Logistics

Hard Lessons in Disruption: What the West Coast Port Slowdown Really Taught Us

March 9, 2015

Suhas Sreedhar, Manager, Supply Chain & Technology Thought Leadership, GT Nexus

With a tentative agreement in place between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the 7-month-long West Coast port crisis has come to an end. What comes next is the final body count - what percentage of GDP shrank because of the slowdown? What was the impact on the trade deficit? Who got hit hardest, and just how hard? Then what? There may be a collective sigh of relief in the air, but can things really go back to normal? Should they?

Waking Up From the West Coast Port Nightmare: Where Do We Go From Here?

March 9, 2015

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

Assuming that the rank and file of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) ratifies the new five-year contract negotiated with terminal operators, West Coast ports can finally focus on getting container-handling operations back to normal. So is everyone happy?

Big Pharma, Big Vision

March 6, 2015

Challenge: Through acquisition and a strong development pipeline, this manufacturer grew into one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. As a result, its supply chain became complicated and unwieldy. Recognizing the opportunity to streamline its operations and capitalize on low margin products, company leadership prioritized a move to global standardization and shared services.

Moving Heavy Machinery in the Cloud

March 6, 2015

Challenge: With a supply chain spanning the farthest reaches of the globe, it wasn't uncommon for this heavy equipment manufacturer to lose sight of its shipments, resulting in frequent delivery delays and headaches for its dealers. Traditional point-to-point solutions were falling short in the supply chain.

Supply Chain Is the Critical Link for Omnichannel Retail

March 6, 2015

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: The retail cut of the 2014 SCM World CSCO Study reaffirms that for most companies omnichannel is a major retail supply chain disruptor and that, for a few, progress has been made. Fulfillment changes have been driven by a desire for greater speed and agility. Battle lines are drawn between online and bricks-and-mortar supply chains. As omnichannel leaders look to move from walk to run, retail’s best weapon is harnessing demand data to make smart trade-offs. – Matt Davis, SVP Research at SCM World

What's Next in Retail? From Early Adoption to Best Practice

March 6, 2015

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: The last two years have seen a rush to provide store fulfillment services - similar to the efforts to deploy e-commerce FCs back in 1998-2000. To date, store fulfillment initiatives have largely been tactical, technology-driven initiatives chartered to leverage existing applications-integration in order to support “save the sale" functionality as well as offload growing FC volumes to the retail store. The coming years will experience a "financial-efficiency" driven effort to maximize profit margin and optimize network inventory efficiency under the new age of constrained IT investment. – Kevin Hume, Principal, Tompkins International

Building an Omnichannel Fulfillment Road Map

March 6, 2015

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: Omnichannel commerce is the new "normal" for retail. And it's a tall order for most companies to achieve. You'll need an omnichannel road map that incorporates where you've come from and where you need to be based on your customers' expectations and your business strategy. – Joe Dunlap, Senior Director, Supply Chain Strategy, Fortna Inc.

Auto Suppliers in Financial Squeeze as Automakers Demand Deep Cost Cuts, Local Production

March 6, 2015

The Boston Consulting Group

Automotive suppliers are under mounting pressure to satisfy two conflicting customer demands: to cut costs and to open more factories in fast-growing emerging markets so that they can be closer to their customers' production plants. Striking the right balance between cost and proximity in global manufacturing networks will be one of the industry's greatest challenges, according to a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), conducted in partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. The report is titled The Proximity Paradox: Balancing Auto Suppliers' Manufacturing Networks.

Six Challenges for Supply Chains in Emerging Markets

March 6, 2015

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

What does it take to overcome the logistics challenges of serving customers in emerging markets?

Next-Generation Rail Fleet Management

March 5, 2015

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: The shale gas revolution has fueled a resurgence of domestic manufacturing, driving rail shipments up over 6 percent and a two-year backlog for new cars. Maximizing fleet utilization is now a key management issue for most shippers. While current rail management tools are effective at tracking rail cars, an important gap exists with accurately predicting the usage and location of the cars over the entire planning horizon. – Alfred Sherk, CEO, SherTrack LLC