Supply chain management is a field where Big Data and analytics have obvious applications. Until recently, however, businesses have been less quick to implement big data analytics in supply chain management than in other areas of operation such as marketing or manufacturing.
Of course supply chains have for a long time now been driven by statistics and quantifiable performance indicators. But the sort of analytics which are really revolutionizing industry today – real time analytics of huge, rapidly growing and very messy unstructured datasets – were largely absent.
This was clearly a situation that couldn’t last. Many factors can clearly impact on supply chain management – from weather to the condition of vehicles and machinery, and so recently executives in the field have thought long and hard about how this could be harnessed to drive efficiencies.
In 2013 the Journal of Business Logistics published a white paper calling for “crucial” research into the possible applications of Big Data within supply chain management. Since then, significant steps have been taken, and it now appears many of the concepts are being embraced wholeheartedly.
Applications for analysis of unstructured data has already been found in inventory management, forecasting, and transportation logistics. In warehouses, digital cameras are routinely used to monitor stock levels and the messy, unstructured data provides alerts when restocking is needed.
Read more at How Big Data And Analytics Are Transforming Supply Chain Management
Tag Archives: Logistics
A Portrait of the Supply Chain Manager
It’s been written that a career in supply chain management can be like climbing a mountain.
While there is often a map for the path forward in professions like accounting, medicine and the law, in supply chain management – as with mountaineering – there are any number of paths that can reach the summit.
Those were among the findings from a research series conducted for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and published in the July/August 2015 issue of Supply Chain Management Review, and reinforced by research conducted by McKinsey & Company and Kuhne Logistics University.
The latter, for instance, found that while many supply chain management executives had experience in logistics, procurement and sales/marketing, “… a surprising number of supply chain executives are appointed without any previous exposure to SCM…in our sample, supply chain executives spent 88% of their previous career span outside the SCM function.”
Are those findings consistent with readers of Supply Chain Management Review and members of APICS Supply Chain Council? And, if so, who is today’s supply chain manager? And, how did he – or she – navigate to their position on the mountain?
Did they start out in the supply chain going back to their college days, or, as in the McKinsey study, did they come into the profession from other parts of the organization?
Moreover, what are their duties today and how do they see the job changing?
Read more at A Portrait of the Supply Chain Manager
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One step ahead: How data science and supply chain management are driving the predictive enterprise
DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, today launched its latest white paper highlighting the untapped power of data-driven insight for the supply chain. The white paper has revealed that most companies are sitting upon a goldmine of untapped supply chain data that has the ability to give organizations a competitive edge. While this wealth of supply chain data already runs the day-to-day flow of goods around the world, the white paper has revealed a small group of trailblazing companies are utilizing this data as a predictive tool for accurate forecasting.
“The predictive enterprise: Where data science meets supply chain” is a white paper by Lisa Harrington, President of the lharrington group LLC that was commissioned by DHL to identify the opportunities available to companies to anticipate and even predict the future. It encourages companies to get ahead of their business and direct their global operations accordingly.
Data mining, pattern recognition, business analytics, business intelligence and other tools are coalescing into an emerging field of supply chain data science. These new intelligent analytic capabilities are changing supply chains – from reactive operations, to proactive and ultimately predictive operating models. The implications extend far beyond just reinventing the supply chain. They will help map the blueprint for the next-generation global company – the insight-driven enterprise.
Jesse Laver, Vice President, Global Sector Development, Technology, DHL Supply Chain, said, “At DHL, we’re helping our customers get ahead of the competition by working with them to harness the wealth of data information from across their businesses, allowing us to develop smarter supply chain solutions that factor in their wider business operations. For our technology customers, we use data analytics to predict what’s going on in the supply chain, such as what products are in high demand, so we can tailor our solutions accordingly.”
While supply chain analytics technologies and tools have come a long way in the last few years, integrating them into the enterprise is still far from easy. Companies typically progress through several stages of maturity as they adopt these technologies. The descriptive supply chain stage uses information and analytics systems to capture and present data in a way that helps managers understand what is happening.
Read more at One step ahead: How data science and supply chain management are driving the predictive enterprise
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How data science and supply chain management are driving the predictive enterprise
DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, today launched its latest white paper highlighting the untapped power of data-driven insight for the supply chain. The white paper has revealed that most companies are sitting upon a goldmine of untapped supply chain data that has the ability to give organizations a competitive edge. While this wealth of supply chain data already runs the day-to-day flow of goods around the world, the white paper has revealed a small group of trailblazing companies are utilizing this data as a predictive tool for accurate forecasting.
“The predictive enterprise: Where data science meets supply chain” is a white paper by Lisa Harrington, President of the lharrington group LLC that was commissioned by DHL to identify the opportunities available to companies to anticipate and even predict the future. It encourages companies to get ahead of their business and direct their global operations accordingly.
Data mining, pattern recognition, business analytics, business intelligence and other tools are coalescing into an emerging field of supply chain data science. These new intelligent analytic capabilities are changing supply chains – from reactive operations, to proactive and ultimately predictive operating models. The implications extend far beyond just reinventing the supply chain. They will help map the blueprint for the next-generation global company – the insight-driven enterprise.
Jesse Laver, Vice President, Global Sector Development, Technology, DHL Supply Chain, said, “At DHL, we’re helping our customers get ahead of the competition by working with them to harness the wealth of data information from across their businesses, allowing us to develop smarter supply chain solutions that factor in their wider business operations. For our technology customers, we use data analytics to predict what’s going on in the supply chain, such as what products are in high demand, so we can tailor our solutions accordingly.”
Read more at One step ahead: How data science and supply chain management are driving the predictive enterprise
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Beware the ‘black swans’ in your supply chain
Enterprises know that merely having a supply chain involves a certain amount of risk, but few do enough to protect against the one-off, extreme incidents that can disrupt them.
That’s according to Yossi Sheffi, an MIT professor who is director of its Center for Transportation & Logistics.
Such events — sometimes referred to as “black swans” — include unanticipated catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, the BP Horizon oil rig explosion, the 9/11 terrorist attack, the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, and even the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
While most risk-planning processes focus on events that happen relatively often, such as routine weather emergencies, they often ignore the extreme ones that are considered too unlikely to worry about, Sheffi argues.
While such events are unlikely, the probability that they’ll happen isn’t zero — as history has proven again and again.
“Black swans are never expected,” Sheffi said in an interview. “There are many examples of low-probability, high-impact disruptions. People don’t believe they can happen, but they do — and there will be more.”
Vendors such as Resilinc and Elementum along with IBM, SAP and Cisco are increasingly coming out with software to help companies protect themselves, he noted.
Read more at Beware the ‘black swans’ in your supply chain
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Cloud Solutions for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Software
Logen Solutions, a software company that specializes in logistics efficiency software, released CubeMaster Online, a comprehensive cloud solution for logistics and software for supply chain management.
CubeMaster Online is a load plan and optimization software, and palletizing and packaging design software that calculates the optimal loads for pallets, trucks, trailers, and sea and air containers. Companies can help reduce 5 to 20 percent of the trucks or container loads used. This can result in significant time and cost savings for many companies.
CubeMaster Online helps facilitate collaboration with teams working together in distribution areas. This collaboration feature presents logistics, engineering, marketing, management and distribution centers with an easy, efficient way to share and control load planning and execution across various geographical areas.
CubeMaster Mobile provides mobile pages built on HTML 5, which enables connection to any service with any mobile devices. This mobile version is designed to run on mobile devices such as iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.
CubeMaster Web Service is the most recent technology to enable the integration of CubeMaster Online with customer applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS) at the application level. It allows the remote applications written by ASP, APS.NET, Java, PHP and SAP to call remotely the application program interfaces (APIs) served by the CubeMaster Online server.
Read more at Cloud Solutions for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Software
Have you used the cloud solution for logistics and software for supply chain management mentioned in the article? Share your thoughts with us in the comment box. Subscribe to get updates in your inbox.
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The Next Revolution in Supply Chain Management
In the first revolution, the concept of supply chain, as opposed to logistics, was put forth. Constraint based optimization tools for the extended supply chain were developed to support the new philosophy. As this was going on, Lean and Six Sigma approaches to improving capabilities, not just at the factory level, but in other internal departments, as well as across the supplier and 3PL base, were gaining in strength.
It took a while, but it was recognized technology was not enough. The key process in SCM is the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process that balances supply with demand intelligently. S&OP itself is going through a second rev and we now talk about integrated business planning (IBP), a form of S&OP that is more closely aligned with finance. A related “revolution” that improves the demand half of S&OP is based on the concept of demand driven supply chains; this is the idea that it is important to not just create a forecast based on historical shipments, but having real visibility to demand at the point of sale to improve demand management.
In recent years, the topic of supply chain risk management has emerged and new processes and ideas have begun to be codified and turned into a distinct discipline. An emerging topic is supply chain sustainability; and indeed in many corporate social responsibility reports the topics of both supply chain risk management and sustainability are addressed.
Read more at The Next Revolution in Supply Chain Management
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Is Your Supply Chain Ready for the Holidays?
Is Your Supply Chain Ready for the Holidays?
Doug Pasquale, senior vice president of supply chain solutions for Ingram Micro Mobility, shared with Apparel magazine his insights on supply-chain strategies ahead of the crucial holiday season.
1. What are your top three best practices for pre-holiday logistics planning?
First and foremost, have a dedicated holiday supply chain strategy put in place at least six months before the holidays. It’s always a good idea to begin planning immediately following the previous year’s season and engage manufacturers and logistics partners as soon as possible.2. Holiday supply chain disruptions are inevitable – whether it’s a natural disaster or a sudden shift in consumer demand. In your opinion, how much stock should retailers put in demand forecasting and planning?
There will always be situations that arise causing disruptions in a supply chain — you cannot plan for every possible scenario. I am a big advocate for sophisticated demand forecasting and planning, but retailers should also bear in mind they don’t have a crystal ball.3. What advice could you give apparel retailers at the holidays based on your experience working with mobile device retailers?
The mobile device retail industry isn’t as removed from the apparel industry as it might seem at first. Both industries are at the mercy of quickly changing consumer demand, and overseas production is common. However, the mobile device industry tends to move at a faster pace – while most retailers change their stock of clothes by season, mobile device retailers are flooded with new technology weekly.4. With only 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas this year, how does this affect supply chain planning and strategy?
The peak season always puts a crunch on supply chain planning and strategy, but when faced with less time to orchestrate all the activity happening between manufacturers, suppliers and logistics providers, a shortened season leaves little room for error. Even one or two fewer selling days during the peak season can have a potentially negative financial impact in retail if not prepared, so it’s imperative for retailers to open early, clear lines of communication with manufacturers and logistics providers for demand forecasting, inventory needs and delivery dates. Timely communication and information flow is absolutely critical.5. Where should retailers be on their planning trajectory at this point in the year, and what should the next step be?
Ideally, retailers should have begun their peak season supply chain preparations back in January when cycles were set for the remainder of the year. That is the time to start forecasting demand and working with manufacturers to strategize product portfolio, market demand, stocking, and returns preparation. By this point in the season, retailers should be fine-tuning any adjustments to that strategy and should be well under way with executing it. Retailers currently should be firming up delivery schedules and finalizing promotional packaging designs, special deals, and production schedules to ensure they are ready for the coming busy peak season.
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New Supply Chain Trend: Amazon Moving In With Manufacturers
Moving In With Manufacturers, Amazon Delivers A New Approach
Amazon initiates a new trend in supply chain management by handling 3PL (3rd Party Logistics) for its manufacturers in order to reduce the Time-To-Delivery (TTD) much shorter between manufacturers and consumers.
Today, most 3PLs are already hosting market place by providing logistics service at their distribution centers (DCs). Vendors and manufacturers are sending their goods to those DCs and the 3PLs handle the logistics for the vendors and manufacturers from those DCs. Amazon moves the 3PL services further to the “upstream” of its supply chain by moving the 3PL services from its DCs much closer to its manufacturers. This approach is quite different from Wal-Mart‘s logistics strategy, which is a centralized 3PL.
The benefit of the new distributed 3PL approach is worth watching. If you are interested in how to innovate your logistics operations, feel free to contact us.
