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More Evidence Of A Decline In US Economy

Supplylink Team — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:39:15 +0000

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US economy lost 598,000 jobs since December. The total number unemployed workers was 11.6 million in January, the unemployment rate now rise to 7.6%. The economy now has 1 million fewer manufacturing jobs than the year before. The analysis of some companies’ performence on the latest shipping data from overseas suppliers showed a more than 10% decline in the number of global suppliers shipping to the US since October 2007.

Top ten 2008 economic issues in US

Supplylink Team — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:34:38 +0000

2008 has left us a fact that the face of the global economy has forever changed. Gone forever are investment banks, the secondary credit market, and an unregulated financial market…….

Kimberly Amadeo’s article on About.com gave us a whole review of Top Ten Economic Issues in 2008 in US. In hindsight, we can now see how it happened, and wonder how we could have been so blind. A review will give us perspective, which allows hope.

Fed Innovates to Replace Failed Banking System
Bear Stearns Bailout
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Bailout
Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy Triggers Global Recession
Fed Nationalizes AIG
Credit Markets Freeze
End of Investment Banking
Stock Market Crash
$700 Billion Bailout (Oct 3)
Obama Wins Presidency (Nov 3)

To read the whole article, click here.

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China Miracle

Supplylink Team — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:03:56 +0000

An resent article on Time Magazine makes China another hot topic in media.

“China needs a new economic miracle — and the trajectory of the global economy may depend on whether one can be conjured up. China, theoretically, should be one of the locomotives that will eventually help pull the world out of its slump. That won’t happen overnight; overhauling the world’s fourth largest economy is going to take some time. For the moment, to tread water, Beijing is frantically throwing money at infrastructure projects, much as U.S. President-elect Barack Obama now promises to do in America. But ditch-digging on a national scale, Beijing knows, will not take China where it needs to go. Only if leaders execute a series of complex alterations to the foundations of its economic growth will China maintain its momentum…..”

“Turning Savers into Spenders the goal for china’s transition sounds straightforward enough. “We’ve become a big economy,” says Wang Zhenzhong, an adviser to the Chinese government and director of the economic-research institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). “Now, we need to become a strong economy.”

To read the entire article, click here.

To learn more and get more information and resources, click here to join us with SupplyLink English Channel

US Economy

Supplylink Team — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:51:20 +0000

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis(BEA is the research center of the Department of Commerce providing some economic indicators of the U.S. economy) final report confirmed that the GDP growth rate for Q3 2008 was a negative 0.5%, it represents a substantial decline from the 2.8% growth in the second quarter. The decrease was the biggest drop since 1980, and it would be getting worse if the US government won’t take a big spending action.

What it means to people? click here and read more.

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Purchasing management symposium

Supplylink Team — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:11:48 +0000

How to control the purchasing cost and risk, protect the profit for the organization under the situation of economic crisis worldwide? Organized by “Purchasing Today” magazine, JustLink Consulting and Purchaser Saloon, The Purchasing Management Symposium is arranged early 2009 on Jan10 at Shanghai World Financial Center. Purchasing experts from well-known multinational companies will discuss the different issues including:

How purchasers act under the economic crisis
How to reduce purchasing and logistic cost
How to manage the risk of exchange rate

For more information, contact JustLink customer support line at 400-800-5107,021-51157550; or visit the website www.justlink-ltd.com

Tips of vendor demos

Supplylink Team — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:41:27 +0000

Customer-site vendor demos are a great way for customers to vet products and the company, how do you get the most out of a vendor demo? Stephen Guth’s new article “Getting the Most Out of Vendor Demos” on The Vendor Management Office Blog shows you some basic guidelines to ensure that the time is well spent–and to represent your company in a professional way to vendors. Click here to read the entire article.

To learn more and get more information and resources, click here to join us with SupplyLink English Channel

Wal-Mart to require RFID tagging from Chinese suppliers

Supplylink Team — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:46:47 +0000

From RFID News: “Retail behemoth Wal-Mart will require its Chinese suppliers to use RFID tagging to label shipments as of January 2009. Stricter requirements began to be introduced in October of this year, but by next year, the standards will effect all of Wal-Mart’s more than 1,000 Chinese suppliers. RFID tagging is expected to cost the suppliers roughly 20 times more than the bar-coding system now in place, but the changeover offers the retailer major benefits. It is estimated that the introduction of RFID technology to Wal-Mart’s supply chain will save the company up to $8.35 billion annually as well quickly providing important product information”.

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Learn from the automotive industry

Supplylink Team — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:26:40 +0000

The North American automotive industry has been sideswiped by a convoy of unexpected challenges in the past year. In the dramatically shifting North American automotive market, even the most hard-nosed OEMs have learned there’s a lot more value to be gained from suppliers than just lower price and that a healthy supply base means a healthy OEM. And those lessons can be applied to nearly any industry.

Read the whole article here on Purchasing website.

For more information and resources, click here to join us with SupplyLink English Channel

GE launched new SIM

Supplylink Team — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:28:27 +0000

News from Manufacturing Business Technology, GE has launched Aravo SIM (supplier information management) to power and transform GE’s own SIM processes across all of its business units worldwide.
Aravo SIM is a Web-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that will allow GE to automate and streamline supplier information-related business processes, improve supplier data quality, drive compliance, and reduce costs. Aravo SIM also gives GE’s suppliers an easy-to-use, self-service interface to author and maintain information required to do business with GE at both the corporate and business-unit levels.

GE manages what is arguably one of the world’s most complex supply chains, conducting business with more than 500,000 suppliers across thousands of entities in more than 100 countries. GE sought to control this complexity with a Web-based software solution that was highly configurable and easily adopted by users. The initial implementation phase supports GE’s corporate supplier management organization, and will be rolled out to all GE business units by year end. Additional phases are planned for 2009.

The platform’s intuitive dashboards, best-practice workflows, and automated task management features enabled GE to quickly achieve its supplier management goals in a cost-effective and efficient manner; and create, configure, and launch a new set of firm-wide supplier enablement and management processes that offer task-level information and visibility to all global users via role-based dashboards and alerts.

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2008 Online Global Supply Chain Conference

Supplylink Team — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:24:11 +0000

The 2008 Global Supply Chain Conference just ended Oct2-30 last month. The conference features a series of educational webcasts attracting logistics and supply chain managers responsible for the many facets of their companies’ global supply chain operations. Thought leaders and leading practitioners explore the full spectrum of supply chain management—from setting and executing global supply chain strategies to excelling at logistics management.

Some hot topics are as below:

Achieve Exceptional Savings from Transportation Spend Management
Global Partnerships: Improving the Shipper/3PL Relationship
2008 Cross-Docking: Trends and Practices
Supply Chain Talent: The Key to Excellence
Greening Your Supply Chain for Improved Business Performance
Wireless Technology’s Role in Supply Chain Visibility

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