Cross-border shipping is complex and full of intricacies on both sides of the border. The current challenges with COVID19 have contributed to a notable imbalance in Northbound vs Southbound freight. With Mexico becoming the new China for trade and more companies nearshoring their manufacturing, costs are rising, capacity is tightening, and the need for full freight tracking and visibility, it may be time to re-evaluate your cross-border logistics solution.

Session will focus on the framework, practice, benefits and process for interacting with suppliers.

Historically Procurement has focused on Make Vs Buy analysis based on financial advantage, looking at processes and partnering with external supplier to bring best value to the organization at least cost. Core / Non core approach takes one step further looking at features and product offering that differentiate products from competition. It is cross functional approach with sale, product management, operations and supply chain to identify core competency that provides advantage over competition. This holistic approach looks at value chain for competitiveness and contribution to differentiation, based on this systematic approach is developed to expand on competency core to the business while working with partners for non core capabilities.

As the role of Procurement continues to evolve, organizations are challenged to find new ways to drive sustainable value. To meet these challenges, many organizations are undergoing initiatives on “Procurement Transformation” – a phrase that has become commonly used, however it is often misrepresented and poorly executed. The key ingredients to successful and holistic Procurement transformation include strategies that address people, process, and technology aspects. All three elements should be in sync to maximize value and performance. Unfortunately, we often see significant gaps in the assessment and execution of such Procurement transformation efforts. In this session, we will review the important contributions of each element and how they work together to deliver optimized results, sustainable value creation and true transformation.

Building, Maintaining and Growing Integrated Key Supplier Relationships is one of the most significant Value Tenants a Procurement Organization can bring to any business ! Gain an in=depth understanding of the challenges , benefits and nuisances of building highly integrated successful relationships and how these relationships can truly drive high end value for your respective organizations

A journey into UCB's Digital Procurement Strategy. How UCB Procurement is transforming into a Digital Procurement Organization. Robotics, AI, ML, AA: Findings, Learnings, and Mistakes along the way.

Tradition Procurement organizations have become very good at delivering cost reductions. Data Analytics, Automation and Cognitive sourcing have allowed us to continue delivering on that expectation year after year. However, by focusing only on cost reductions we are missing the most significant opportunities to improve our organizations bottom line and to enable growth! Majority of the life-time costs of a Product is determined during design but traditionally, Procurement has spent little time in that phase. Standardization, feature set analysis, co-designs, market feedback are just a few opportunities that can improve not only the bottom line but also the total solution Value. We cannot cost reduce ourselves into growth. Modern organizations are focusing on Design for Value!

COVID-19, and the accompanying fluctuations, have exposed a lack of capability in organizations to tightly manage supply to meet demand. In this session, you’ll learn how to overcome these challenges and emerge smarter with a more agile and resilient business.

Supply Chain is the CORE of every company that is involved in the production and distribution of a commodity. NO idea, no invention is possible without supplies and the chain it follows. Whether it is raw materials, to components to direct and indirect materials, success of our company depends on getting your product to the market at the right time and at the right price. This of course depends on effective purchasing strategy, which is “to procure at the right price and the right time” Optimizing your portfolio of sources and locations though diversification reduces the risk of catastrophic failures in supply chain.

In an increasingly virtual workplace, how can supply chain leaders instill a lasting feeling of connection and community in their workforce? As some employees begin to move back into the workplace, supply chain leaders are beginning to face an unprecedented divide between those in the office, and those who continue to work remotely. In this challenging year, managers will need to harness the community and buy-in from their employees like never before. Tom Gimbel’s 3e Management: Education, Empowerment, Empathy system combines three individual elements that work in tandem to kickstart an employee’s experience and ensure that they are given the correct tools to thrive at every stage of the supply chain.

It's OK if your Supply Chain broke because of COVID -19. But it's not OK if you were surprised. Even with vast amounts of resources there is no way to completely safe guard against supply chain interruptions. It is going to take strategy, collaboration, and likely investment to create a resilient supply chain. It takes active management to identify and weigh the risks.

In the blink of an eye every company around the world is facing unprecedented operational challenges, impacting both employee and customer experiences. It’s time to look for the silver lining, and do it fast. You have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to stake your claim as an innovation leader and disrupt your industry (or even your own organization) by quickly transforming operations and building net-new offerings that extend your company’s value.

Organizational design, effective processes and performance management tools can transform the procurement function from transactional to a strategic organization. In this presentation, we will analyze several best-in-class procurement organizational structures. We will explore how to design and implement the most effective structure, create and upgrade processes and performance management tools that complement and enhance the structure in order to build a capable and world-class procurement organization.

Today's consumer has evolved to expect a diverse set of choices that can be delivered upon instantaneously. This dynamic while exciting for the end customer has driven a new set of challenges into the supply chain . A byproduct of this altered landscape is the need to better balance cost and service in a way that resonates with consumers while preserving margins. Your ability to do this could impact the very existence of your organization. I like to share some things we've learned and applied in an effort to drive savings while increasing service.

On-boarding is the first impression an employee has of an organization. A poor on-boarding experience can set the tone for the rest of their employment and make retention of that employee that much more difficult. This presentation will provide you with tools to improve your chances of retention!

Now more than ever your supply chain team needs to able to compete with the best of the best. The fight for The complexity of sales is rising. The effect of pandemic has introduced a new risk factor. In this new world you can't be out of stock. Production can't be delayed. Customer orders can't be missed. It's a tough world out there! The solution is visibility. Supply chain visibility will make sure your team can see the challenges BEFORE they come -- so that they can solve them at the lowest possible cost BEFORE the customer starts waiting for an order. That's how you make your company dominate.

Customer metrics are the foundation of the customer relationship, but a customers’ EXPERIENCE is very personal. If you focus only on metrics, you may miss a big piece of what customers really need. During the presentation, I will review some techniques that have helped me build the customer EXPERIENCE and share examples of how this relationship is helping to navigate, collaboratively, through our current pandemic. I will share times when I’m the customer and when I’m the supplier of goods/information for both internal AND external customers.

I've deconstructed and rebuilt 3 teams in 3 separate organizations. I've gone through 3 phases of awareness as I've built the teams, from the beginning that I've dubbed dumb luck (new leader, new team, etc..), to leveraging the learning's in my second team rebuild, to finally a fully thought out and strategic rebuild here at in current organization. Along the way, I've heard a lot of "talk" about High Performing Culture but saw very little focus on executing that narrative... it was all talk. It seems I've developed a foundation to building a team and culture that breeds success, high morale, high retention rates, and breeds future organizational leaders.

During the pandemic, the U.S. apparel and footwear industry saw its revenues drop off a cliff at the same time its traditional approach to supply chains broke apart. As we come out of this crisis, we will explore what lessons have been learned and what brands and retailers should consider as the economy, and the industry, begin to recover.

A brief overview of warehousing cost optimization strategies to improve the efficiency of warehousing operations. This session will discuss topics such as warehouse layout, process path analysis, outbound loading effectiveness, and more.

For a high growth company, ensuring supply coverage that allows for a high level of flexibility in meeting financial targets can be a business imperative. Additionally, the use of tools and processes that enable near real time views of supply and demand allow for fine tuning of plans outside of the S&OP cadence. In this presentation we will review how the S&OP process and collaboration with IT and contract manufacturing has allowed the supply chain to stay nimble and meet financial targets.

Trust-build in global organizations is hard...and that was before Covid. Today - more that ever - organizations need to build trust and psychological to best enable their employee's success. And why not start from Day One of a new hire's journey? Join Michael Godfrey to explore a case study in building organizational trust in a diverse, global environment.

This presentation will cover the importance of adding analytical capabilities on a Supply Chain team vs. leaning on IT teams to service Supply Chain teams. There is significant value decentralizing some of the IT/BI functions and moving those capabilities into Supply Chain to help improve turnaround time on model improvements, dashboards, reports, metrics, etc.

Supplier partnerships are a key part of an effective supply chain and these need to be developed and enhanced. There are numerous areas of risk and uncertainty. Most of these are outside of our control so we need to find ways to mitigate these risks. Multiple risk mitigation techniques are available and should be utilized as individually they do not cover all aspects. This webinar will go into further details on developing alternative suppliers as an effective tool to diversity and reduce risk.

As leaders we can all lead out in times of disruption but how do we do it effectively? Being in leadership roles for almost 40 years, I have learned the importance of building businesses and organizations by building people. My workshop will focus on how those that we lead can be the very ones that get us get through any disruption. Join me as I take you through some steps, that I have learned, which took me from manager to coach to mentor and the value that brings to those that I have led.

If you are managing product families that have some products with steady demand, some with sporadic or infrequent demand, and some with one-time shots or customer-specific demand, then the standard ABC categorization of SKUs will lead you astray. How can you focus your forecasting, demand planning, and inventory management efforts for the greatest impact, when you are dealing with thousands of SKUs that have a wide variety of demand patterns? Learn one practitioner’s approach that has been applied in both distribution and manufacturing environments.

Supply chains succeed or fail based upon their talent. The best strategy paired with innovative technology will melt in the hands of an incapable or unwilling organization. Yet, many supply chain organizations take an improvised approach to talent development and retention. Organizations are hesitant to invest in development or retention and often employ one-size-fits-all plans that work for no one. This session will dispel common myths that persist about talent development and offer a strategy for how to systematically approach human capital as the core enabler of supply chain management that it is. While much of this discussion is generalizable to any organization, the evolution of integrated supply chain management and its progression into a digitalized era make talent THE critical challenge for supply chain leaders.

We will take a look at the relationship between numbers and people. Understanding how these two go hand-in-hand will help you set relevant goals to drive your business forward.

Carlos Barajas will discuss a flexible supply chain management that competitively meets short-term unique demands from customers in multiple channels. Also, he will discuss the development of a system that anticipates a changing environment and improves response to global environment changes. Companies that create flexibility and quick responses will not only limit the impact and disruptions, but also obtain an advantage in the market vs. competitors.

The role of contract management in the strategic sourcing process is shifting significantly, and managers are re-thinking how to navigate contractual issues with suppliers in the “new normal” post-COVID world. Based on his work on the front-lines of the COVID supply chain ecosystem, Rob Handfield will cover how terms of force majeure have changed, the importance of engaging suppliers in conversations to mitigate risk, and what the future is for face to face negotiation of contracts.