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Day: 12 August 2021

Supply Chain risks to retail profitability

Posted on by David Priestman

In a thoughtful webinar today digital freight forwarder Zencargo co-Founder, Richard Fattal, and Bis Henderson‘s Louisa Hosegood debated the unprecedented pressures in the global supply chain this year and how they jeopardise retailer’s profitability.

There has been an undoubted change in consumer behaviour, including the acceleration of ecommerce uptake. Consumers remain fickle, increasingly conscious of their environmental footprint. They are evaluating purchasing needs and ethical choices. Omnichannel, where a consumer, for example, might buy online, collect in store and pick up another item there, then return something by mail. Reverse logistics and the management of returns has become even more important. Supply chains must therefore be flexible enough to manage this while maintaining prices, or profitability will fall. For example, cancellations of orders fall if long term lead time information is more detailed.

What is the expectation in each vertical or location? From a supply perspective disruptions have increased. Container spot prices are a record $14000 now (Far East to Europe). Airfreight availability is reduced due to lower belly capacity with fewer passenger jets flying. This volatility in delivery is likely to persist till late next year. New sourcing options are needed to maintain choice and increase efficiency. Retailers can only absorb some of the costs. Excess demand in the USA, combined with shipping and port handling capacity that cannot be increased quickly enough are also causing waves.

Some items are always price elastic and are expected to be in full supply at a low cost. Other products are more inelastic. Those SKUs can be re-worked over the short to medium term, making inventory changes to achieve agility.

Retailers should ask how risky their operating model is. There will always be a new challenge. Hope is not a strategy. It is important to co-ordinate teams internationally in supply chain management so that big decisions can be taken from a whole-business point of view. Own the total. Data then analysis then decisions.

Should retailers buy by price margin rather than just quality? The profitability of the route to market, holding and delivering, will lead to new KPIs. Teams such as purchasing and merchandising need aligning.

Supply Chain risks to retail profitability

Posted on by David Priestman

In a thoughtful webinar today digital freight forwarder Zencargo co-Founder, Richard Fattal, and Bis Henderson‘s Louisa Hosegood debated the unprecedented pressures in the global supply chain this year and how they jeopardise retailer’s profitability.

There has been an undoubted change in consumer behaviour, including the acceleration of ecommerce uptake. Consumers remain fickle, increasingly conscious of their environmental footprint. They are evaluating purchasing needs and ethical choices. Omnichannel, where a consumer, for example, might buy online, collect in store and pick up another item there, then return something by mail. Reverse logistics and the management of returns has become even more important. Supply chains must therefore be flexible enough to manage this while maintaining prices, or profitability will fall. For example, cancellations of orders fall if long term lead time information is more detailed.

What is the expectation in each vertical or location? From a supply perspective disruptions have increased. Container spot prices are a record $14000 now (Far East to Europe). Airfreight availability is reduced due to lower belly capacity with fewer passenger jets flying. This volatility in delivery is likely to persist till late next year. New sourcing options are needed to maintain choice and increase efficiency. Retailers can only absorb some of the costs. Excess demand in the USA, combined with shipping and port handling capacity that cannot be increased quickly enough are also causing waves.

Some items are always price elastic and are expected to be in full supply at a low cost. Other products are more inelastic. Those SKUs can be re-worked over the short to medium term, making inventory changes to achieve agility.

Retailers should ask how risky their operating model is. There will always be a new challenge. Hope is not a strategy. It is important to co-ordinate teams internationally in supply chain management so that big decisions can be taken from a whole-business point of view. Own the total. Data then analysis then decisions.

Should retailers buy by price margin rather than just quality? The profitability of the route to market, holding and delivering, will lead to new KPIs. Teams such as purchasing and merchandising need aligning.

Strong security protection not enough against supply chain attacks

Posted on by David Priestman

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has analyzed 24 recent software supply chain attacks – including those through SolarWinds Orion, Mimecast, Codecov and Kaseya – and concluded that strong security protection is no longer enough as supply chain attacks continue to worsen.

ENISA’s report found that 66% of supply chain attacks focus on the supplier’s code, while malware is the attack technique used in 62% of attacks. Expert comment from Ilia Kolochenko, Founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network:

“The supply chain attacks complied by ENISA highlight impeccable coordination between cybercriminals amid comparatively simple hacking techniques. Most of the attacks, even those involving exploitation of 0day vulnerabilities, could have been prevented by defense-in-depth and zero-trust models. Worse, many of the large-scale intrusions exploited lack of attack surface visibility, vulnerable software with security flaws publicly disclosed many months or even a few years ago, or primitive password reuse attacks successful due to missing 2FA and other pretty simple security mechanisms designed to stop human-focused attacks. Thriving phishing attacks dominate the modern threat landscape, being evidence that the human factor remains the cornerstone of corporate cyber resilience.

“There is a clear trend to exploit misconfigured CI/CD pipelines and vulnerable cloud deployments. Amid the pandemic, countless organizations rapidly moved their IT infrastructure to a cloud, while trying to save money on training and cloud-specific security hardening. Combined with legacy IT infrastructure, third-party managed servers and software, the digitalization in 2021 made organizations a low hanging fruit for cybercriminals.

“Finally, cyber-gangs are much better organized compared to the cybersecurity industry. They meticulously plan and coordinate their attacks, leverage division of labor and eventually attain impressive efficiency. Contrasted to cybersecurity teams, bad guys are never on holidays or sick leave, and will even purposely conduct swift raids while the victim organizations are the most unprepared.”

Strong security protection not enough against supply chain attacks

Posted on by David Priestman

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has analyzed 24 recent software supply chain attacks – including those through SolarWinds Orion, Mimecast, Codecov and Kaseya – and concluded that strong security protection is no longer enough as supply chain attacks continue to worsen.

ENISA’s report found that 66% of supply chain attacks focus on the supplier’s code, while malware is the attack technique used in 62% of attacks. Expert comment from Ilia Kolochenko, Founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network:

“The supply chain attacks complied by ENISA highlight impeccable coordination between cybercriminals amid comparatively simple hacking techniques. Most of the attacks, even those involving exploitation of 0day vulnerabilities, could have been prevented by defense-in-depth and zero-trust models. Worse, many of the large-scale intrusions exploited lack of attack surface visibility, vulnerable software with security flaws publicly disclosed many months or even a few years ago, or primitive password reuse attacks successful due to missing 2FA and other pretty simple security mechanisms designed to stop human-focused attacks. Thriving phishing attacks dominate the modern threat landscape, being evidence that the human factor remains the cornerstone of corporate cyber resilience.

“There is a clear trend to exploit misconfigured CI/CD pipelines and vulnerable cloud deployments. Amid the pandemic, countless organizations rapidly moved their IT infrastructure to a cloud, while trying to save money on training and cloud-specific security hardening. Combined with legacy IT infrastructure, third-party managed servers and software, the digitalization in 2021 made organizations a low hanging fruit for cybercriminals.

“Finally, cyber-gangs are much better organized compared to the cybersecurity industry. They meticulously plan and coordinate their attacks, leverage division of labor and eventually attain impressive efficiency. Contrasted to cybersecurity teams, bad guys are never on holidays or sick leave, and will even purposely conduct swift raids while the victim organizations are the most unprepared.”

Mechanical Unloaders in Malaysia Industrial Port

Posted on by David Priestman

Megalift completes a highly critical job which was shifting two units of 31-m tall Mechanical Unloaders in an industrial port that is located along the Straits of Melaka, Malaysia. Not only did it require engineering expertise, they would not have successfully executed this without a team of experienced personnel. The mechanical unloader weighed 253 tons, with dimensions of L12.00 m x W4.60 m x H31.00 m. The Pneumatic Bulk Crane was 135 tons and dimensions of L7.60 m x W4.60 m x H31.00 m.

While the traveling distance was not very far, the coastal setting posed a considerably high risk with strong and unpredictable winds. Given the height of the cargo, it was also challenging adjusting its centre of gravity. From jacking up the cargo, moving along the trajectory and jacking it down at its final position, they had to take intervals of pauses to ensure cargo stability and gushes of winds to pass.

Since October of 2012 the XLProjects Network (XLP) has taken the independent project forwarding and chartering industry by a storm. Some of the best known project logistics companies in the world have been joining XLProjects and making business with one another.

XLProjects members by and large are proud of their relationship to our network because we allow only qualified members yet we get them all over the world. The management of XLProjects as well have been involved in this market on both sides of the business; from the networking standpoint as well as the project logistics field itself.

Mechanical Unloaders in Malaysia Industrial Port

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Megalift completes a highly critical job which was shifting two units of 31-m tall Mechanical Unloaders in an industrial port that is located along the Straits of Melaka, Malaysia. Not only did it require engineering expertise, they would not have successfully executed this without a team of experienced personnel. The mechanical unloader weighed 253 tons, with dimensions of L12.00 m x W4.60 m x H31.00 m. The Pneumatic Bulk Crane was 135 tons and dimensions of L7.60 m x W4.60 m x H31.00 m.

While the traveling distance was not very far, the coastal setting posed a considerably high risk with strong and unpredictable winds. Given the height of the cargo, it was also challenging adjusting its centre of gravity. From jacking up the cargo, moving along the trajectory and jacking it down at its final position, they had to take intervals of pauses to ensure cargo stability and gushes of winds to pass.

Since October of 2012 the XLProjects Network (XLP) has taken the independent project forwarding and chartering industry by a storm. Some of the best known project logistics companies in the world have been joining XLProjects and making business with one another.

XLProjects members by and large are proud of their relationship to our network because we allow only qualified members yet we get them all over the world. The management of XLProjects as well have been involved in this market on both sides of the business; from the networking standpoint as well as the project logistics field itself.

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