Afternoon Coffee: SolutionMap updates quarterly rankings; new Deloitte-ASCM digital tool; Cargill expanding in China

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For this quarter, Spend Matters has updated its SolutionMap rankings of 56 procurement software providers. Our analysts have done the RFIs with all these vendors so you don’t have to. And our analysts have spent hundreds of hours doing demos and interviews to assess what this vast tech market has to offer. Check out the latest SolutionMap rankings here. And read about which companies are new to SolutionMap for Q3 2019.

Digital Capabilities Model released

As companies try to figure out how to digitally transform their supply chains, they have a new resource from Deloitte Consulting and the Association of Supply Chain Management.

The release of the Digital Capabilities Model for Supply Networks was announced today as ASCM holds its national conference in Las Vegas. The model “helps organizations understand the complexity of digital supply networks and assess their company’s process maturity,” according to a press release.

Chris Richard, Deloitte principal and high-tech sector lead for supply chain and network operations, said in the release that “traditional supply chain objectives are becoming harder to achieve, given increased market volatility and complexity, digital disruption and shifting consumer expectations.”

The consulting firm helped make the Digital Capabilities Model compatible with ASCM’s Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Digital Standard.

“For more than two decades, the SCOR model has successfully served as the supply chain profession’s global, cross-industry standard,” ASCM Chief Executive Abe Eshkenazi said in the release. “The Digital Capabilities Model for Supply Networks extends SCOR to the digital era, providing businesses with guidance that will carry them into future decades. We are proud to collaborate with Deloitte to develop this next-generation, industry-leading supply chain standard.”

Cargill expanding in China

The Minnesota-based provider of agriculture and food services Cargill was on the list of 42 companies with whom Shanghai signed foreign investment projects with a total investment of $7.7 billion, according to a Chinese news service, Xinhuanet.

It also reported that Cargill announced $100 million to expand its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai.

Robert Aspell, president of Asia Pacific for Cargill, said at the signing ceremony Monday that China remains the country "where we have the greatest growth opportunity."

U.S. factory production rises

Federal Reserve figures released Tuesday show U.S. factory output rose 0.5% in August after a slip of 0.4% in July, according to the Associated Press.

“Despite the improvement, manufacturers will likely continue to struggle,” the AP said. “Factories have been hit by the U.S.-China trade war, which has raised their costs and curtailed their exports. Manufacturing output fell in the first two quarters of this year, the first time that’s happened since 2016. In the past 12 months, factory output has dropped 0.4%.”

TuSimple raises $120 million for driverless delivery trucks

The San Diego-based self-driving truck startup TuSimple today announced it had secured an extension to its $95 million series D round by Weibo creator Sina. Now the total reached is $215 million, and the startup is valued at $1 billion.

Recently, TuSimple had entered into a partnership with the United States Postal Service, VentureBeat reports.