Tag: IT|software|supply chain

Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, has announced that C.H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics service providers, is using Descartes MacroPoint to expand the options carriers can use to connect with the company’s technology.

“We’re pleased to be able to help carriers in C.H. Robinson’s North American freight network delivers important information on their shipments,” said Dan Cicerchi, General Manager, Transportation Management at Descartes. “Supply chains today are extremely fast-paced and fluid, and the ability to access timely insights into the precise movement of goods is critical for logistics service providers and shippers alike.”

C.H. Robinson offers carriers digital connectivity through its Navisphere Carrier website and app, direct integrations with carriers’ own technology and API integration with third-party tools such as the most popular ELDs. For carriers that use Descartes MacroPoint to provide status updates on the freight they’re hauling, C.H. Robinson has extended its agreement with Descartes so that carriers can seamlessly continue to transmit updates via their preferred tool.

Descartes MacroPoint is a cloud-based multimodal visibility platform designed to help manufacturers, retailers, distributors and logistics services providers gain better control of freight movement through real-time location, status, and estimated-time-of-arrival (ETA) data on their shipments. The platform connects road, air and ocean carriers via telematics/electronic logging devices, transportation management systems, a mobile driver application, APIs and the Descartes Global Logistics Network, the world’s largest multimodal messaging network.

Using Descartes MacroPoint, logistics service providers and shippers can improve customer service, increase distribution efficiency, better collaborate with customers, suppliers and carriers, and minimise the impact of disruptions and late delivery penalties.

Logistics platform Trans.eu has developed a new haulage freight exchange, called Private Freight Exchange, which enables freight forwarders to invite hauliers to their own secure and private digital space, communicating directly with their trusted transport service providers.

The platform, which speeds up communication between forwarders and hauliers that have already established a positive working relationship, was developed by Trans.eu in direct response to customer demand.

For large forwarders, Trans.eu has also developed the Corporate Freight Exchange, which enables the management of freight allocation and service providers across a corporation’s network.

“With our new Private Freight Exchange platform, we are closing the gap between the contract and spot markets,” said Aleksandra Marszałek (pictured), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Western Europe, Trans.eu.

“With the solution, freight forwarders and shippers can quickly and easily set up a private freight exchange with their individual haulier network and use our proven tools for efficient cooperation.”

Hauliers registered on the Trans.eu platform can also use its Loads2Go mobile app, which greatly improves communication by providing easy access to freight offers and the ability to respond rapidly from any location.

Trans.eu can expand a client’s Private Freight Exchange database to include any number of trusted hauliers.

The platform helps to actively onboard hauliers and proposes transport companies that operate on the requested routes and meet set security criteria. Furthermore, parameters for largely automated freight assignments can also be stored in the Private Freight Exchange.

Trans.eu developed Private Freight Exchange in reaction to the increasing demand from forwarders for greater security, digitisation and the need to be able to conduct freight offer processes in a non-public arena.

Trans.eu also identified that hauliers were more willing to do business with a forwarder they already know.

“Private Freight Exchange is a solution that we developed after a thorough analysis of our customers’ needs,” said Marcin Haładuda, Global Business Development Manager, Trans.eu.

“We are convinced that the private freight exchange can not only solve problems such as working with unknown contractors and slow email/telephone based communication but also boost the ability of European haulage to operate in a far more sustainable way.”

Private Freight Exchange also allows market price comparison and can easily interface with existing transport management systems eradicating the need for any manual data inputting.

One Stop, the UK convenience retailer with over 900 company and franchise neighbourhood stores nationwide, has benefited from more accurate stock forecast and higher availability, without increased spoilage, thanks to its implementation of RELEX Solutions’ machine learning-based demand forecasting solution to effectively manage supply chain complexities across its entire product range.

One Stop has been a customer of Helsinki, Finland-based RELEX Solutions since 2010. In March 2019, the retailer expanded its partnership with RELEX when it implemented the RELEX supply chain planning and management solution in its UK stores and distribution centres.

The RELEX solution delivered a range of positive results for One Stop – including a 1.9% increase in in-store availability, a 4% reduction in fresh spoilage value, and an overall increase in sales. Based on these results, One Stop added the RELEX machine learning-based demand forecasting solution to manage its more specific forecasting challenges.

The RELEX demand forecasting solution uses machine learning to manage One Stop’s broad selection of product offerings – ranging from ultra-fresh products with short spoiling times to more ambient inventory with longer shelf life. It also assesses the demand for products that are sensitive to external factors such as weather. In addition, the solution identifies sales for products that are easily cannibalised by promotions on similar items.

Richard Turton, Head of Supply Chain at One Stop, said: “RELEX’s machine learning-based forecasting is critical to our ability to accurately forecast our most challenging categories, whether short shelf-life items or those with weather-driven demand.”

In the four months since going live with the RELEX forecasting solution, One Stop has seen major improvements including:

• 3.17% increase in forecast accuracy at a product-week level
• 1.82% increase in forecast accuracy at a product-store-week level
• 1.5% in in-store availability across One Stop’s entire range, which contributed to a significant sales increase
• 8.5% increased availability for ultra-fresh products with shelf life under three days with no corresponding rise in spoilage

“You simply can’t overstate the value that AI-based forecasting brings to the retail environment. RELEX’s machine learning drove an immediate improvement to forecast accuracy that we felt throughout the supply chain and store and DC operations,” concluded Turton.

GoRamp has attracted an investment of €1.5m from international venture capital funds and the community of business angels/founders from companies including UPS, Shopify, Infoscout. The investment will be used mainly to expand its sales and marketing team for the Western Europe and US markets.

GoRamp, which has been actively operating for three years in the market, has a SaaS solution, which enables manufacturing, retail and production companies digitise their logistics operations through sourcing, planning and monitoring transportation shipments. According to the data provided by GoRamp clients, the system eliminates 70% of operational work, increases 20% of warehouse loading efficiency and decreases logistics costs by up to 25%.

Its CEO/CoFounder Jevgenij Polonis says that the quarantine reality has prompted the scale of the business to Western European markets. “Transportation volumes of production and trade companies have grown drastically during the lockdown and the resources required to meet customer needs had shrunk and continue to shrink. Carrier costs are rising, and warehousing capacities are being exceeded.

“We hear continuously that manufacturing and trading companies experience a never-ending Christmas rush. When capacity expansion is no longer possible, then operations have to be streamlined and more has to be done with the same resources. Digital solutions are irreplaceable and our solution helps customers eliminate more than two-thirds of operational manual labour, save time, streamline supply chain operations and do up to twice as much work with the available resources.

“We see that the demand for our product in the is growing because of more attention to sustainability and digitalisation of manufacturing companies. That’s why timing for aggressive expansion being first-movers is more than perfect.”

In 2021, GoRamp’s business volumes tripled. Now the Lithuanian company operates in 18 different countries not only in Europe, but also US, Canada and Australia. The number of GoRamp customers grew by 250% and the company is already trusted by leading worldwide names including Pfizer, Thermofisher Scientific, Continental, Mondelez, Storenso, and others.

Among GoRamp customers, there are businesses operating in the sectors of manufacturing, pharmaceutical, automotive, wood, furniture, metal, energy, and plastics.

The investment will be targeted to increase business volumes in Europe , where product sales are already showing promising results (the UK, Benelux, Poland, Germany) and to enter new markets (France, Spain, Italy) and gain more traction in US region.

The household goods specialist Wenko Wenselaar is accelerating the digitisation of its supply chain. From the third quarter of 2022 on, the family-owned company from Germany will manage its supply chain centrally using Setlog‘s cloud-based software tool OSCA.

“The experience gained from the supply chain disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic made us realise that production and goods transport must be controlled with a digital operation platform in the future,” emphasises Niklas Koellner, Managing Director at Wenko Wenselaar.

“This way, we bring transparency into the supply chain and can inform suppliers and forwarders of changes via a central tool – Excel spreadsheets and hectic email correspondence become unnecessary.” The company chose Setlog’s software suite because the best-practice version is easy to use, Koellner said.

“The software can be implemented quickly and enables optimal control of all logistics processes,” explains Ralf Duester, a member of Setlog’s board of directors. The first meeting with the logistics department took place at the end of February, and the launch is already planned for the beginning of the third quarter this year.

Whether shower rails, ironing boards or kitchen scales: Wenko offers more than 5,000 articles in the bathroom, kitchen, laundry, and living sectors. The goods are manufactured in the Far East, Eastern Europe, Spain, France, and Germany.

In future, Wenko will transmit orders to its suppliers from the ERP system via OSCA – the majority of the approximately 100 partners as well as the three main freight forwarders will be connected to the software within a very short time. The SCM software serves as a central communication and processing tool for all partners along the supply chain – from order confirmation and delivery planning to the booking of transports and shipments.

In addition to costs, volumes, lead- and transport times, drayage control and carton packing lists (including label generation), delivery dates can also be controlled. Wenko’s freight forwarding partners will transmit transport notifications, updates and tracking data directly into the system.

A KPI dashboard visualises the most important key figures for the 40 or so Wenko employees who will be working directly with the solution. As soon as delivery data changes or delays occur, all partners in the supply chain are informed simultaneously. From go-live onwards, all of the around 4,000 shipments per year will run via OSCA.

Most of the goods are delivered to two buffer warehouses in Germany. From there, they are transported to Wenko’s central warehouse in Hueckelhoven, where around 34,000 pallet spaces are available. The company delivers to a total of 81 countries, with a focus on Europe. Although the launch of OSCA SCM is still pending, the Wenko management is already considering further digitisation stages and has already analysed the OSCA modules for quality management and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

For the 2023 implementation of the German supply chain due diligence law, the family-owned company with its 570 employees wants to be in the best possible position.

Blue Yonder, a leader in digital supply chain and omni-channel commerce fulfilment, and Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, have formed a partnership to transform access to disparate data for supply chain management.

Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform, Powered by Snowflake, is an end-to-end supply chain solution that enables retailers, manufacturers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to better predict, prevent and resolve disruptions across their business in order to mitigate risks and tackle growing industry supply chain challenges.

Blue Yonder is partnering with Snowflake for its unique ability to meet the diverse requirements of Luminate customers and its shared vision to eliminate data silos in the industry. The two companies will collaborate to address the evolving supply chain needs of joint customers with the goal of making data more accessible and actionable.

Bringing together Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform and the Snowflake Data Cloud will empower joint customers with an end-to-end visibility into their supply chain for faster, more accurate and informed decision making. Starting with Luminate Control Tower and Luminate Demand Edge, joint customers will be able to use a single-source data infrastructure that eliminates workstream siloes and provides real-time, end-to-end orchestration across planning, execution and commerce.

In addition, as part of the partnership, Blue Yonder will leverage Snowflake’s newly announced Retail Data Cloud, which unites Snowflake’s integrated data platform, Snowflake- and partner-delivered solutions, and industry-specific datasets and models.

Now Powered by Snowflake, Luminate Platform will provide:

• Scalability. Blue Yonder’s customers will be able to quickly aggregate and transform data, build out machine learning (ML) models, and ingest data into the platform for faster processing and better scalability.
• Speed. Customers will be able to process data much faster, enabling comprehensive insights and automated decisions that drive more effectiveness and efficiencies across their organisations.
• Reduced data redundancies. Organisations will be able to work from a single source of data truth. This eliminates disparate data and siloed workflows across applications to ensure common data usage and integrated workflows.

“In today’s dynamic environment, our customers need to have a single source of truth at their fingertips to better manage disruptions and understand the impacts – both short- and long-term – of decisions made within their supply chains,” said Mark Morgan, Interim CEO, Blue Yonder.

“By partnering with Snowflake, we are able to help our customers transform their access to disparate data – and how they leverage it – so they can better predict and pivot before disruptions occur, understand any potential impacts, and put in place prescriptive steps to mitigate risks to get back on-track to meet customer expectations.”

“Our partnership with Blue Yonder will help prepare the supply chain across retailers, brands, manufacturers, and 3PLs with a data-driven future,” said Rosemary Hua, Global Industry Lead, Retail and CPG at Snowflake.

“With Luminate Platform, Powered by Snowflake, joint customers can uncover a single source of truth from planning through execution, connecting their business from end-to-end to reduce supply chain risks, enhance customer experiences, and help drive business growth.”

Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform is a single-source data infrastructure that eliminates workstream siloes and provides end-to-end supply chain visibility and orchestration across planning, execution and commerce. Blue Yonder’s Luminate Control Tower functions as the nerve centre of the platform, providing end-to-end visibility for faster, more accurate and more automated decision making.

Luminate Platform leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and ML to empower users with prescriptive resolutions to disruptions and challenges, taking prioritisation and impact analysis into account to reduce supply chain risks, optimise inventory positions, reduce logistics costs, and maximise customer experiences and revenue.

OCI, ranked as the third-fastest-growing company in Europe, has developed a powerful new way for organisations to overcome their supply chain challenges: commercial process outsourcing (CPO). The third-placed ranking is according to the Financial Times Europe’s 1000 fastest-growing companies report researched by Statista.

Listed as the fastest-growing UK business, OCI achieved revenues of €568.3m in 2020. The company attributes its CAGR of 409.59% to its ability to adapt quickly and resourcefully to the turbulent times the world has found itself in.

Optimisation of the supply chain is one of the most important business challenges today. Brexit and Covid19 have exacerbated the issue, which is fast becoming more acute due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. OCI specialises in solving these challenges for large corporates and governments and its CPO service has underpinned its rapid growth.

“We are solving problems for the world’s biggest market,” explained Oliver Chapman (pictured), CEO and founder of OCI. “Everything people have, their clothes, furniture, cars, and the food they eat was subject to a supply chain.

“Looking ahead, OCI will continue to focus its efforts on digital supply chains, as the global trade and value of data will dramatically surpass that of tangible goods by 2025.”

OCI empowers its clients, and notably their buyers and suppliers, to collectively overcome their supply chain issues with solutions including; contract negotiations and flexible funding. Its unique approach harnesses bespoke technology and business intelligence practices to automate procurement and sales processes.

Its know-how entails a broad range of internal expertise, encompassing trade experts, financiers and years of practical experience in dealing with intractable supply chain issues.

When it comes to jeans, the name MUSTANG immediately comes to mind in the fashion industry. To bring transparency and structure into the supply chain, the company has been relying on the SCM software OSCA since 2021. In doing this, the Schwaebisch Hall-based company was able to achieve end-to-end visibility in the supply chain.

When the name “MUSTANG” is mentioned in the fashion industry, insiders like to tell this story: MUSTANG was founded in 1932 in Kuenzelsau by Luise Hermann as “L. Hermann Kleiderfabrik” as a reaction to the stagnating timber trade business of her husband Heinrich Hermann. The company initially manufactured workwear. When a certain Albert Sefranek married the founders’ daughter, Erika Hermann, in 1945, it was him who had the idea to manufacture jeans instead.

The story is legendary: In a bar frequented by many American soldiers in 1948 in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel, Sefranek traded six bottles of Hohenlohe schnapps for six of the modern pants from the US. Albert´s mother-in-law, the original founder, initially refused to sew the “tight American pants”. But the very first order swayed her fast: “300 jeans, please!” The mother-in-law agreed, and the business took off.

The only constant in life is change – this motto also reflects the company’s further history. In 1989, for example, the company obtained the license for JOOP! jeans, ending in 2003 with the sale of the JOOP! brand. At the end of the 90s, the jeans market was in crisis as overall demand was declining. MUSTANG closed the production facility in Kuenzelsau, where 15% of the total volume was still manufactured at that time. The restructuring measures continued until the early 2000s.

Today, the company produces abroad. Suppliers in Tunisia and Turkey manufacture about half of the volume, the rest comes from the Far East – Pakistan, India and China. Between 25 and 30 suppliers work for the company, which has been based in Schwaebisch Hall since 2020. Around 95% of the goods are transported by large container ships; only in exceptional cases do jeans start their journey to Europe by plane. MUSTANG works with five different logistics carriers. The pants specialist consolidates all imported goods in a warehouse of fashion logistics company Meyer & Meyer in Wittenberge (Brandenburg). Around six million MUSTANG units pass through the facility every year.

All sales channels are fulfilled from Wittenberge. The retail sector with 90 stores, 45 outlets and online sales accounts for about 50% of the total volume. The production setup with up to 30 suppliers and an agency in Hong Kong works – but has become increasingly complex in times of volatile supply chains. Whether short notice volume changes or unplanned delays: Until August 2021, such data had to be entered manually into the ERP system for the total of 2,500 shipments per year. There were tracking lists in Excel for purchase orders and forwarders received change notifications by e-mail.

“It was a huge manual effort and we suffered from information silos. The system was also error-prone,” reports Signe Oepen (pictured). She has been COO of the company since 2020 and leads the operations team with 35 employees. In the 21st century, ordering processes are becoming faster and production more complex. Therefore, at the end of 2020, MUSTANG started looking for modern software to get more visibility into the supply chain and speed up processes.

Within a short period of time and after a selection process, MUSTANG chose Setlog’s cloud-based software OSCA. “With OSCA, we get more transparency into our supply chain and can track purchase orders digitally. This is an important pillar for our growth strategy,” announced MUSTANG CEO Andreas Baur in January 2021. According to COO Oepen, the crucial factor for the decision to use OSCA was its simple implementation process, which enables rapid and comprehensive handling of all supply chain processes.

Simple implementation? What might apply to normal times turns out to be quite the challenge in times of a global pandemic. After all, working short-time does not necessarily support shorter processes. “But thanks to frequent catch-ups and feedback loops between MUSTANG and Setlog, which entailed a meeting every two weeks, Setlog implemented the software very professionally,” reports Oepen. Today, dozens of employees access OSCA.

The fashion company uses OSCA SCM for scheduling, production reports, transportation, warehousing and reporting. What that means is that MUSTANG reports its purchase orders from the ERP system via OSCA to the suppliers or the agency in Hong Kong. The SCM software serves as centralised communication tool – from order confirmation and delivery planning to the booking of shipments.

In addition to costs, the employees can also monitor volumes, lead times, transport times and delivery dates. Suppliers and agencies enter transport notifications and tracking data into the system. Dashboards allow users to view the respective status of orders and shipments. “We have become much faster with OSCA and can easily enter all changes into the software,” says Oepen.

If delivery dates change, all partners in the supply chain are informed simultaneously and in real time. “Now it’s not a problem if an employee is on vacation. In the past, we sometimes had to sift through a lot of emails to find relevant information,” says the operations lead. She also points out one special feature: Information on packing lists is transmitted to the logistics centre in Wittenberge via an interface once shipments are finalised. This allows the logistics specialists to plan labour even before the goods arrive.

In addition to the topic of digitisation, MUSTANG is also committed to sustainability. When it comes to environmental protection, OSCA also helps significantly in further bringing transparency into the value chain. MUSTANG can enter so-called sustainability features for purchase orders into the software. For example: “Sustainable cotton” is marked in a field when an order is placed. The agency or suppliers can then see that this specification has been linked to the order.

Even through the waves of the pandemic, it was still smooth sailing for MUSTANG – thanks to the operations team and OSCA. Because container ships did not leave ports or were delayed due to lockdowns in production countries, goods were in danger of arriving too late. MUSTANG changed transport modes a few times – from sea to air – to gain more speed. Before the pandemic, MUSTANG airfreighted only 5% of their parts, during the Covid-19 pandemic they involuntarily shipped 20 percent by air. “These very last-minute re-bookings are more controllable thanks to OSCA,” Oepen says.

Whether it’s disruptions in global transportation, pandemics, environmental disasters, or political crises: “Without a modern IT landscape, including not only SCM solutions but also ERP systems, production planning, customs brokerage solutions, data warehouses and payment systems, consumer goods manufacturers are ill-prepared for the challenges of the future,” says Ralf Duester, member of Setlog’s board of directors. According to him, the most important trends include the

increasing complexity in procurement and distribution, the shift from push to pull markets, an acceleration of ordering process, and the growing need for additional services and all-in-one solutions. “MUSTANG has impressively shown how – thanks to a dedicated IT team, a strong IT infrastructure and collaborative supply chain partners – a fashion company made it through a difficult period and has positioned itself well for the future,” Duester said.

Trax Technologies has entered into a strategic partnership with project44, a world-leading supply chain visibility platform for shippers and logistics service providers.

Trax Technologies is a global leader in Transportation Spend Management elevating freight audit and payment (FAP) through advanced technologies and premium solutions for global shippers and Logistics Service Providers with complex transportation logistics ecosystems. project44, based in Chicago Illinois, is the most advanced, international provider of connected and automated visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights into the physical flow of goods all over the world.

The project44 and Trax partnership creates the leading Transportation Spend Management solution that brings visibility to the supply chain’s physical and financial logistics flow of data into one technology ecosystem for shippers and logistics service providers to drive an optimised Cost-to-Serve for logistics spend while maintaining the highest levels of On-Time-in-Full (OTIF) service and performance.

The strategic partnership of project44’s visibility of the physical event data of shipments with Trax’s visibility and control of transportation spend through global Freight Audit and Payment create an unparalleled solution for global enterprise shippers and logistics service providers linking shipment performance and cost-to-serve with real time insights.

“Many of our customers have shared with us the struggle that they have seeing the movement of goods globally and aligning that with their decisions about cost-to-serve. Then to add on top the desire to do that proactively and with speed. We are extremely excited to be the only Transportation Spend Management provider to bring this partnership and that opportunity to our current and future customers.” said Josh Bouk, President of Trax.

“With this exciting partnership with project44, we can now help our customers advance how they manage the multiple legs of their supply chain, increase the quantity and quality of the data and the actionable insights at their fingertips, and ultimately improve service timeliness and efficiency for their customers.”

The partnership between Trax and project44 brings improved decision making to customers of both companies. The benefits of the partnership include actionable insights into transportation activities and the resulting impact on costs leading to real time problem solving, improved planning and rate management, greater customer satisfaction, and more collaborative shipper-carrier relationships.

Additionally, the one-to-many integration capabilities of both project 44 and Trax ensure insights into both performance and cost across the globe, regardless of technology stack, region, mode, lane, or carrier.

“We are excited to be working with Trax to combine visibility into the movement of goods with the financial impact of those transportation events,” said project44 President Tim Bertrand. “Together with Trax, project44 is focused on providing much needed visibility and actionable insights into the events within the global supply chain. Our solutions, joined together, ensure ease and confidence in smarter decision making, which is now more essential than ever to address mounting supply chain bottlenecks.”

“This partnership of Trax and project44 makes me incredibly excited for our global customers,” said Chris Cassidy, Executive Vice President of Sales and Strategic Partnerships. “The real time problem solving, improved planning, and uniquely robust transportation data and insights now available for our customers will dramatically improve the cost and service effectiveness of their supply chain control tower, leading to increased customer satisfaction and improved operating margins.”

Trax customers, and their $22+ billion in transportation spend under management, achieve greater control and transparency over transportation spend, a growing portion of the cost-to-serve for all global enterprises and LSPs, through a robust software and analytics platform that elevates global freight auditing, cost allocation, logistics data management, payment automation, and supply chain financing.

With project44, Trax now offers end-to-end, real-time supply chain visibility, cost optimisation, and working capital solutions for shippers, carriers, and 3PL/4PLs within the global multi-modal market, and the company is a trusted partner of many of the world’s largest and most sophisticated supply chains.