Chain Reaction

All change, no change, continuous change. Is change a force for good or should we be more sceptical about change? When we learn we change and that is good but what about other types of change. In this episode Tony Hines takes a look at reasons for change and weighs up when change is good and not so good. Winston Churchill said to improve is to change and George Bernard Shaw said progress is imposs...

All things impacting global supply chains this week with Tony Hines UK Government returns to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol Post Brexit Trading Agreement Food Security remains an unresolved issue againin the UK Supply Chain  China wants state firms to stop using the Global Big Four Auditing Firms Job cuts in Tech again McKinsey cutting jobs Sanctions have not stopped brands reaching con...

Tony Hines talks supply chains with Frederico Crespo CEO of Valiot an AI business that supports supply chain operations to create visibility and value in the system. FactoryOS captures data from a variety of internal inputs, such as IoT cameras and sensors. Once captured the data are applied to run simulations to optimize throughput. Frederico Crespo is CEO at Valiot. He is a graduate of MIT and h...

Tony Hines takes a look at Banana Supply Chains and how this special fruit arrives on your table. More than 100 billion bananas are sold each year.  The market for banana's worldwide is worth USD 13 million. Ecuador supplies 26% of all bananas. Wilmington Delaware is the busiest banana port in the world.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show   THANKS FOR LISTENING PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW You can...

All things impacting global supply chains this week with Tony Hines This week's earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has shown the devastation natural disaster has when it strikes.  if you would like to make a donation please go to Https://dec.org.uk to do so. Maersk publishes 4th Q 2022 profits - Profits remain high overall for 2022 but prices for sea freight is falling  British Volt was the only...

In this episode Tony Hines talks to Dr Regina Frei and Professor Diego Vasquez Brust about their research into plastic waste in four European Cities. The research project is PlastiCity. Researchers involved are investigating commercial waste in the four cities:Ghent (Belgium) The Hague (The Netherlands), Southend-On-Sea (UK), and Douai (France). Waste owners, designers, recyclers, policy makers, N...

All things impacting global supply chains this week with Tony Hines It is 3 years since the UK left the EU and we take look at the impact of leaving the EU and how it has impacted supply chains. Energy cost is driving up inflation. We take a look at how businesses and supply chains are impacted by energy costs and what governments need to do to secure energy and bring more certainty for business d...

Tony Hines discusses how political, economic, social and technological change influences supply chain strategies (PEST). The external environment influences the strategies we  implement. Political change such as wars,  policies towards pandemics and trade such as Brexit in the UK or Trade Wars with China in the US all come under the political influences. What happens in the political sphere impact...

All things impacting global supply chains this week with Tony Hines. Amazon lays off 18,000 employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica Do you get the support you need from your C Suite? Building sustainable supply chains - what to do. Fairtrade tool for mapping sustainability and human rights issues - what does your risk map look like? Identifying risks is the first step to tackling them – Fairtra...

Tony Hines talks about the application of systems thinking to improve supply chain practices. Systems Thinking is an approach developed by Peter Checkland to understand the system. The system that Checkland concerned himself with was an organization and its human interactions with physical space, technical systems and places / locations in a temporal dimension. Supply chain systems are such a syst...

This is a special edition discussing some of the issues from the World Economic Forum in Davos. Send us Fan Mail Support the show   THANKS FOR LISTENING PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW You can support the podcast by following the link here. It makes a big difference and helps us make great content for you to listen to. Follow like and share the Chain Reaction Podcast with colleagues and friends on social...

All things impacting global supply chains this week: Port of Antwerp Bruges New Gen Circular Economy Project to build a plastic recycling plant at the Port. Mario Paganini from Stord writes about doing more with less. Hapag Lloyd FE9 managing ocean freight demand and over capacity. Port of Georgia handled 6 million TEUs in 2022. James E Martin comments on the Procurement Professionals Survey condu...

In this episode Tony Hines takes a look at the questions we need to ask when we want to solve a problem in the supply chain. What Where When Who How Why Send us Fan Mail Support the show   THANKS FOR LISTENING PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW You can support the podcast by following the link here. It makes a big difference and helps us make great content for you to listen to. Follow like and share the Chai...

Tony Hines assesses the economic outlook for 2023 and what it might mean for supply chains, businesses and consumers. Send us Fan Mail Support the show   THANKS FOR LISTENING PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW You can support the podcast by following the link here. It makes a big difference and helps us make great content for you to listen to. Follow like and share the Chain Reaction Podcast with colleagues...

All things impacting global supply chains this week. Container prices fall as demand and congestion eases Amazon announces 18,000 lay offs UK new car sales hit a 30 year low in 2022 but likely to grow in 2023 Tessla car sales fall to lowest level in 5 months Dell is looking to phase out China made chips because of US blacklisting Oil prices fell 9% in the first two trading days of 2023 Russia is s...

These are some of the forthcoming episodes that you will want to listen to. Topics cover systems thinking, problem solving, managing the external influences and mitigating risks. Supply Chains Improve Cash Flows Economic Outlook for 2023 Problem Solving in Supply Chains Systems Thinking Supply Chain PEST And of course every Saturday we publish the News Round Up all things impacting global supply c...

Supply Chain Management is critical to improving cash flows. When we think of supply chains we think of material flows and not about cash flows but it is the latter that is equally important and impacted by the actions we take in our supply chains. The big consulting firms bang on about profitability and return on investment both are important but there is one variable even more so. It is cash flo...

Tony Hines discusses all things impacting global supply chains this week. Price inflation is still cause for concern - Many prices have risen across the board in the US Russia is China's biggest supplier of Oil and Gas Some analysts are concerened that Elon Musk has paid too much attention to Twitter and not enough on Tessla as the share price is hit. Class Action Lawsuit against Facebook ove...

Tony Hines takes a look back at some of the key moments from 2022. You can catch up with the detail by exploring some or all of the many episodes published in 2022. If you missed any now is the time to catch up. Send us Fan Mail Support the show   THANKS FOR LISTENING PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW You can support the podcast by following the link here. It makes a big difference and helps us make great c...

All things impacting global supply chains this week with Tony Hines Demand for energy increases in Europe as cold spell takes hold. War in Ukraine continues. China may get back to normal in 2023. Peak season -what peak season? Manufacturing in the UK falls in 2022 Check out what has happened in US Tech sector jobs Freight costs soften but what happens when China reopens for business Chinese ports...

Change is about learning. Learning to do something new is central to change. In supply chains we have to learn and adapt to change practices and processes. Opportunities and threats emerge from change and we have to be ready to grasp opportunities and limit threats. Risk has to be assessed when we want to take opportunities. If you source and procure products and services you will know that risk i...

All things impacting Global Supply Chains this week. Strikes everywhere in the UK disrupting health, education, border checks, transport and other public services Energy prices still high Turkey has tankers lined up to enter or leave Russia is the world number 2 energy exporter but price caps on oil will impact revenue WTO case review of US Imposed tariffs by President Trump on steel and aluminium...

Every leader in every organizations has reached their level of incompetence according to the Peter Principle. Leaders rising up the ranks eventually reach a level at which they have no experience. There are many types of leader. This is why trait theories do not stand up to scrutiny. Some leaders are charismatic, some are competent, others are not. There is no single model of a leader. Leaders mus...

Tony Hines reviews all things impacting global supply chains this week. Black Friday Numbers are in for the US And UK China protests are leading to change in the Covid restrictions applied H&M second largest fashion business lays off 1500 workers in head office roles as inflation and increasing costs hit. Inditex and Primark are bucking this trend. SMMT in the UK reports on downturn in Sales o...

Thanksgiving in the US with Black Friday and Cyber Monday - what's it all about? Grabbing a bargain or shifting inventory Find out more about Peak Season Demand listening to the episode of the same title with Mario Paginini from Stord Rail strikes move closer in the US how damaging could they be? Saudi Arabia says it is unlikely to increase oil output any time soon OECD says the global econom...