Dear Neale,

It is a well-known fact that everything in this world is subject to "change". Some of them are quite mild and some drastic. Right now all of our countries are subject to great changes in different aspects but most of them are in "how countries interact with each other". Global tremendous changes including, terrorism, climate change, Brexit and etc., are creating major paradigm shift in how countries interact with each other. Since supply chains are much broader now a days, they are more vulnerable to above mentioned disruptions. These disruptions are creating high degrees of uncertainty which will in turn results in high risks associated with supply chains. I think now its the time to rethink routine processes of supply chains in order to develop more resilient ones. In addition to risk phenomena related to disruptions, another thing that comes to my mind is that considering critical environmental condition, it seems necessary to develop more sustainable supply chains. I think these two areas are now going to be the future of research in the field of SCM.

I hope these provided you with enough keywords,

Hope you'll find it useful.

Dear Seyed,

Thank you for your thoughts.

Kind regards

Neale

There is still room for greater efficiency and integrity in supply chain management.  Short article attached.  

Article Improving the bottom line: Achieving material cost recoverie...

Dear Chris,

Thank you for providing an informative article.

Kind regards

Neale

The process involves investigating the current SCM activities and engaging in new opportunities for cost-savings while optimising service levels. The technology streamlines planning and execution while also collecting data to be leveraged for detailed analytics, reporting on a company’s supply chain efficiency and effectiveness.

With more holistic, supply chain applications, it may not be too many years before capitalising on these kinds of  today dynamic opportunities is not just practical, it is the way business is conducted day in and day out, and latest 'buzz words' relating to supply chain management is what next. 

Dear Prem,

Thank you for your comments.

Kind regards

Neale

Dear Arafat,

Wow....new terms to me that you have mentioned! Great, I now need to investigate such.

Thank you.

Kind regards

Neale

Neale,

There is a big gap between what SCM academics take for granted (eg. separation of planning from execution, Factory Physics, impact of variability upon supply dynamics) and industry practice (use forecasts to directly drive replenishment, attempts to optimise a complex adaptive system) Why is this? Why hasn't simple stuff from academia percolated into industry? 

Hopp & Spearman have written about the need for SCM/Operatoins courses to cover this easy stuff but few do. Only now, c35 years after Burbidge told us it was wrong is the MRP Crusade being reversed and industry is rediscovering ROP under the guise of DDMRP (www.demanddriveninstitute,com) and the decoupled demand driven supply chain.

What went wrong?

Something really new? Maybe extended supply chain collaboration / VMI (without the confounding impact of the forecast as used  by CPFR) using multi-level ROP/ROC. 

 Dear Simon,

Thank you greatly for your insightful comments and articles provided...great 'food for thought'!

Kind regards

Neale

Dear Neale,

The next step in SCM is

Its sustainability  in decision making considering economic, social and environmental aspects.

How to consider all these aspects?

How to gather all the information?

How to design a suitable model?

How to evaluate and validate it?

Dear Calwin,

Thank you for your comments. Kind regards. Neale

In our new publication, Mapping the Landscape of Future Research Themes in Supply Chain Management, we have highlighted some of the future research trends in supply chain management. You can download it here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12131

If you don't have access to the paper, just request it here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296679221_Mapping_the_Landscape_of_Future_Research_Themes_in_Supply_Chain_Management

New things are (i) Emergence of 3D printing, (ii) Role of Big Data, and  (iii) Increasing Use of cloud computing in SCM operations. The concept of integrated supply chain management is their which  includes Planning and Managing supply and demand; Warehouse Management; Inventory control; Efficient Transportation and Distribution; Timely Delivery and customer's delight & lastly customer's satisfaction.

Dear Rajiv,

Thank you for your insightful response.

Kind regards

Neale

I'm looking at the same question...what's next...

I read an interesting article about DHL changing their SC by implementing augumented reality..so this might be worth exploring.