AArete Management Consulting

In a stark diversion from its strategy of intense secrecy, technology giant Apple has unveiled a list of suppliers that account for 97% of its spend.

While winter is testing the mettle of Chicago's gourmet food trucks, it's nothing compared to the deep freeze the City Council is putting them in.

US sports giant Nike was handed a painful reminder of the importance of supply chain visibility recently when workers at an Indonesian factory finally won a legal battle for unpaid overtime that had been running for almost a year.

President Obama on Friday announced major changes in the government's business services agencies aimed at making it easier for small businesses companies to compete in the marketplace, create jobs and boost exports.

The Obama administration said Thursday that rate increases sought by a health insurance company were unreasonable, and it ordered the insurer to rescind them or justify its refusal to do so.

Target Corp (TGT.N) will soon have exclusive shops selling everything from candy to clothing as the discount chain tries to stand out among the growing ranks of retailers offering trendy, often low-priced merchandise.

In an effort to secure complex supply chains and protect patients from counterfeit medicines, the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is proposing a set of recommended best practices.

After three years of stagnant growth, franchised restaurants show signs for recovery in 2012 thanks to "evolving" supply chains.

A recent study makes the link between delivering savings and taking a simultaneous long-term, strategic approach. So how can buyers change their ways and put quick-fix cost cutting on the back burner?

By acquiring Emptoris Inc., last week, IBM has added another arrow to its "Smarter Commerce" quiver.

This past summer, the U.S. Treasury Department mandated that by 2012 all of its bureaus must implement the Internet Payment Platform (IPP), an electronic invoicing processing solution

Last summer, a joint survey by Gartner and the Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 42% of IT organizations report directly to the CFO. The percentage soars to 60% at smaller businesses with revenues between $50 million and $250 million.

Jim Beam bourbon and Skinnygirl cocktails may be enough to convince Pernod-Ricard SA (RI) and Diageo Plc (DGE) to attempt the biggest spirits acquisition in six years.

If Groupon Inc.'s stock price holds up, even the mutual and venture funds that bought into the company relatively late will see their investments pay off.

Sale of 900,000 metric tons will push more agriculture exports to Asia.

Amgen Inc. on Wednesday told 380 research and development employees, including 226 in Thousand Oaks, that their jobs are being eliminated.

Abbott Laboratories plans to spin off its branded drug business and become two separate medical companies, the drug and medical device maker said Wednesday.

Microsoft will, starting in 2013, require suppliers to provide annual sustainability reports on their adherence to the requirements listed in the existing Microsoft Vendor Code of Conduct in an effort to tackle sustainability and standards of ethics in its supply chain.

What happens if relations break down between procurement and suppliers? Alternative dispute resolution processes can be the key to solving problems without facing court.

The 18th Annual Survey of Third-Party Logistics Providers released at last week's Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Annual Global Conference revealed logistics companies experienced improved economic conditions in 2010

Gartner recently published its 7th annual Supply Chain Top 25, a ranking of the world's leading supply chains.

Of all those who might smile at Brazil's unfolding oil boom, Walter Link could rank near the top. A U.S. oilman here at a time of nationalist fervor, he was the former chief geologist for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey whom Brazil hired to find its oil reserves.

Software-as-a-service applications appeal to business units because they are often inexpensive, at least in the short term. It's up to CFOs to prevent longer-term headaches.

New express station aims to improve company's Asia trade through Shanghai

Is Sprint finally picking up speed?

After Hewlett-Packard Co. announced in 2001 its $25 billion bid to buy fellow computer maker Compaq Computer Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. founder and then-CEO Scott McNealy likened the deal to ""two garbage trucks colliding.

US manufacturers have reported a shortage in key commodities during August, including electronic components; hydraulic components such as motors and pumps; and the mineral titanium dioxide.

These and other vexing questions are poised by a new Hackett Group study assessing whether Inflation is driving manufacturing out of China, India, and other low-cost countries

Vehicle and heavy equipment carloadings rose 5.3 percent last week

Damco remains cautiously optimistic about its prospects for the remainder of 2011.

Healthcare executives in the US, Europe and Asia are focused on investing in their supply chains to increase competitiveness, despite a plethora of risks, a new survey has revealed.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has come out with a new analysis that shows just how much the cost of health insurance for individuals varies from state to state.

South America is the next retail frontier as Brazil, Uruguay and Chile top China and India for new expansion opportunities.

Why and how is the CPO role changing? What benefits has this brought and what do practitioners predict the position will look like in the next five years?

The SaaS-based delivery will experience healthy growth through 2015, when worldwide revenue is projected to reach $21.3 billion.

Overcapacity hurting carriers, container demand remains fragile.

All over the world, the capabilities of procurement organizations are being tested as never before.

It is the eternal corporate dilemma: Buy, build or hand the money over to shareholders?

Improved technology – and leadership from finance – may help companies optimize their margins.

Recent disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan have concentrated purchasers' minds on the resilience of their supply chains. What can be done to ensure continuity if catastrophe does strike?

Freddie Mac reported net income of $676 million during the first quarter, its strongest performance since the company was taken over by the government in 2008.

Americans are significantly more concerned about nearly all aspects of their security compared to six months ago, according to new research conducted by Unisys Corporation.

The Obama administration said Wednesday that it is ready to work with Congress on the approval of free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that have long been stalled by concerns over labor issues.

US companies are suffering from short supplies of key commodities including capacitors, electronic components and titanium dioxide, new research reveals.

In a major effort toward creating one of the industry's most comprehensive end-to-end Supplier Lifecycle Management solution available, Emptoris has acquired Xcitec, a leading supplier management software provider.

A global survey has identified CPOs' IT wishlist as they grapple with the demands for increased spend visibility while having to cut back on capital investment

Corporate America and Uncle Sam may finally see eye to eye on tax reform.

It seemed to happen every quarter. Michael Becker, the CEO and president of Cytogen Corp. from 2001 to 2007, would chat with his wife at dinner about the state of his biotech company.

Several Macy's sales associates sat in a training room in the chain's Christiana Mall store recently hashing out sales-floor scenarios.

IntWith an "Intel Inside" sticker affixed to their PCs, computer buyers in the 1990s could hardly avoid knowing whose microchip was making their machines work. el, on the Outside, Takes Aim at Smartphones.

Few CEOs have been as active this year as Charlie Ergen.

Hospitals continue to see capital expenditure budgets increase while financial and supply-chain executives are placing a greater focus on healthcare information technology (HIT) and patient safety, according to new research.

Manufacturers struggle with parts shortages, unreliable electrical supplies.

United Continental Holdings Inc. said passenger traffic fell 2.2% in March from a year earlier.

Hospira bumps up pay for chairman.

Expanding global consumption of consumer and other electronic equipment is a driving force behind the entire high technology industry.

Year after year the number one priority for most buyers at all levels is "cost cutting". Despite rhetoric about sophisticated sourcing, it's an issue that remains top of  the agenda. Why is this?

A week after a rival, New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext, announced a $10 billion deal to combine with Germany's exchange operator, Frankfurt's Deutsche Börse, Nasdaq has been scrambling to find a partner to survive in the eat-or-be-eaten exchange landscape.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index shows a 2.4% decrease in December from the same month in 2009 and 1% from November, the fifth straight month of declines.

Intel's supply chain chief has revealed details of a new US factory which will increase the company's American manufacturing capability "significantly".

For many CPOs and procurement teams gaining co-operation with colleagues in other departments is a challenge. Many also find that relationships with suppliers can be strained. The reason for both these problems is often very simple: poor communication.

CSX Transportation began operating the big new intermodal terminal it built at North Baltimore, Ohio, near Toledo, which will be the western anchor of its National Gateway doublestack corridor.  The company will use the terminal to route box traffic from East Coast ports such as Baltimore, Md., into Midwest destinations of Chicago, St. Louis or other cities.

One of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s legacies in the new health care law, intended to allow the chronically ill and people with disabilities to continue living in their homes, is too costly to survive without major changes, Obama administration officials now say.

McDonald's Corp.'s Indian franchisee plans to set up 30 new restaurants in the southern and western parts of the country this year, as part of the restaurant chain's expansion plans in Asia's third-largest economy, a top executive said.

First the bad news: Apple Inc. may have resuscitated recorded music when it opened its iTunes online store in 2003. But the digital depot hasn't come close to rescuing the business.

The ISM’s index for measuring the sector’s overall health—known at the NMI—was 59.4 in January, a 2.3 percent increase from December. Like the ISM’s Manufacturing Report on Business, a reading above 50 represents growth.

If Camden, New Jersey, becomes the first American community to lower its medical costs, it will have a murder to thank.

Foreign companies have been teaming up with Chinese ones for years to gain access to the giant Chinese market. Now some of the world's biggest companies are taking a risky but potentially rewarding second step—folding pieces of their world-wide operations into partnerships with Chinese companies to do business around the globe.

When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

A new report by IBM Global Business Services observes that the current economic environment is increasingly more volatile, complex and structurally different than in years past. In few places is this more apparent than in the movement of goods and services.

The procurement function in large enterprises is becoming "increasingly strategic", new research reveals.

Heading into 2010, executives at Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based producer of electronic components, were upbeat about their prospects.

Builders began work on new homes and apartments at the lowest rate in a year and a half in October mainly because of a 44 percent drop in starts on multifamily homes, the Commerce Department said.

The Intermodal Transportation Institute and the National Center for Intermodal Transportation University of Denver maintains that a new NRP must be developed within the context of this overall, national transportation policy

Motorola Inc. is aiming to split the company into two separate entities as early as January, according to Co-Chief Executive Greg Brown, who will take the top job at its government and business unit.

Company sustainability ratings are proliferating as the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda steadily migrates from the margins to the mainstream of capital, procurement, and consumer markets.

Baxter International Inc. said Friday it is selling its U.S. generic injectables business to Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC for about $112 million.

Procurement has emerged from the recession as a "winner", a new poll claims.

Forecasters expect a better holiday season for U.S. retailers, but say the price will be more discounts to get consumers shopping.

As the economy sputters, prospects are dimming for unemployed workers who were banking on a seasonal retail job to carry them through the holidays.

The nation’s top health official says issues concerning a McDonald’s Corp. health plan for hourly workers will test the practicality of some requirements in the six-month-old health care reform law.

With sweeping new legislation on the horizon, companies (and their banks) try to gauge the impact.

What are the “basics” for supply chain managers today?

Do you think you know how to get the best from your people? Or do you know?

Supplier relationship management (SRM) is hardly a new kid on the block. Yet its progress has been sluggish.

Due to the nation’s deep recession, states experienced rapid growth in their Medicaid enrollment and spending last year and expect additional growth, though at a slower pace, in fiscal year 2011, according to a survey of state Medicaid officials in all 50 states released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU).

FedEx Freight is raising the ante in what's quickly becoming a reverse less-than-truckload rate war, increasing its general tariff rates 6.9 percent Nov. 1. That's a full percentage point above the general rate increases posted by rival nationwide LTL carriers.

Walgreen Co. posted weaker-than-expected August sales at stores open more than a year, hurt by generic drug introductions and a decrease in customer traffic.

The New Meadowlands Stadium, home of the New York Giants and Jets, is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built. At a cost of $1.6 billion in private funds, it's state of the art--and that means more than comfy seats and realistic looking pretzel cheese. Gearing up for its inaugural NFL season later this month, the stadium will feature a first-of-its-kind "Command Center," which will help executives and merchandisers track customers in real-time. It's also a stats junkie's dream.

The Institute of Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity in August was up slightly compared to July. The index the ISM uses to measure the manufacturing sector, or PMI, was 56.3 percent in August, which is up from 55.5 percent in July.

Recent research has revealed that the ongoing deregulation of the US electricity industry can help procurement make substantial savings.

UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's and the Bay Area's largest health plans, said Wednesday it will loan $10 million to help small rural hospitals in California improve their IT systems and adopt electronic health records. It will also provide $1 million in grants to get the process started.

Autodesk CFO Mark Hawkins counts himself very fortunate to have worked for two companies with robust and carefully structured training and development programs.

Our annual midlevel survey examined 12 areas that contribute to job satisfaction. This year, associates' satisfaction has dropped to the lowest level in six years.

The modern economy creates and spreads unprecedented prosperity by drawing on the resourcefulness and enterprise of the many, not by blindly following the dictates of a few.

It would be hard to conceive an industry better suited to American manufacturing strengths than medical devices.

A few years ago, a procurement executive at a large UK plc appointed a purchasing director to the company's south-east Asian office. A week later, the appointee called the executive and said he had just visited some suppliers and they had asked if he wanted the same terms as his predecessor. The executive said he was happy with those terms, but the purchasing director had to correct him. "No," he said. "They mean am I still happy with a 5 per cent cut of any orders."

KPMG acquired the Supply Chain Advisory Services practice of Grant Thornton LLP, a U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd.

Medicare Part D beneficiaries shoulder significantly more of the cost of second- and third-tier medications than Medicare beneficiaries with employer–based coverage, according to a new study in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy.