White Papers

For some years now, 'supply chain visibility' has been held up as the solution to every supply chain director's problem. Constantly monitor where your goods are and you will minimize inventory, reduce time to market and - most importantly - cut costs, we are told.

But does that really happen? Is all that data used to its maximum extent or does it just accumulate in an unused pile once a couple of bottlenecks have been identified and eliminated?

Many of us have heard the phrase that less is more. But is it? How can subtraction ever produce an increase? This equation seems to challenge logic, and indeed, simple maths. It is counterintuitive.

However - less is made more in the supply chain when you are able to remove distribution redundancies, irrelevant links, multiple handling processes, operational obstacles and unnecessary expenditure.

Despite the many accounts of the decline of manufacturing in the U.S., the situation is much more complicated. U.S. businesses are not only returning to domestic manufacturing for the domestic market, they are also re-building an export market. With China as a main target.

This paper looks at which areas manufacturing should concentrate on to best take advantage of the National Export Initiative (NEI).