Tag Archives: operations

Fintech for Supply Chain Finance: Streamlining Payments and Working Capital Management

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How fintechs are revolutionizing the supply chain finance landscape.

How fintechs are revolutionizing the supply chain finance landscape.

The supply chain is the global economy’s backbone. It includes all of the activities involved in delivering goods or services from the manufacturer to the end user. Efficient supply chain financing is crucial for firms to maintain smooth operations.

However, supply chain financing can be complicated and costly due to the numerous players involved. This is where fintech enters the picture. This article will look at how fintech is helping to streamline payments and working capital management in supply chain finance.

What Exactly Is Supply Chain Finance?

Supply chain finance refers to a group of financial solutions aimed at optimizing the movement of cash along the supply chain. It consists of a variety of activities, such as invoice factoring, purchase order financing, and inventory finance. These solutions assist organizations in better managing their cash flow by giving access to working capital as needed.

However, supply chain finance can be complicated and costly. The typical technique comprises many middlemen, such as banks, insurance, and factoring firms, each with its own set of fees. This might lead to a lengthy and costly procedure with little transparency or flexibility.

How Fintech Is Helping to Simplify Supply Chain Finance

Fintech is changing the way supply chain finance is done. Fintech companies are streamlining payments and working capital management by embracing digital technology, making it easier and more cost-effective for businesses to manage their supply chains.

Fintech’s Advantages in Supply Chain Finance

There are numerous advantages to employing fintech for supply chain finance. Increased efficiency is one of the primary advantages. Automation and digital technology are being used by fintech companies to streamline the supply chain financing process, decreasing the time and cost associated. This allows organizations to concentrate on their core operations while improving overall efficiency.

Fintech Risks in Supply Chain Finance

While fintech has numerous advantages for supply chain financing, it also has some drawbacks. Cybersecurity is one of the most serious threats. Fintech firms keep sensitive financial data, rendering them vulnerable to hackers. Businesses should choose a trustworthy fintech supplier with strong security procedures in place to safeguard their data.

How Fintech is Revolutionizing Supply Chain Finance with Artificial Intelligence

Supply chain finance has become an essential tool for businesses looking to optimize their cash flow and improve their working capital management. By leveraging the power of technology, fintech companies are now incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into supply chain finance, revolutionizing how businesses manage their supply chains and providing unprecedented efficiency and transparency.

Read more at Fintech for Supply Chain Finance: Streamlining Payments and Working Capital Management

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5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

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5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

Harmonizing supply chain management analytics will put organizations on a path to automating their operations.

The evolution of infotech increased customer expectations, economic behavior, and other competitive priorities have caused firms to modify themselves in the current business landscape. Supply chains globally are becoming more complex, thanks to globalization and the consistently changing dynamics of demand and supply. As per a forecast by Gartner, the global supply chain management market was valued at USD 15.85 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach almost USD 31 billion by 2026.

Businesses are channeling the power of big data analytics to disrupt transformations at all levels of supply chain management. Data started as a fundamental component of digital transformation and is now a revolutionary concept. It is the key to achieving breakthroughs in supply chain management systems, and more organizations are integrating data analytics to mine data for proactive insights and accelerate intelligent decision-making.

Big data implementation in supply chain management addresses several issues, from strategic to operational to tactical. It includes everything from building efficient communication between suppliers and manufacturers to boosting delivery times. Decision-makers can utilize analytics reports to increase operational efficiency and boost productivity by closely monitoring the system’s performance at each level.

What is Big Supply Chain Analytics, and How Does it Work?

Integrating big data analytics with the supply chain makes big supply chain analytics enable business executives to compute better growth decisions for all possible maneuvers by combining data and quantitative methodologies. Notably, it adds two features.

First, it broadens the dataset for analysis beyond internal data stored in existing SCM and ERP systems. Second, it uses advanced statistical techniques to analyze the new and existing data. This generates new insights that help make better decisions for improving front-line operations and strategic decisions like implementing the best supply chain models.

Here are five ways big data and analytics are disrupting supply chain management:

1) Improved demand forecasting

Demand forecasting is one of the crucial steps in building a successful supply chain strategy. With data science and analytics in play, businesses experience automated demand forecasting. This assists them in quickly responding to fluctuations in the market and streamlining the optimal stock levels every time.

2) Enhanced production efficiency

Data science and analytics play a significant role in gauging organizational performance. Accurate application of big data analytics can help organizations track, analyze, and share employee performance metrics in real time. You can identify excellent employees who are struggling to maintain a consistent performance. This could be quickly done with IoT-enabled work badges, which exchange information with sensors installed in production line units.

3) Better sourcing and supplier management

Supply chain management systems have empowered organizations to collate data on multiple suppliers. Using data science solutions, you can leverage this data to gain insights into the historical record of any supplier. With this, you can gauge based on crucial metrics such as compliance, location, reviews, feedback, services, etc.

4) Better warehouse management

Warehouses are acquiring modern technology and have started installing sensors to collect data on the inventory flow. This helps you build an extensive database containing information based on the weight and dimensions of the packages. With sensors installed in your warehouse, you can identify bottlenecks that obstruct the flow and can be easily resolved at the earliest with the big data-fueled systems.

5) Improved distribution and logistics

Order fulfillment and traceability are essential for business productivity and customer satisfaction. Logistics have traditionally been cost-focused and effectively look for ways that provide them competitive advantages. Data science solutions enable logistic providers to leverage data analytics to improve their operations. For instance, they use fuel consumption analytics to improve driving efficiency. With GPS technology, they can track real-time routing of deliveries and reduce long waiting times by allocating nearby warehouses.

Read more at 5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

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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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The USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management stages “Covid-19: What’s Next?”

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The USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management stages “Covid-19: What’s Next?” live webinar on Wednesday, April 8, with the intention of bringing a new perspective to the crisis.

Webinar series part 2 features Jonathan Rosenthal, CEO of Saybrook Management, along with Chris Cookson, EY’s leader of U.S. West Supply Chain Operations.

The first session of “Connecting the World Through Networking Education and Advanced Research (NEAR) convened on March 4th, one of the most compelling presentations was made by Noel Hacegaba, deputy executive director of administration & operations at the Port of Long Beach.

He noted at the time that blank sailings in the transpacific with 20 percent of scheduled carrier calls curtailed, was having a negative impact across the supply chain.

“This led to concern that with a higher concentration of ship calls coming as a consequence, would lead to a mini-peak season every time,” he said.

Hacegaba, added that Long Beach was anticipating “a boomerang effect” – a surge of cargo that would create new challenges for the port’s supply chain partners.

That has yet to be realized, however, as the port continued to feel the economic effects of COVID-19 in March with more canceled sailings and a decline in cargo containers shipped through the nation’s second-busiest seaport.

Terminal operators and dockworkers moved 517,663 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, a 6.4% decline compared to March 2019. Imports were down 5% to 234,570 TEUs, while exports increased 10.7% to 145,442 TEUs. Empty containers shipped overseas dropped 21% to 137,652 TEUs.

Overseas health concerns over the coronavirus caused 19 canceled sailings to the Port of Long Beach during the opening quarter of 2020, which contributed to a 6.9% decline in cargo shipments compared to the first three months of 2019.

“The coronavirus is delivering a shock to the supply chain that continues to ripple across the national economy,” said Mario Cordero, Executive Director of the Port of Long Beach. “We’re definitely seeing a reduction in the flow of cargo at San Pedro Bay, but the ports remain open and operating, and we are maintaining business continuity.”

The frequency and intensity of cleaning efforts have been increased on the docks, at port offices and other common areas, in order to maintain the health and safety of dockworkers, truckers, terminal operators and others.

Read more at The USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management stages “Covid-19: What’s Next?”

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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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Turkcell’s supply chain management transformation is driven by technology and communication

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Ali Türk, Executive Vice President of Supply Chain Management at Turkcell, discusses how Turkey’s largest mobile operator is driving efficiency with customers at the forefront

Turkcell, the largest mobile operator in Turkey, has undergone a significant shift in its procurement and supply chain operations driven by a radical ideological change to the business itself. “Turkcell is a unique company, a digital operator,” says Ali Türk, Executive Vice President of Supply Chain Management at the firm. “We are dealing not only with the mobile part, but also the commerce part: it’s one entity.” With a focus on establishing a high quality internal infrastructure, technology and network infrastructure, and meaningful, functional digital services, Turkcell has undergone a structural change that highlights the importance of procurement to its wider strategy. As part of supply chain management’s realignment as a strategic function, Turkcell established a dedicated procurement committee to drive positive change. Meeting every week alongside the CEO, Murat Erkan, the committee makes key decisions on the company’s biggest purchases. While these make up 3% of the firm’s purchases at large, their combined volume equates to 80% of the total made by Turkcell. “All of the company’s top executives are fully involved in these processes, and they acknowledge and evaluate all of the aspects of procurement investments and strategy.” Not only that, but a unification of operations between teams has been achieved through the adoption of agile management methodologies, enabling a consistent thread for supply chain management strategy to follow throughout the organisation.

These structural adaptations are bolstered by the application of disruptive technologies, driving efficiency and transparency at Turkcell. However, Türk stresses that digital transformation is, to Turkcell, a tool rather than a goal. “Digital transformation is a must to survive in our era,” he says. “It enables us to focus on optimising costs in a sustainable structure, to increase revenues, and to increase the level of quality we offer our customers.” A particular area of interest for Türk is robotic process automation (RPA) and the benefits it could have for internal teams. He adds that the application of this technology will be based on what those teams themselves view as the areas that would benefit most from automation, and the freeing up of staff from repetitive tasks that it would enable. “We have procurement departments, logistics departments, real estate, construction and site acquisition departments, and they are each highlighting their requirements,” he says. Once those needs are defined, they each collaborate with Turkcell’s ICT department to drive the gradual rollout of RPA through specific digitalisation departments. “For example, supply registration, fee operation, calculation of monthly payments, operation of the tender process, opening site acquisition and scrap sales orders; they’re all operational issues and ritual issues,” says Türk. “Right now, we are developing some use cases and we will forward those tasks to RPA.”

Read more at Turkcell’s supply chain management transformation is driven by technology and communication

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Why You Don’t Need Perfect Data to Begin Implementing Sales & Operations Planning

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Royal Boon Edam a global market leader in entry solutions, was looking to shift towards a combined business model of “made to stock” and “assembly to order” – where modules which could be placed into a configuration requested by the customer would be ready for production, this meant the company needed a different logistics approach to fulfilling these orders.

An interview with Boon Edam’s Aron Waas

Implementing Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has many benefits.

To truly leverage it to improve business performance and predictability, you need to embark on a change management process and you need the right technology to self-enable your team.

Often, teams think they also need plenty of clean and accurate data to do it right.

But starting small can pay off. We spoke with Aron Waas, Global Supply Chain Director at Royal Boon Edam International to hear about his company’s experience.

Hello Aron, can you tell me more about Boon Edam and your role as Global Supply Chain Director?

Boon Edam is a private, family-owned company that is over 140 years old. We are a manufacturer of premium entry systems, such as revolving doors and security access gates.

We have 3 factories, one in the USA, one in China and one in the Netherlands (in the city of Edam). We have over 20 sales subsidiaries and, at this stage, 3 different Distribution & Support Centers.

These centers (or D&SCs) support our sales subsidiaries with all their inquiries, service requests and the delivery of products and services.

I am part of the global management team, responsible for everything that has to do with supply chain management. The directors of our D&SCs report directly to me.

You are currently using AIMMS to enable your S&OP process. What was the driver to look for S&OP technology and how did you do things before?

We have worldwide demand for all kinds of products and services and as I mentioned before, we have 3 different factories. We were trying to optimize the workload between these factories to have our manufacturing be as efficient as possible.

We had a financial reporting tool and based on the financial forecasting of our different sales subsidiaries, we made a forecast for products and services which was translated into a monthly demand plan and a capacity plan. This process was based on a lot of assumptions.

Read more at Why You Don’t Need Perfect Data to Begin Implementing Sales & Operations Planning

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How LLamasoft Is Designing Success For Customers’ Supply Chains

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Ann Arbor, Michigan-based supply chain design software business LLamasoft is considered one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America. The company was founded by Don Hicks and Toby Brzoznowski in the late 1990s, and offers a number of innovative solutions that help some of the world’s best-known brands make smarter, faster decisions about their supply chain operations.

Its flagship software, Supply Chain Guru, is used for optimizing and simulating supply chain network operations and modeling potential changes based on performance, costs and risks. Last year, LLamasoft released Supply Chain Guru X, the newest generation of its software, which enables companies to build living models of their end-to-end supply chains. Customers can easily visualize inefficiencies, optimize for significant improvements in cost, service and risk, and test hundreds of potential scenarios for continuous supply chain improvement and innovation. Also released was Demand Guru, a new solution that empowers companies to improve their supply chain design and strategic business initiatives by incorporating powerful causative demand modeling.

In 2012, LLamasoft raised $6 million in funding, led by MK Capital. Nike also became a strategic investment partner that year, taking a minority share in October. Jumping forward to 2015, LLamasoft had a big year – acquiring IBM’s LogicTools supply chain applications business, raising $50 million in Series B funding from Goldman Sachs to fund expansion and R&D, and acquiring South Africa-based Barloworld.

Several months ago, TPG Capital, the investment group behind companies like Uber, McAfee and Airbnb, invested over $200 million in LLamasoft after seeing great promise in the company and fully understanding the value its technology delivers to customers.

Today, LLamasoft counts among its 700 customers companies such as Michael Kors, Land O’ Lakes, Johnson & Johnson, and Wayfair. The company estimates that it signs 30 to 40 new clients per quarter. When I asked Brzoznowski if he could share some of LLamasoft’s customer success stories, he pointed out a few recent examples of customer use cases including Michael Kors, U.S. Silica, Hewlett-Packard and Johnson & Johnson.

Read more at How LLamasoft Is Designing Success For Customers’ Supply Chains

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How Does Your Supply Chain Resilience Rank?

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Hurricanes, earthquakes, terror and political upheaval all took a toll.

In addition, three emerging drivers of resilience have come to the forefront in recent years that are now included in the 2017 FM Global Resilience Index: the rate of urbanization, inherent cyber risk and supply chain visibility.

Resilience against events that could disrupt operations is a top priority for business executives seeking to minimize risk and maximize performance across their operations.

The ability of businesses to overcome disruptions throughout the world can make all the difference.

The FM Global Resilience Index is an annual ranking of 130 countries and territories according to their enterprise resilience to disruptive events.

Rankings are calculated as an equally weighted composite of 12 core drivers that affect the enterprise resilience of countries significantly and directly.

The historical data in this year’s index has been updated and calculated on this new basis for each of the last five years to enable valid historic comparison.

Here are the key results.

Switzerland occupies the top position in the 2017 FM Global Resilience Index. This reflects the fact that Switzerland is among the best in the world for its infrastructure and local suppliers, its political stability, control of corruption and economic productivity.

Luxembourg has risen gradually from eighth in 2013 to second in 2017, owing partly to its reduced reliance on oil for economic productivity. This reflects the continued growth in the importance of its services sector. Luxembourg enjoys a strong reputation for its financial sector, its network of service providers and its responsive, business-friendly regulations.

The country is well-placed to benefit from financial institutions that may be seeking a new home, post-Brexit, following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.

Read more at How Does Your Supply Chain Resilience Rank?

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Hurricane Harvey Causing Concern for Ground Freight Operations

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While it is no surprise that a hurricane can cause hazardous weather conditions for the trucking industry, it is always important to be vigilant, check reliable sources of weather information, and heed the postings of local, state, and federal emergency management.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind if your shipping schedule takes you into or near the impacted areas of Hurricane Harvey:

Hurricane is much more than a storm that impacts the landfall location.

The media pays great attention to the point of landfall; however, serious impacts of Harvey will be felt more than 200 miles from the eye of the storm.

The most notable impacts to be aware and cautious of are:

High winds and wind gusts

At the time of this writing, Harvey is expected to be packing sustained winds of 115 mph, with gusts up to 140 mph when it makes landfall.

Flooding

Even as this hurricane is downgraded to a tropical storm or even a tropical depression, the amount of rainfall expected as the storm lingers along the coastline is staggering.

Severe weather

Severe thunderstorm outbreaks often occur in the outer bands of a storm.

The best advice for all is to simply avoid the broadly impacted area of this storm leading up to and for the days following landfall. If you are unable to avoid the area, obey postings, road closures, and recommendations from emergency management officials in the area.

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