There’s a classic scene in “Jurassic Park” where Jeff Goldblum’s character discusses chaos theory with the paleobotanist played by Laura Dern, and he uses a quick water drop experiment to explain the consequences of unpredictability in complex systems. You’ve no doubt heard of what’s kind of the supply chain’s version of this phenomenon: “The Bullwhip …
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All posts by Karen Bird
At Profit Point, we value diversity. Diversity at Profit Point enables us to approach problem solving from multiple perspectives to generate multi-dimensional and robust solutions. It supports us in understanding the wide range of stakeholders in our client’s organizations with whom we interact on a daily basis. And it makes the work we do more …
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In June of 2018, I wrote a blog explaining what Supply Chain was What is Supply Chain? • Profit Point (profitpt.com). Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought that I would never have to explain what a supply chain was again. The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), toilet paper, chips and vaccine shortages and distributions issues …
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To commemorate International Women’s Month, the women of Profit Point recently held a virtual gathering to share our experiences in the supply chain industry. It was a special time to hear each unique experience and to encourage one another in our professional journeys. What was most exciting …
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A few years ago, one of our largest clients asked us to help them implement an ERP system supply chain integration. The main goal of the project was to achieve seamless integration between their enterprise resource planning, supply chain planning and scheduling applications – i.e. create one global solution on a single platform – one …
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It is great to see progress in a relatively short amount of time. When I joined Profit Point in 2014, one of our key customers was scheduling their plants with AspenTech SCM, which is one of the most customizable scheduling tools, As we typically do, we complemented that flexibility with some of our own expertise; …
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In July 2018, after the initial tariffs were implemented on China by the US, I was in Shanghai, teaching a scheduling class at a multi-national specialty chemical company. As CNN International blared in the background at lunchtime, one of my students asked what the impact of tariffs on Global Supply Chains would be. At the …
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The combination of Project Management and Teaching is how I got my start in Supply Chain. I had project management experience from my engineering career where I was designing, building, starting up and optimizing specialty chemical plants around the USA. In 2001, I was the Technical Manager for a plant in Charlotte, NC and I …
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Recently I was at an event where I knew the host and her family but not too many other people. As the guests introduced themselves to each other, the dreaded question came up. What do you do? I have come to dread this question. For the first part of my career, my answer was …
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I’ve had the pleasure to live and work in the Napa Valley since 2010 in various Supply Chain roles. On an unseasonably warm Sunday night, I went to bed and woke up to complete darkness at around 5:30 am. As I pieced together what was happening, I came to realize that extremely high winds had …
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My day started out ordinary: Tea, checking emails, and weekly team meeting. Little did I know that I was in store for some mystery, detours, and redemption. It all started with a few email requests at the beginning of my day.
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It’s that time of year when supply chains that support the retail sector are tested. Planning, Procurement, Inventory Management and Logistics teams all have to work together to be successful. It all starts with placing bets on what, where and when consumers are going to buy during the holiday season months in advance. Some of …
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