For more than two years, global developments have been continuously defining new requirements for the organization of goods movements. Procurement and logistics are faced with the task of developing new solutions for current and future challenges. Stephan Schiller, CEO at Hermes International, a business unit of Hermes Germany, explains which steps have now become necessary, why collaboration matters and what the supply chain management of the future should look like.

This year, in response to ongoing supply chain disruptions, the majority of German companies have adjusted their procurement strategy. That was the finding of the business survey "How companies are responding to supply chain disruptions". The survey was conducted by the ifo Institute among 4,000 companies in the manufacturing, wholesale and retail sectors in July and published in October. We provide an overview of the key findings.

From January 1st 2023, the German Supply Chain Act holds companies with more than 3,000 employees in Germany liable to comply with extensive due diligence obligations towards people and the environment in their supply chain. One year later, the law will also take effect for organizations with more than 1,000 employees. In the following interview, Judith Jung, specialist group representative at the German Association of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (BME) and project manager at the Competence Center for Innovative Procurement (KOINNO), and Carsten Knauer, head of the BME Logistics Section, discuss why small and medium-sized companies are also affected and what they can do to prepare.

For companies, inventory management is strategically important and challenging at the same time: In order to avoid surplus goods or bottlenecks, demand must be predicted as accurately as possible. Incorrect planning can lead to considerable economic disadvantages. In order to manage and optimize inventories in line with demand, a high degree of transparency is required in all supply chain processes. In addition to the basics of inventory management, we will introduce you to methods and tools that can be used to increase transparency and thus achieve inventory optimization.

Strategic commodity group management not only enables the optimization of procurement costs, it also facilitates supply chain strategies and supplier relations. In addition, commodity group classification supports the assessment of risks as required by the Supply Chain Act which comes into force in January 2023. We explain how companies can take advantage of the many benefits of strategic commodity group management.