Subscribe

Day: 16 December 2022

WNS acquires The Smart Cube and OptiBuy

Posted on by Keith McKinley

WNS (Holdings) Limited, a leading provider of global Business Process Management (BPM) solutions, has acquired The Smart Cube, a leader in platform-driven research and analytics (R&A) focused on procurement and supply chain, and OptiBuy, a leading European provider of procurement platform consulting and implementation solutions. These assets are complementary to WNS’ existing offerings and strengthen the company’s capabilities in both high-end procurement and advanced analytics.

The Smart Cube

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in London, UK, The Smart Cube provides digitally led market intelligence and analytics solutions. The company’s offerings span four key areas including procurement and supply chain, commercial sales and marketing, digital and analytics, and strategy and investment research. The Smart Cube leverages its proprietary digital AI knowledge management platform, Amplifi Pro, to help clients drive improved procurement and market intelligence and insight-based decision making. The company also brings strong front-end advisory capabilities and a large European footprint to the WNS portfolio.

The company has over 800 global employees including a seasoned leadership team with CXO-level relationships, and more than 600 talented R&A specialists with approximately two-thirds holding a Master’s degree. The acquisition of The Smart Cube was completed for a figure $125m.

“The Smart Cube is proud to become part of WNS, an industry leader in global Business Process Management. Both of our firms share a common philosophy of partnering and growing with clients, and believe our businesses continue to have huge growth opportunities ahead,” said Gautam Singh, Founder and CEO of The Smart Cube. “Over the last 20 years, we have built a strong business based on delivering value for our clients leveraging our unique AI+HI (artificial intelligence + human intelligence) methodology. We are delighted to now join WNS in the next phase of our growth journey.”

OptiBuy

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, OptiBuy is a leading European provider of procurement platform consulting and implementation solutions. The company helps clients leverage the capabilities of leading 3rd party procurement and supply chain platforms including Ivalua, Jaggaer, and O9, and complements WNS’ existing offerings with platforms such as Coupa and Ariba. In addition, OptiBuy also provides consulting, optimisation, outsourcing, and training services to their clients.

Currently focused on the EMEA market, the company has approximately 90 employees including more than 40 senior-level certified platform implementation professionals based in Poland. WNS views expansion of these capabilities into the North American market as a significant opportunity.

The acquisition of OptiBuy was completed for a figure of €30m.

“On behalf of the entire team at OptiBuy, we are excited to become part of WNS and believe that the combination of our two firms will enable the creation of differentiated, end-to-end digital procurement and supply chain solutions for the global marketplace,” said Mateusz Borowiecki, managing director of OptiBuy. “We look forward to building on the capabilities we have created over the past 12 years and working with the WNS team as we help clients leverage digital technologies to drive long-term business value.”

WNS: acquisitions complement us

“Both of these companies possess unique, digitally-led/human intelligence capabilities which are complementary to WNS’ existing procurement and analytics offerings, and are also complementary with each other,” said Keshav R. Murugesh, WNS’ chief executive officer. “The Smart Cube and OptiBuy bring experienced leadership teams, highly specialised resources, and differentiated technology offerings to the WNS portfolio. These companies also have blue-chip customer bases with extensive cross-selling opportunities, and proven track records of delivering strong top line growth, healthy margins, and high levels of customer satisfaction.

“We believe that The Smart Cube and OptiBuy will significantly enhance our WNS-Denali (procurement) and WNS-Triange (analytics) solutions, and help accelerate our positioning and growth in these strategic areas. On behalf of myself and the entire WNS team, we are excited to welcome the talented teams of The Smart Cube and OptiBuy to the WNS family.”

Small Sorters, many Destinations

Posted on by David Priestman

Mobile sorters can make outstanding use of limited space – what’s more, they’re flexible in what you can use them for.

For over 200 years; from the first railway lines to the Eiffel Tower lifts and industry 4.0, Fives has been at the heart of industrial revolutions by designing the breakthrough solutions and technologies that make up industry and that the world needs. As the world’s leading partner in supply chain performance, Fives, through its Intralogistics Business Unit, provides and integrates world-class solutions for sorting, warehousing, material handling and advanced automation, serving a wide range of industries.

As a pioneer of digitalization, Fives is always one innovation ahead thanks to its ability to anticipate customer needs and the commitment of its passionate and expert employees, including Fabio Sacchi, New Application Director for the GENI-AntTM sorter. In 2016, he joined Fives with the mission to develop robotic solutions for intralogistics. Since then, he has led a team of expert engineers with the goal to build the next generation of the world’s most flexible robotic sorters. The result is the development of the AMR-based GENI-AntTM sorter, entirely designed and manufactured at Fives Intralogistics SpA in Italy.

What is the thinking behind the GENI-AntTM sorter? “ Due to the pandemic and the acceleration in the switch to ecommerce, retailers and 3PLs need to transform their supply chains, modernise their warehouses and improve their delivery network, especially in urban areas,” he says. “They must now manage unpredictable, more fragmented, and smaller orders in their distribution centres and warehouses, as well as an increasing number of returns.”

Mobile sorters

The GENI-AntTM sorter is the most scalable and flexible solution available on the market today. It can be easily reconfigured and relocated due to its compact design and small footprint. “The implementation of autonomous mobile sorters, capable of making decisions and speeding up processing, allows our customers to move to the next level of integrated automation to improve efficiency and productivity in their facilities. This is the perfect solution for any company facing increasing logistics complexity and labour shortage.”

He goes on to list the benefits that he says the GENI-AntTM sorter can offer to beat its competitors. “Compared to a traditional sorter, a GENI-Ant TM -based system requires 20% less space, over 25% less operation and maintenance costs, and 40% less labour costs, while offering high productivity, and can serve many more destinations. It can be adapted to building constraints and is therefore suitable for postal agency and express courier depots as a stand-alone solution for last sorting points, as well as for retail and distribution centres for shipping to the point of sale or to end customers. At the same time, it can be integrated with other material handling equipment, as an extension of an existing sorter for multiple processing within larger hubs and warehouses.”

The ability and capacity to handle multiple varieties of items is crucial. “It is equipped with two stand-alone cross-belts sorters to transport and sort multiple items. It is capable of handling a wide range of products, such as parcels, flyers, fragile and non-standard items, as well as unusually large parcels up to 1.2 metres long. This range of sortable products also includes extremely small and irregular items that are difficult to sort with other conventional systems, such as soft goods, oddly shaped and unstable packages.”

Fives is about a lot more than sorters, of course, with a product range including conveyors, diverters, sorters, singulators, ASRS and software systems. Mr Sacchi says it was this holistic know-how that led to the genesis of the GENI-AntTM sorter.

He visualises many opportunities for GENI-AntTM sorter customers, describing it as “a future-proof solution that can be easily and quickly adapted to ever-changing requirements. Thanks to its flexibility and modularity it can be adapted to new environments and intralogistics challenges.”

Schmitz Cargobull strengthens UK team

Posted on by David Priestman

Schmitz Cargobull has made a series of new appointments to its UK and Ireland sales team following the doubling of production capacity at its Manchester manufacturing plant and the introduction of a third new trailer aimed at the local markets.

After 11 years at the company, Mark Smith has been promoted to the newly-created role of UK Key Accounts Manager, looking after major national fleets.

Aaron Howarth, who has spent the last year in Schmitz Cargobull UK’s Aftersales Team and previously worked for Mercedes-Benz for 15 years, takes over from Smith as Regional Sales Manager for the East Midlands.

Benjamin Clayton has joined the business as Regional Sales Manager for the South, bringing 11 years’ experience in the automotive industry, including roles at Marshall Fleet Solutions and Asset Alliance Group.

And Philip Keenan joins as Regional Sales Manager for Ireland, following more than 10 years’ experience working for some of the country’s leading haulage and logistics companies, including Dixon Transport and DG McArdle International.

The appointments follow an increase in production at the company’s Manchester facility, which now produces three trailers specifically for the UK and Ireland – the S.BO PACE, the S.CS FIXED ROOF and the S.CS FREEPOST.

Smith, who will be drawing on more than 25 years’ transport industry experience to help grow the company’s blue-chip customer base, says: “With the increase in production capacity at our Manchester plant and the diversity of the Schmitz Cargobull portfolio, we are able to offer customer-tailored solutions for their transport operations.”

In addition to the three locally-built models, the team will be supporting customers with the entire Schmitz Cargobull portfolio including the popular S.KO COOL, M.KI tippers and skeletal trailers.

All four new appointments will report to Stephen Mallett, Head of Sales, Schmitz Cargobull UK & ROI.

 

1 in 5 equipped to handle SC disruptions

Posted on by David Priestman

New research from Capgemini reveals that three-quarters of organisations have been impacted by closing facilities, supply chain disruptions, employee absence, and remote work in the past three years, and less than 20% of organisations feel equipped to handle the impacts of these changes. Capgemini Research Institute’s report, “How greater intelligence could supercharge supply chains”, explores how organisations across industries can leverage technology to create resilient, sustainable, and intelligent supply chains to navigate these disruptions and adapt in real time.

Greater focus on sustainability, global socio-economic changes, and shifting consumer demands has meant that organisations are facing considerable disruption to their supply chains. In this context, leaders’ most pressing concerns are reducing CO2 emissions across all tiers of the supply chain (95%) and growing e-commerce volumes (90%). Around 92% of organisations surveyed said that the ongoing relocation of the global supply chain will impact them but only 15% are equipped to deal with this.

Investing in supply chains now is critical for organisations to be prepared to meet future demands, cites the report. On average over the next three years, organisations plan to increase their investment in supply chain transformation by 17% and expect to double their business outcomes in terms of growth, profitability and sustainability.

Resilience to cope with disruptions

“There are numerous building blocks that need to come together to create a future-ready supply chain network and provide differentiated offerings that customers are looking for. The last few years have highlighted the need for organisations to build agile and resilient supply chains, not only to cope with disruptions but also to help them stay ahead of the curve, especially from a sustainability perspective,” comments Mayank Sharma, Global Supply Chain Lead at Capgemini.

“It is clear that there’s no one-size fits all solution, but organisations that lay the foundation for a data-driven, technology enabled, scalable, and sustainable supply chain are the ones that will reap the most impressive returns in terms of driving improved customer loyalty, creating more business value and meeting sustainability goals.”

The report highlights a need for organisations to design resilient, connected networks with integrated data-driven planning. It suggests that technology will be a critical enabler here, giving organisations access to real-time insights which in turn can enhance the ability to predict change and help them plan for possible future scenarios.

‘Supply chain masters’ – organisations defined as having displayed the ability to successfully balance multiple demands on their supply chain – are already reaping business benefits. The research found that this small cohort of respondents (9.5%) reported a 15% incremental growth in revenues, a 17% reduction in CO2 emissions as well as a 1.8 percentage point higher market share when compared with others.

Focus on sustainability is crucial

Supply chains currently account for over 90% of an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Companies are increasingly reshaping business strategies to prioritise sustainability, with many setting top-line targets to improve the overall environmental impact of their products and services. There is a clear need for supply chains to be at the core of these sustainability initiatives.

The vast majority of organisations surveyed (95%) recognise the need to reduce CO2 emissions across the entire supply chain, but only 13% feel well prepared to handle these changes. Currently, reducing Scope 1 emissions dominates an organisations’ sustainability initiatives (38%), versus scope 2 and 3 emissions which account for 22% and 27% respectively. The report suggests that sustainable practices must be adopted across the value chain with transparent metrics set to measure performance plus real-time tracking systems implemented to monitor performance. Investing in supplier training and education initiatives will help to empower stakeholders to make a real impact and enable an organisation to reach its sustainability goals.

The research found that only one in four have started scaling sustainability initiatives in their supply chains, highlighting opportunity for organisations to improve.

Embrace automation and technology for robust management

As organisations plan to increase investments in supply chain transformation, the report suggests there will be considerable focus on change management and upskilling stakeholders. It will also be important to improve collaboration with ecosystem players (customers, suppliers, peers), as well as invest in automation and robotisation to improve operational efficiency and redeploy resources (such as customer interactions, analysis, dynamic planning and decision-making).

Building a composable, integrated, and customer-centric architecture will enable organisations to respond quickly and mitigate supply or fulfilment risks. This combines a transactional backbone and best-in-class industry solutions for execution, as well as data-sharing and collaborative platforms that breaks down siloes, enabling end-to-end management of the supply chain. Integrating existing, otherwise-siloed supply chain management systems will enable organisations to collate, analyse and react to the huge volume of internal and external data that a network produces.

The research found that supply chain masters stand out from other players by how quickly and accurately they complete this process of aggregating, analysing, and acting upon data. Those who adopt a centralised “control tower” approach, where data is collated in one cohesive and connected dashboard, will help break down silos within the supply chain network to provide end-to-end visibility that enables harmonised management.

Domino moves processes to cloud with Oracle

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Domino Printing Sciences, a global leader in coding, marking, and digital printing technologies, will implement Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite for finance, supply chain, and customer experience, offering flexibility to support its new business models, such as advanced solutions and outcome-based services, and delivering greater business insight to enhance customer lifecycle management.

With operations in over 120 countries and manufacturing facilities in the UK, USA, China, Germany, India, Sweden, and Switzerland, Domino employs over 3,000 people worldwide, and has a proven track record for excellence in the fields of coding and marking, and digital printing. In recent years the company has expanded and diversified its offerings to include new subscription-based services that provide additional value to its global customer base.

Domino’s continued growth and development necessitated a new cloud-based solution that would enable more dynamic business models and evolve alongside the organisation. After careful consideration, Domino chose to move its core business processes to the cloud with Oracle Fusion Applications.

“As we continue to expand and transform our business operations to be more digitally focused, we couldn’t think of a better partner than Oracle with its deep applications expertise and experience in delivering innovative integrated solutions,” said Alwin Rasul, ERP Programme Director, Domino. “With Oracle Fusion Applications, we’ll be able to effectively unify our business operations, enable data-driven decision making, better support our global operations, and continue to set the industry standard for printing and coding technologies.”

Domino standardises processes

With Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Domino will be able to take advantage of the cloud to standardise processes, and manage financial, supply chain, and customer experience data on a single integrated cloud platform. The resulting end-to-end business visibility will help ensure efficient, consistent, and personalised experience across its global operations.

Domino will utilise Oracle’s analytic tools to collect, manage, and analyse data using embedded machine learning and thousands of pre-built metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to make accurate, insight-driven decisions. With quarterly update cycles, Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications will give Domino access to continuous innovation, as new features are added every quarter, without downtime or business disruption.

“The industrial printing industry is at a critical juncture amidst shifting customer preferences and demands for digital solutions. Companies need to adopt new technologies and rethink the way they run their core business processes as they tap into new market opportunities,” said Guy Armstrong, Senior Vice President of Applications, Oracle UK and Ireland. “By moving to Oracle Cloud – both Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Domino is well placed to continue its growth, expand its digital offerings, and further elevate its competitive advantages with the latest innovations and emerging technologies.”

Flowsort merges with FATH Group

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Flowsort has recently merged with the global FATH Group to help intralogistics system integrators and conveyor system manufacturers around the globe directly access Flowsort’s products.

FATH says it is very successful with components for aluminium profile system construction and with solutions for lean processes on the industrial shopfloor. Intralogistics system integrators will now have access to these solutions from a single source through the connection of FATH and Flowsort and thus be able to bring more productivity to the intralogistics sector.

Consumers have now come to expect same- or next-day delivery not only from e-commerce and retail giants but from other small and medium-sized sellers as well. This consumer expectation is pushing many e-commerce businesses to move their distribution centres closer to cities and create micro-fulfilment centres for delivering products to the consumer at a faster pace.

Flowsort supports e-commerce businesses

While e-commerce businesses need to optimise their product delivery speed from fulfilment centres to consumers, they also need to optimise the product movement within the distribution centre itself. Flowsort, which describes itself as one of the top-10 warehouse automation innovators, has developed a range of modular and automated sortation systems which are an integral part of intralogistics automation.

Flowsort distributes these modular sortation solutions to e-commerce and 3PL businesses through intralogistics system integrators and conveyor belt manufacturers. The modular design of the Flowsort sorting equipment allows system integrators and conveyor manufacturers to purchase the sorting modules that fit their clients’ unique requirements.

From there, system integrators can add extra modules to their clients’ intralogistics systems to meet future needs, offering continuous scalability while keeping the initial investment much lower.

Hines acquires six Dutch logistics assets

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Hines, the global real estate investment, development, and property manager, has advised its Hines European Core Fund (HECF) on the acquisition of six fully occupied logistics assets in the Randstad area in Aalsmeer, Honselersdijk and Rijnsburg in The Netherlands.

The business parks, on which the assets are located, are majority owned and managed by Royal FloraHolland (RFH), the world’s largest floricultural marketplace and a major contributor to The Netherlands’ world-renowned role within the flower industry. In 2021, the value of The Netherlands’ flower and plant import and export market reached €7.3bn, with a further €865m of flowers imported and distributed through business parks such as those operated by RFH.

The acquired buildings, spanning 92,000 sq m, are fully leased to six occupiers operating within The Netherlands’ floricultural trade market, each on a long-term lease. The properties are in the heart of the densely populated Randstad area, the economic heartland of The Netherlands, which accounts for a significant proportion of the country’s GDP and has a population of over 8.4m. The assets are clustered near the three major Dutch flower auction sites, giving occupiers excellent access to high concentrations of wholesale and retail flower vendors and purchasers.

Hines builds on investment

Andy Smith, managing director and country head – The Netherlands at Hines, commented: “The portfolio aggregation of these fully leased properties builds on our investment, development and management platform in Dutch logistics. The agricultural and floricultural logistics market is undergoing substantial consolidation, transformation and modernisation while remaining among the most resilient segments of a turbulent economy.

“We are proud to support our tenants in their continued success and we look forward to maintaining and improving the quality of these business critical assets through long term value creation via our property management initiatives.”

Simone Pozzato, managing director and HECF fund manager, added: “Our European core-fund,  HECF, completed the first phase of its aggregation of six fully occupied last-mile logistics assets in the highly sought-after Randstad area in The Netherlands, via four off-market and one direct market acquisitions, achieving a considerable portfolio size, at an attractive entry yield.

“Our ability to source and aggregate opportunities off market through our strong local teams has enabled us to decisively spot value and quickly close in prime occupier locations. To add further value on behalf of our investors, we will also seek to provide property management services and implement strategic ESG improvements aiming to reduce carbon emissions and increase efficiency.”

In 2022, Hines has completed €797m of logistics transactions across Europe, in markets including Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, The UK and The Netherlands. Hines’ European logistics AUM now stands at €3bn.

 

£24bn of goods held up by SC issues

Posted on by David Priestman

A report from Barclays Corporate Banking reveals that goods with a total value of £23.6bn are awaiting completion in UK manufacturers’ warehouses because of supply chain delays.

The study – ‘Chain reaction’ – focuses on manufacturing businesses with over 10 employees and looks at the impact of supply chain issues. Barclays’ research shows that over seven in 10 (72%) businesses are currently holding items in their warehouses awaiting completion because raw materials, ingredients or component parts have not yet been delivered from suppliers. On average, this ‘unfinished business’ is worth over £1m to each company impacted.

Products in the steel and metals sector are most severely affected, with £9bn worth of goods incomplete – equivalent to almost a fifth (19%) of the sub-sector’s annual turnover. The most affected consumer goods sector is food and drink, with delays in sourcing ingredients causing a £3bn backlog. A high value of plastic products (£2.6bn) and electronics (£2bn) are also awaiting completion.

The trends are reflective of supply chain disruption that has challenged the manufacturing sector since the pandemic and three in five (59%) firms say they are still facing supply issues. This has been exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the UK’s exit from the EU. Customer relationships are now being impacted: two-thirds (65%) of manufacturers say their customers are having to wait longer for products, with 15% describing the hold-ups as ‘significant’. To offset rising costs such as energy and transportation, over half (55%) of manufacturers are planning price increases for their own products, of 37% on average.

Industry is innovating

The industry is innovating to solve these challenges. Most commonly, businesses are increasing their storage capacity (39%) to prepare for the fact raw materials are taking longer to source. Meanwhile, a third (33%) are “near shoring” to move their supply chains closer to home and 32% have “friend shored” to work with suppliers in countries that have a strong trading relationship with the UK. To spread their bets, 37% of manufacturers have increased the number of different suppliers they work with.

To maintain cashflow and liquidity, over two-fifths (42%) of manufacturing firms are optimising their working capital cycles and the same amount are accessing additional bank funding. 38% are seeking a cash injection from private equity and a third (32%) are selling off assets to raise funds.

Such measures are leaving the industry confident in the medium-term. Two-thirds (66%) of companies think supply chain challenges will improve over the next six months and 86% are confident about growth next year.

Businesses have also doubled down on their commitment to sustainability despite supply chain pressures. Almost two-thirds (64%) of manufacturers say carbon reduction has become an even bigger priority in the past six months, despite nearly three quarters (73%) saying their environmental goals have become less attainable.

Goods trapped in warehouses

Amidst the business optimism, however, Barclays’ report also lays bare the threat that rising costs and supply chain disruption could pose long-term if circumstances do not improve. On average, UK manufacturers only expect to be able to sustain their operations for 15 further months if current conditions continue.

Lee Collinson, Head of Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics for Barclays Corporate Banking, said: “The British manufacturing sector has faced a perfect storm of challenges this year, with rising costs, the war in Ukraine, labour shortages and ongoing Covid lockdowns in China hitting supply chains hard. As a result, billions of pounds worth of goods are trapped in warehouses unfinished, and this may hit industry turnover in the early part of next year.

“However, manufacturing firms have done what they do best and engineered new solutions to limit the impact of the issues they face. As a result, many businesses will enter the new year with a degree of cautious optimism and confidence.”

The findings in summary:

  • Goods with a total value of £23.6bn are currently awaiting completion in UK manufacturers’ warehouses as key parts, ingredients and materials are delayed due to supply chain issues
  • £9bn of steel and metals products, £3bn of food and drink, £2.6bn of plastic goods and £2bn of electronics are unfinished because of supply logjams
  • With six in 10 businesses facing supply chain difficulties, manufacturers are investing in more storage space and moving suppliers closer to home to ease challenges
  • 64% of manufacturers have faced rising costs because of the recent weakness of the pound
  • Trade barriers are a concern for almost one in three manufacturers. They are a particular issue for the electronics industry (43%) and the automobile industry (41%)
  • The top interventions that manufacturing firms would like to see from government are industrial energy transformation (37%) and a more aggressive energy price cap for the industry (32%)

Subscribe

Get notified about New Episodes of our Podcast, New Magazine Issues and stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter.