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Strategy

Trending: Supply chains shift from efficiency to responsiveness

Earnings grow from enriched customer engagement Demand for increased responsiveness is one trend we didn’t mention in the Bastard’s previous post, 21 Tipping Points (or Tripping Points). But for the supply chain the trend is real and the need for information is real-time. It’s a signal to lean from being simply efficient, to becoming wholly responsive to customers. In that post, I cautioned that i...
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21 Tipping points (or tripping points)

Identifying trends from vague signals As a supply chain, you’re party to an expansive ecosystem that changes constantly. Your control consists of 1) how you respond to change and 2) how you adapt your business [people, product, place, processes or pitch (your value proposition)] in order to benefit from opportunities and avoid the perils. Leaders are challenged to identify and understand the tre...
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U.S. manufacturing is getting hot again

Responsive supply chain needed “[Ten years] ago nine out of 10 companies would tell you they were thinking about building their next plant in China. Today it’s more like three out of 10, and maybe five out of that 10, say they want to build in the U.S.” So says Antoine van Agtmael, chairman and chief investment officer of Emerging Markets Management LLC (EMM) and a director of Strategic Investmen...
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Reshoring becomes more and more compelling

Steady trends beg: What can a supply chain do to get in?  The “buy American” trend is gaining traction. Increasingly, American consumers are avoiding foreign manufactured products. It’s a trend powered by renewed belief in American made products, and the promise to save jobs. To this end, a study released this year by J.D. Power and Associates show “the percentage of buyers who avoided import mode...
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From compliance to machinist mantras, four takeaways

Quips of recent posts save you time; enlarge your head Want to feel industrious? Here’s fresh insight for your business. Summaries of our last four posts optimized for faster reading. You decide if you need more. There’s a link after each one that will take you to the original story. 1. EPA gives way to EMS Born in the wake of elevated concern about environmental pollution, the EPA was established...
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Three ways to profit by working it smart

Improve margins; increase machining performance Effort is money and in that regard, for a large segment of metalworkers, things can seem like they’re all conspiring against you. If your business is cutting, milling, turning, grinding or drilling metals you know the devil is in the details—often at a microscopic level. Yet to remain competitive, your business must run the gamut from maintaining you...
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3 Trends support funding email marketing

Plus 8 strategic advantages  Business-to-business marketers continue to shift resources from traditional sales and marketing tactics to online. With websites improving (and social media still out with jury) industry loves the ROI of email marketing. It’s a cost-effective way to stay in touch with customers and cultivate new leads. Here are three factors that are trending, and later I describe eigh...
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Adhesives answer the call

Stronger, thinner, lighter and quieter sub-assemblies The value and importance of adhesives in manufactured goods has been steadily trending for over a decade. That’s because the number of advantages are mounting given the demands of the marketplace. This seems to be of particular importance to the automotive and aerospace industries where I think you will see this trend sharpen in the next five t...
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EPA. More or less?

Protecting lives but challenging business In 1970 the Beatles disbanded; the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $0.36; and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in response to public concerns about the deteriorating conditions of our water, air and lands—it was also the year that the first Earth Day was celebrated. The EPA’s broad mandate fit the mood of the times. The in...
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Four new takeaways from the Bastard

Snapshots of recent posts designed to save you time Knowledge and knowhow help us navigate a complex world. But information is useless if we don’t have time to consume it. Here’s the solution. Each quarter the Bastard will publish a summary of the last three or four blog posts designed for quick consumption. Short. To the point, and each with a new takeaway. Now you’re feeling industrious. 1. “Sti...
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