"We are not currently experiencing any supply chain disruption; however, we are monitoring the situation very closely and felt it prudent to front foot potential impacts," Milne said.
According to a Form 10-Q filed by Twist with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the license from Agilent extends to Twist's supply chain, including customers, suppliers, distributors, and resellers. The specific trade secrets licensed were not disclosed. Agilent has also agreed not to sue Twist for infringement of any Agilent patent issued or pending as of the date of the settlement agreement, "solely to the extent such patents claim a trade secret alleged in the litigation."
The first indicator of top-quartile transformation is the scope of the effort itself. Successful companies, our findings suggest, typically favor an all-in, enterprise-wide transformation, rather than constraining the transformation to individual business units or functions. A more comprehensive scope increases the chances of creating value-generating opportunities across functions. This was the case for the basic-materials company whose story is described in the sidebar “The power of scope: A case study.” It also proved effective for a consumer-goods company we know whose leaders designed a series of transformation processes to harvest the fruits of improved integration across the company’s supply-chain, manufacturing, and sales units.
Beyond customer experience and differentiation, software is pivotal in helping optimize operations and rein in costs. Global freight companies like FedEx extensively use technology to optimize supply-chain operations.