At a fundamental level, truck drivers are the backbone of the supply chain. Without them, life as we know it would come to a screeching halt. Let us consider five of the crucial roles of truck drivers in the supply chain:
As the general public transitions away from crowded public spaces, delivery has gone from being a convenience to a necessity. Over the last few weeks, we have worked with business leaders around the world, discussing how to best meet this growing demand, while ensuring driver and customer and delivery safety.
Several years ago my Granddaughter asked me to load FarmVille 2 – Country Escape on my iPad. She was playing it and she wanted me to be able to play it together with her. I eagerly obliged!
I don’t really play any other video games but Farmville caught my attention. First and foremost was my Granddaughter’s desire to do this with me. But I also found that the ability to grow your Farm by adding capabilities and features, by controlling the way in which you buy and sell things, and managing your inventory levels of all of the materials was both fun and interesting.
And then I realized it. In playing FarmVille I was really just managing a digital Supply Chain!
For companies trying to make a sale of their goods and services overseas, saving money on shipping expenses is a big thing. There are numerous ways that can assist a company in lessening the costs of freight shipping while increasing their profit and customer satisfaction at the same time.
If ever your shipping expenses are giving you a hard time to meet your target profit quota, you need to take note of some tips on how you can save money on freight shipping.
In shipping and logistics, building strong relationships with your freight or carrier company is often underestimated. Whether you have a small or big contract, a long-lasting freight partnership with a company you trust is critical, especially when your business’s logistics is on the line.
Moreover, finding a reputable freight company that ticks all the boxes of what you’re looking for can often be a considerable challenge.
The recent supply chain issues have wreaked havoc on e-commerce companies. Either they can’t get products at all or there is a massive delay in when they can get them, resulting in upset customers, frustrated business owners, and overworked freight companies.
To plan for Q4 inventory, you had to have your orders in place several months ago and now, it’s too late. Fortunately, there is a way for you to solve these supply chain issues, though, and it involves partnering with a 3PL fulfillment agent in China.
Here are the three ways a 3PL fulfillment agent in China can keep your e-commerce company competitive.
Dealing with delivery issues is part of life for eCommerce companies. You need to track your packages and work with the carrier and your customer when problems arise. However, since COVID-19 disrupted every aspect of supply chain management, including consumer deliveries, it’s even more crucial to direct every part of your fulfillment and delivery processes especially when they are “out for delivery”.
When a package is “out for delivery,” that could be a sign it will soon be delivered or your first notice that the delivery has run into trouble.
However, before we delve into delivery exceptions, let’s take a step back and review the order status notifications customers can get during the fulfillment and delivery process.
The ability to unlock freight mode optimization and gain meaningful insights to monitor, measure and improve supply chain management is more critical than ever.
And according to a recent survey of logistics professionals, reported by Supply Chain 24/7, “A combined 61% of research participants indicated that improving forecast accuracy is either ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ for their organizations. To improve accuracy, many are betting on new technologies like machine learning and demand sensing.”
Shippers, logistics service providers (LSPs), carriers and drivers need to know how optimization of freight is evolving in the wake of digital transformation, why it is more than simple freight mode analysis and its implications for maximizing supply chain performance.
Indirect procurement of goods and services can be one of the largest areas of expenditure in any company. And the operational impact that the provision of Indirect goods and services can have on a company can be significant, either positively or negatively.
Yet the lack of attention and focus that Indirect Procurement is often given is inconsistent with the true importance of this area. Indirect Procurement takes a back seat to Direct Procurement unfortunately.
Many businesses begin with single-channel distribution. That sole channel could be a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce website. In either case, all sales flow through one outlet.
The advantage of a single-channel distribution management system is simplicity. There’s only one channel to manage, one channel to stock, and one channel to market to customers. As a business expands, however, the single-channel model can limit growth.
Managing a fleet of trucks is not a simple job. It is essential for fleet owners to ensure that their vehicles are in excellent condition, the staff is well-behaved, and the delivery of services happens as expected using electronic logging devices.
If you are new to fleet management services, it is essential to learn about various helpful tools. In this article, the focus is on Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) and how they benefit fleet agencies to improve transportation management.
Emissions zones in cities are becoming more prominent across Europe, to try to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles and improve the health of members of the public living and working in those cities. In April last year, London introduced the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) for vehicle tracking in an effort to make a significant reduction to pollution.
While the area the ULEZ currently covers is comparatively small, the plan to expand the boundary significantly in October 2021 would see the zone cover the entire area encompassed by the North and South Circular Roads which run around London.
This increase in the ULEZ would cover the area currently covered by the LEZ (Low Emission Zone) and would become one of, if not, the largest emission charging zones on the planet.
Everywhere you turn there is talk of a lot of very exciting technologies requiring Supply Chain investment. The Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), Drones and Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Analytics are front and centre.
And all of these technologies have applicability for the Supply Chain in every business and in every industry around the world. The Digital Supply Chain vision is within our line of sight.
But most companies are still working with the same, manual, non-automated Supply Chains that they have had for at least the last decade. And they will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. They are faced with challenges which are going to impede technology investments to advance their Supply Chains going forward.
The forklift is one of the most essential and useful pieces of equipment across multiple sectors, so if you are considering the titular question, chances are that you need one.
To know if you and your company really need a forklift right now, simply answer the following questions.