The Ledger

The Wall Street Journal: Rising Shipping Costs Are Companies’ Latest Inflation Riddle

Manufacturing and supply chain professionals: How are you taking control of costs in your business during this volatile time?

“Transportation costs—typically a fraction of a finished product’s price—are emerging as another supply-chain hurdle, overwhelming some companies already paying more for raw materials and labor.”

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

The Manufacturer: How Manufacturers Can Create a Normalised View Across Production Lines

3 data challenges in manufacturing that need to be addressed because they “deliver accessible, trusted data to develop insights across our production lines”:

1. Breaking down data silos
2. Contextualizing and understanding data
3. Creating a dynamic data model

Read More at The Manufacturer >

FP&A Trends: How FP&A can Create Value for the Organisation

“For 12.5% of surveyed organisations, FP&A executives are able to spend 40% or more of their time on high-value activities. As expected, scenario analysis is being used 51% of the time, a 19% increase from 2020.”

Read More at FP&A Trends >

Institute of Management Accountants: Overcoming FP&A’s Biggest Challenge: Predicting the Future

The Institute of Management Accountants released a report that “is designed to serve as a guide for organizations trying to forecast what’s ahead in their markets”. It poses and expands on these 9 ways to improve forecasting in the future:

1. Expand the data available
2. Tools: Start small and add on
3. Use scenario planning
4. Address the knowing-doing gap
5. Model Building: Think causality
6. Establish data collection systems
7. Improve assumptions and estimates
8. Monitor results and quickly identify the business reasons behind variance
9. Improve analytical skills

Read More at Institute of Management Accountants >