The book mentions Apple Inc

The book mentions Apple Inc., which allows users to utilise the web or Apple stores to order iPods in desired colours and capacity. ”

The ‘role of people

Levesque's essay on the ‘role of people and innovation in dynamic supply chains' may as well interest techies. He opens with a cautionary tale about the false sense of security created by an airplane's advanced technologies. “On a sunny day over North Texas two airplanes were involved in a mid-air collision, killing both pilots. At the ensuing press conference the NTSB crash investigator was asked how two state-of-the-art airplanes, each containing the latest in radar and crash-avoidance innovation could possibly collide, on a day without a cloud in the sky.” What was the investigator's reply? “Because every so often you however need to look out the window.”

The moral of the story, as the author highlights, is that the best information research in the world cannot replace the human attributes of situational awareness and common sense. Levesque mentions the frustration caused by airline ticket reservation system when you want to change something. “The airline agent enters an endless series of keystrokes, only to advise at the end of the process that the ticket change is not possible. When asked why not, the answer from the customer service agent is taking everything into consideration, ‘because that's what the system is telling me.'”

The roadblock with logistics systems continues to be their inability to integrate with each other in order to present a single view of what is happening across the entire supply chain, the author rues. As a positive example, he speaks of Walmart for its pioneering work in aggregating business data and linking market demand with real-time SCM. “In 1991, Walmart developed a private extranet called Retail Link, which has since become the largest civilian database in the world. The key to the system is that they share it with their suppliers who can at the time plan for their own stock replenishment and production runs on behalf of Walmart.”

To many, it may come as surprise that these powerful systems give Walmart the ability to merge weather data with store demand. “In one example, Walmart's historical data showed that prior to a hurricane, beer was the top-selling item and strawberry pop-tarts sold at seven times their normal rate.” Reasons Levesque that consumer data like this help Walmart achieve $401 billion of revenue in 2009 – which is $46 million of revenue an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Keywords: The Shipping Point: The rise of China and the future of retail supply chain management, Peter J. Levesque, Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard