Blog Archives

Posts inspired by whatever else I find interesting

Cutting costs or cutting risks?

Obviously, cutting risks and cutting costs are two strategies that are often detrimental to each other, and after cutting costs simply for the sake of reducing operational costs, you may have to cut corners in order to cut risks.

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Christchurch earthquake and transportation

Christchurch, New Zealand, has been hit by an earthquake. How will the city recover? Will they be able to pull together the resources and quickly return to business as usual? I believe they will.

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The ISCRiM Newsletter 1/2010

Published 2-3 times a year by the International Supply Chain Risk Management Network, the ISCRiM newsletter has the latest on published articles, research reports, PhD theses, weblinks, and some buzz from the people who work with supply chain risk research for a living.

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Pay more get more?

“Suitemates” is the big new marketing campaign by Kinaxis. Episode 5 of a six-episode short video series – Double Down – has been just released, telling the fictional story of BILK Moore – the merger between two ERP companies and how their two CEOs end up behind bars for fraud and unethical business conduct

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Volcanic ash cloud – really a surprise?

Icelandic civil aviation authorities have warned Europe for a long time about the potential consequences of a volcanic ash cloud, but no one took them seriously…perhaps we should have.

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Using social media in a crisis

Scandinavian Airlines launched its Facebook page the day before the volcanic ash cloud. Perfect! SAS goes a long way to show how to use social media in a crisis. Perhaps it doesn’t help that much but shows that they care.

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Sweet Seduction

“Suitemates” is the big new marketing campaign by Kinaxis. Episode 4 of a six-episode short video series – Suite Caroline -has been just released, telling the fictional story of BILK Moore – the merger between two ERP companies and how their two CEOs end up behind bars for fraud and unethical business conduct.

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Volcanic Ash Cloud Day 5

While it is fair to assume that volcanic eruptions are in the business continuity plans of most airlines, it is probably not so fair to assume that 5 days of sudden air traffic restrictions is in the business continuity plans of most companies reliant on frequent air travel.

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Can we do without air traffic?

The German newspaper Die Welt has an interesting, semi-humorous article, looking at the possible impacts of a volcano scenario that lasts one week, one month and one year. Can we do without air traffic?

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Business continuity 101

This is the 3rd day with severe transportation and thus supply chain disruptions all over Europe, due to the volcanic ash clod from Iceland, forcing travellers, cargo shippers and logistics providers to seek alternative solutions. In essence this is a very practical lesson in business continuity.

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Today’s transport disruption: volcanoes

Now Norway and much of Northern Europe are facing a major supply chain disruption: The shutdown of all air traffic because of a volcano eruption on Iceland. What will happen next?

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Downgrades are upgrades

“Suitemates” is the big new marketing campaign by Kinaxis. Episode 3 of a six-episode short video series has been just released, telling the fictional story of BILK Moore – the merger between two ERP companies and how their two CEOs end up behind bars for fraud and unethical business conduct. Their software is so full of bugs that even upgrading doesn’t fix it, it just adds new errors, that require new upgrades, that still won’t work because…

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Suites – what suites?

Today they take us back to their company presentation after their merger, announcing the new names of their software suites, where absolutely none of the names or ludicrous acronyms they come up with make any sense.

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ERP consultants: A nightmare

Suitemates is produced by Kinaxis, a Canada-based company that delivers RapidResponse, an award-winning on-demand supply chain management tool. In Suitemates they poke fun at what they call Big ERP and how supply chain consulting companies supposedly work.

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Supply Chain Risk Webinars

I do have a lecture on supply chain risk, but not in webinar style. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider.

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Less cost and less disruptions?

If you know that your shipment will arrive late, you are perhaps less concerned with not being just in time? The Danish shipping giant Maersk has halved its top cruising speed over the last two years, thus cutting fuel costs, cutting emissions and perhaps cutting disruptions costs, too?

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2nd Supply Chain Risk Management Seminar

The main focus of this seminar is how leading companies are tackling the many critical risks to their supply chains which they are facing in this current time of crisis and economic instability.

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Resilience Lessons from the Haiti Earthquake

The recent earthquake in Haiti is a poignant reminder of how vulnerable a country is when it is facing disaster on a grand scale.

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If the UK goes cold, blame me

The BBC reports that National Grid has issued its latest “balancing alert” on gas supplies. Unusually cold weather has hit big Norwegian gas field Ormen Lange and the Nyhamna gas processing centre, hitting North Sea gas flows from Norway at a time of increased consumption.

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No grit No roads No show?

No grit means no cleared roads means no one able to get anywhere and a no-show of people everywhere. Employees not coming to work because of extreme weather will cost the UK £12,000,000,000,000.

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ARTICLES and PAPERS
Ericsson versus Nokia - the now classic case of supply chain disruption
When faced with a supply chain disruption, proactive and reactive supply chain risk management can i[...]
Risk in supply networks - seeing it all, or not?
It is practically impossible to write a paper on supply chain risk without citing Risk in supply net[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Book review: Transport - Economics and Management
Kept at an executive level, Transport: An Economics and Management Perspective by David A. Hensher a[...]
Book Review: Managing Supply Chain Risk and Vulnerability
Another book by someone from the ISCRiM group? No, not this time, or perhaps, yes, after all. Managi[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Managing supply chain risk
In September and October 2009 the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 500 company executives with r[...]
Risky cities - want to work there?
If you are doing global business, do you know where you are at risk and what risk that is most perti[...]
from HERE and THERE
Sparse transportation networks - a nightmare
E6 Steinkjer Løsberga
Now it has happened again. Hardly a week goes by in Norway without a major supply chain disruption. [...]
CPM 2010 East in NYC
Behind this perhaps cryptic title (for some, but not for others, especially those in the BCM industr[...]