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Aankhen Inc.
San Jose, CA/USA
www.aankhen.com
Small
2001
Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP, Decision Support

Reliance on increasing import of goods manufactured offshore requires end-to-end visibility of the physical and financial supply chain. Yet, as Aankhen sees it, existing visibility solutions are focused on the wrong end of the financial and physical supply chain, and spend management in financial supply chains is an after-the-fact backward-looking process. Companies must be able to determine what they should be spending so that they can plan and execute to a financial strategy, particularly when they face renegotiations in light of rising fuel costs and a falling dollar. Aankhen offers automated "Shouldbe Cost" computation solutions that provide financial visibility and insight to "total cost of procurement" at a part level, influencing sourcing decisions, logistics and working capital management. In addition, Aankhen offers a physical supply chain visibility solution using RFID and GPS technologies to create real-time visibility into where your inventory is in the world, helping to expose inefficiencies hidden within traditional EDI transactions.

Acsis Inc.
Marlton, NJ/USA
www.acsisinc.com
Small
1996
Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

Instead of implementing RFID as yet another siloed function, Acsis Inc. said manufacturers are now beginning to realize the wisdom of using more holistic solutions that track data and improve processes across the shop floor – from receiving to production, quality management, warehouse management, shipping/distribution and third-party processing. Acsis develops agnostic end-to-end track-and-trace solutions that help manufacturers and distributors ensure safe, secure and efficient supply chains. One such solution is Acsis PharmaTrak, a first-of-its-kind serialized distribution application specifically for pharmaceutical organizations. Also, Acsis ProducTrak automates and monitors the movement of finished goods from manufacturing through distribution and into the retail environment.

ADR North America LLC
Ann Arbor, MI/USA
www.adrna.com
Small
1986
Sourcing, Procurement, Decision Support

Got skills? Are you sure? ADR offers its Development Needs Analysis (DNA) service to help clients determine their staff development needs. In addition, its Relationship Needs Analysis (RNA) service aims to help clients develop high performance, value-adding relationships with key suppliers through a "current state analysis" that enables prioritization of improvement activities. RNA also serves as a "trust index" to assure that buyers and suppliers are both prepared for the collaborations and innovation needs of the future.

Agistix, Inc.
Redwood City, CA/USA
www.agistix.com
Small
2003
Fulfillment/Logistics

Given the constant motion in global logistics and the complexity associated with a flat world, the primary supply chain challenge facing Agistix's customers is global visibility, the solution provider says. Supply chain managers, working in an ever more globalized, "I want it now" world, must focus on increasing visibility into companywide supply chain expenses so that they can see where their money is going and adopt lasting improvements. Because the typical company's supply chain covers multiple countries, carriers and modes of transportation, Agistix believes that this task requires a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, taking feeds from multiple disparate systems to create a central repository of all a company's supply chain costs that can be updated in real time and then leveraged to create enforceable, and verifiable, company-wide policies against which shipping decisions can be executed.

Amphire
Redwood City, CA/USA
www.amphire.com
Small
1999
Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Payment, CRM, PLM, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP, Decision Support

The foodservice supply chain is notorious for its challenges, from rising food and fuel costs, to natural disasters that exacerbate demand on crops, as well as a highly fragmented industry. Amphire has created a global software-as-a-service platform that addresses the entire foodservice supply chain by connecting manufacturers, operators and distributors together in any market and in any country. The full suite of Amphire services is Internet based and modular in design; customers are able to create unique solutions based upon their specific needs.

And while the food industry traditionally has not been quick to adopt technology offerings, Amphire said it has designed its solutions specifically to be user-friendly and intuitive, including a training program with quick reference sheets and manuals to ensure that customers get up to speed quickly.

Apriso Corporation
Long Beach, CA/USA
www.apriso.com
Private
1992
Fulfillment/Logistics

With economic conditions putting pressure on margins, manufacturers might consider deploying a "manufacturing operations management platform" that integrates manufacturing operations with supply chain visibility, capable of performance across distributed geographies, cultures and time zones. Apriso Corporation believes that the market has now embraced the need for improved business intelligence and responsive systems offering real-time visibility, thereby improving adaptability and responsiveness to market changes. "The next wave of innovation is primarily focused around information management and availability; data is king, and faster is best," the solution provider says. "With visibility to supplier production, quality and logistics processes, sustainable competitive advantage can be achieved by simply 'outmaneuvering' your competitors." Apriso's FlexNet solution is intended to provide such a platform for manufacturing operations management.

Aras Corp
Andover, MA/USA
www.aras.com
Small
2000
PLM

How much are you willing to pay for a product lifecycle management tool? How about free? Does free work for you? Aras provides access for unlimited users at no cost to its open source solutions for PLM, and yet the solution offers functionality for enterprise-wide global PLM deployments and open XML/SOAP Web services that connect to existing ERP or PDM systems to leverage previous investments. Companies like Motorola, Lockheed Martin and Delphi already use Aras' solutions.

Ariba
Sunnyvale, CA/USA
www.ariba.com
Medium
1996
Sourcing, Procurement, Payment, Decision Support

With today's stark economic outlook, it is more critical than ever for organizations of all sizes to do everything they can to streamline their operations for greater efficiency and bottom line savings. For a long time this meant deploying on-premise spend management solutions that only large companies could afford. But now, says solution provider Ariba, small and midsize organizations are finding that they can get in on the spend management game by leveraging on-demand solution with a lower cost of entry and more flexible deployment options. Does that mean that large organizations need not look at on-demand applications? Not at all. In fact, Ariba has seen large enterprises such as PPG Industries signing on to use on-demand applications as well.

Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Melville, NY/USA
www.arrow.com
Large
1935
Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Payment, CRM, PLM, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP, Decision Support

Look to global, end-to-end supply chain orchestrators as the "next wave" of supply chain innovation for electronic components, says Arrow Electronics. The company believes that changes in the "Three Ps" – products, processes and practices – have created new challenges for managing the electronic components supply chain. Electronic components have become increasingly specialized. Today, a significant percentage of electronic components will only have a handful of customers. In addition, the number of components available is expanding and component lifecycles are shrinking. These forces combine to greatly increase forecast error rates and inventory obsolescence risks. At the same time, customers continually raise the bar on service expectations. This increased specialization has created two classes of electronic components, which require different supply chain processes. Highly specialized and complex electronic components require a supply chain that provides flexibility and minimizes inventory risk. Commodity electronic components require a supply chain that is extremely cost effective. Meanwhile, in this flat world, engineering, manufacturing and consumption often occur in different geographic regions. This has extended supply chains and amplified the bullwhip effect. Planning and execution activities have become more complex as today's supply chain managers must contend with multiple time zones, languages, currencies, business practices and cultures.

Arrow believes that the "next wave" of supply chain innovation for electronic components will be the emergence of global, end-to-end supply chain orchestrators that can create a "network effect," the phenomenon whereby a good or service becomes more valuable as more people use it. Just as the telephone became more valuable as more people acquired it, the cost and risk reduction benefits of a supply chain orchestrator will increase as more companies participate. In addition, Arrow sees these orchestrators providing decision-support tools and value-added services that optimize the total value chain. The proper decision-support tools will avoid decisions affecting individual value chain elements that sub optimize the total value chain.

Arrow believes that a network effect can be created through the aggregation of material, information and financial flows to reduce inventory risk and create economies of scale. For example, inventory levels (more specifically, safety stocks) grow exponentially as the number of inventory locations increase. Today's supply chains can stage inventory at multiple locations – suppliers, supplier hubs, distributors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract manufacturer hubs and contract manufacturers. This not only explodes inventory investments and the risk of obsolescence, it also increases transportation and inventory management costs. A supply chain orchestrator that can position the combined inventory of many suppliers, OEMs and contract manufacturers into a few strategic locations globally will reduce inventory investments, obsolescence risk, transportation costs and inventory management costs, Arrow says.

Today's supply chains typically rely on multiple, non-integrated information systems as different electronic components are managed through different supply chains or as handoffs are made between suppliers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs), carriers, customs brokers, OEMs and contract manufacturers. Best case, this creates inconsistent versions of the truth. Worst case, it prevents any version of the truth at all. The result is massive waste – distortions caused by padding forecasts, premium freight, time double-checking and verifying data, corrective actions – the list goes on and on. A supply chain orchestrator, Arrow argues, can utilize one integrated information system across the value chain and thereby eliminate massive amounts of time and resources that are wasted each and every day.

Finally, managing multiple supply chains causes a multiplier effect on transaction volumes. This applies to virtually all transaction types such as purchase orders, receipts and payables. This multiplier effect applies equally well to changes and corrective actions. More transactions create more cost. A supply chain orchestrator that can aggregate transactions will reduce transactions, transaction errors and associated costs.

In addition to creating a network effect, the supply chain orchestrator must also provide decision-support tools that can help answer questions such as: What are the supply chain risks of a given electronic component? Can our supply chain support a demand increase? What options exist if a component manufacturer discontinues a component or issues a problematic part change notification? What are the ramifications of more stringent environmental regulations? These decision-support tools must support optimization of the entire value chain. For example, a decision at the beginning of the value chain to use a lower-cost electronic component should be avoided if it can be predicted that the component will be discontinued in the near future.

Arrow believes that there is no one element or "magic bullet" that provides this "next wave" of supply chain innovation. Rather, the company says, it is the combined, total effect of many capabilities that is allowing an enterprise like Arrow to become a global, end-to-end supply chain orchestrator. These capabilities include a global partner network for sourcing electronic components around the world; a global information network integrated with the systems of many suppliers and customers; a global logistics network with distribution centers in key locations around the world; and engineering design services to help customers evaluate alternative technologies and select the best electronic components for their needs.

An orchestrator also could offer decision support tools that can help customers implement demand-pull Kanban or min/max replenishment systems; that provide customers with supply chain visibility, enabling identification of supply chain problems (such as supply/demand imbalances), determination of root causes and accurate assessment of inventory levels and risk exposures; that help customers make safer component selection and purchasing decisions – or find suitable alternatives – by allowing them to identify and compare the technical specifications and relative procurement risk; and that provide customers with a search engine to identify and compare alternative electronic components, and that automatically notify customers of part change notifications and part status changes.

Some suppliers and customers may resist joining a supply chain network out of fear that this may eliminate a potential source of competitive advantage. If their competitors are using the same supply chain network, how can they gain advantage? But Arrow believes that as its network grows over time, this resistance will fade as the benefits of participating increasingly outweigh the potential competitive issues.

Avendra
Rockville, MD/USA
www.avendra.com
Medium
2001
Procurement

In light of recent food-safety incidents and product recalls, the ability to safely monitor and manage one's supply chain represents the next wave of supply chain innovation for the clients of Avendra. Avendra continues to innovate and add additional layers of security to what were already regarded as some of the toughest quality assurance measures anywhere to monitor the supply chain. On the food side, standards start in the field and move all the way to the customer. On the room operations side, the standards start halfway around the world and continue until the products arrive in the guest's room. The company has worked across industries to strengthen food safety standards, added additional quality control measures, and developed surprise audit measures to check product at its final destination.

Axway
Scottsdale, AZ/USA
www.axway.com
Medium
2001
Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

With increased globalization and offshore sourcing, global supply chain management is becoming an important issue for many businesses. Managing a global supply chain involves a company's worldwide interests, rather than a network on a local or national level. Also, companies are faced with a more complex set of business procedures that need to be addressed in order to effectively and efficiently run the company.

Hosted solutions allow organizations to focus their IT staff on the core business applications while meeting industry regulations and providing operational improvements. Axway's B2Bi On Demand operates in a full software-as-a-service model to offer customers service provisioning, based on Axway's B2Bi Gateway Synchrony solution.

Barloworld Optimus
Solihull, UK
www.barloworldoptimus.com
Small
1987
Order/Demand Capture, Decision Support

Carbon reduction and optimization is set to be the major issue as supply chain professionals face up to escalating global pressures. In response, Barloworld Optimus has launched its CAST-CO2 solution, which draws on technology not only to calculate carbon emission, but also to map out "best-case" supply chain optimization in terms of carbon footprint.

There are three certainties about to unroll on the issue of carbon: one, that it's inevitable that big changes are afoot; two, that the onus will fall on businesses; and three, that legislation will soon follow – the consequences of which could prove terminal to those not toeing the line on greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, Barloworld Optimus asserts that with the new technology now available, it only takes 25 days or even less start taking positive steps to dramatically reduce carbon emissions ahead of dire financial and other penalties likely to stem from future anti-pollution legislation. "Real-life" proving trials on the company's newly-released CAST CO2 program have returned results including 28 percent reduction in carbon emissions alongside a 9 percent decrease in transportation costs.

Basware, Inc.
Stamford, CT/USA
www.basware.com
Medium
1985
Procurement, Payment, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

Think "big picture" when it comes to solutions to enable your supply chain. Basware, for example, says that e-procurement isn't just about automating purchasing transactions. It's about leveraging the visibility and insight into procurement that technology enables to gain greater control over the total financial supply chain, to help procurement professional operate more strategically and to ensure that purchasing reflects the greater values of organization. Basware says its solutions help companies do this by enabling businesses to see how their actual spend invoiced compares to contracts and purchase orders. "Now companies can truly analyze and manage their spend, have control over their purchases, and become fiscally accountable," the solution provider says.

Blinco Systems Inc.
Toronto, ON/Canada
www.blinco.com
Small
1987
Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Payment, CRM, Decision Support

Despite recent advances in global commerce, companies still struggle to fully command this type of environment to drive the values promised. Blinco Systems Inc. believes the next wave of global commerce solutions will enable the shipper or logistics provider to drive exceptional competitive advantage by leveraging a true command and control capability over the organization's extended global commerce network. Innovations in global commerce management will tightly integrate and synchronize visualization, collaboration and execution capabilities in order that organizations can achieve full command and control of their global activities.

To that end, Blinco created 3rdwave GCM, which is an integrated global execution platform synchronized with a global data repository. Clients are able to unify their view and quickly respond as events unfold to optimize, manage and leverage their businesses. They also have the capability to augment their core 3rdwave GCM solutions with integrated visualization (3rdwave Reporting tools or 3rd party BI tools) and web 2.0 collaboration (3rdwave CS) capabilities.

Bowen & Groves
Mulgrave, Victoria/Australia
www.bowen-groves.com
Small
1992
Order/Demand Capture, Procurement, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

The next wave of supply chain innovation must help manufacturers in standardizing business processes, linking global operations, the need to improve customer service, and growing their business while meeting cost reduction pressures, believes Australian solution provider Bowen & Groves. Manufacturers must have technology systems that allow them to be flexible and fast and have all information at their fingertips in an instant, and systems that can be customized to meet their unique business processes in order for them to maintain their competitive edge. Bowen & Groves says its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is targeted at small and midsize businesses that require "total integration and automation from quoting through invoicing."

Bristlecone
Milpitas, CA/USA
www.bcone.com
Private
1998
Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

It is no longer possible to implement a supply chain management system and let it run on autopilot. Bristlecone's next-wave supply chain services are all aimed at keeping supply chains agile, responsive to current demands and environments, and acting to ensure that companies are ahead of the curve and their competitors.

One such service is its Supply Chain Risk Assessment and Management, which is designed to help companies manage and mitigate risk within their current supply chain management processes. Additionally, its Spend Visibility Service helps corporate procurement organizations address run-away spending by enabling a better understanding of procurement spend, which can be used to drive supply base rationalization.

C3 Solutions
Montreal, Quebec/Canada
www.c3solutions.com
Private
1997
Fulfillment/Logistics

Most supply chains have been automated with EPR, WMS and TMS to track product from the beginning of its journey to the end. However, C3 Solutions says it is regularly approached by Fortune 500 and other high-profile companies to bridge a gap that these systems have left. C3 works with what are commonly known as the "first movers" or "early adopters" of yard management systems (YMS), a relatively recent addition to supply chain systems.

Yard management began with enabling wireless communication throughout the yard with software applications and used business rules to manage the movement of trailers within the yard. This transitioned to using algorithms to optimize the movement of workers and use of resources and incorporating the ability to plan and automate repetitive tasks within the yard. Today, C3 is introducing "agent technology" to yard management that can see and act on information within the enabler's solution in real time.

Usually, the initial challenges that clients approach C3 with are to generally improve customer service and cut costs, but they are also looking to eliminate specific challenge points that are undermining these basic goals on a daily basis. These challenge points include loss of visibility of product once it is in the yard, unmet delivery times despite the product being in the yard on time, lost trailers resulting in spoiled or ruined goods and poor utilization of yard resources – trailers, shunt trucks and workers. In some cases the sheer size of the yard dictates the need for a yard management system, with the huge volumes and number of transactions that have to be managed requiring automation to keep a given site running.

With the introduction of agent technology, C3 says that it is bringing a level of intelligence to the system that simulates an understanding of the business context. Before this technology the system could react based on a predetermined set rule, but now it can evaluate its own data and data provided by other systems – such as a WMS – and take action to maintain specific performance levels. As a result, the action that the system takes is meant to optimize benefit to the enterprise as a whole instead of a single operational area.

CaseStack
Santa Monica, CA/USA
www.casestack.com
Medium
1999
Order/Demand Capture, Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Payment, CRM, PLM, Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

Small or midsize business should consider using technology and outsourced solution providers (in this case, for logistics) to appear to be a large enterprise. For example, Greystar Products uses CaseStack's transportation and warehousing system, backed with proprietary Web-based software, to provide end-to-end fulfillment services for its own customers' products. Greystar knew the logistics provider would help keep its retail customers happy while at the same time allow the consumer food manufacture to reap the benefits and economies of a sophisticated, global logistics system without all the infrastructure costs. "Looking like a major food company is very important to our accounts," said the company's president. "CaseStack allows us to do this by handling all our logistics needs. For a small company like ours that doesn't have its own internal logistics department, it makes a lot of sense to outsource to a company that is well-known in the industry."

CDC Software
Atlanta, GA/USA
www.cdcsoftware.com
Small
1999
Integration & Infrastructure/ERP

Unlock the hidden capacity on your factory floor by managing production scheduling in real time. By leveraging technologies that can pinpoint the causes of plant inefficiencies and provide immediate feedback on key operating metrics, including rate, yield, utilization and per-unit cost, manufacturing executives can link real-time action and continuous improvement initiatives to their financial goals for increasing output, finding hidden capacity and gaining market share. CDC Software says its CDC Factory solution allows users to leverage the potential of human capital on the shop floor by providing predefined workflows and intuitive kiosk-style interfaces for real-time performance tracking. This enables factory floor operators to act on information in real time and make decisions that have an immediate impact on efficiency, improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and reduce waste. This role-based design extends to middle and senior management, for whom information is summarized to make the daily operations of all plants transparent throughout the enterprise.

Choice Logistics
New York, NY/USA
www.choicelogistics.com
Medium
1964
Fulfillment/Logistics

In today's economy, companies are faced with maximizing their asset management, and specifically their service parts resources, more than ever to reduce costs. The challenge is the ability to maintain adequate inventory levels to meet customer demands and adhere to stringent service level agreements. To that end, Choice Logistics helps clients position service parts worldwide through a system of strategic stocking locations (SSLs) and distribution centers (DCs) to ensure on-demand delivery in a matter of hours.