Category Archives: Supply Chain Management

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.

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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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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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DHL Supply Chain introduces first digital twin of warehouse in Asia for Tetra Pak

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The market leader in contract logistics, DHL Supply Chain, is introducing its first digital twin of a warehouse in the Asia-Pacific region for Tetra Pak with one goal in mind: optimised, agile and cost-efficient supply chains.

The warehouse is one of the biggest Tetra Pak warehouses worldwide and remains the first smart warehouse for DHL in the Asia-Pacific region that exists as a digital twin.

Having launched an integrated supply chain for Tetra Pak in Singapore, the digital twin is supplied with real-time data on a consistent basis from the physical warehouse in Singapore and makes changes consistently in real-time.

“The joint implementation of such a digital solution to improve Tetra Pak’s warehousing and transport activities is an excellent example of the smart warehouses of the future,” said Jerome Gillet, CEO, DHL Supply Chain Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines. “This enables agile, cost-effective and scalable supply chain operations.”

DHL Supply Chain is focusing on technologies and processes such as physical objects like industrial trucks kitted out with IoT technology. The DHL Control Tower tracks incoming and outgoing goods to ensure all goods are stored in the correct way within 30 minutes of receipt.

Tetra Pak has developed a smart storage solution that tracks and simulates the physical condition and individual stock levels in real-time, allows smooth non-stop coordination of operations, makes faults visible as well as improves safety and productivity in the warehouse.

DHL Supply Chain Singapore has in-depth expertise in the region in achieving individual customer needs, the firm provides Third-Party Logistics (3PL) solutions in which customers can outsource their logistics management and operations.

“We expect the partnership with DHL Supply Chain to further increase our productivity and maintain high standards in our supply chains,” commented Devraj Kumar, Director, Integrated Logistics, South Asia, East Asia & Oceania, Tetra Pak.

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Is Virgin Hyperloop One going to change the supply chain game?

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Here is a breakdown of the potentially industry disrupting impact points that the integration of hyperloops into global supply chain could have.

Speed

So, let’s say we get a hyperloop built in the kingdom that runs from the port city and modern commercial hub of Jeddah in the West, to the city of Dammam in the East. The 844 mile journey takes over 12 hours by road. With its projected top speed of 760mph, Virgin Hyperloop One’s train could cut that travel time to just over an hour.

In June, Port Technology magazine interviewed Ryan Kelly, Virgin Hyperloop One’s Head of Marketing raised concerns about the current global supply chain’s ability to measure up to the logistical demands of the coming years. “We are not poised to meet the demand of the coming decades. Today, on-demand deliveries are novel. Tomorrow, they will be the expectation. E-commerce, set to grow to $4 trillion globally by 2020, is driving a dramatic shift in both consumer and business behavior. The market for express and parcel freight is set to grow to $516 Billion by 2025– this expanding market is currently limited by airline/airport capacity challenges.”

Kelly believes that, by being able to deliver goods across long distances, at the speed of air freight and near the cost of conventional trucking, hyperloop technology “can serve as an integrated logistics backbone, supporting the fast, sustainable and efficient delivery of palletized cargo. Deliveries can be completed in hours versus days with unprecedented reliability.”

Sustainability

The ability for this new mode of transportation to support high-speed, high-reliability logistical solutions across vast distances is obviously a game changer for supply chains currently bogged down by air, sea and land traffic congestion. Virgin Hyperloop One’s cargo subsidiary, DP World Cargospeed, will reportedly be a carbon emissions neutral, electrically powered alternative to current freight strategies, given that, according to a UK government survey, “heavy goods vehicles are currently estimated to account for around 17%1 of UK GHG emissions from road transport and around 21%2 of road transport NOx emissions, while making up just 5% of vehicle miles.”

The ability for hyperloops to transport freight that otherwise would make its way via truck, cargo ship, cargo plane (by far the most environmentally harmful form of transportation) and traditional rail freight alternatives is a strong argument for its adoption.

According to Kelly, Virgin Hyperloop One is currently setting its sights on eroding the market share of supply chains currently taken up by air freight. “We’re focused high-priority, on-demand goods — fresh food, medical supplies, electronics — the same goods often delivered via air. Hyperloop doesn’t make sense for carrying things like coal and other bulk goods which can be on the back of a truck/train for weeks with little impact,” he explains. “Air cargo currently accounts for less than 1% of world trade tonnage, yet 35% of world trade value is carried by air. This is an expanding market that is currently limited by capacity challenges.”

Read more at Is Virgin Hyperloop One going to change the supply chain game?

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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.”

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How To Improve Supply Chains With Machine Learning: 10 Proven Ways

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Bottom line: Enterprises are attaining double-digit improvements in forecast error rates, demand planning productivity, cost reductions and on-time shipments using machine learning today, revolutionizing supply chain management in the process.

Machine learning algorithms and the models they’re based on excel at finding anomalies, patterns and predictive insights in large data sets. Many supply chain challenges are time, cost and resource constraint-based, making machine learning an ideal technology to solve them. From Amazon’s Kiva robotics relying on machine learning to improve accuracy, speed and scale to DHL relying on AI and machine learning to power their Predictive Network Management system that analyzes 58 different parameters of internal data to identify the top factors influencing shipment delays, machine learning is defining the next generation of supply chain management. Gartner predicts that by 2020, 95% of Supply Chain Planning (SCP) vendors will be relying on supervised and unsupervised machine learning in their solutions. Gartner is also predicting by 2023 intelligent algorithms, and AI techniques will be an embedded or augmented component across 25% of all supply chain technology solutions.

The ten ways that machine learning is revolutionizing supply chain management include:

  1. Machine learning-based algorithms are the foundation of the next generation of logistics technologies, with the most significant gains being made with advanced resource scheduling systems.
  2. The wide variation in data sets generated from the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, telematics, intelligent transport systems, and traffic data have the potential to deliver the most value to improving supply chains by using machine learning.
  3. Machine learning shows the potential to reduce logistics costs by finding patterns in track-and-trace data captured using IoT-enabled sensors, contributing to $6M in annual savings.
  4. Reducing forecast errors up to 50% is achievable using machine learning-based techniques.
  5. DHL Research is finding that machine learning enables logistics and supply chain operations to optimize capacity utilization, improve customer experience, reduce risk, and create new business models.
  6. Detecting and acting on inconsistent supplier quality levels and deliveries using machine learning-based applications is an area manufacturers are investing in today.
  7. Reducing risk and the potential for fraud, while improving the product and process quality based on insights gained from machine learning is forcing inspection’s inflection point across supply chains today.
  8. Machine learning is making rapid gains in end-to-end supply chain visibility possible, providing predictive and prescriptive insights that are helping companies react faster than before.
  9. Machine learning is proving to be foundational for thwarting privileged credential abuse which is the leading cause of security breaches across global supply chains.
  10. Capitalizing on machine learning to predict preventative maintenance for freight and logistics machinery based on IoT data is improving asset utilization and reducing operating costs.

Read more at How To Improve Supply Chains With Machine Learning: 10 Proven Ways

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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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Supply Chain Planning Systems Become Increasingly Intelligent

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Machine learning is hot. Solution providers in supply chain planning (SCP) tell me customers want to know how these technologies will be used in future SCP solutions. But machine learning is just one form of intelligence that can be embedded in SCP applications. The growing intelligence of these solutions ranges from better integration frameworks all the way up to fully automated planning.

Better Integration Frameworks

Integration frameworks allow data from multiple sources and networks to be pulled into planning solutions much more easily. Logility’s Karin Bursa, an executive vice president, points out that “many companies have multiple ERP systems.” She sees faster integration with better certainty and master data management, as a key differentiator for Logility. The master data logic understands the range of data that is appropriate for a particular field and can track and highlight when inappropriate data gets entered. Logility’s solution also uses net change logic. In other words, their system only looks at data elements that have been updated or changed. This makes same day or inter-day data updates more efficient.

Robust Role-based Views

This is not a new area of investment; it has been going on for several years. Many suppliers have invested in easier to use interfaces, particularly excel style interfaces. These interfaces have workflows that allow planners to tackle the most important planning problems in order of importance. Demand planners may want to view forecasts in units by week at ship to locations. Financial planners may want to see monthly views of revenues by business unit. Many suppliers offer integrated business planning (IBP) modules, sometimes called supply chain control towers or cockpits, that allow for a variety of views by the wide variety of actors in a corporation involved in balancing supply with demand in ways that maximize the company’s strategic objectives. Those objectives might differ by product or customer and can include things like profit maximization, achieving revenue targets, gaining market share, and other things as well.

Bigger, Better Solves

There are always new problems to solve. Omnichannel is the best current example of that. Manhattan Associate’s Scott Fenwick, director of product strategy, points out that when a new flow is supported, like order online but pick-up-in store, inventory allocation decisions need to change. But picking up that shift in the demand signal can be difficult. They are using machine learning to help solve this true demand problem.

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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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