Online Resources for Managing Supply Chains
By John Simoneau, posted 01/19/2012
I recently sat down with my colleagues from the marketing and supply chain management departments to learn what free online resources they use on a daily basis to monitor chemical markets and discover new trends in supply chain management. Here are some of their favorites:
Chemical Markets
- For monitoring phosphate, potassium and nitrogen based compounds, two helpful resources are - wikinvest.com and fertilizerworks.com. Both give insight into the pricing of corn and paint a picture of current market conditions for this particular chemical market.
- Natural gas and oil are leading indicators for solvents and other compounds. The United States Energy Administration and Economic Research Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis provide pricing for these two commodities.
- The Wikinvest pages on sugar and corn along with the USDA Economic Research Service are useful to see the current trends in pricing and demand for the carbohydrates market.
Supply Chain Management Trends
- Supply Chain Management Review helps the supply chain management group discover new trends and gain insight to what people are talking about in supply chain management.
- Used to identify transportation trends, the Logistics Management site is useful for monitoring regulatory changes, learning about capacity issues by mode and understanding the issues our carriers face.
- The Institute for Supply Management provides educational resources, such as case studies and publications, and holds conferences on supply chain management. Additionally, the organization provides certification in supply chain management.
Additional Resources
Doe & Ingalls also offers free whitepapers and webinars on supply chain topics that our customers are concerned about, such as assessing raw material risk, sourcing raw materials and others.
What resources do you continually use to manage your supply chain? Share them in the comments section below, or shoot me an email, and I will add them to this post: jsimoneauATdoeingallsDOTcom.