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Dear Forum Members and Friends,
We hope you enjoy this issue of the Supply Chain Connection, the first edition with our new look and feel.
There have been many changes within the Forum over the last several months, including new staff and members and the launch of several exciting projects. The next few months will be even busier as we set our event schedule for the next calendar year and continue to work with our members, faculty, and students on research related to identify, develop, and disseminate best practices in supply chain strategy and execution.
We welcome your feedback on the newsletter, your suggestions for events, and your research ideas.
Shoshanah Cohen
Director
Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum
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Staff Updates
The Forum welcomes Sonali Rammohan as our new director of the Socially and Environmentally Responsible (SER) Supply Chains Program and Davis Albohm as Project Manager.
SER program objectives are to:
- Advance supply chain SER knowledge by identifying best practices and developing new models and frameworks
- Share these advances with a broad network of industries and organizations to accelerate the adoption of best practices
Welcome New Members!
We welcome Google and Microsoft as the newest members of the Forum.
Learn more about the benefits of membership. |
New Supply Chain Responsibility Consortium
We are pleased to announce the formation of a new research consortium to explore the relationship between global supply chain social and environmental responsibility and traditional business performance measures.
With startup funding provided by Microsoft and the Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade (CREATe), the Initiative for the Study of Supply Chain Responsibility will study the specific practices that inform a company's SER maturity, explore the resulting impact on overall business performance, and examine the return on investment of SER best practices.
Initiative members will actively participate in refining the research objectives and will have access to leading researchers in this area. The initiative will benefit from the participation of Professors Hau Lee and Josh Cohen of Stanford University and Rick Locke of MIT.
We are actively seeking initiative members with an interest in supply chain responsibility. Learn more.
Save the Date...
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Healthcare Summit
April 25, 2012
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NEW FROM OUR FACULTY AND AFFILIATES
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The Greening of Walmart's Supply Chain...Revisited
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Erica Plambeck |
Four years ago, Walmart made headlines when its CEO announced that the company was launching a new business sustainability strategy designed to meet three sweeping environmental goals: to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain people and the environment. Achievement of these goals would require fundamental change in how Walmart managed its supply chain. Professor Erica Plambeck and Lyn Denend revisit those initiatives to assess what Walmart has
accomplished to date - and what still needs to be done.
Read the article courtesy of Supply Chain Management Review (www.scmr.com)
Outsourcing May Hurt Fashion Manufacturers' Bottom Line Fast Fashion - designing products that capture the latest consumer trends and then spending extra money to get them to market quickly, can be well worth the extra expense, increasing profits exponentially, says GSB Assistant Professor Robert Swinney, coauthor of a recent study with Professor G�rard P. Cachon of the Wharton School of Business. Most companies in the fashion industry
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Robert Swinney |
outsource production and distribute products through cheaper, "slow boat" channels. The research, however, suggests that while this approach seems to make economic sense it may actually create inefficiencies that cause firms to miss out on significant profits; fashion firms are best off when they combine highly fashionable, trendy product designs with short production and distribution lead times - in many cases producing goods closer to home. By getting goods into shoppers' closets when they are in demand, and not producing unneeded inventory, retailers are more likely to get customers to buy early at full retail price. The profit margin increase under this combined scenario is exponential. Fast fashion isn't just good for retailers, say the researchers, it's also good for consumers. "From a social point of view, 75% of the time fast fashion leads to greater overall welfare," says Swinney. "People get a premier item that they value highly. Because production times are short, they get it when they need it. Plus, there's less overproduction and waste." |
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