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Day: 29 November 2022

80% say Brexit is biggest disruption

Posted on by David Priestman

Research from Ivalua, a leading global spend management cloud provider, has revealed that 80% of UK businesses say that Brexit has been the biggest disrupter to supply chains in the last 12 months, while 83% fear the biggest disruption from Brexit is yet to come.

The Ivalua-commissioned study, conducted by Coleman Parkes, found that Brexit was having a bigger impact on supply chains than the war in Ukraine (76%), rising energy costs (71%) and COVID-19 (59%). Increasing supply chain disruption meant that 28% of UK businesses lost revenue in the last 12 months, with these businesses estimating an average drop in revenue of 18%. Supply chain disruption has also resulted in products arriving late, resulting in SLA fines (68%) and reputational damage (64%).

Moreover, 80% of UK businesses say that Black Swan events such as Brexit, COVID-19 and the War in Ukraine have “left supply continuity on life support”.

“These findings lay bare the significant toll of supply chain disruption on UK businesses,” comments Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua. “Supply continuity has been left on life support after repeated blockages and restarts, resulting in supplier failure and organisations struggling to onboard new suppliers to kick-start supply. With supply chains being shocked at shrinking intervals, organisations must work to future-proof supply chains. A digitised, data-driven approach to supply chain management is a prerequisite for actionable scenario planning and agility. Yet, according to a study from Procurious, only 24% of executive teams have fast-tracked investments in new technology for procurement.”

Disruption to continue

On average, UK businesses estimate supply chain disruption will impact them for the next six months, with 31% saying the impact will continue for the next year. Over half (59%) believe supply chain disruption has become normal, and that we’ll see more Black Swan events in the future.

The effect of this disruption could be severe, with 69% of UK businesses concerned that more supply chain disruption will put suppliers out of business, while 51% fear they will go out of business. A further 83% say disruption has also slowed down their ability to innovate and develop new products.

“As Black Swan events accelerate, UK businesses must bolster resilience by ensuring they have total visibility into all suppliers, including tier-2 and 3. Collaboration is critical too – supply chains are only as resilient as your ability to work with suppliers to mitigate the impact of any disruption.” added Saric.

“But to do this, supply chain management must be digitalised. This is essential for continually assessing risk exposure, building a complete view of your supplier ecosystem and sharing information. Doing so will help organisations to better handle disruption, and cope with growing pressure that recession and inflation will pile on procurement teams in the next 12 months.”

 

80% say Brexit is biggest disruption

Posted on by David Priestman

Research from Ivalua, a leading global spend management cloud provider, has revealed that 80% of UK businesses say that Brexit has been the biggest disrupter to supply chains in the last 12 months, while 83% fear the biggest disruption from Brexit is yet to come.

The Ivalua-commissioned study, conducted by Coleman Parkes, found that Brexit was having a bigger impact on supply chains than the war in Ukraine (76%), rising energy costs (71%) and COVID-19 (59%). Increasing supply chain disruption meant that 28% of UK businesses lost revenue in the last 12 months, with these businesses estimating an average drop in revenue of 18%. Supply chain disruption has also resulted in products arriving late, resulting in SLA fines (68%) and reputational damage (64%).

Moreover, 80% of UK businesses say that Black Swan events such as Brexit, COVID-19 and the War in Ukraine have “left supply continuity on life support”.

“These findings lay bare the significant toll of supply chain disruption on UK businesses,” comments Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua. “Supply continuity has been left on life support after repeated blockages and restarts, resulting in supplier failure and organisations struggling to onboard new suppliers to kick-start supply. With supply chains being shocked at shrinking intervals, organisations must work to future-proof supply chains. A digitised, data-driven approach to supply chain management is a prerequisite for actionable scenario planning and agility. Yet, according to a study from Procurious, only 24% of executive teams have fast-tracked investments in new technology for procurement.”

Disruption to continue

On average, UK businesses estimate supply chain disruption will impact them for the next six months, with 31% saying the impact will continue for the next year. Over half (59%) believe supply chain disruption has become normal, and that we’ll see more Black Swan events in the future.

The effect of this disruption could be severe, with 69% of UK businesses concerned that more supply chain disruption will put suppliers out of business, while 51% fear they will go out of business. A further 83% say disruption has also slowed down their ability to innovate and develop new products.

“As Black Swan events accelerate, UK businesses must bolster resilience by ensuring they have total visibility into all suppliers, including tier-2 and 3. Collaboration is critical too – supply chains are only as resilient as your ability to work with suppliers to mitigate the impact of any disruption.” added Saric.

“But to do this, supply chain management must be digitalised. This is essential for continually assessing risk exposure, building a complete view of your supplier ecosystem and sharing information. Doing so will help organisations to better handle disruption, and cope with growing pressure that recession and inflation will pile on procurement teams in the next 12 months.”

 

Home Delivery: Competitive Difference

Posted on by David Priestman

Peak season home delivery is more complex than ever. Andrew Tavener of Descartes explains how businesses should address the critical challenges.

In the face of peak season order volumes, last-mile delivery has become a trigger point for defining the customer experience. Unfortunately, as consumers head into the holiday shopping season, many are frustrated and taking action against poor performers.

A recent study of 8,000 European and North American consumers found that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of consumers experienced delivery problems in the October–December 2021 holiday shopping period. The top three issues (see illustration) were related to timeliness: deliveries were late (26 percent); deliveries didn’t arrive when promised (22 percent); and time windows for deliveries were too long and inconvenient (22 percent). Plus, a disgruntled 16 percent didn’t receive their delivery.

This poor delivery performance can be catastrophic for retailers during peak season, especially with many online vendors relying on high sales volumes during the holidays to buoy revenues. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of the study respondents refused to order from poorly performing retailers again; nearly a quarter lost trust in both the delivery company (24 percent) and the retailer (21 percent). Additionally, 17 percent of consumers indicated they advised friends and family to avoid the retailer. E-commerce vendors that accept mediocre delivery quality will likely experience hits to their holiday sales tallies as consumers turn to competitors that do find ways to meet consumers’ expectations.

Meeting the delivery performance expectations of holiday shoppers begins well before the product is loaded onto the truck — with visibility into the warehouse. From an inventory management (and customer trust) perspective, retailers must ensure the products presented online accurately reflect available inventory. Furthermore, consumers should be able to choose from various delivery options at the point of sale (POS).

On the home delivery front, while delivery speed remains – for many consumers – a factor in purchase decisions, notably, consumers place more value on retailers keeping their delivery promise. To meet delivery expectations and keep customers happy (preventing failed deliveries and returning for post-holiday purchases), e-commerce retailers must find ways to boost last-mile efficiency, productivity and reliability.

Sustainable home delivery

If all these factors weren’t challenging enough, further research around home delivery sustainability has revealed its increasing importance to a significant percentage of consumers. Indeed, only 38 percent of over 8000 consumers across nine countries in Europe and North America thought that most retailers were doing a good job of sustainable home delivery.

Furthermore, 60 percent of consumers today have environmental importance expectations for their home deliveries – from combining orders, accepting longer lead times for delivery, to having the retailer recommend the most friendly delivery option. And, if we look five years ahead, there is also a growing trend from consumers that the use of eco-friendly vehicles and a retailer’s ability to show home delivery carbon footprint will play a factor in their purchasing choices.

If a proportion of consumers are willing to compromise on convenience to ensure greater retailer sustainability, then the imperative to get efficiency and reliability right holds even greater emphasis, with a focus on making every mile as green as possible.

Competitive differentiator

While critical to an optimised customer experience, final mile delivery is a complex part of the fulfilment process – and is only becoming increasingly more so.

By implementing technology that creates efficiencies across the delivery lifecycle — from dynamic delivery appointment scheduling, delivery route planning, and continuous route optimisation to GPS-enabled real-time mobile tracking, mobile proof-of-delivery, and delivery status notifications — retailers can give consumers more delivery choices, improve delivery reliability, keep customers informed of delivery status, and – crucially – provide different consumers with parameters for home delivery that suit their specific priorities.

Indeed, gearing up with the right technology tools can help e-commerce retailers keep their delivery promise, whatever that may be — a critical factor in building customer loyalty and driving repeat business — by ensuring customers get the products they want, delivered to their door, at the expected time.

Moreover, these tools can also lay the foundation for agile and dynamic home delivery options that meet consumers’ growing needs for both convenience and sustainability.

www.descartes.com

Home Delivery: Competitive Difference

Posted on by David Priestman

Peak season home delivery is more complex than ever. Andrew Tavener of Descartes explains how businesses should address the critical challenges.

In the face of peak season order volumes, last-mile delivery has become a trigger point for defining the customer experience. Unfortunately, as consumers head into the holiday shopping season, many are frustrated and taking action against poor performers.

A recent study of 8,000 European and North American consumers found that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of consumers experienced delivery problems in the October–December 2021 holiday shopping period. The top three issues (see illustration) were related to timeliness: deliveries were late (26 percent); deliveries didn’t arrive when promised (22 percent); and time windows for deliveries were too long and inconvenient (22 percent). Plus, a disgruntled 16 percent didn’t receive their delivery.

This poor delivery performance can be catastrophic for retailers during peak season, especially with many online vendors relying on high sales volumes during the holidays to buoy revenues. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of the study respondents refused to order from poorly performing retailers again; nearly a quarter lost trust in both the delivery company (24 percent) and the retailer (21 percent). Additionally, 17 percent of consumers indicated they advised friends and family to avoid the retailer. E-commerce vendors that accept mediocre delivery quality will likely experience hits to their holiday sales tallies as consumers turn to competitors that do find ways to meet consumers’ expectations.

Meeting the delivery performance expectations of holiday shoppers begins well before the product is loaded onto the truck — with visibility into the warehouse. From an inventory management (and customer trust) perspective, retailers must ensure the products presented online accurately reflect available inventory. Furthermore, consumers should be able to choose from various delivery options at the point of sale (POS).

On the home delivery front, while delivery speed remains – for many consumers – a factor in purchase decisions, notably, consumers place more value on retailers keeping their delivery promise. To meet delivery expectations and keep customers happy (preventing failed deliveries and returning for post-holiday purchases), e-commerce retailers must find ways to boost last-mile efficiency, productivity and reliability.

Sustainable home delivery

If all these factors weren’t challenging enough, further research around home delivery sustainability has revealed its increasing importance to a significant percentage of consumers. Indeed, only 38 percent of over 8000 consumers across nine countries in Europe and North America thought that most retailers were doing a good job of sustainable home delivery.

Furthermore, 60 percent of consumers today have environmental importance expectations for their home deliveries – from combining orders, accepting longer lead times for delivery, to having the retailer recommend the most friendly delivery option. And, if we look five years ahead, there is also a growing trend from consumers that the use of eco-friendly vehicles and a retailer’s ability to show home delivery carbon footprint will play a factor in their purchasing choices.

If a proportion of consumers are willing to compromise on convenience to ensure greater retailer sustainability, then the imperative to get efficiency and reliability right holds even greater emphasis, with a focus on making every mile as green as possible.

Competitive differentiator

While critical to an optimised customer experience, final mile delivery is a complex part of the fulfilment process – and is only becoming increasingly more so.

By implementing technology that creates efficiencies across the delivery lifecycle — from dynamic delivery appointment scheduling, delivery route planning, and continuous route optimisation to GPS-enabled real-time mobile tracking, mobile proof-of-delivery, and delivery status notifications — retailers can give consumers more delivery choices, improve delivery reliability, keep customers informed of delivery status, and – crucially – provide different consumers with parameters for home delivery that suit their specific priorities.

Indeed, gearing up with the right technology tools can help e-commerce retailers keep their delivery promise, whatever that may be — a critical factor in building customer loyalty and driving repeat business — by ensuring customers get the products they want, delivered to their door, at the expected time.

Moreover, these tools can also lay the foundation for agile and dynamic home delivery options that meet consumers’ growing needs for both convenience and sustainability.

www.descartes.com

Electric vans “could be worked harder”

Posted on by David Priestman

Petrol and diesel-powered light commercial vehicles (LCVs) are being worked more than twice as hard as electric vans within the same customer fleets, despite the average daily mileage being well within the range of an electric LCV.

Detailed analysis of more than 85,000 vehicle records by Michelin Connected Fleet’s data science team found the average internal combustion-engined (ICE) van travels 63 miles per day, compared with just 28 miles for an electric LCV.

Michelin Connected Fleet also found that 59% of electric vehicles (EVs) are being plugged in when the state of charge is greater than 50% – which negatively impacts driver productivity, particularly given half of charging events occur during the daytime. This overcharging is also putting lithium-ion batteries through unnecessary charging cycles which could cause them to deteriorate faster, negatively impacting range and residuals.

Alberto De Monte, Business Segment Director for EV and OEM at Michelin Connected Fleet, says: “Range anxiety is clearly impacting the fleet market’s confidence in electric vans, resulting in EVs being overcharged, and under-worked.

“In most applications the EVs you buy today have the range to do the job of a petrol or diesel-powered van in and around cities, but they’re being deployed on the lightest duty work – whilst ICE assets are being worked harder, which is less efficient and increases emissions.”

Electric vans overcharged

Michelin Connected Fleet’s analysis has also revealed that van drivers charged batteries to 90% or more in 76% of the charging events it studied – in comparison with car drivers who hit 90% or more in only 58% of instances.

De Monte adds: “We know lithium-ion batteries perform best when the state of charge is maintained between 20 to 80%, and the general advice is to only charge the battery fully if you need that additional range for a particularly long journey.

“What we’re seeing points to more guidance being needed for fleets to ensure they are maximising the benefits which transitioning to EVs offer; and not storing up issues which could impact performance and residuals down the line.”

Michelin Connected Fleet offers a dedicated electric vehicle fleet management service called MoveElectric, designed to help businesses of all sizes to lower fleet CO2 emissions, reduce operating costs, and to integrate EVs for the most efficient last mile delivery strategy.

MoveElectric brings easy-to-use tools to help fleets plan, grow and master all aspects of EV fleet management, from identifying routes to achieving EV roll-out. It forms part of a comprehensive fleet management solution to help connect vehicles, optimise performance, and gain greater visibility across an entire fleet based upon informed data-driven choices.

Michelin Connected Fleet will be using its attendance at the London EV Show 2022 (29th November – 1st December 2022, ExCel London) to talk to fleets about the importance of switching to EVs, and showcasing how MoveElectric can support the transition.

 

Electric vans “could be worked harder”

Posted on by David Priestman

Petrol and diesel-powered light commercial vehicles (LCVs) are being worked more than twice as hard as electric vans within the same customer fleets, despite the average daily mileage being well within the range of an electric LCV.

Detailed analysis of more than 85,000 vehicle records by Michelin Connected Fleet’s data science team found the average internal combustion-engined (ICE) van travels 63 miles per day, compared with just 28 miles for an electric LCV.

Michelin Connected Fleet also found that 59% of electric vehicles (EVs) are being plugged in when the state of charge is greater than 50% – which negatively impacts driver productivity, particularly given half of charging events occur during the daytime. This overcharging is also putting lithium-ion batteries through unnecessary charging cycles which could cause them to deteriorate faster, negatively impacting range and residuals.

Alberto De Monte, Business Segment Director for EV and OEM at Michelin Connected Fleet, says: “Range anxiety is clearly impacting the fleet market’s confidence in electric vans, resulting in EVs being overcharged, and under-worked.

“In most applications the EVs you buy today have the range to do the job of a petrol or diesel-powered van in and around cities, but they’re being deployed on the lightest duty work – whilst ICE assets are being worked harder, which is less efficient and increases emissions.”

Electric vans overcharged

Michelin Connected Fleet’s analysis has also revealed that van drivers charged batteries to 90% or more in 76% of the charging events it studied – in comparison with car drivers who hit 90% or more in only 58% of instances.

De Monte adds: “We know lithium-ion batteries perform best when the state of charge is maintained between 20 to 80%, and the general advice is to only charge the battery fully if you need that additional range for a particularly long journey.

“What we’re seeing points to more guidance being needed for fleets to ensure they are maximising the benefits which transitioning to EVs offer; and not storing up issues which could impact performance and residuals down the line.”

Michelin Connected Fleet offers a dedicated electric vehicle fleet management service called MoveElectric, designed to help businesses of all sizes to lower fleet CO2 emissions, reduce operating costs, and to integrate EVs for the most efficient last mile delivery strategy.

MoveElectric brings easy-to-use tools to help fleets plan, grow and master all aspects of EV fleet management, from identifying routes to achieving EV roll-out. It forms part of a comprehensive fleet management solution to help connect vehicles, optimise performance, and gain greater visibility across an entire fleet based upon informed data-driven choices.

Michelin Connected Fleet will be using its attendance at the London EV Show 2022 (29th November – 1st December 2022, ExCel London) to talk to fleets about the importance of switching to EVs, and showcasing how MoveElectric can support the transition.

 

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