E2open is a leading provider of cloud-based solutions for collaborative execution across global trading networks—more than 33,000 trading partners in 69 countries currently participate in the E2open Business Network. On November 15, 2012, E2open announced the availability of the newest version of E2 Cloud Connectivity, the foundation layer of the E2open Business Network. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series articulated the acute need to bring supply chain planning and execution together so that enterprises can react quickly in an informed and confident fashion. The Boston Red Sox‘ September 2011 collapse was used as a poignant example of how even the best long-term planning can be rendered useless if there is no responsiveness during crunch time.

In general, if we know that our plans are inherently wrong to start with – because we can’t forecast and predict accurately – why do we still insist on religiously executing that plan? On the other hand, if you need to make a change, shouldn’t you be able to evaluate the holistic consequences of your decision, especially in these days of scarce credit and working capital?

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My recent attendance at Progress Revolution 2011, Kinexions 2011, and several Boston APICS Chapter professional development meetings, where a plethora of companies talked about their operational experiences of late, made me realize that “business as usual” practices no longer work.

For one thing, while long-term planning remains an important exercise for senior executives’ strategic and visionary purposes (evaluating what-if scenario options and making long-term decisions), many recent events have caused serious paradigm shifts.

Trying to make rocket science-based optimized long-term plans has nearly become a fool’s errand. For example, the recent Japanese earthquake and the still ongoing floods in Thailand had quite the impact on high-tech brand owners worldwide, given that some finished goods (gadgets) manufacturers source 30 percent or even more of their critical electronic components from these regions.

At Kinexions 2011 we all heard the following sad supply chain stats: 48 percent of weekly demand plans have errors, with only 5 to 10 percent average net promoter scores (NPS), as the measure of customer loyalty, and measly 0.06 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) on return on capital (ROC) as results.

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