The Thomas Blog

The BMW Supply Chain Breakdown: What Happened?

It's no secret that having transparency into your supply chain is essential to mitigating risk. In fact, companies are investing in supply chain visibility and collaboration tools at a faster rate than any other supply chain discipline, putting their money where their risk is. 

Clearly, companies are taking transparency seriously in an effort to stay plugged in to their suppliers. However, in order to ensure a strong, steady and productive supply chain, having visibility into your own suppliers isn't enough – you need to have visibility into their suppliers as well. This is especially true in industries that are driven by outsourcing in an effort to lower costs and shift production requirements. 

TCO: Why Reshoring May Be The Smart Move For Your Supply Chain

Discussions about bringing manufacturing back to the United States are heating up as reshoring and U.S.-based manufacturing have become more lucrative. Many CEOs and CFOs are realizing that their businesses would have a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with U.S.-based operations when potential steep tariff hikes and reshoring tax benefit programs come into play. Tech giants like Apple, Foxconn, and Offsite Networks are now looking to manufacture more affordably, locally, and, most importantly, with more integrity.

Communicate Procurement's Worth With Your Stakeholders

Did you know that only 29% of procurement organizations are viewed as valued business partners? However, when the role of procurement is elevated, businesses realize ROI improvements of up to 250%?

So why are so many businesses forgetting, or ignoring, procurement as a valued business partner, and what can be done to address the issue?

5 Supply Management Takeaways from ISM2017

Thousands of global procurement and supply chain professionals gather annually at ISM’s conference “learn, share and network with the best and brightest minds in supply management.”

THOMASNET.com Version 3 Is Now Live!

Business never shuts off — a supplier evaluation is performed every 2 seconds on THOMASNET.com! We are constantly developing new ways for engineers, procurement managers, and MROs to better access data on the platform. That's why we just launched THOMASNET.com Version 3.

The following is an overview of the improvements included in this release:

3 Causes Of Supply Chain Complexity (And How To Manage It)

The concept of "less is more" does not so easily apply to supply chain management. As organizations look to increase revenues by expanding their product portfolios, they're also introducing complexity and risk into their supply chains. While it might seem like a good idea to just reduce your portfolio overall, that's not always an option. 

Cobots Are Taking Over The Shop Floor

Collaborative robots, also known as cobots, are computer-controlled robotic devices designed to assist people in manufacturng facilities. They are hitting the shop floor at exponential rates. In fact, recent studies show that the number of cobots used in just the automotive industry is expected to grow by more than 40% each year over the next five years. 

The 4 Technologies That Will Shake Up Your Supply Chain

The supply chain is going digital. In their annual industry report, Deloitte and MHI found that 80% of supply chain professionals believe that digital supply chains will overtake traditional supply chain models within the next five years.

Driving Compliance And Cleaning Up Your Tail

Tail spend optimization can be the key to reducing costs and increasing the overall performance of your supply chain. However, many organizations fail to properly analyze their tail spend, or they don't take the proper measures to clean it up and ensure compliance. 

Fortunately, there are some proven methods you can use to clean up your tail.