Supply Chain Matters

Supply Chain Matters February 2012 Update on the Impact of the Thailand Floods

Bob Ferrari — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:10:51 +0000

Supply Chain Matters provides our February update commentary regarding the global supply chain impacts from the devastating monsoon floods that impacted Thailand in the fall of 2011. Our last early 2012 update in January reflected on the initial quantifiable impacts across industry supply chains. As the period of end of year earnings announcements concludes, we [...]

New Signs of Counterfeit Drugs Infilitrating Pharmaceutical Drug Supply Chains

Bob Ferrari — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:47:34 +0000

To follow-on with our previous posting, we provide another important update regarding Supply Chain Matters ongoing commentaries addressing significant supply breakdowns of critical life-saving drugs within pharmaceutical and drug supply chains. When legitimate essential drugs become scarce, unscrupulous activities unfortunately take advantage. During these past few weeks, regulatory agencies have been alerting doctors and healthcare [...]

The FDA Responds to Alleviate Life Saving Drug Shortages Involving the U.S. Drug Supply Chain

Bob Ferrari — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:02:39 +0000

We provide a brief but important update regarding Supply Chain Matters ongoing commentaries addressing significant supply breakdowns of critical life-saving drugs within pharmaceutical and drug supply chains. Yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two additional suppliers for two life-saving cancer drugs that have experienced short supply because of the unplanned shutdown of [...]

Visibility to Apple’s Supply Chain Takes a New Turn

Bob Ferrari — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:17:48 +0000

Many past accolades have been written and cited regarding Apple’s supply chain capabilities including recognition in most any industry analyst’s top supply chain ranking, including our own at Supply Chain Matters. If you have not been keeping-up of late, Apple has entered, perhaps not to its liking, a fairly new phase of global-wide visibility to [...]

Another Product Recall and Another Set of Transformation Challenges for Johnson and Johnson

Bob Ferrari — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:52:43 +0000

On Friday, McNeil Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson and Johnson announced the voluntary recallof the entire U.S. supply of infants grape-flavored Tylenol which amounted to over 570,000 bottles. The product had just returned to retail outlets in November. This latest recall comes after a long series of past recalls involving Tylenol and other J&J branded [...]

Reminder: Our Current Interactive Poll

Bob Ferrari — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:53:07 +0000

This is a quick reminder for our Supply Chain Matters readers. About a week ago, we featured a commentary concerning the need for increased analytical skills among supply chain management and planning teams. Related to that posting was an invitation to participate in our current interactive poll which asks: Do you believe that there is [...]

Change of Plan: P&G to Sell Pringles Brand to Kellogg

Bob Ferrari — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:41:14 +0000

Last April, Procter and Gamble announced its intent to merge its Pringles® business into Diamond Foods. At the time, Supply Chain Matters believed that this deal had significant supply chain implications. That was then. Like many business stories of late, unplanned and troubling events concerning Diamond have led P&G to opt for another suitor. The [...]

Ocean Container Shipping Rates Increase- The Fight for Carrier Profitability Targets U.S. Bound Shippers

Bob Ferrari — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:28:55 +0000

Just when we presumed that international ocean container carriers were finally paying more attention to customer cost and service needs vs. their own gross overcapacity challenges, they once again, shoot themselves in the foot. Bloomberg and other logistics media are reporting that on the heels of modest signs of increased economic activity in the U.S. [...]

New U.S. Enforcement Developments in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Supply Chains Have Major Implications

Bob Ferrari — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:27:12 +0000

Prediction Eight of our Supply Chain Matters 2012 Predictions for Global Supply Chains noted stepped-up efforts in 2012 to mitigate supply chain unscrupulous activities. Many industries will be impacted not the least of which has been the pharmaceutical industry which is currently reeling from a number of significant supply chain related supply and enforcement issues. [...]

Reports of Apple Testing a Smaller Tablet- Is This the Forerunner to an Expanded Global Distribution Strategy?

Bob Ferrari — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:07:13 +0000

The most valuable company in terms of stock price, and the most admired in terms of depth of supply chain capabilities is once again priming traditional and social media channels to hype the next new product release. According to numerous entries, Apple is expected to announce the next generation of its iPad tablet sometime in [...]