SUPPLY CHAIN EVENT MANAGEMENT CATEGORY， FUNCTION OR JUST ANOTHER BUZZWORD?By Deb MarabottiOne of the newest morsels on the tech industry’s buffet of buzzwords is Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM) Andthough in past years enterprise software buyers seemingly displayed an insatiable appetite for the latest acronym， timeshave A tighter economy and jaded IT community has analysts trying harder to define SCEM and corporatemanagers working diligently to understand whether or not they need Unlike CRM and some other popular “techronyms，” SCEM hasn’t ballooned into an all-encompassing category of itsown with blurry Analysts appear to agree that SCEM is a function or capability within the larger realm ofsupply chain One reason is SCEM is not a stand-alone application; it requires an underlying business systemthat collects day-to-day transaction data and organizes Another reason is SCEM is a discrete feature supply chainsoftware vendors easily have added to their product suites through partnerships， acquisitions or by developing thefunctionality But classifying a buzzword as a function rather than a category doesn’t answer whether or not the enterprise needs Many business managers still aren’t clear on what benefit SCEM delivers and where to apply it for rapid ROIParsing the TechronymSupply Chain Event Management evolved as an extension of process Organizations manage their processeswith But even the best laid plans can be interrupted by the Consider a new product launch withan initial forecast that underestimated In today’s just-in-time manufacturing era， companies quickly discovernot enough finished product exists to fill Then， they find scant time available to procure more supplies and makemore products within client delivery Add to the supply-chain complexity other product launches inmultiple markets for numerous customers， and process breakdown becomes a snowball expanding in size and gainingspeed as it barrels SCEM software enables companies to respond rapidly and sometimes automatically to unplanned events — withouthaving to completely regenerate SCEM applications accomplish this by notifying supply chain managers whenspecific “events” occur， ， when inventories are depleted， shipments delayed， Data that represent exceptionsfrom plan are red Often times， automated responses can resolve these issues promptly， but in all cases managershave the opportunity to analyze problems and determine This visibility is SCEM’s greatest Seeing a problem is 90 percent of fixing Individual events are leadingindicators; ， opportunities to stop the snowball a few feet farther up the In the past， companies dealt withemergencies after the figurative avalanche crushed the Supply chain managers waded through reams of reportsafter the fact and attempted to mitigate the damage of lagging production schedules missed shipments or Only goodwill might keep a disgruntled customer in the Beyond Benefit into ValueSharp managers apply the benefit of supply-chain visibility as leverage in continually fine-tuning processes and This translates unplanned events and exceptions into opportunities to accelerate production schedules， prevent missedshipments and contain In the long run， SCEM software not only improves efficiency， but increases The key is the human As mentioned earlier， SCEM software can automatically respond to events; ， triggerelectronic purchase orders in response to low-stock This is done by integrating SCEM software with otherbusiness systems， such as purchasing But without managers monitoring exceptions， analyzing impact anddeveloping solutions to problems， SCEM software offers little benefit beyond Furthermore， SCEM is more powerful when its underlying system collects business intelligence from multiple sourcesacross the supply chain， inside and outside the As noted before， visibility is SCEM’s greatest Adding data sources and including supply chain partners broadens visibility and therefore multiplies the Today’sbest business intelligence software uses the Internet to gather information and share it along the supply The most effective SCEM occurs when exception alerts quickly reach the managers most capable of resolving issues，regardless of their position in the supply chain or their location inside or outside What makes SCEM evenmore powerful is combining it with resolution capabilities that would suggest a solution to the person (or people) whohave been alerted to A very simple example would be the ability to automatically create a purchase order orrequisition request when inventory falls short of a certain This would be done from the SCEM system andintegrated back to the business system so the user can resolve the issue quickly and effectively in a single Applying SCEMSCEM applications necessarily vary by industry， business environment and organizational But in all casesthe greatest pitfall is reacting to SCEM’s elevated tracking ability rather than using it for Analytic applicationscounter this tendency by aggregating data from key business systems at a high level and presenting the ramifications ofexceptions and the possibilities of The end result is a proactive， much for efficient， For example， suppose the event management system alerts the transportation manager to a late inbound Then， assume the transportation system is linked directly to the WMS and order management systems， but none isfeeding information to an aggregate-level system such as an analytic The WMS would notify the warehousemanager， who would alter the proper truckload to the affected At the same time， a customer service personwatching the order management systems would notify the customer of the Meanwhile， the transportationmanager， who saw the initial alert， could have found the inventory elsewhere that compensates for the late The customer will have the order filled on time after all， except none of the several internal people reacting tothe initial alert knows And now the customer believes the order will be No time or effort would have been spent if the organization had an analytical application in place with Everyone involved would have had the alert and been able to view inventory， allocations and open orders atthe aggregate The first， and only， decision made would have been to move inventory to fill the No contactwith the customer was Reacting to deep transaction detail mobilized more managers than needed andpossibly unnecessarily upset a In addition to the example above， SCEM is most likely to yield big returns in a short period of time for organizations thatneed to:�6�1 Monitor large numbers of markets/channels， customers， vendors and The shear amount of data lendsitself to event Managers responsible for dozens of products and hundreds of customers would beoverwhelmed by day-to-day activities if forced to respond to a detailed inventory With analytics-enhancedSCEM， they focus instead on exceptions， such as inventory levels approaching forecast limits， service levels or daysof �6�1 Support new product With SCEM， variations in demand would trigger specific events， which wouldtrigger alerts， which would focus managers， who would， in turn， take Inventory could be transferred， morematerial purchased or any number of tactics implemented to replenish product quickly and meet orders on time�6�1 Track to key performance For many companies， one of the first steps in getting processes under controland managing them is to start at monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and analyzing the causes of out- For example， company XYZ may monitor inbound transportation costs because they are increasingbeyond forecast Analysis could show that inbound purchase orders are being expedited becausematerials are not being ordered within proper lead times， which， in turn， causes slippage in production schedulesand customer An event management system might detect missed production and late shipments， butwithout analytics the fact that material is being ordered late， transportation costs are �6�1 Balance supply and Today’s fast-paced marketplace also requires organizations to balance supply anddemand Surplus and shortage have the same ultimate effect — shrinking As companiesimprove their sales and operations planning， SCEM is becoming the best means of implementing and monitoringthose Add analytic applications for translating variances into improvements and this new buzzwordbecomes more than another acronym for ROI
Half-way from rags to richesApr 24th 2008From The Economist print editionVietnam has made a remarkable recovery from war and penury， says Peter Collins (interviewed here) But can it change enough to join the rich world?EyevineCorrection to this articleKNEES and knuckles scraping the ground， the visitors struggle to keep up with the tour guide who is briskly leading the way through the labyrinth of claustrophobic burrows dug into the hard The legendary Cu Chi tunnels， from which the Viet Cong launched waves of surprise attacks on the Americans during the Vietnam war， are now a popular tourist attraction (pictured above) Visitors from all over the world arrive daily at the site near the city that used to be called Saigon， renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the Communists took the south in Alongside the wreckage of an abandoned M41 tank another friendly guide demonstrates a dozen types of improvised booby-traps with sharp spikes that were set in and around the tunnels to maim pursuing American The Vietnamese not only welcome the tourist dollars Cu Chi brings in， but are also rather proud of They feel it demonstrates their ingenuity， adaptability， perseverance and， above all， their determination to resist much stronger foreign invaders， as the country has done many times down the These days Vietnam also has plenty of other things to be proud In the 1980s Ho Chi Minh's successors as party leaders damaged the war-ravaged economy even more by attempting to introduce real communism， collectivising land ownership and repressing private This caused the country to slide to the brink of The collapse soon afterwards of its cold-war sponsor， the Soviet Union， added to the country's deep isolation and cut off the flow of roubles that had kept its economy Neighbouring countries were inundated with desperate Vietnamese “boat people” Since then the country has been transformed by almost two decades of rapid but equitable growth， in which Vietnam has flung open its doors to the outside world and liberalised its Over the past decade annual growth has averaged 5% Young， prosperous and confident Vietnamese throng downtown Ho Chi Minh City's smart Dong Khoi street with its designer The quality of life is high for a country that until recently was so poor， and its larger cities have retained some of their colonial charm， though choking traffic and constant construction work are beginning to take their An agricultural miracle has turned a country of 85m once barely able to feed itself into one of the world's main providers of farm Vietnam has also become a big exporter of clothes， shoes and furniture， soon to be joined by microchips when Intel opens its $1 billion factory outside Ho Chi Minh C Imports of machinery are Exports plus imports equal 160% of GDP， making the economy one of the world's most All this has kept government revenues buoyant despite cuts in import The recent introduction of company taxes is also helping to fill the government's Spending on public services has surged， yet public debt， at an acceptable 43% of GDP， has remained fairly Having made peace with its former foes， Vietnam hosted Presidents Bush， Putin and Hu at the Asia-Pacific summit in 2006 and joined the World Trade Organisation in This year it has one of the rotating seats on the UN Security C Vietnam's Communists conceded economic defeat 22 years ago， in the depths of a crisis， and brought in market-based reforms called doi moi (renewal)， similar to those Deng Xiaoping had introduced in China a few years As in China， it took time for the effects to show up， but over the past few years economic liberalisation has been fostering rapid， poverty-reducing The World Bank's representative in Vietnam， Ajay Chhibber， calls Vietnam a “poster child” of the benefits of market-oriented Not only does it comply with the catechism of the “Washington Consensus”—free enterprise， free trade， sensible state finances and so on—but it also ticks all the boxes for the Millennium Development Goals， the UN's anti-poverty The proportion of households with electricity has doubled since the early 1990s， to 94% Almost all children now attend primary school and benefit from at least basic Vietnam no longer really needs the multilateral organisations' Multilateral and bilateral donors together have promised the country $4 billion in loans and grants this year， but with so much foreign investment pouring in， Vietnam's currency reserves increased by almost double that figure last At least the aid donors have learned from the mid-1990s， when excessive praise discouraged Vietnam from continuing to reform， prompting an exodus of Now the tone in private meetings with officials is much franker， says a diplomat who attends Vietnam has become the darling of foreign investors and Firms that draw up a “China-plus-one” strategy for new factories in case things go awry in China itself often make Vietnam the plus- Wage costs remain well below those in southern China and productivity is growing faster， albeit from a lower When the UN Conference on Trade and Development asked multinationals where they planned to invest this year and next， Vietnam， at number six， was the only South-East Asian country in the top The government's programme of selling stakes in publicly owned firms and exposing them to market discipline has recently gathered At the same time the switch from a command economy to free competition has allowed the Vietnamese people's entrepreneurialism to Almost every household now seems to be running a micro-business on the side， and a slew of ambitious larger firms is coming to the Much of the praise now being showered anew on the country is The government is well on course for its target of turning Vietnam into a middle-income country by Its longer-term aim， of becoming a modern industrial nation by 2020， does not seem But from now on the going may get As Mr Chhibber notes， few countries escape the “middle-income trap” as they become They tend to lose their reformist zeal and see their growth A study in 2006 by the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences concluded that further reductions in poverty will require higher growth rates than in the past because the remaining poor are well below the poverty line， whereas many of those who recently crossed it did not have far to The stench of corruptionThe Communist Party leadership openly admits that the Vietnamese public is fed up with the endemic corruption at all levels of public life， from lowly traffic policemen and clerks to the most senior people in In 2006， just before the party's five-yearly congress， the transport minister resigned and several officials were arrested over a scandal in which millions of dollars of foreign aid were gambled on the outcome of football The leadership insists it is doing its best to clean up， but a lot remains to be Almost as bad as the corruption is the glacial speed of legislative and bureaucratic Proposed laws have to pass through all sorts of hoops before taking effect， with endless rounds of consultations to build The dividing line between the Communist Party， the government and the courts is not always The justice system is Lawyers have no formal access to past case files， so they find it hard to use precedent in legal The government is part-way through a huge project to slim the bureaucracy and streamline official It recently cut the number of ministries from 28 to Yet for the moment the bureaucratic logjam is stopping the country building the roads， power stations and other public works it needs to maintain its growth Nguyen Tan Dung， the prime minister， says that if growth is to continue at its current rate， the country's electricity-generating capacity needs to double by That seems a tall order， to put it Soaring car-ownership is leaving the country's underdeveloped roads increasingly In an admirably liberal attempt to limit price distortions as oil surged above $100 a barrel， the government slashed fuel subsidies in F But one effect will be to stoke inflation， already worryingly high at 4% in M Bank lending surged by 38% last year as firms and individuals borrowed to speculate on shares and The government is finding it much harder to manage an economy made up of myriad private companies， banks and investors than to issue instructions to a limited number of state institutions， especially as the public sector is currently suffering a drain of talent to private firms that are able to offer much higher What could go wrongAll this leaves Vietnam's continued economic development exposed to a number of risks: • Rising inflation—which is hurting low earners in particular—and a growing shortage of affordable housing could create a new urban underclass among unskilled workers who have left the land for the Combined with rising resentment at official corruption and the increasing visibility of Vietnam's new rich， this could cause social friction and bring strikes and protests， chipping away at the political stability that has underpinned Vietnam's strong growth and • Trade liberalisation and increased domestic competition will benefit some firms and farmers but hurt others—especially inefficient state These could join forces and press the government to halt or even reverse the • The slumping stockmarket or perhaps a property crash could cause a big firm or bank to Given the country's weak and untested bankruptcy laws and financial regulators， the authorities may find it hard to deal with that kind of • Natural disasters， from bird flu to floods， could cause • The economy could come up against the limits of its creaking infrastructure and the shortage of people with higher Jammed roads， power blackouts and the inability to fill managerial and professional jobs could all bring Vietnam's growth rate crashing Vietnam has set itself such demanding standards that even if some combination of these factors did no more than push annual growth below 5%， it would be seen as a serious The foreign minister， Pham Gia Khiem， notes that Vietnam's current growth of around 8-9% is lower than that in Asia's richest economies at the same stage in their Despite the risks ahead， Vietnam has already provided the world with an admirable model for overcoming war， division， penury and isolation and growing strongly but equitably to reach middle-income This model could be followed by many impoverished African states or， closer to home， perhaps by North K If it can be combined with gradual political liberalisation， it might even offer something for China to think
The! ! Drug-related aspects of marketing channels， thank you for the! ! ! Add: the title "China's drug innovation and the idea of marketing channels"， paper to a foreign language before the Chinese translation of journal articles +， I am poor in English， can not read what I can， and I would like to thank you greatly
