are beginning to be phased out.

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Topics: ERP, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Network, Infor M3 ERP, Enterprise Software, Retail Supply Chain, Supply Chain Operations, WMS, Supply Chain Management

What Is The Real Power Of A Business Network?

Posted by Harriet Schneider on Jun 17, 2022 9:44:52 AM

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, set out to provide relief to businesses in emerging regions as the pandemic roiled global markets. Stephanie von Friedeburg, MD and COO of the IFC, looks back on the year in a recent podcast where she reflects the following:

“There's been a substantive hit on supply chains, trade shocks. And so our trade finance business, which has always been a core of our business, has grown very substantially. And we've seen it in the poorest countries in particular, where we know that we need to continue to keep trade flowing. So we've seen an increase in trade finance in that relief piece. We've also seen many of our existing clients needing working capital and needing liquidity, and we believe it was important for us when we typically don't do a lot of liquidity or working capital, but important for us to step in and help our existing clients to withstand the crisis, keep them solvent so that when we come out of the crisis, we can rebuild faster and better.”

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Topics: ERP, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Network, Infor M3 ERP, Enterprise Software, Retail Supply Chain, Supply Chain Operations, WMS, Supply Chain Management

About ICCG

Welcome to our Blog - ICCG Insights!

Embracing thought leadership as a pathway for growth, represents the true spirit of progressive change that will make a difference in technology-driven industries. As a consulting company, ICCG customers look to us as their value-added resource. They expect us to be proactive about solving their immediate challenges and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. It is this that drives us to share our best practices, knowledge-base, years of experience, and tried and true methodologies. These have been the hallmarks of our corporate brand.

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