Understanding last mile logistics is only half the battle. Shippers need to reevaluate their existing last mile logistics processes and devise an effective last mile delivery logistics strategy that aligns consumer and business expectation.
This is the only way shippers can safeguard their position in the market and continue to provide products to their consumers. In fact, an effective last mile logistics strategy must consider these nine key points.
The Supply Chain touches all of our lives whether it be in business or personally. No matter what industry you are in or are touched by, all involve the movement of goods, services, and information. So the most efficient functioning of the Supply Chain affects us all. And it affects us in every aspect of our lives whether we are consumers, employees, or business leaders.
With a career spent in Supply Chain I’ve seen many ways of performing the processes involved in managing the Supply Chain. Many of these processes are highly efficient. Yet many more are highly inefficient. Regardless, everyone strives to improve the way things are done. And every experience has been an opportunity for growth.
In this blog I’d like to share my experiences, and those of others, in improving, working in, managing in and being managed by the Supply Chain.
There have been some remarkable achievements and there have been some missteps along the way. However there are lessons to be learned and experiences to be shared in every case. And I hope that this learning and shared experience will be of value as you seek to improve the Supply Chain you are a part of.
On top of that we want to share anything and everything related to Leadership, Change Management, Technology, Procurement, Purchasing, Distribution, Logistics, and much, much more.
Overall Supply Chain Game Changer can serve you as a guide as you do your jobs and as you progress through your career. The issues and challenges that you face will be different for everyone on any given day. There is something for everyone in Supply Chain Game Changer.
Additionally I invite you to comment and send me content. By learning, not only from successes but from failures, we will all be better going forward. There is a wonderful world of people and experiences that we can all learn from.
So again I welcome you to the Supply Chain Game Changer™ blog.
The growing size of today’s consumer market sets the stage for entrepreneurs and companies of varying capacities to take part. The US consumer market alone was at $1.5 trillion in 2016. And this number is continuously increasing, including omnichannel customer service.
According to an article from AdAge, US Gen Y or millennials are also swiftly increasing their slice of the pie, spending more than $200 billion annually.
Now that the record-breaking Black Friday is behind us, retailers small and large must place their focus over the coming weeks on preparing for the Christmas retail holiday shopping season.
According to a report by Gartner L2, nearly 85%of holiday sales in 2017 took place in brick-and-mortar stores. It’s therefore hugely important for retailers to make the most of this time to get everything ready to maximise sales over the holiday period.
If you’re unsure where to start, we recommend taking a look at this helpful infographic from the team at Colourfast Printing which offers a handy Christmas retail checklist.
Retailers have been anticipating and preparing for this over the last year. It has become the biggest online shopping period of the entire year with expectations for exponential growth over last year.
Further this period is so dramatically busier than at any other time of the year that it has an absolutely enormous impact on the Supply Chain of these companies.
In fact the readiness of the Supply Chain can make or break the success of Black Friday for most any company.
Shippers face many challenges in successfully delivering products to end-users, and last mile logistics will be a core focus of change in the coming months. Consumer demands and expectations are rising, and up to 25 percent of consumers are willing to pay extra for same-day delivery.
Also, same-day delivery will reach a 25-percent market share by 2025. By 2018 alone, same-day delivery and last mile logistics will be valued at more than $1.35 billion.
E-commerce is the driving force behind the sudden uptick in last mile logistics, and as explained by Logistics Management, e-commerce is expected to grow to $2.4 trillion by 2018 as well.
To gain a competitive advantage in last mile logistics, shippers need to understand the top seven trends in last mile logistics.
Only a few decades ago online business was severely limited in its scope. Home internet access only began to become widespread during the mid-1990s and the idea of buying goods online was still seen as a novelty.
Key players in e-commerce, such as Amazon, had a much smaller range of goods for sale (Amazon initially formed as an online bookshop before subsequently diversifying) and served a much smaller customer base.
Today, online business is a vital part of all economies. Customers are fully prepared to shop online, and the widespread adoption of smartphones has enabled consumers to buy a wide range of goods and services regardless of their location or the time of day.
In this article, some of the more recent trends in online business and e-commerce will be explored in detail.
We had to begin the transformation of the company’s business processes to support the new business objectives. This would mean value stream mapping the current state process. Specifically the company was going to carry a dramatically different set of products which required a new set of capabilities in Strategic Planning, Merchandising, Marketing, Procurement, Inventory Management, Retail Operations and Logistics.
That scope defined the set of processes we needed to change first. The overall goal was to enable the transformation of the company which would manifest itself in higher revenue, improved growth and profitability, greater customer satisfaction and superior employee engagement.
We decided to attack this by introducing the Lean technique of Value Stream Mapping to the organization. We had to start with mapping the Current State process.
The backbone of Retail and ECommerce is Supply Chain. Without Supply Chain they cease to function. Goods don’t move to channels and customers have nothing to buy. It is that simple!
Not only is Supply Chain necessary to make Retail and ECommerce run, but Supply Chain is now a source of customer delightedness and competitive differentiation. Just think of same day delivery … that capability is entirely possible due to Supply Chain.
As such Supply Chain is not just a necessary function but a strategic weapon. Here are our thoughts on future ECommerce focus areas and considerations for the effective management of Supply Chain.
“The receiving docks are backed up. We have trucks in the parking lot waiting to unload their goods. There are even more containers on their way. And we have no empty space left in the warehouse racking.”
That was the actual conversation I had with the head of the Distribution Centre (DC). We had a big problem on our hands to say the least.
The latest advancements in technology have had huge impacts on the world we live in, almost overnight transforming industries such as taxi services, food and grocery delivery, and music. Sometimes this change happens so fast it’s hard to even comprehend the growing expectations and what’s happening for businesses and consumers alike.
Although many of these growing expectations have been positive, creating a more efficient and faster-moving world (can you imagine a world without Uber?), there are many that reach too far, not taking into account the realities of the industry they are frantic to establish themselves in.
Fulfillment by Amazon or Amazon FBA lets sellers in the Amazon marketplace take advantage of Amazon’s giant logistics operation to ship their orders.
FBA items are eligible for Amazon Prime shipping and Amazon handles your angry customers (which Amazon considers its customers, not yours). Amazon has dozens of warehouses all over the country, and more around the world, so your products may be in your customers’ hands quickly.
If you pull back the Amazon curtain, however, you find the picture isn’t always rosy.
“The system is down. We can’t ship any customer orders. We’re not sure when the system will be back up again.” Oh no … Customers do not care about this stuff.
Coming into the Holidays, the busiest time of the year, that is the last thing that I wanted to hear.
I thought about it and said, “The Customer doesn’t care.“
From that point forward we pulled together the necessary resources and visibility to get the problem solved quickly. But the message was clear: The Customer doesn’t care about our internal problems.
“We just spent several millions of dollars on a new Warehouse Management System for our E-Commerce Online Distribution Centre. We do not need to spend any more money on our Supply Chain.” That sounded very intriguing to say the least. At a minimize we needed to optimize storage.
The E-Commerce business anticipated 20-30% year to year growth. I could only interpret, having just joined the company, that all of the steps and planning needed had been taken. We had to ensure that the Distribution Centre could handle Holiday volumes, especially over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period.
However imagine my surprise when I went to the Online Distribution Centre. All I saw was a very large warehouse with nothing but racks and shelving as far as the eye could see. Employees were pushing carts up and down aisles, across the entire warehouse. They were trying to find each of the products required to fill a particular customer order. The company had just invested in an expensive Warehouse Management System.
Yet no time or money had been spent on process optimization, order fulfillment cycle time reduction, cost reduction, or peak capacity load management.
While offering access to global markets, eCommerce has also created a new set of challenges for businesses, particularly when it comes to supply chain management. Consumers expect fast and personalized delivery options, and a well-designed supply chain network can help them meet these expectations and enhance the overall customer experience.
Let’s explore the changing eCommerce landscape, the challenges faced by businesses, and how they can be addressed through intelligent eCommerce supply chain excellence.
