In manufacturing systems, direct labor cost may constitute less than 10% of total production cost. Manufacturers often incur high overhead costs, accounting for around 30% of total production costs. QRM helps minimize overhead costs and compensate for the negative aspects of tariffs. There are four Stages of QRM Implementation: Improving the responsiveness of supply […]
When I first started my career in the pharma industry as a supply chain analyst, pharma companies were tempted to hire lean-manufacturing experts from the automotive industry to improve their production systems. Lean practice, which originated as a productivity tool in Toyota, strongly emphasizes the elimination of all sorts of waste categories along supply chains. […]
The American inventor Charles Kettering, who worked for GM from 1920 to 1947, once famously said: "a problem well stated is a problem half-solved." This quote reflects the current state of supply chain management (SCM) very well. One can even argue that problem statement in SCM can be much harder than executing a solution plan. […]
Andre Agassi, a legend in men’s tennis, lost his first three matches to Boris Becker in 1988-1989. Agassi later won 10 of the remaining 11 contests against Becker in his career. Amazon.com, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore, initially struggled to raise investor capital. Amazon eventually became one of the world’s […]
On June 6, 2022, Isik Bicer presented his research about the relationship between retail inventory productivity and financial performance at the 2022 CORS/INFORMS International Conference. In a session chaired by himself and sponsored by MSOM iFORMS SIG, he discussed how inventory turnover metric helps investors distinguish small retailers between overpriced and underpriced in the stock […]
On May 28, 2022, Isik Bicer made a research presentation about uncertainty modeling approach at the annual supply chain research forum, invited by Professors M. Johnny Rungtusanatham and David Johnston and sponsored by George Weston Ltd Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains. The presentation is available below:
A new article, written by Isik Bicer, was published in the California Management Review. The article discusses how organizations can practice transformative due diligence that is simple, customer-centric, and explicit. Such an approach can be developed based on the salient factors of the unified supply chain management framework. Please visit the Articles and Research Papers page for […]
On April 29, 2022, Isik Bicer delivered a research seminar online as a part of the Kadir Has University's research seminar series, invited by Mustafa Hekimoğlu, PhD. He presented the challenges of digital transformation and how some companies successfully implemented it by employing digital due diligence and uncertainty modeling approach. His presentation is available below:
Having been invited by Professors ManMohan S Sodhi and Florian Lucker (both affiliated with the Bayes Business School—formerly Cass—City University, London, UK), Isik Bicer gave a talk on supply chain finance at the 32nd annual POMS conference. The conference was held online on April 21-25, 2022, which is organized every year by the Production and […]
A new article, co-authored by Isik Bicer, highlights environmental benefits of supply chain responsiveness. Please visit the Articles and Research Papers page for our research papers.