Electronic Cash News

There are many software products that are so full of features that the features get in the way of the customer having a consistent, positive experience. I know this is true with many anti-virus programs as well as many graphic software and project manager software packages. Kathy Sierra’s Featuritis Curve provides a graphic illustration of features versus experience. On a bell-shaped curve the customer’s experience at first is that they want more features, but at some point in the product life cycle the features get in the way of the experience. See Shmula posting On Customer Obsession for more on product experience versus product features.

Avery Dennison, the label maker, has a great RFID 101 video that provides an extensive overview of what is RFID and how RFID technology can be used to track items, boxes, and pallets. Avery is a natural fit to be a leader in passive RFID tags. Most passive RFID tags are now being embedded in labels for good reason - costs, efficiency, quality control. Avery who has the experience of making bar code labels that can withstand any environment is demonstrating they have the knowledge to produce cheap, quality RFID tags.

Avery Dennison’s RFID 101 video covers all the basics and challenges of passive RFID tags. This includes how they are made, how readers work, how RFID labels are created, how they are applied, facility installation challenges, and how RFID technology can be used. Also, good discussion on RF frequency standards and the Electronic Product Code (EPC). See Avery Dennison’s RFID 101 video for more information (Note: you have to sign in to view video). Also, Modern Materials Handling has a lot of good links on RFID technology.

Importing and exporting is a costly business in terms of complying with all the International documentation requirements. Now the SAFE Port Act will require additional information prior to a ship sailing to an U.S. port. The security filing initiative of this act is called 10+2 because it requires 10 data elements from the importer and 2 data elements from the carrier before a ship sails to an US port. Technology such as EDI and electronic data exchange can solve a lot of things, but it can also support a bureaucracy. I am all for supporting the Homeland, but I would hope some smart people figure out a way for us not to stifle free trade. See SourcingInnovation’s post: 10 + 2 = 690,000,000 for more information.

There is a rapid evolution occurring in the management of supply and demand. It started with Logistics with the use of the stubby pencil and lookup tables. Then it evolved to Supply Chain Management with logistics automation and data communications. Now there is an emerging trend toward Supply Network Management. This is a synchronous, agent approach with the use of heuristics, simulations, and analytics to synchronize tactical and strategic real-time decision-making across all stakeholders in the supply network.

Logistics Systems. I started off in the military and I remember that logisticians relied on thick manuals with numerous lookup tables to calculate things like days of supply, consumption rates, and so on. The first Mainframe logistics software applications focused on order management (management-by-exception and order status) and managing warehouse stocking levels.

Supply Chain Systems. With the advent of data communications / Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), servers, and desktop computers, supply chain applications focused on automating all aspects of logistics (warehouse, order management, transportation, and so on), and linking these applications across the supply chain. Additionally, planning tools such as network planning / optimization and inventory optimization became a must-have tool to use on a periodic basis.

Supply Network Systems. Now there is an emerging realization that the supply chain is not just an asynchronous linear system, but also a synchronous system with many stakeholders and factors that are affecting it to varying degrees at different times. To best support a real-time supply network, software applications need to move beyond linear algorithms. A heuristics approach is needed to assist managers at all levels with discovering issues, offering solutions, managing risk, and simulating “what if” scenarios. Example tools include network simulation, expert systems, analytics / business intelligence (BI), data mining, and real-time optimization.

Related posts:

Do you practice business the speed of thought? Does your enterprise have a digital nervous system? If not why? - Jon Hansen - Procurement Insights

Supply Chain Optimization versus Simulation - Dan Gilmore - SCDigest

AI in Supply Chains - @ Supply Chain Management

I see innovation as the key for growth and prosperity for any society. I am not sure our Government or the American people as a whole value innovation as it use to in years past. Have we turned from a nation of innovators to a nation of consumers?

I think the U.S. generally encourages the business community to be innovative. With the U.S. built on democratic and capitalistic principles, this offers an environment for a lot of opportunities for small businesses to be innovators. Additionally, our university system as well as Government R&D and applied R&D programs have provided and still provide a great environment for innovation for large and small businesses.

In regard to large businesses some are innovative and some are not. Innovation for large businesses seems to depend on the competitive environment and how much value the company puts into R&D. Many large businesses seem to “rest on their laurels” versus there are some large companies that continue to innovate and re-invent themselves: Google, Apple, GE, and so on.

At the individual level, Americans are continually labeled as consumers. You continually hear the word consumer when someone talks about the American people. It use to be that the American people were labeled as having an innovating or pioneering spirit. The American people as a whole were driving innovation creating things on their farms, in their workshops, and garages. I am starting to cringe now-a-days when I hear the words American Consumer. We need to get those words out of our vocabulary and encourage individual innovation again.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or any type of data exchange for a supplier is usually a burden. On the other hand, their customer, the retailer or manufacturer, sees system-to-system data exchange (EDI) as a strategic necessity. If a supplier desires to do business with large customers, then EDI or some type of standard data interchange becomes a strategic necessity. The challenge is how best for a supplier to meet customers’ EDI/data exchange requirements without going broke or being out of compliance.

Changing the data format from EDI to XML or to any other format does not make data exchange any easier for any supplier that has to exchange data with more than one customer. For any electronic document, most customer need the exact same 80-90% of data, but there always seems to be that 10-20% of data that needs to be formatted different or is mandated for a specific customer. I am an advocate for XML for web presentation and near-real-time data exchange, but it is no “silver bullet” for solving supply chain data exchange challenges. Every large customer wants at least some of their data different.

EDI is a definitely a burden to suppliers. I have come across dozens of frustrated suppliers because each of their large customers wants a different data exchange format (EDI format) and different data content in electronic documents such as an Advance Ship Notice (ASN) or Purchase Order, or Invoice. And to make matters worse for a supplier, each customer requires the supplier to use a specific transportation carrier with its own EDI / data exchange format and content.

Large manufacturers and retailers, use EDI/information exchange with their suppliers to schedule receiving, just-in-time inventory, supply chain visibility, business intelligence / metrics, catalog, matching ASN / PO, and invoices, and overall to save on labor and minimize data entry mistakes.

Direct data communications between suppliers and large customers is becoming easier and easier as most companies have Internet access and are familiar with data communications. The challenge is have a standard electronic data format that a supplier can use with all customers. Data formatting becomes the real issue for suppliers with multiple customers. Standard EDI documents like 850s, 856s, and 810s or any other data format standard can meet 80-90% of customers’ data requirements. It is the other 10% of the data requirements (specific reference information, special codes, unique product information, special electronic document) that causes suppliers headaches.

Prior to 2001 it seem like every year there was a new, emerging technology that was revolutionizing the supply chain industry. Technologies included RFID, PDAs / scanners, voice, GPS, wireless, data communications, internet, and so on. Now the challenge is synchronizing all this data from all these different technologies.

The last couple of years I have worked in the area of B2B communications and just recently came back to implementing supply chain solutions. My biggest surprise is that I see no new enabling technologies, just better use of the technologies that were already out there.

On the other hand, there are some interesting, new areas and trends. One area of growth is what I would call data synchronization. Here IT companies are enabling businesses and supply chains to synchronize their data to get better information.

This is why Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system providers (SAP, Oracle, and so on) have gobbled up Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Transportation Management System (TMS) software providers the last couple of years. ERP providers are intent on having their software retain and synchronize their customer’s supply chain data.

Value Added Networks (VAN) and manage file transfer providers (nuBridges, SterlingCommerce, AXWAY, and so on) have definitely jumped on the data synchronization bandwagon. They are now moving from being Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and communications service providers to providing supply chain software and data synchronization services. VANs and Manage File Transfer providers are intent on having their software and services retain and synchronize their customer’s supply chain data. Data synchronization services are emerging to include matching Purchase Order (PO)-Advance Shipping Notice (ASN)-Invoice data, electronic catalog, and even trade network services.

A PMP certification is valuable, but not a requirement. Anyone that is a project manager should have a formal education in management. A PMP certification provides the education, but it is no “silver bullet” that you will be a great or even a good project manager.

If someone has a PMP certification and limited project experience, they can actually impede a project by putting process over results. Someone with limited project experience, regardless of their formal training, needs coaching and mentoring.

I would encourage any employer looking for a project manager to identified PMP certification as a desired requirement. If the project manager will be working unsupervised, an employer needs to hire a job candidate with a successful project management track record. I would encourage any project manager or aspiring project manager to get their PMP certification if they lack formal management experience.

The business case for consolidating IT functions from several business units is fairly easy to justify in terms of reduced labor, hardware, software, and maintenance costs. The question is - will there be improved service levels after the consolidation? On paper, at least, IT service levels should improve due to the increase depth of consolidate technical expertise and economies of scale.

On the other hand, there are many challenges with consolidating IT functions. The key challenges are with business units losing flexibility, creating a good IT service level agreement (SLA), and the new IT group meeting / exceeding the requirements of the SLA.

I have come in on the tail-end of an internal IT consolidation where no one thought there was a need to have a formal SLA between the new IT business unit and the other company’s business units. We ended up having to setup a new SLA, and then bring many of the IT functions back in-house because the separate IT business unit could not meet the terms of the SLA. Just like with any business contract, a good service level agreement for IT services sets everyone up for success.

Increasingly computers, data storage, and bandwidth are becoming a marginal cost in market economics. This is why businesses like Google, and Yahoo! are able to offer so many things for free on the internet. Prices use to be based on the cost and scarcity of goods, but what do you do when there is an abundance of goods that cost practically nothing? This is where businesses are more and more giving away good stuff for free.

It is getting harder to tell the different between a scam and a legitimate offer for free goods anymore. Chris Anderson’ WIRED article, Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, provides a great overview of how businesses are able to make a profit in this new economy of abundance. Some of these “free” economic models are not new, but they are greatly magnified in our current economy because of marginal costs of computing power, data storage, and bandwidth. Chris categorizes our new “free” economy as follows:

1. Freemium. This is where the basic product or service is free, but the premium version is sold at a price (Example: LinkedIn).

2. Advertising. Here content or services are provided for free, and a third part advertiser pays for ad placement (Example: Google, Yahoo!, and some print media).

3. Cross-subsidies. Here the business gives away something for free in order to entice the consumer to pay for something else. (Example: a band may give away music CDs in a city just prior to a concert to entice fans to go to the band’s concert).

4. Zero Marginal Cost. Here digital media or content is just given away because there is practically no costs to distribute the electronic goods (Example: Online musicians just giving away their music or bloggers just writing content for no monetary gain).

5. Labor Exchange. Users by using a site or service provide value (Example: Rating stories on Digg, or voting on Yahoo! Answers).

6. Gift Economy. Just give away stuff for free. (Examples: open source software, Wikipedia).

The marginal cost of computing, data storage, and bandwidth is changing our entire economy. Now if we could just get silicone to produce energy, we would then be in true abundance.