Tag: IT|logistics|supply chain

In addition to the digitisation of industry and commerce, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have also emphasised the importance of supply chain management and sourcing. Ralf Duester, board member of the SCM software specialist Setlog, summarises which trends will shape the year 2022.

His analysis is based on conversations and data from Setlog customers who use the SCM tool OSCA, e.g. more than 100 brands in the fashion industry alone.

1. Sustainability and due diligence laws force us to act

The topics of sustainability, decarbonisation and social compliance are becoming of utmost importance for businesses. Following the Glasgow World Climate Conference, consumers, politicians and business partners are calling on companies to act quickly.

New legislation is driving the pace. In road transportation, there is a strong trend towards e-vehicles and hydrogen-powered trucks. Companies are increasingly considering how to implement circular economy strategies so that fewer products need to be destroyed. More and more, transportation and product packaging come under scrutiny.

Managers are taking topics such as carbon emissions, resource consumption and their social responsibility in global sourcing very seriously. In Germany, the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act has been launched, and the European Union is working hard on regulations.

2. Sourcing and purchasing models are being rethought

The pandemic has shown: companies need to consider and implement individual approaches to sourcing to become more resilient. Analyses of automotive manufacturers, for example, may show that re- or nearshoring of certain products or components makes sense. This may be more expensive, but it makes supply chains more stable.

However, in the consumer goods sector it makes more sense to keep production in the Far East due to the enormous cost difference between Europe or the US and Asia. Furthermore, when it comes to a company’s profits – sourcing, procurement and supply chain management are becoming increasingly important.

The reason for this is that opportunities to push through higher price points in lower and middle product segments have become rare. Prices are becoming more transparent for the consumer through buying platforms. Today, profits are achieved through purchasing – or more precisely – through process optimisation.

In the purchasing models of the future, collaborative thinking will prevail – and all partners in a supply chain will align their actions accordingly. In addition, inventory levels of companies are being redefined due to increased network disruptions – such as environmental disasters, strikes or the pandemic. The disruption in global transportation has shown: For certain industries that depend on a few suppliers, it may be necessary to build higher safety stock levels and rethink order processes in general.

3. Supply chains are being replaced by supply networks

The collaboration of companies with purchasing offices, suppliers, factories, testing laboratories, logistics service providers and distributors is becoming increasingly important. As a result, companies will seek to further strengthen their business networks in the upcoming year. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, company-internal systems have proven not to work ideally.

As a result, companies will use tools and platforms that enable secure data sharing as well as support tight collaborative workflows around forecasting, orders, deliveries, production, capacity, and inventory in real time. Collaboration, the optimal use of data and streamlined information flows eliminate errors and delays as well as reduce lead times and inefficiencies. At the same time, all stakeholders can reduce costs and improve their competitiveness.

4. Human resources management becomes more important

Studies show: One of the biggest challenges companies in industrialised countries currently face is a shortage of workers. This applies to specialists in transportation and customs as well as to highly qualified experts in supply chain management.

In Europe, many countries see a severe shortage of truck drivers – in Germany alone, there are 80,000 vacancies. Associations have been calling for better working conditions and higher wages for years. Companies will only remain successful if they pay close attention to recruiting. They must also enter cooperative ventures with universities. And they cannot avoid training their long-time employees in supply chain management – because the complexity of their tasks continues to increase.

5. ERP silos are eliminated

It is a fact that small and mid-sized companies rely on one or two ERP systems, some multi-national corporations on 20 or even more. Even before the pandemic, the inefficiencies of these self-constructed silos were obvious. Covid-19 acted as an amplifier.

The coexistence of systems artificially added to inventory buffers, caused information gaps and delays, and resulted in high IT costs for interfaces, maintenance, and upgrades. Companies will tear down these silos because they can no longer afford the cost, effort, or associated hassle. The best solution is to move supply chain workflows to a collaborative network platform that cuts across all silos and enables both data sharing and data transfer across production lines, departments and companies.

So-called best-of-breed solutions enabled through REST API interfaces in an intelligent IT architecture break down silos and enable collaborative, cross-company workflows with transparent data exchange.

6. Supply chains are seen as competitive advantage

Due to material shortages and the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chains in many companies broke down for the first time since the end of World War II. Increasingly, managers are asking themselves: Can they continue to rely on the existing supplier relationships and logistics chains in future? Many are analysing and re-evaluating suppliers, transit times, and even their own order and sourcing management.

Instead of just looking at list prices, a risk surcharge – depending on the country of origin and other criteria – is calculated for each critical component. Those who reorganise their supply networks can use stable and flexible supply chains as a competitive advantage.

7. Supply chain managers embrace modern technologies

Companies are realising more and more that thousands of decisions with dozens of parameters must be made every day. Experienced managers alone do not help. Companies need to trust new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to make decisions. The best of the best will automate processes more and take advantage of artificial intelligence in prescriptive analytics and autonomous agents to gain efficiencies.

Managers will adopt supply chain software technologies to increase their companies’ resilience and competitiveness. As a result, new automation technologies eliminate dozens of positions and roles within an organisation. Thanks to modern technologies, companies can generate speed from planning to delivery, reduce buffers and manage processes more efficiently.

8. Optimisation of supply and demand match

Companies are turning towards technologies that optimally match demand with available supply for and within specific delivery windows. If circumstances change, products sometimes need to be reallocated to orders – almost in real time – to keep service levels high while minimising costs. Companies that use software and algorithms to manage demand and supply globally will be one step ahead of the competition.

Generally, rapid changes in supply and demand make it impossible to forecast based on the past. The best strategy is for companies to devise agile approaches to permanently optimise the use of resources and production capacities. Modern demand planning software and business intelligence tools are increasingly important here.

9. Omnichannel comes without an alternative

The years 2020 and 2021 have shown that for companies to remain successful, become faster and more resilient, the potential in all sales channels must be exploited: brick and mortar, wholesale, e-commerce, sales partners and platforms. Only businesses who follow this strategy will remain successful if one or even more of the channels weaken.

Companies also need to be able to consolidate demand across all channels and to increase service levels and revenue while reducing costs. To do this, they need powerful SCM software.

10. Direct-to-costumer makes the difference

If you haven’t optimised this channel yet, your competition may outrun you fast. Managers must have a handle on “batch size 1” production and delivery, master the returns business, and have a last-mile solution in place.

They also need e-commerce technology that can handle the multitude of choices and item variations customers want. In B2B but also B2C markets, this includes drop shipments, which are created, handled and optimised with the necessary transparency of SCM solutions. This allows retailers to sell goods to consumers without having them physically in stock.

Boehringer Ingelheim was the first pharmaceutical company to fully outsource its operative tender management process to Transporeon in 2020. One year later, the benefits of this step have become clearly visible.

In the current volatile market situation characterised by fluctuating prices, Boehringer Ingelheim was able to quadruple its logistics tenders and ensure the robustness of its logistics processes. At the same time, Boehringer Ingelheim retains full control of all strategic decisions: the schedule, the scope of the tender, and the pool of service providers are managed by the pharmaceutical company itself.

By working with Transporeon, Boehringer Ingelheim receives better service at a lower cost. Even in times of reduced transport capacity, the pharmaceutical company obtains attractive offers via Transporeon’s active tender management. In parallel, costs and effort for the internal coordination of the tendering process decrease.

In addition, the logistics experts from Ulm regularly supply market insights to Boehringer Ingelheim to facilitate navigating the current volatile market situation, as part of their procurement excellence programme. These analyses by Transporeon have proven essential for making long-term strategic decisions.

Sören Brodowy, Head of Global Sourcing Logistics at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: “Working closely with the Transporeon employees is of paramount importance for us. They are the logistics experts for the execution of the tendering process, as well as data processing, validation and analyses.”

Expanding this partnership in the future is highly likely. Boehringer Ingelheim successfully introduced Transporeon’s spot tendering tool at a site in Belgium to bridge the shortage of air freight capacity during the pandemic. Due to this success, the pharmaceutical company is considering deploying the spot tool developed for air and ship freight across the entire company in the medium-term.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Transporeon have been working together as trusted partners in the field of contract tendering since 2010.

FourKites, a leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, has released powerful new capabilities designed to help shippers, carriers and forwarders more quickly and easily collaborate to increase end customer satisfaction, reduce supply chain costs and increase on-time delivery performance.

With ever-increasing demand, supply chain visibility has become table stakes for modern supply chains, and seamless connection and communication between carriers and shippers has never been more important. FourKites’ combination of swift carrier connections, powerful collaboration tools and the industry’s highest-quality real-time logistics data provides shippers and their forwarder/carrier partners with robust assurances of rapid, frictionless implementation and faster time to value.

Instant Messenger, now with extended capabilities that allow shippers to chat directly with forwarders and carriers, gives supply chain partners the ability to view and share important information and resolve issues together, in real time.

Without leaving the FourKites platform, track-and-trace and dispatch workers, drivers and warehouse personnel can view the critical information that affects shipments and deliveries — all in one single interface. Users can share documents, photographs and notes for any given load, as well as form online workgroups and control access as needed.

CarrierLink, the industry’s most downloaded visibility app for drivers, now includes improved turn-by-turn navigation for better route optimisation; mobile check-in; and new capabilities for updating appointment times, adding notes to loads and uploading paperwork. It also features enhanced capabilities for viewing fuel stops, weigh stations, location ratings and amenities along routes.

“We have hundreds of carriers within our network, from the courier side to the truckload side. When it comes to onboarding, FourKites has been fantastic,” said Josh Dolan, VP of Global Logistics, Cardinal Health. “They’ve done a phenomenal job working with carriers through the process and helping us fill the gap with new technologies that simplify and speed up onboarding, and enhance communication between Cardinal Health and our partners.”

The German multinational Bayer saves time while increasing customer satisfaction thanks to FourKites’ supply chain visibility platform.  The impact has already been so strong that the company has made visibility an essential part of its long-term strategy.

“Every day, our carriers automatically share location data with our FourKites platform on hundreds of loads throughout Europe,” says Edmund Jager, Head of Distribution EMEA at Bayer. “We are able to track our products minute by minute and, in real time, pass on detailed arrival times to our customers. This means the distributors we supply always know their stock situation and end customers can depend on us to get them the seeds and crop protection they need, when they need them. We look forward to onboarding more carriers and so strengthen our customer-centric approach.”

In addition, FourKites recently announced its industry-first Tracking Quality Guarantee, which establishes the highest standards in supply chain data, guaranteeing real-time visibility and predictive intelligence into a minimum of 90% of customers’ shipments — end-to-end and across every mode and geography. This differentiated approach gives supply chain partners the collaborative opportunities and network effects they need to improve customer satisfaction and optimise their supply chain performance.

“As the first mover and leading innovator in real-time visibility and supply chain management solutions, FourKites is committed to helping shippers, forwarders and carriers achieve end-to-end supply chain visibility faster, and with assurances of the highest-quality tracking in the industry,” said FourKites founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “We are excited to make these powerful new capabilities available to the community to enable greater collaboration and communication, and ultimately, value.”

Cleaning appliances manufacturer Alfred Kärcher GmbH is benefitting from the myGW customer portal of the Austrian logistics company Gebrüder Weiss.

During the hot summer months, people like to water-blast their terraces, façades or cars. Appliances made by Kärcher have become synonymous with the notion of high-pressure cleaning, with the German word Kärchern (derived from the company’s name) even making it into Duden, the German equivalent of the Oxford dictionary, meaning to clean with a high-pressure water-blaster.

A global leader in cleaning technology, it is represented in 72 countries with 127 national companies and produces and sells its extensive product range around the globe. Behind it is an equally comprehensive logistics network, one in which many different moving parts must come together perfectly for its products to be at the right place at the right time: at hardware stores, garden centres or Kärcher’s stores.

An eye on everything

In Austria, the international transport and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss is responsible for distributing Kärcher’s range of products. The logistics expert developed an impressive concept characterised by proactivity, flexibility, and transparency, the centrepiece being the new digital customer portal myGW.

In myGW logistics managers and customer advisors can keep an eye on an order at all times and are always up to date with the latest information: “When a customer calls us, there is normally a sense of urgency behind it,” explains Bernadette Nieman, Head of Customer Service, Claims & Returns at Kärcher Austria. “Mostly they want to know where a shipment is at the moment or why it hasn’t arrived yet. What’s important now is to provide reliable and transparent information to take the edge off any complaints. Experience shows that the subjective waiting time of customers is shorter if they know why they have to wait and how long for.”

New and improved

Giving reliable answers is no longer a problem since Kärcher customer service has myGW. The portal provides accurate information regarding the status, location and expected time of arrival of a shipment (ETA) in real-time. If necessary, the end customer can also be sent a link to check the shipment’s progress.

But that’s not all myGW can do. It also provides access to all relevant documents such as invoices or delivery receipts stored online, enabling them to be viewed at the touch of a button.

“Previously, we experienced difficulties rather frequently when it came to delivery receipts,” says Nieman. “Now, such requests are dealt with quickly. This is not only a relief to our customers, but also makes work easier for our employees. Long and tedious searches are now a thing of the past.”

Data reliability and transparency represent real added value for her and her team, as does the ease with which the online tool can be used along with the general improvement in communication. “Kärcher stands for solutions that are synonymous with performance, quality and reliability. myGW won us over with the very same features, making it a perfect match.”

Euro 2020 is here and despite the easing of Covid-19 restrictions with pubs finally allowed to open their doors, many fans are expected to cheer on their nation from the side-lines at home, prompting the first ‘stay-at-home’ tournament in a generation.

With fans shunning the pub in favour of the patio, data-driven supply chain company C.H. Robinson is predicting a boom in BBQs and a frenzy in football memorabilia resulting in an upturn in the home delivery market.

But how do sport-related consumables reach consumers’ front doors?

Chris Mills, director of account management, transportation at C.H. Robinson Europe, said: “The sports industry, like any other, is dependent on supplies and deliveries aided by intuitive supply chains that can get goods from A to B. Not dislike professional footballers, supply chains have been in training for months ahead of Euro 2020 as they gear up for the spike in demand from armchair supporters for electrical goods, garden furniture, BBQs and frozen foods.

“With some consumers reluctant to visit the high street, online has increasingly become the convenient way to shop. Harnessing historical data and intelligence, we’ve helped suppliers, manufacturers and retailers prepare for a huge surge in online purchases and warned about the potential for them to be concentrated in a small timeframe ahead of the tournament.”

C.H. Robinson’s alliance with the Microsoft Corporation combining the power of its Navisphere multi-modal transportation management platform with the multinational technology company’s Azure cloud platform and Internet of Things can create a logistics solution that supports the need for enhanced real-time insights and visibility. It incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence to support predictive analytics, IOT device monitoring for greater intelligence on products whilst in transit, premier data security and increased application speed.

Added Mills: “Collaborations such as these are critical to adapt to the abnormal strains that are placed on supply chains caused by major surges for goods online, like the situation that’s occurred pre-Euro 2020.

“Our predictive analytic technologies mean we have the capability to see things and act on them before they happen. This helps supply chains deal with the unpredictable and takes supply chain management from real time to prior time, from ‘track and trace’ to ‘predict and prevent’ to enable supply chains to respond to ever changing market conditions before they occur.

“Access to data allows us to predict trends and notify customers before issues things occur, and this foresight will ensure this is a tournament to remember for all the right reasons.”

 

The dangerous goods portal INFr8, first established for the air freight industry to digitally exchange dangerous goods information along the supply chain, has now been expanded to include more modes of transport. Starting immediately, the automated creation of dangerous goods documents for sea cargo (IMO declaration) and road transports (ADR accompanying documents) is also possible. Furthermore, rail transports (RID documents) will be integrated into the system this quarter.

“Thanks to the positive reaction from the air freight industry and the increasing demand from other transport sectors, we have expanded the scope of our platform,” explains Dakosy’s authorised officer Dirk Gladiator. Currently, most modes of transport pass on dangerous goods documents manually, and data needs to be re-entered at each transfer point.

The knowledge gained through the process of digitalisation of air freight, which led to enormous simplifications, can be transferred to road, rail, and sea transports. Gladiator clarifies: “In air freight, multiple entries were made by the consignors and the forwarders/dangerous goods declarants as well as the airlines/handling agents. Analysis shows that without digitalisation, ten to twelve percent of dangerous goods shipments cannot be flown out as planned, 80% of which is due to documentation errors. “The latter can be largely avoided by digitalising the paper-based processes,” confirms Gladiator.

Using the platform, the complex dangerous goods declarations are exchanged between the transport participants entirely electronically. One of the most important features is the integration of all the different dangerous goods databases: IATA, IMDG, ADR and RID. “By entering the UN number, the associated dangerous goods data is validated. In cases of restrictions and limitations, this makes it possible to intervene at an early stage,” says Gladiator.

Furthermore, INFr8 integrates the automated creation and revision of shipping labels. According to Gladiator, this function is vital, since the printing of inaccurate shipping labels leads to higher costs and, along with documentation errors, is one of the main reasons for shipments being delayed. The platform’s additional features include alerts, a document cloud, and customised statistics. Users can be integrated regardless of their technical capabilities. Access options are available via EDI interface as well as a web application. There is also a mobile app for notifications in the event of disruptions.

The INFr8 dangerous goods platform was launched at Frankfurt Airport. It is now used by representatives from the entire air freight transport chain. These include the airline Lufthansa Cargo, the handling agent LUG, consignors Siemens Healthineers and Merck Group, and forwarders DB Schenker and Geis Group.