Erik Hofmann – författare

Financing the End-to-End Supply Chain provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the financial synergies across the supply chain. It demonstrates the importance of the strategic relationship between the physical supply of goods and services and the associated financial flows. The book provides a clear introduction, demonstrating the importance of the strategic relationship between supply chain and financial communities within an organization. This book links together treasury, banking, supply chain, systems, IT, and key stakeholders. Financing the End-to-End Supply Chain will help senior supply chain practitioners to build collaboration, improve relationships and enhance trust between supply chain partners. With its combination of theory and practice it tackles vital issues including physical, information and financial flows, and tailoring supply chain finance to individual organisations'' circumstances. Recognizing that supply chain finance means different things in different countries, the authors also consider various initiatives to harmonize and develop cross-border financing as well as including an agenda for national and international policy makers. The new edition features interviews from SCF platform providers on how ecosystems are involved in supply chain finance, additional learning activities for students and new examples on working capital management.

This book investigates how the Blockchain Technology (BCT) for Supply Chain Finance (SCF) programs allows businesses to come together in partnerships and accelerate cash flows throughout the supply chain. BCT promises to change the way individuals and corporations exchange value and information over the Internet, and is perfectly positioned to enable new levels of collaboration among the supply chain actors.

The book reveals new opportunities stemming from the application of BCT to SCF financing solutions, particularly reverse factoring – or approved payables financing. To do so, it first identifies the principal barriers and pain points in delivering financing solutions. Then, a possible blockchain-driven supply chain model is defined.

Using this framework, the book subsequently discusses relevant use cases for the technology, which could open up new opportunities in the SCF space. It demonstrates that blockchain and distributed ledgers technologies could deliver substantial benefits for all parties involved in SCF transactions, promising to expedite the processes and lower the overall costs of financing programs.

Industry giants such as IBM, Maersk, China-based Dianrong and FnConn (a Foxconn subsidiary) are currently working to digitize the global, cross-border supply chain using blockchain technology, and will likely soon create blockchain platforms for supply chain finance. These solutions aim to reduce complexity and make data sharing more secure, accurate and efficient. This book offers a highly topical resource for stakeholders across the entire supply chain, helping them prepare for the upcoming technological revolution.

Gerade in Zeiten wirtschaftlichen Aufschwungs nach Durchschreiten einer Krise haben Unternehmen mit dem Phänomen einer „Working Capital-Falle" zu kämpfen. Die „Working Capital-Falle" bezeichnet die Kombination aus steigendem Liquiditätsbedarf eines Unternehmens, bei gleichzeitig erschwertem Zugang zu Fremdkapital aufgrund restriktiver Kreditvergabepraktiken der Finanzinstitute. Als Folge von Kosteneinsparungen wird diese Situation häufig noch durch ein geringes Bestandsniveau verstärkt.

Das vorliegende Buch greift dieses Problem auf und zeigt Möglichkeiten, wie der Weg aus der „Working Capital-Falle" durch Ermittlung und Stärkung der Innenfinanzierung erfolgen kann. Dabei werden zunächst Kenngrößen zur Ermittlung der Kapitalbindung der Warenflüsse und zur Messung der Innenfinanzierungskraft beschrieben. Anschließend werden durch die Beschaffung beeinflussbare Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der Innenfinanzierungskraft aus Unternehmens- und aus Supply Chain-Sicht vorgestellt.

Die Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der Innenfinanzierungskraft aus Unternehmenssicht umfassen folgende Themen:

Aus Supply Chain-Sicht werden folgende Konzepte zur Stärkung der Innenfinanzierungskraft diskutiert:

Die konzeptionellen Ausführungen werden anhand eines Praxisbeispiels verdeutlicht. Mit dem "Procurement Value Added" (PVA©) wird schließlich ein Konzept präsentiert, durch den der Beitrag der Beschaffung auf den Unternehmenserfolg gemessen werden kann.

Especially in times of an economic boom following a crisis, companies have to deal with the phenomenon of the "working capital trap," which signifies a company''s increasing need for financial liquidity in times of hindered access to debt capital, caused by the increasingly restrictive credit approval processes of financial institutions. As a consequence of cost savings, this situation is often reinforced by a low level of inventory.

This book takes up the problem and shows ways of escaping the "trap" by identifying and strengthening in-house financing potential. First, different operating ratios will be introduced. These refer to the amount of capital committed to the flow of goods and to the amount of in-house financing possible. Subsequently, methods for consolidating in-house financing that are affected by procurement processes will be presented from the company''s and the supply chain''s perspective.

From a company''s perspective, the methods for consolidating the amount of in-house financing over the following topics: The Management of Payment Terms, Inventory Management and Product Group and Supplier Management

From the supply chain''s perspective, the following methods for extending the possible amount of in-house financing will be discussed: Finance-Oriented Supply Chain Sourcing, Supply Chain-Oriented Supplier Financing, Collaborative Cash-to-Cash Management, Collaborative Cash Pooling and Netting, Supply Chain Financing Platforms.

The conceptual models will be clarified using a practical example from the automobile industry. Finally, the "Procurement Value Added" (PVA©) approach will be presented, a concept that measures the contribution of procurement to the company''s success.

Compared to other main groups of procurement, capital equipment features numerous characteristics that significantly impact the purchasing process. The process of purchasing capital equipment therefore requires specific attention and above all a systematic approach.  To overcome these challenges, a holistic process model and specific tools and methods for capital equipment purchasing are presented.

The following topics regarding capital equipment purchasing are presented:

•             Compliance management

•             Savings measurement

•             Life cycle costs and total cost of ownership

•             Determining the optimum useful life and replacement time

•             Real options approach for the evaluation of investment alternatives

•             Performance contracting

Readers are provided with a comprehensive and structured process model for capital equipment purchasing. The comprehensive set of methods including various instruments and methods presented in this book support the establishment of a professional capital equipment purchasing process.

The importance of supply chain management has increased over the last few decades. Today, entire supply chains are competing with each other instead of individual companies. As such, supply chain management has become a way for companies to set themselves apart from competing companies and their supply chains. Interestingly, supply chain management mainly focuses on efficiency-oriented topics rather than effectiveness-driven issues, in particular the design of supply chains from manufacturing sites downstream, instead of upstream from the customer.

The Supply Chain Differentiation Guide offers a modern approach to supply chain management. While for many years “one-size-fits-all” approaches to supply chain management were very common, the current efforts of managers and academics alike focus on the simultaneous management of multiple supply chains. Despite the interest of the business sector in the management of multiple supply chains, academia has largely neglected this topicto date. The Supply Chain Differentiation Guide addresses this shortcoming, introducing both established and cutting-edge management methods to the context of supply chain differentiation and providing inspirations for how to improve corporate operations.