Food & Beverage

Lack of Communication, Planning Stunts MRO/Indirect Material Management, Study Says

August 22, 2014

Lack of planning and tracking of inventory, poor communications among company divisions, and underutilized or non-existent technology are among the core elements holding back manufacturers, educational and medical institutions, life sciences companies, food processors, automotive makers and facility maintenance companies from achieving world-class MRO operations, according to a recent survey completed by Storeroom Solutions Inc.

Up in the Sky - It's a Cargo Airship!

August 22, 2014

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

It might seem like a throwback to the dirigibles of the 1930s, but a new type of airship is another animal entirely.

CPG Manufacturer Uses Simulation Scenarios to Find Savings

August 20, 2014

Challenge: A large consumer goods manufacturer performed a strategic network design project to identify considerable savings in transportation costs, warehouse costs and inventory costs by consolidating warehouses. However, the inventory savings assumed full consolidation of inventory at the new warehouses; this was not consistent with the management incentives that were used in the business. An alternative suggestion of separate stocks for each market wiped out a large chunk of savings.

Large Packaged Foods Manufacturer Eliminates Redundancy in Supply Chain

August 20, 2014

Challenge: One of North America's largest packaged foods producers acquired a major frozen food manufacturer. With fuel costs on the rise, the company needed to re-evaluate their inbound and outbound distribution strategies given the expanded network. Specifically, which DCs should service which customers and what was the optimal quantity and location for DCs and what the fuel cost "tipping point" would be where the optimal network would not be advantageous.

CPG Brand Reduces Overall Logistics Costs by 11% with LLamasoft

August 20, 2014

Challenge: A major CPG brand needed to consolidate their supply chain to reduce redundancies, such as an overlapping network and shared demand to decrease overall costs, while still delivering products to customers in a timely manner.

Wholesale Supplier Turns to TMS to Improve Operational Decision Making

August 20, 2014

Challenge: This client, a wholesale supplier of entertainment hard goods, flourished in the order fulfillment space despite an atypical distribution model. Various systems, shipping modes, and customer types brought about operational and accounting issues and the need for a powerful enterprise TMS.

Manufacturer Automates Logistics Operations to Find 20% Freight Savings

August 20, 2014

Challenge: This client, a premier manufacturer of nutritional supplements for athletes and active-lifestyle individuals, experienced rapid growth that necessitated an automated logistical operation. Manually managing an entire supply chain operation led to numerous inefficiencies and unnecessary costs.

TMS Helps Large Food Manufacturer Realize Major Operational Benefits

August 20, 2014

Challenge: This manufacturing client of various food products including cereal, experienced rapid growth in its store-brand foods. A series of acquisitions of independent manufacturing operations meant inefficiencies in supply chain management, particularly in product delivery.

Manufacturers Need a More Data-Driven Approach to Direct Materials Sourcing

August 19, 2014

Greg Anderson, President, Directworks

Few decisions have as much power to make or break a product's success and profitability as those around the sourcing of direct materials. The components, parts and assemblies that go into making products not only account for 70 percent of an average manufacturer's annual spend, they have a significant impact on such critical competitive factors as brand reputation, time to market and supply chain reliability.

An International Planning Case Study: Huhtamaki

August 19, 2014

SupplyChainBrain

Huhtamaki Inc., a producer of consumer-goods and food-service packaging, was looking to expand its international activities. Scott Stuckenschneider, vice president of North American supply chain, is joined by Sheila Hewitt, vice president international with Transplace, to discuss how the company formalized its global logistics program.

Food & Beverage

The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the food and beverage industries. Learn how food and beverage companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.