Tag: Logistics

Logistics is the aspect of business involved with the movement of goods and resources throughout the Supply Chain.

On Time Delivery – Get that right First!

What Gets Measured Is What Gets Done!

No matter what industry you are in and no matter what channels you are serving your Customers expect delivery of their goods on time.

You may have different pressures, to increase profits for instance, but you must take care of the basic expectation of on time delivery first.

If you don’t have on time delivery all your other pressures will not matter.   Your customers will go elsewhere and your business will fail.  Even if you have a unique product that no one else in the world has (for now) you must deliver on time to your customers.  If not there will always come a time when your customers will be able to go elsewhere.

Providing on time delivery may seem basic.  But it is the foundation on which the rest of your business must be built.

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Do You Have Hidden Freight Costs?

Do you have a Freight Management Strategy or are you Spinning your Wheels?

Having come from a company wherein we were selling Freight management services I was curious about Freight spend at this new company.  But I could find no one answer to my question.

“How much were we spending on Freight?”

The fact that no one knew the answer raised the first alarm bell.  The answers that I got raised a whole slew of other alarm bells.

This was going to be an area that was full of opportunity!

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Lessons from the Edge of the Abyss! Surviving a System Implementation!

10 Supply Chain Investment Challenges – Real and Imagined!
SC Viral The Pandemic Diaries
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The company I had just joined was nearing the finish line on the implementation of a new WMS system.  They had been working on the system change for a few years.  Now implementation was only a few months away.  There were going to be lessons from the edge of this experience.

As the implementation date drew closer one of the key Warehouse management leaders, heading the project from the beginning, left the company.  We forged ahead and implemented the system on April 1st.  That’s right, April 1st!

And that’s when the “fun” began!

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Last Mile Delivery: Stop Shipping Air and Empty Boxes!

Raising the Bar! The Omni-channel Approach to Customer Experience!

When you order something Online there is great excitement in anticipation of opening your package when it arrives.  With any luck the company you have ordered from has provided a positive experience in the online ordering and payment process.  Now you are just waiting for the package to arrive.  You certainly don’t want them to stop shipping.

Most recently we ordered a couple of items online.  They were relatively small items and could easily fit in the palm of your hand.  Within a couple of days a large box arrived at the front door.   I wasn’t quite sure what it was because the box was rather big, big enough for a toaster or perhaps a couple of large board games.

I was surprised when we opened the big box, removed a bunch of crumpled paper and packaging material, and found the 2 small items we had ordered sitting on the bottom of this box.  The items could have fit inside a standard envelope.  Instead they were deliberately packaged in a box which could have held 200-300 of the items.  Why don’t they stop shipping air?

What a waste!

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Why don’t you have a TMS (Transportation Management System) Solution yet?

Supply Chain as a Service (SCaaS)!

Why have so few companies adopted a TMS (Transportation Management System) solution?  There are tremendous benefits but there are obstacles, real or perceived, that get in the way. I believe that the benefits far outweigh the obstacles but the obstacles often do not have anything to do with the benefits.

Many years ago I started a Supply Chain Services business as a new service within the company. The fundamental premise was that we had great Supply Chain expertise, tools, systems and processes which we could easily offer to customers.

One of the services that was very compelling was our Freight Management service. We had a tremendous amount of spend leverage globally, a seasoned team, great supplier relationships, very strong processes, and an excellent Transportation Management System (TMS). With all of that we went to market!

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The Agile Supply Chain! Why Agility is Trumping Lean!

A “Don’t Touch” Strategy will Dramatically Lean out your Supply Chain!
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The modern supply chain grows increasingly complex with each passing day. The digitization, focusing on fundamentals and change, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and many other factors are transforming how the agile supply chain functions.

Once, the lean supply chain was considered to be the most effective form of manufacturing and supply chain management. However, a new concept in supply chain processes, the agile supply chain, is quickly growing to replace the often overused term.

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6 Major Delivery Logistics Trends!

Last Mile Delivery! What is your Strategy?

It was an important year for delivery logistics trends. With ecommerce sales reaching $23 trillion in annual sales worldwide, customers are relying on better and faster deliveries for all sort of goods and services.

But this evolution in the supply chain, and for last mile fulfillment in particular, doesn’t end with retail. From restaurant chains to supermarkets to pharmacies to service providers, the world of logistics is experiencing unprecedented change.  What are the delivery logistics trends?

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Confessions of a High Priced Expediter!

Part Shortages? What is your Supply Line Strategy?

The CEO called.  “We’re out of Parts … I need your help!”  And so it began.  These are my confessions as a high priced expediter.

Every Supply Chain is going to have supply disruption and raw material shortages at some point.  So if you work in Supply Chain you are going to get involved in some fashion.  Maybe you are calling suppliers, qualifying new,  replacement parts, or maybe you are arranging for fast delivery of the shortages.

I have been involved directly or indirectly in resolving part shortages throughout my career.  Even as an Executive I still got pulled in to these situations and asked to personally get them fixed.   Once an Expediter, always an Expediter.

Here are my Confessions!

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Our 2017 Top 10 Blog Posts … So Far!

It’s been 6 months since we launched supplychaingamechanger.com.  Our goal has always been to share experiences and expertise.  The site has evolved.  The number of categories has continued to grow.  And the response has been absolutely tremendous. We can now present our 2017 Top 10 Blog posts.

In that time Supply Chain Game Changer was also selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 75 Supply Chain Blogs on the Internet.

So we thought that this would be a good point at which to share a list of the 2017 Top 10 Blog posts that we have published so far.  We would be remiss if we didn’t also thank the phenomenal Guest Bloggers who have given us such great content.

So here is the 2017 Top 10 Blog List, so far …

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What Exactly Is Reverse Logistics?

Reverse Logistics and the Power of Your 3PL!
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A summer job I had during my University years involved the dismantling of old computer input/output machines and the recovery and salvage of all of the parts.  For me it was good experience and good money.  At the same time the disassembly of most every part of the machines for refurbishment, reuse, and recovery also seemed to be a worthy cause.  It was Reverse Logistics before I knew what that was.

I considered it to be salvage, reclamation and repair activity.  Over the ensuing years I was involved from time to time in other activities that involved quality problems, returns, repair, reclamation or recycling of some kind.

And then at some point all of these activities were included under the banner of “Reverse Logistics”.

What on earth is Reverse Logistics?

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TMS is Mandatory in the Digital Age! Get Yours Free!

Why don’t you have a TMS (Transportation Management System) Solution yet?

We are in the Digital Age!

In Supply Chain that means we want and need full end to end visibility and transparency.  To provide that end to end visibility requires electronic connectivity of all nodes of the Supply Chain.

And when it comes to providing that visibility and connectivity with respect to the movement of goods throughout the Supply Chain it means we all need a Transportation Management System (TMS).

But gone are the days when you needed to create your own TMS or even buy one.  In this Digital Age you should be able to get this capability for free!

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Part Shortages? What is your Supply Line Strategy?

On Time Delivery – Get that right First!
Get Our Inventory ManagementEBOOK HERE

Have you experienced part shortages that gate your production schedule?

Part shortages can be highly frustrating issues to deal with.  They almost always happen within the standard lead time of the components you need.  And very often they can stop production immediately.

Everyone wants the shortage resolved immediately.  From your Customer to your CEO through to the entire Management chain and everyone in Production … they all want the needed parts NOW!

But there are many reasons why part shortages occur.  And there are many  actions that can be taken to mitigate their occurrence.  You don’t have to live with shortages every day if you have a Supply Line strategy.

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A “Don’t Touch” Strategy will Dramatically Lean out your Supply Chain!

10 Signs You Should Reboot Your Lean Program!
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The box I was looking at in the Pick-To-Light (PTL)  lane was full of at least 1-2 dozen different skus with as many as one to twenty of each sku in the box.  It looked like the insides of a piñata in there.  Although a piñata is used in celebrations I was quite sure that when the retail store opened the box they wouldn’t be celebrating.

All along the PTL conveyor every box looked like an explosion of different skus in different quantities.  At every station an employee was following the lights and picking a different quantity of each sku from one set of boxes and putting them in the “piñata” box.

I knew that this was the way it had historically been done, and the company had just spent millions and millions of dollars automating this historic process, but from a Lean perspective the whole approach was wasteful, slow, and expensive.

Was it really necessary to touch every single piece of every single sku multiple times?

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How AI and the IoT Can Change Transportation Management!

The Top 5 Impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Logistics!

Analysts predict that by 2020, 75% of new cars will feature IoT connectivity. The percentage increase describes consumer applications, but the idea of connected vehicles should garner interest from other sectors such as shipping, logistics, and transportation management.

Leaders in these industries would be wise to plan for a future where AI and the IoT transform transportation management.

Here are five possible applications to consider:

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The Current State of the Shipping Capacity Crunch!

Truck Drivers – Unsung Heroes of the Supply Chain! (Infographic)

The shipping capacity crunch is not a new topic, but the end of 2017 is shaping up to reveal an unprecedented crunch, reports Chris Brady of Logistics Viewpoints.

An active hurricane season, the forthcoming implementation deadline for electronic logging devices (ELD) and record-shattering projections for the upcoming holiday shipping season reflect some of the top factors affecting the current state shipping capacity crunch.

Moreover, according to Dustin Braden of the Journal of Commerce (JOC), the driver shortage is worsening in tandem. To successfully mitigate the potential setbacks from the shipping capacity crunch, your organization must understand more about its current and projected driving forces.

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