Tag Archives: digital

Autoliv’s Supply Chain Risk Management Journey

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Autoliv’s Supply Chain Risk Management Journey

Autoliv’s Supply Chain Risk Management Journey

In February, Klaus Niebur, the director of global supply chain risk management at Autoliv, and Jan Thiessen, the managing director at targetP!, spoke on best practices on supply chain risk management at ARC Advisory Group’s Digital Transformation in Industry conference.

Autoliv is the world’s largest safety system supplier in automotive industry. This global, Tier 1 manufacturer is headquartered in Stockholm and had revenues of over $8 billion last year. It supplies airbags, seatbelts, and steering wheels to most of the Automotive OEMs – companies like Renault/Nissan, Volkswagen, etc. targetP!, in turn, is a boutique procurement consultancy.

Autoliv’s Continuing Journey in Supply Chain Risk Management

Mr. Niebur’s and Thiessen’s presentation was taped in November of 2021 and then played online in February. At the time we spoke, Mr. Niebur spoke of risk management as a continuous improvement journey that would never end. There were several things they were looking to accomplish in the near term. I wanted to circle back to Klaus and Jan and get caught up on their journey.

Steve: Klaus, when we talked, you mentioned Autoliv was already doing digital supplier management, had digital sourcing solutions, and was looking at real-time transportation visibility solutions to provide better predicted times of arrival for inbound and outbound shipments. In short, this risk management solution needed to integrate into your IT ecosystem. Your future vision was for risk management to be seamlessly integrated into an advanced control tower. Can you talk about how this journey is going?

Klaus: This is correct and it is still our goal to create this Control Tower. It will link all initiatives within the supply chain function and be enabled by our digital solutions and all data sources. And we are making progress.

Read more Autoliv’s Supply Chain Risk Management Journey

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7 skills logistics leaders will need to manage the digital supply chain

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7 skills logistics leaders will need to manage the digital supply chain

7 skills logistics leaders will need to manage the digital supply chain

It took some time for the tech revolution to hit the logistics industry, but now that it’s here, everything is changing rapidly. Suddenly, it’s all about omnichannel commerce, digital transparency, and advanced analytics (among many other trends). And as the world of logistics changes, the leaders of the logistics industry will have to develop new skills with which to navigate it.

What skills will the logistics leaders of tomorrow (and today) need to effectively manage the new realities of the supply chain? These seven areas will define the success of a business’s digital supply chain operations and separate the organizations that can fuel their success with technology from the ones who must struggle to adapt to it.

To manage the digital supply chain, here are 7 skills logistics leaders need

1. Ability to adapt

Twenty-first-century logistics will require its leaders and managers to constantly learn how to use new tools and react to changing market conditions. The new logistics professional has to keep a steady hand at the tiller during times of big change and use solid data analysis to find the right path forward, even when market conditions aren’t perfectly clear.

2. Proactive curiosity

Adaptation is easier when a business pursues the right new tech, rather than waiting for it to come to them. Good logistics management will also increasingly require a commitment to proactively keeping up with technological and industry trends.

3. Strategic thinking

Thinking two steps ahead can be tough when the business environment is changing so rapidly, but that’s what the new millennium logistics professional has to do. They have to take the long view and keep a business’s core principles at heart when creating plans for the future.

4. Enterprise IT use and procurement

Enterprise IT is an increasingly critical skill set for logistics professionals. Almost all logistics companies now use enterprise IT software, such as ERP suites, to manage their supply chains, and digital logistics professionals must often make decisions about procurement and implementation of these sophisticated software products.

5. Project management

Today’s logistics professional often has to assume leadership roles on major projects. In order to be an effective leader, they must be skilled at tasks such as:

  • ● Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of team members and delegating tasks to them effectively
  • ● Working with upper management to structure project calendars and deadlines
  • ● Estimating costs and planning for the budgeting and deployment of resources

6. People skills

Speaking of managing people, logistics professionals must also remember that not everything in the digital supply chain is run by circuits in a plastic enclosure. On the contrary, old-fashioned people skills are as necessary in the logistics industry as they’ve ever been—perhaps even more so.

7. An omnichannel mindset

Business, both B2C and B2B, now flows through a multitude of channels. That means that for the 21st-century logistics professional, an omnichannel mindset is a must-have. Whoever your customers are, they’re now on mobile phones, tablets and even voice command services like Alexa. A business’s platform and its logistics operations must reflect this new reality.

Read more at 7 skills logistics leaders will need to manage the digital supply chain

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How a Unified Logistics Approach Drives the Customer-Centric Supply Chain

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How a Unified Logistics Approach Drives the Customer-Centric Supply Chain

How a Unified Logistics Approach Drives the Customer-Centric Supply Chain

No matter the hurdles of 2020, Logistics was up for the challenge. It kept production running and critical supplies flowing while adjusting to the shocks in demand and supply patterns and delivering essential goods.

The industry has already begun its transformation into a pull paradigm. To adjust to a new logistics footprint, operations are catering to smaller and more frequent shipments, while increasing its stronghold in eCommerce. With shippers and Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) attempting to increase their capabilities for market share gain, gone will be reactive bulk handing, serial execution, and long planning cycles.

Now it’s time for logistics to up its game — again.

How can it morph from inside-out, efficiency-focused to a model that’s outside-in and centered around the customer experience? We believe the future of logistics is unified logistics, where shippers and LSPs can seamlessly plan, optimize, and orchestrate across nodes and networks, resulting in consistently higher customer service levels and efficiencies.

Let’s discuss the aspects that make unified logistics a reality.

Boundaryless Orchestration

Existing logistics systems are usually configured with static, pre-setup actions, and often lack advanced visibility. Even if visibility exists, the functionality does not allow timely execution. Warehouse systems may not be able to consider transportation information and vice versa.

Upstream Supply Chain Knowledge

Traditionally, transportation systems lack order visibility and updated supply chain plan information. In the warehouse, traditional distribution and fulfillment operations rely on aggregate and longer-term forecasts to plan labor schedules. The inventory positions in warehouse systems are determined by historical patterns and longer-term forecasts, causing operations to be reactive.

Digital Ecosystem and Network

The historic approach to collaboration and point-to-point integration won’t create an easy path to real-time communications for carriers and LSPs. Now with access to the digital network, shippers can tap into carrier networks, take capacity into considerations for order promising, and select last-mile delivery providers. Before, the carrier selection process was highly manual and used static rates, and now shippers can perform Dynamic Price Discovery to view freight rate quotes from carrier marketplaces.

Unified Logistics, powered by our Luminate Logistics and Luminate Platform solutions, arms shippers and LSPs with the ability to seamlessly plan, optimize, and orchestrate supply chain execution. They can gain consumer confidence by truly delivering the right product, to the right place, at the right time — even if the lot size is small.

Read more at How a Unified Logistics Approach Drives the Customer-Centric Supply Chain

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Reefknot Investments launches $50 million fund to invest in logistics and supply chain startups

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Reefknot Investments launches $50 million fund to invest in logistics and supply chain startups

Reefknot Investments launches $50 million fund to invest in logistics and supply chain startups

Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign fund, and global logistics company Kuehne + Nagel, announced today the launch of a $50 million fund for logistics and supply chain startups. The firm is based in Singapore, but will look for companies around the world that are raising their Series A or B rounds.

Managing director Marc Dragon tells TechCrunch that Reefknot will serve as a strategic investor in its portfolio companies, providing them with connections to partners that include EDBI, SGInnovate, Atlantic Bridge, Vertex Ventures, PSA unBoXed, Unilever Foundry and NUS Enterprise, in addition to Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel .

Dragon, a veteran of the supply chain and logistics industry, says Reefknot plans to invest in about six to eight startups. It is especially interested in companies that are using AI or deep mind tech, digital logistics and trade finance to solve problems that range from analyzing supply chain data and making forecasts to managing the risk of financing trade transactions. Data from Gartner shows that about half of global supply chain companies will use AI, advanced analytics or the Internet of Things in their operations by 2023.

“There is a high level of expectation from vendors that because of technology, there will be new methods to do analytics and planning, and greater visibility in terms of information and product, materials and goods flowing throughout the supply chain,” says Dragon.

Read more in Reefknot Investments launches $50 million fund to invest in logistics and supply chain startups

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Gartner: top 8 supply chain technology trends for 2019

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According to Gartner, while many of these supply chain technology trends have not yet been widely adopted, they will have a broad industry impact this year.

Gartner has highlighted the key supply chain technology trends which they warned must not be ignored. Christian Titze, research vice president at Gartner, said: “Within the next five years if half of the large global companies are using some of these technologies in their supply chain operations, it’s safe to say that the technologies will disrupt people, business objectives and IT systems.”

The top 8 supply chain technology trends in 2019 are:

#1 Artificial intelligence (AI)

According to Gartner, AI technology in supply chain operations is all about augmenting workers. Thanks do developments in self-learning and natural language processing, AI is now advanced enough to automate numerous supply chain processes such as predictive maintenance and demand forecasting.

#2 Advanced analytics

Thanks to the increase in IoT data and extended external data sources such as weather or traffic conditions, analytics is going to get a lot more advanced. Gartner predicted that organisations will be able to anticipate future scenarios and make better recommendations in areas such as supply chain planning, sourcing and transportation.

#3 IoT

Gartner has reported seeing more supply chain practitioners exploring the potential of IoT. However, according to Gartner, new IoT applications involve more than just passive sensors.

#4 Robotic process automation (RPA)

Excitement has been building around RPA for some time now, and its place in the enterprise has seen a lot of maturing this year. Like AI, RPA, according to Gartner, is about augmenting workers.

#5 Autonomous things

Autonomous things use AI to automate functions previously performed by humans, such as autonomous vehicles and drones. They exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviours that interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people.

#6 Digital supply chain twin

A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical asset, whether that is a product, person, place or system.

#7 Immersive experience

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have long been touted as the next big thing. For all its promise mass adoption by enterprises have, in reality, always seemed to be on the horizon.

Read more at Gartner: top 8 supply chain technology trends for 2019

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Samsung eyes blockchain technology to cut supply chain costs by 20%

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Samsung is targeting the introduction of blockchain technology that could reduce its global shipping costs by up to 20%.

Song Kwang-woo, vice president of Samsung SDS, the Korean multinational’s specialist technology arm, has revealed the company is investigating the possibility of using a blockchain ledger system to ‘fuel its digital transformation’.

By automating channels of communication both internally and with port authorities, it predicts that it will be able to improve efficiency by up to a fifth – potentially saving billions of dollars every year.

“It (blockchain) will have an enormous impact on the supply chains of manufacturing industries,” said Song, speaking to Bloomberg. “Blockchain is a core platform to fuel our digital transformation.”

Samsung works with approximately 2500 suppliers around the world, building relationships around five key criteria: cost competitiveness, human resources capacity, on-time delivery, response to risk and supplier competitiveness. SDS says it will handle around 488,000 tonnes of air cargo and 1mn TEUs in 2018 alone.

Last May, SDS launched a blockchain pilot to track imports and exports of shipments in Korea’s shipping sector, a trial that concluded at the end of the year.

Read more Samsung eyes blockchain technology to cut supply chain costs by 20%

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Building a Digital Supply Chain Ready for the Future

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With the options that digital technologies provide to develop new business models and new strategies, companies that integrate digital technologies into their supply chain can quickly improve service levels while cutting costs up to 30%.

Complaints from frustrated customers were mounting at a major US retailer.
More than 20% said they could not find the company’s branded products in shops because items were out of stock.

The problem was that efforts to improve service disrupted the company’s low-cost distribution model.

It had the right infrastructure but lacked the digital tools necessary to increase supply chain reliability.

Moving quickly, the leadership team invested in digital tools to obtain real-time data, shorten replenishment cycle times, optimize deliveries and predict future demand.

As data streamed in from stores the minute shoppers purchased goods, the company rapidly restocked hot-selling items to capture sales that it previously had lost.

The shift cut retail cycle times by 20%, to four days, generating a 0.5% increase in sales (see Figure 1 below).

And that was just the first wave of improvement.

Over the next 24 months, the company aims to reduce the time needed to fill store orders to two days, for a 60% total reduction in retail cycle time.

Companies that integrate digital technologies into their supply chain can quickly improve service levels while cutting costs up to 30%.

Just as important are the options that digital technologies provide to develop new business models and new strategies.

For instance, leading-edge companies such as Adidas are deploying 3D printing to move some production closer to customers, offering greater product customization and shorter lead times.

Read more at Building a Digital Supply Chain Ready for the Future

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CPG Supply Chains are adapting to disruption, new research finds

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0Online shopping, new digital technologies, and increasing channel fragmentation are intensifying the pressures on US consumer packaged goods (CPG) supply chains.

There are clear steps CPG companies must take in order to prepare, according to a new report authored by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and commissioned by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).

The report, ‘How CPG Supply Chains Are Preparing for Seismic Change’, highlights the top trends affecting CPG supply chains and the effect on CPG companies’ performance.

Among the issues addressed in the report: e-commerce sales growth, service-level performance, channel proliferation, network design, and cash management trends.

The report is based on the 2017 Supply Chain Benchmarking Study, a study of the US units of more than 30 leading CPG companies conducted jointly by BCG and GMA.

“It’s been a turbulent couple of years for the grocery industry, with major disruption and dislocation in the retail landscape,” commented Daniel Triot, senior director of the Trading Partner Alliance of GMA and the Food Marketing Institute.

“Despite the important performance gains in the supply chain in the past two years, CPG companies cannot be complacent. This report aims to provide guidance for CPG companies looking to harness new digital technologies and trends to support continued growth.”

Over the next two years, half the growth in North American grocery sales will come from e-commerce. But only 6% of CPG companies have a dedicated e-commerce supply chain team, and only 3% are able to fully track sales by channel.

Read more at CPG Supply Chains are adapting to disruption, new research finds

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Transportation Predictions That Will Shake-Up the Supply Chain Industry In 2018

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In the book, The Living Supply Chain, the authors argue that “Speeding up the supply chain is at the root of everything that is good: improved revenue, reduced working capital, higher profitability, and less obsolete inventory.

Conversely, slowing down the supply chain is at the root of everything that is bad: working capital write-offs, reduced profitability, and slowing revenues.”

To “speed” up the supply chain is to invest in change and change will come with the digital transformation of the supply chain, which is the major focus for executives in 2018.

Much change in the supply chain industry will be due to innovative technologies for digital transformations, along with the recent tax reforms (see below), and the still-current driver shortage/capacity crunch.

The digital transformation of the supply chain will change everything – for the better.

These are the innovative technologies that I predict companies must use to undergo this transformation within their supply chains:

  1. Cloud-based technology
  2. Advanced Analytics
  3. Tracking and Tracing
  4. Supply Chain Visibility
  5. Blockchain
  6. Artificial Intelligence
  7. Predictive Analytics
  8. The Internet of Things

“In 2018, shippers must embrace change in order to succeed. Waiting and seeing what will happen is no longer an option,” adds Clark.

“Transportation management systems are poised as the fundamental tool for supply chain transformation, helping businesses to position themselves above the competition with sustainable profits and better service levels.”

Read more at Transportation Predictions That Will Shake-Up the Supply Chain Industry In 2018

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Disney, Depp and the cyber supply chain risk management problem

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One field-tested security strategy for information systems and digital content is to address the problem through processes, people and technology. On the process front, all companies involved in the production of digital IP should, by now, be adhering to a proven information security framework that fully addresses supply chain risks. That includes making sure your digital IP is protected at all times, even during post-production (or maybe we should say especially during post-production, given recent incidents).

Fortunately, there is a ready-made cybersecurity framework that companies can use, at no charge, thanks to the US federal government, which has done some sterling work in this area, namely the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

The current version is a great way to get a handle on your organization’s cybersecurity, and the next version, currently in draft, goes even deeper into the need to maintain cybersecurity throughout the supply chain. For that reason, the draft is worth quoting at length:

“The practice of communicating and verifying cybersecurity requirements among stakeholders is one aspect of cyber supply chain risk management (SCRM). A primary objective of cyber SCRM is to identify, assess and mitigate “products and services that may contain potentially malicious functionality, are counterfeit, or are vulnerable due to poor manufacturing and development practices within the cyber supply chain.”

Read more at Disney, Depp and the cyber supply chain risk management problem

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