Tag Archives: Management

Warehouse Drones: Real-Time Inventory Tracking by Air

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Using the Right Technology For Your Inventory Management

Using the Right Technology For Your Inventory Management

Warehouse Drones for Inventory Identification

Accurate and reliable data is essential to efficient and effective business operations.

Inventory management represents a significant portion of assets in a business.

Therefore, managers and other decision-makers need to accurately and timely know how much inventory there is and where it is located in order to make effective budgeting, operating, and financial decisions.

Companies that carry a significant amount of inventory are continually looking for innovative logistics solutions to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their inventory checking process.

While some companies stop operations to carry out a full physical inventory check, others perform more targeted checks, with cycle counts in areas that deal with high-value or high-volume products.

Regardless of your approach, it often means that there is a team of individuals roaming the warehouse manually checking for inventory.

This can be time-consuming, expensive, disruptive, require equipment (people lifts), and exposes people to safety risks.

Most important of all, inventory accuracy is never guaranteed due to the verification process being manual, coupled with the time taken to execute.

Inventory Robotics: Automated Cycle Counting

Automatic identification and location of hard-to-reach inventory in warehouses

PINC’s UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) is called PINC AIR, Aerial Inventory Robots™.

This warehouse drone solution allows companies to apply drone technology, coupled with advanced optical, RFID, and barcoding sensor capabilities, to significantly improve the operational effectiveness and efficiency of warehouse inventory cycle count.

The warehouse drone can be ordered by the operator to perform automatic inventory checks throughout the facility, accurately identifying inventory in put-away locations, at the frequency of your choosing.

Moving the process of information capture into the air provides on-demand checks of logistics inventories and avoids the time, expense, and risk of using a people lift to access difficult to reach locations within the warehouse.

Using extensive optical sensors, the inventory drone can navigate, identify inventory, determine inventory location, and fly safely in a warehouse environment.

The power in the drone inventory management solution lies within the sophisticated software capabilities that provide three-dimensional mapping, navigation, inventory identification, and location accuracy. Indoor flights do not require FAA approval.

Read more at Warehouse Drones: Real-Time Inventory Tracking by Air

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3 Ways to Better Manage Supply Chain Risk in 2019

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Businessman's hand stopping falling wooden dominoes effect from continuous toppled or risk

3 Ways to Better Manage Supply Chain Risk in 2019

Managing a supply chain in 2019 incurs a certain amount of risk by necessity, but having a plan in place to manage risks, respond to incidents, and deal with disruptions can put your business ahead of competitors.

In order to best address these supply chain risks, they can be categorized by implications, or by sources.

  1. Qualitative: addresses the reliability and accuracy of materials
  2. Quantitative: addresses the availability of material or overstocks
  3. Atomistic: impacts only constrained links within it
  4. Holistic: requires businesses to assess entire supply chains

Based on a joint report from Cranfield School of Management and Dun & Bradstreet, supply chain risks can also be categorized in the following segments:

  1. Supplier criticality
  2. Supplier financial risk
  3. Global sourcing risk
  4. Foreign exchange risk

By looking at each of these risk categories individually, businesses gain a deeper understanding of how to best prioritize their attention. Supply chain risk management trends for 2019 offer further insight and solutions to businesses who desire a more transparent, risk-aware supply chain.

Keep Tabs on Your Current Suppliers

Visibility and transparency throughout the supply chain are critical as consumer priorities shift toward socially and environmentally-conscious ethics.

Outstanding performers are 250% more likely to have a fully visible and transparent procurement system compared to their peers, according to Deloitte’s Global CPO Survey of 2018. Despite this, 65% of procurement leaders have little or no visibility in their supply chains, according to the Zycus whitepaper “Ensuring Efficient Supplier Risk Management with Supply Chain Transparency.”

Pick Your Battles with Suppliers

Arguments with suppliers can cause major disruptions to production. While disputes are bound to happen, minimizing risks by hiring effective communicators who can arrive at symbiotic compromises will go a long way toward your company’s bottom line as well as maintaining fruitful supplier relations.

It’s also important to pick your battles with suppliers; ultimately if there is a continued conflict with a supplier, it may be time to find a new one.

Utilize Technology To Its Fullest

Modern technology can make a big impact in supply chain risk management if used correctly. 2019 trends include artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain as helpful resources to supplement your supply chain management.

Read more 3 Ways to Better Manage Supply Chain Risk in 2019

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Risk,BI,Performance: Supply Chain Management

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Lecture Series on

Risk, BI, and Performance Management in the Context of Supply and Demand Chain

Supply Chain Institute, Article one – Risk Management

Greetings:


If I may, let me start my journey on this subject with some meaningful quotes from many greats:


“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.”

Leo F. Buscaglia quotes(American guru, tireless advocate of the power of love, 1924-1998)

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

Andre Gide quotes (French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 Nobel prize for literature, 1869–1951)

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.”

Andre Malraux quotes (FrenchHistorian, Novelist and Statesman, 1901–1976)

“He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.”

Paul Tillich quotes (German born AmericanTheologian and Philosopher, whose discussions of God and faith illuminated and bound together the realms of traditional Christianity and modern culture. 1886–1965)

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

T.S. Eliot quotes (American born English Editor, Playwright, Poet and Critic, 1888–1965)

Continue reading →

Four Steps to Building a Global Chain Risk Management Platform

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Be proactive – and significantly reduce global supply chain risks, discover the 4 steps to building a global supply chain risk management platform in a white paper from Avetta.

A global marketplace presents a complex set of challenges, especially when attempting to maintain a safe and sustainable working environment for your employees, contractors, and suppliers.

A minor detail, if left unresolved on the front end, can explode into a financial or operational disaster.

But the implementation of a world-class risk mitigation solution can save time, money, and even lives.

It’s critical to have the plans, resources, and technology in place that verify credentials, measure financial stability, and encourage sustainable business practices.

A proven supply chain risk management partner can ensure that your program is configured efficiently, intuitively, and effectively.

Save your business from negative impacts to its revenue and reputation by taking the right steps to minimize global supply chain risks.

In this white paper from Avetta, you’ll learn the keys to successfully managing your supply chain, protecting it against avoidable situations, and recovering from unforeseen disasters.

Find out how to better equip your business to prevent:

  1. Incidents caused by under-qualified or untrustworthy contractors or suppliers
  2. Injury to employees, contractors, suppliers – and the obligation of medical expenses associated with them
  3. Direct costs such as damaged goods and materials, machinery repair, and insurance deductibles
  4. Indirect costs including revenue loss from brand damage, employee and supplier down time, production delays, and fines

Read more at Four Steps to Building a Global Chain Risk Management Platform

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How To Avoid a Third-Party Break in Your Supply Chain

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Your business is only as secure as the weakest link in your supply chain. A single lapse by a third-party can lead to an operational disruption, cyberattack, or compliance violation. How can you be certain that your vendors and partners are keeping up with the latest regulatory mandates, industry best practices, cybersecurity measures, and your own corporate standards?

Vendor Risk Management Should Be a Top Priority

In these days of high-profile data breaches and intensifying regulatory requirements, supply chain risk management has become a critical priority for every organization. Such programs typically encompass policies, standards, governance, and risk assessment. Vendor risk management falls under the last of these—and it’s the cornerstone of effective supply chain risk management.

Develop a Vendor Risk Policy with Teeth

Nothing gets the attention of a vendor like a withheld payment. To set the expectation that risk policy compliance is a requirement, not an option, let vendors know that no money will be released until the right boxes have been checked.

Document and Track

A supply chain risk register is essential to keep track of your vendors and their risk. Your database should provide a single source of information on which vendors have been approved and when, as well as their current risk assessment rating.

Stay Engaged During Procurement

Don’t wait until the final review of a master services agreement (MSA) to get involved. Build a strong collaborative relationship with the procurement team so you can be notified promptly when a business function submits a procurement request, and stay engaged during vendor sourcing. By getting in front of the process, you can avoid being labeled as a roadblock or deal-breaker.

Maintain, Scale, and Repeat Your Program

Running an effective vendor risk management program and managing supply chain risk in general is all about scaling and repeating. To uphold your policy and standards, be diligent and strict about annual security assessment and verification, and perform site inspections as needed depending on the severity of risks posed by a given vendor.

‘Trust But Verify’

From the earliest stages of the procurement process through onboarding, service provision, and offboarding, expectation-setting and verification should be woven through each vendor relationship. Even the most secure organizations can encounter challenges, and the best-run programs can break down—assume nothing, check everything.

Read more at How To Avoid a Third-Party Break in Your Supply Chain

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Graph Blockchain Solutions Targets $15.5 Trillion Global Supply Chain Management Logistics Sector

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Blockchain Data Management & Global Logistics Market

With globalization and the increased consumption of various products worldwide, efficient supply chain management and the role of freight and logistics has become increasingly complex.

The global logistics market involves all activities of Supply Chain Management (“SCM”), including transportation, warehousing, inventory management, and the flow of information and order processing.

As previously published by Transparency Market Research, this market is estimated to reach US $15.5 Trillion by 2023.

Multi-national global logistics and freight companies such as FedEx, UPS, and Purolator have openly acknowledged their endorsement of blockchain technology, with all three joining the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA), noting that it will bring efficiencies to their industry through consistent, transparent and immutable data.

“We’re quite confident that blockchain has big, big implications in the supply chain, transportation, and logistics,” FedEx CEO Frederick Smith said at the Consensus 2018 conference.

On their company’s press release, Linda Weakland, UPS director of enterprise architecture and innovation, said: “Blockchain has multiple applications in the logistics industry, especially related to supply chains, insurance, payments, audits and customs brokerage.”

Tied to global logistics, South Korea has one of the world’s highest e-commerce rates, however, they have lagged in keeping pace with warehouses and distribution centers. As such, as reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, there has been a wave of investment into high-specification logistics projects across the country, both by the South Korean government through incentives and into Korean logistics properties by institutional investors such as the Canada Pension Investment Board.

Graph Blockchain Solutions

With the growth of this sector as a tactical objective, Graph’s foray into the global logistics industry commenced with providing solutions to divisions of Samsung and LG corporations. Both companies are South Korean based multinational conglomerates, known to be the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smartphones, and the world’s second-largest television manufacturer, respectively.

By participating in the development of technology that could revolutionize logistics for multi-nationals, Graph has secured a solid position with the goal of becoming a leading solution provider in the sector, focusing on building a global logistics eco-system wherein the graph blockchain solution would reduce downtime by providing real-time monitoring, tracking and business intelligence analytics.

This will enable companies to realize cost savings by mitigating delays and minimizing the impact of lost goods due to cargo theft and fraud, while at the same time driving efficiencies across their SCM.

Read more at Graph Blockchain Solutions Targets $15.5 Trillion Global Supply Chain Management Logistics Sector

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The Right Solution for Contractor and Supplier Management

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The benefits of outsourcing to suppliers and contractors is clear, but the associated risks are largely unseen, and the breakneck pace of change and the pressures of financial reality can cause important, risk-mitigating considerations such as contractor safety to be overlooked – which could be not only an ethical disaster but a business disaster as well.

Contractors and suppliers can provide many essential benefits to businesses such as expertise, efficiency, and cost savings.

In addition, companies working with contractors and suppliers can scale their business up and down depending on market demand.

The benefits of outsourcing to suppliers and contractors is clear, but the associated risks are largely unseen.

To add fuel to the fire, the breakneck pace of change and the pressures of financial reality can cause important, risk-mitigating considerations such as contractor safety to be overlooked – which could be not only an ethical disaster but a business disaster as well.

Contractors working on your site and suppliers providing materials should be considered internal employees.

If contractors are injured on the job, it can seriously damage your organization’s reputation and impede your growth.

To maximize the benefit and minimize the risk of these relationships, companies and their suppliers must commit to a common culture of safety.

This means companies need to stay engaged with their contractors beyond simply hiring them. Companies should:

  1. Regularly collect information from their suppliers that demonstrate a commitment to safety such as incident rates (lagging indicators) and safety programs (leading indicators).
  2. Continuously monitor suppliers’ insurance coverage to protect the company in case something does happen.
  3. Audit worksites on a consistent basis to ensure that safety policies are enforced.
  4. Monitor the condition of equipment that contractors use to carry out their jobs.
  5. Ensure each contracted worker has the proper licenses and certifications to perform the job safely.
  6. Provide site-specific training required for each position.

Read more at The Right Solution for Contractor and Supplier Management

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Supply Chain Complexity and Risk Management

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As part of the Supply Chain Management: Beyond the Horizon research project, faculty and staff from the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University conducted in-depth interviews with a number of organizations to gain insights into the development and implementation of various supply chain strategies, practices, and processes.

The focus was intentionally on the future and on identifying what challenges are driving supply chain decisions in the current environment. The following report summarizes key findings from our investigation of supply chain complexity and risk management obtained during our visit to VF Corporation.

BACKGROUND

VF Corporation is a global branded apparel company that focuses on lifestyle clothing, footwear, and accessories. Since its inception in 1899 as a glove and mitten manufacturer, the firm has grown, diversified, and reinvented itself multiple times. Today, its 30 brands are organized into five coalitions or loose confederations that include outdoor and action sports, jeanswear, imagewear, sportswear, and contemporary brands. The firm has approximately 64,000 employees, sales of $12.4 billion (2015), and a consistent track record of annual sales and earnings growth. The firm is highly diversified across brands, products, distribution channels, and geographies, which provides a strong competitive advantage relative to single- brand competitors.

Because of its focus on lifestyle brands, the firm must remain focused on its consumers and their evolving behaviors and preferences. The firm has four key components in its business strategy:

  1. Lead in innovation (drive new products and new technologies to support evolving consumer needs and tastes)
  2. Connect with consumers (engage consumers in new and meaningful ways)
  3. Serve consumers directly (reach consumers across multiple channels, wherever and whenever they want)
  4. Expand geographically (take advantage of scale to reduce risk and drive competitive advantage)

Read more at Supply Chain Complexity and Risk Management

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The Partnership for Supply Chain Management Implements One Network’s Control Tower Solution

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One Network Enterprises, a global provider of multi-party digital network platform and services, recently announced that The Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM)—a nonprofit organization providing global procurement and distribution services for low- and middle-income countries—has implemented One Network’s Supply Chain Control Tower solution to advance its end-to-end supply chain visibility.

According to spokesmen, PFSCM has a long history of innovating and driving fundamental improvements in the performance of global health supply chains.

Spokesmen added that it is migrating critical requisition, order, and transportation management functions into its existing One Network Real Time Value Network (RTVN) decision-making supply chain suite.

“Our goal is to strengthen, develop, and manage secure, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable global supply chains to improve the lives of people in underdeveloped countries,” said Richard Owens, PFSCM Director. “By extending One Network’s Control Tower capabilities on our RTVN, we can provide real-time visibility, digital collaboration, and advanced analytics to move to true data-driven decision-making. Our collaboration with One Network is central to PFSCM’s digital transformation and provides us the foundation we need to drive the next wave of innovation within global supply chains for public health.”

In an interview with SCMR, Owens said that PFSCM first conducted an internal evaluation of its existing systems, plus a landscape analysis of what potential solutions existed before making the deal.

“The evaluation produced six scenarios, consisting of different combination of three systems,” he said. “The first recommendation was to go with One Network, which was accepted first by PFSCM’s management team, and then by PFSCM’s Board, who approved the project budget last September.

Read more at The Partnership for Supply Chain Management Implements One Network’s Control Tower Solution

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Related articles

Announcement

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Greetings All,

In response to industry needs in utilization of captured data and through visibility functions, we will start webinars on creating value by using capturing of selected array of data as BI. This is combined with risk and performance analysis to accommodate for optimality in Operational and Strategic optimality.

 

Stay tuned,

Dr. Javad Seyed

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