by John Sucich | Oct 30, 2025 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 4 minutesIt used to be that end-to-end supply chain visibility was a luxury. Organizations could get by with a basic understanding of how products and materials were transported, diving deeper into their supply chains only when there was an issue that required more focus.
These days, though, full visibility into an organization’s supply chain is a necessity. Organizations have so much information they can access across their operations that they are missing opportunities if they aren’t tracking every piece of data that they can. Many organizations have set up control towers to ensure they don’t miss a beat. Here’s a look at how those organizations operate.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Oct 2, 2025 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe United States Postal Service delivers 127 billion pieces of mail each year. Like any other organization, though, it faces competition from other companies that promise to get packages delivered safer or faster or with less hassle for the customer. In order to keep itself relevant and stay ahead of competitors, the USPS is relying heavily on data.
The USPS processes more than 110 petabytes of data per year. It is working to make better use of all of that data to better serve customers and continually evolve. Here’s a look at how the organization is using analytics, and the lessons other organizations in the supply chain can apply to their own work with data.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Jul 23, 2025 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 3 minutesOrganizations in the supply chain industry know that to make their way through these turbulent times they need to rely on data. The question many of them might be asking, though, is how can data predict anything during such unpredictable times?
Supply Chain Brain recently published the results of a study called “Resilience in Uncertainty: Understanding the Impact of Tariffs, Geopolitical Risk, and Lack of Data Quality in the Supply Chain.” Respondents to the survey said they recognize the value of maintaining high quality data to drive decision-making and item-level traceability to improve visibility, but not many are deploying those capabilities. And about 75% of respondents say they are significantly impacted by geopolitical or socioeconomic disruption, but only about 50% feel well-equipped to manage it. Here are some of the key insights into the supply chain industry that the discussion around the survey results provided.
(more…)
by Irina Nebosenko | May 1, 2025
Royal Lemkes grows to new heights. Transparency and insights help employees, customers,and partners flourish How does an organization improve transparency and insight of business processes that are intertwined with more than 700 suppliers and 2,500 customers around...
by John Sucich | Feb 20, 2025 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen there is a disruption in the supply chain, organizations have some choices to make. The passive option is to take no action and wait to see how the situation resolves. Many companies cannot afford to wait, though, and they will try to do something to bypass the disruption and get their goods or materials where they need to be as soon as possible. Some companies use a disruption as an opportunity to take stock of their supply chain. They might make changes if they recognize a consistent weak link or if they find that they are working with an organization that doesn’t align with their values.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Jan 23, 2025 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 4 minutesDunkin’ did not have the smoothest start to 2025. In early January, locations of the donut and coffee giant in New Mexico and Nebraska had no donuts available due to what the company called “a manufacturing error.” Dunkin’ said the shortage impacted only about 4% of its more than 9,500 stores nationwide.
In the grand scheme of things, that seems like a minor disruption. If the past couple of years in the supply chain have proven anything, though, it’s that no disruption is a small disruption. Organizations need every available tool to navigate these unexpected hiccups to make sure they don’t turn into larger problems. Even better, they can take steps to be proactively prepared for anything that lies ahead. Here are some of the strategies companies might employ to help them adjust, and how data plays a major role in all of them.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Dec 19, 2024 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 5 minutesWith a new presidential administration taking office in January, businesses are preparing for one of the big changes that was talked about on the campaign trail. A promise of tariffs, with the intention to boost domestic production, could in fact end up hurting consumers.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Sep 18, 2024 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 5 minutesData is hardly ever static. If an organization is using the most up-to-date data, that information is always changing. Much like the movement of goods along the supply chain, where an issue in one part of the world could have an impact on the entire global chain, if one aspect of data changes, it can affect all other calculations an organization makes.
(more…)
by John Sucich | Aug 27, 2024 | Wine & Spirits
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe beverage alcohol industry is as dependent upon the supply chain as any other industry. From raw ingredients to packaging materials, there are just as many moving parts for beverage alcohol companies to keep track of as organizations in retail, for instance.
(more…)
by John Sucich | May 29, 2024 | Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn mid-May, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that it was going to start including Supply Availability Indexes (SAIs) as part of its monthly regional business surveys. The SAIs are meant to help measure how widespread supply disruptions are, provide an understanding of whether availability is improving, and track inflationary pressures and the impact on local firms.
(more…)
