Supply Chain Blog
In the competitive world of sporting goods retail, inventory management and operational efficiency can make or break a business. Decathlon, the French multinational sporting goods retailer with over 1,500 stores worldwide, recognized this challenge early and embarked on an ambitious digital transformation journey that would position them as a global leader in retail technology adoption….
As global trade enters the next chapter of digitization, a silent yet powerful legal instrument is reshaping the way we exchange, finance, and secure goods across borders: the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) has created the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). While not as publicly celebrated as blockchain or AI,…
A supply chain leader’s perspective on Eric Kimberling’s “Final Countdown: Strategies to Reach the Third Stage of Digital Transformation“ The supply chain world is drowning in digital transformation promises. Every vendor claims their solution will revolutionize your operations. Every conference speaker talks about AI-powered forecasting, blockchain transparency, and IoT-enabled visibility. Yet despite billions invested in…
Last year, I was sitting in yet another vendor demo for a process mining platform. The price tag? 6-figure$ for the first year, plus implementation costs. The sales rep was enthusiastic about their revolutionary(!) capabilities, but I couldn’t help thinking: “I could build something more tailored for a fraction of this cost.“ That’s when it…
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world,” wrote master storyteller John le Carré, and nowhere does this observation ring truer than in modern supply chain management. In an era where global supply networks span continents and encompass thousands of touchpoints, the supply chain executive who remains tethered to their office…
In ancient Greece, historian Thucydides observed that “the growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.” This phenomenon, now known as the Thucydides Trap, describes the dangerous dynamic when a rising power threatens to displace an established hegemon. While Harvard’s Thucydides Trap Project found that 12…
Introduction Information-feedback control systems are the backbone of all life and human activity, from biological evolution to advanced technological systems. As Jay W. Forrester, the pioneer of system dynamics, once said: “Everything we do as individuals, as an industry, or as a society is done in the context of an information-feedback system.” This principle is…
In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) permeates every link of the supply chain, it’s tempting to think machines can do it all, even foster trust and collaboration. But here’s the truth: machines cannot create trust or initiate genuine collaboration. These are inherently human qualities, born out of relationships, empathy, and shared experiences. However, what…
Introduction Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been the backbone of B2B communications for 60 years, revolutionizing how businesses exchange documents like purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices. Since the first EDI message was sent in 1965 via telex by the Holland-America Line, this technology has grown from a niche innovation to a mandatory requirement for large retailers and global…
In the 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed a fascinating idea: humans have a cognitive limit to the number of meaningful relationships they can maintain somewhere between 100 and 250, with 150 being the most commonly cited figure. This concept, known as the Dunbar number, suggests that beyond this threshold, our ability to manage stable social connections breaks down. But what…