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Tag: supply chain

Dangerous goods platform now covers more modes

Posted on by Keith McKinley

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.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa undergoes digital transformation

Posted on by David Priestman

As part of an on-going programme of digital transformation at its bottling plants, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) is collaborating with pricing and rebate management experts Flintfox, and Microsoft to modernise how it uses technology. The collaboration will help the bottling giant retire legacy solutions, to better manage pricing and overcome existing challenges at all stages of the supply chain.

Trade Revenue Management and the RMx pricing engine provide CCBA with the ability to manage advanced pricing and promotions, reduce operating costs and monitor margins. By extending the capability of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and integrating with existing e-commerce and sales force automation platforms, Flintfox will enable real-time hyper-speed pricing and help deliver accurate pricing across the supply chain.

The collaboration between Microsoft and Flintfox helps CCBA to accelerate its digital transformation journey, via seamless digital systems that enable the entire business to operate as one.

Flintfox EMEA Director Mark Conway said: “It’s an exciting time to be working with CCBA, as they bring their digital transformation vision to life via Microsoft Dynamics 365 and set out on a path of accelerated growth. Our intelligent solutions will reduce operating costs, create productivity gains and future-proof operations. What’s more, we will provide real-time pricing accuracy across CCBA’s channels and deliver significant, measurable ROI to the business.”

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa Chief Information Officer Joshua Motsuenyane said: “Because CCBA was born out of a merger of different companies, there are a number of infrastructure redundancies, supply duplications, and lines of accountability that were blurred. We needed to perfect the overall business’ ability to operate as one and improve pricing transparency and visibility.

“Flintfox and Microsoft helped us strategise how to better manage advanced pricing, promotion management, and complex supply chain pricing, as well as provide a roadmap for the future. This integration with Flintfox and Microsoft modernises the way we use technology across our entire IT landscape and allows us to completely retire legacy systems.”

Conway concluded: Intelligent, next generation price optimisation, supported by advanced machine learning isn’t just a long-term vision for supply chain pricing in manufacturing. It’s here and now. We’re looking forward to collaborating with CCBA to continually drive digital transformation that remains bleeding edge and provides a continued competitive advantage for the business.”

Gavin Holme, consulting services director, Microsoft South Africa said: “Flintfox’s Trade Revenue Management and RMx pricing extended the capabilities of our Finance and Operations solutions, enabling CCBA’s digital transformation. With Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Azure, CCBA will achieve their goal to unify operations and intelligently adjust processes in real time.”

Construction of Skandia Gateway on track

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The film “Skandia Gateway” shows how it will soon be possible for the world’s largest ship to enter the Port of Gothenburg fully loaded and provide increased efficiency and less climate footprint.

The fairway needs to be deepened to 17.5m if the world’s largest ocean-going vessels are to be able to call at the Port of Gothenburg fully loaded. This will prove crucial if Swedish industry is to have greater access to the world in the future. The Skandia Gateway project is already underway and construction is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of next year.

“We are keeping to the timetable and looking forward to breaking ground. At the moment we are working with technical solutions, calculations, risk analyses, and other preconstruction work. The environmental permit process is taking place in parallel at the Land and Environment Court. We hope to secure an environmental permit in time for commencement of construction at the beginning of next year,” said Jan Andersson, Skandia Gateway Project Manager at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

The permit application was submitted to the Land and Environment Court just before Christmas 2020, and during the spring additional documentation will be provided as necessary.

“Everything is proceeding according to plan and no unexpected opinions or objections have emerged. We are looking forward with confidence to seeing how the process will unfold as we move on to the main hearing,” said Kristina Bernstén, Skandia Gateway Sub-Project Manager, Environment, at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

Skandia Gateway has three funding bodies: the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Maritime Administration, and the Gothenburg Port Authority. The port is responsible for the cost of reinforcing the quays and dredging the docks.

“We aim to build sustainably, which means that financial and environmental considerations are our first priority. We are choosing the construction materials carefully and we are conscious of the fact that the quays need to be fit for purpose for many generations to come. To ensure this, the focus in our technical solutions is firmly on life-cycle cost analyses with a 100-year horizon. A higher investment cost initially will be outweighed by lower maintenance costs over time,” said Jan Andersson.

A film has been made to show the need and the importance of having a deeper port area if Swedish industry is to develop in the future. The film explains the work behind increasing the depth of the docks and the fairway from the current 13.5m to 17.5m. Dredging 6km of fairway will result in the removal of 12 million cubic metres of clay. At Skandiahamnen, the existing terminal and 1.2km of quays will be reinforced to allow two ocean-going vessels to load and discharge at the same time.

The first phase in the construction of Skandia Gateway is scheduled for completion in 2026.

Click here to watch the film

Manhattan Associates announces breakthrough in supply chain execution

Posted on by David Priestman

Manhattan Associates Inc. announced at its recent Momentum Connect customer conference a landmark advancement in supply chain efficiency and optimisation. With the introduction of Manhattan Active Transportation Management to the Manhattan Active Supply Chain suite, the company has unified distribution, transportation, labour and automation within a single, cloud-native application built on Manhattan Active technology.

Modern demands on supply chain organisations have exceeded the ability of traditional, portfolio-based supply chain solutions, which create artificial boundaries between distribution and transportation capabilities and limit productivity and adaptability. Manhattan Active Supply Chain eliminates these barriers by merging viewing, planning, optimisation and execution activities into a single app.

Manhattan Active Transportation Management has been fused with Manhattan Active Warehouse Management to optimise inbound and outbound planning and execution. This unified solution introduces an unprecedented level of flexibility and agility to solve problems that could not have been resolved before.

“True convergence of supply chain execution systems has always offered a tantalising opportunity for significant efficiency, productivity, and agility improvement. Unfortunately, technology limitations have made it impossible before now,” said Steve Banker, Vice President, Supply Chain Management at ARC Advisory Group. “The emergence of all-microservices solutions, like Manhattan Active Supply Chain, can help an organisation achieve a more continuous, collaborative planning and execution environment. The result is a more agile and efficient supply chain.”

With traditional supply chain suites, transportation, distribution planning and execution processes are performed independently. By unifying distribution and transportation, Manhattan has unlocked a new level of agility and responsiveness within supply chain operations. Its Active Supply Chain provides unified visibility and control of all supply chain operations, accelerating deliveries to customers thus increasing worker productivity, improving warehouse throughput and ensuring on-time deliveries.

“For years, our customers have expressed their desire to move away from running WMS and TMS independently and instead optimise and manage their inbound and outbound flow processes as a whole,” said Brian Kinsella, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Manhattan. “Legacy supply chain applications make the management of these end-to-end processes nearly impossible, because integrated applications are inherently limited in their scope and resiliency.

“Rather than integrating applications, Manhattan Active Supply Chain is a holistic collection of supply chain execution microservices, providing Manhattan and our customers with a comprehensive set of capabilities to compose end-to-end solutions. And, because all of the microservices are versionless, our customers benefit from our growing list of unified use cases over time.”

Manhattan Active Supply chain provides a single user experience across all supply chain functions. From one application, users can do everything from drill into labour productivity and robotic performance to respond to real-time shipment alerts and re-broadcasting capacity needs to change carriers quickly and easily. They can navigate seamlessly through shipments or view the real-time status of an order. As they comb through this data, they are able to take action on this information because in-line operational analytics are built directly into the execution systems.

Manhattan Active Supply Chain is the most adaptable, configurable, extensible and scalable supply chain execution system ever engineered. And it is only possible with the Manhattan Active architecture, cloud-native technology that is continuously adaptive, always current, and seamlessly interconnected.

Brexit: non-EU imports outstrip EU imports for first time

Posted on by David Priestman

Brexiteers may be celebrating the fact that EU imports to the UK were overtaken by non-EU imports for the first time, but international delivery specialist ParcelHero says that doesn’t mean Brexit is working. It just means non-EU imports to the UK have declined less alarmingly than EU imports.

As recently announced Government trade figures show that UK imports from outside the EU outstripped EU imports for the first time on record, Chancellor Rishi Sunak claimed a victory. He told the BBC that the Government had invested “hundreds of millions of pounds to help businesses adjust to those new trading arrangements and support them in the process”.

However, ParcelHero says these figures do not prove that UK importers are now discovering new products and trading partners in markets beyond the EU. Instead, they simply reveal that non-EU imports into the UK declined less alarmingly than EU imports.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: “New Government trade figures show that imports from the EU fell by £14bn to £50.6bn in the first quarter (January-March 2021) compared to the final quarter of last year (October-December 2020), before Brexit trading rules were imposed. Imports from non-EU countries also declined, but ‘only’ by £0.5bn, to £53.2bn.

“This means that – for the first time since Government records began in January 1997 – imports from beyond Europe were worth more than those from the EU. Brexiteers may try to claim this as a success, showing Britain is finding new trading partners and products from a wider range of countries; but this fails to see the full picture.

“EU sellers have simply turned their backs on the UK market. Just because non-EU imports declined less significantly than those from the EU does not mean consumers and businesses are benefiting from Brexit. Two negatives do not make a positive.

“As if the latest import figures were not dispiriting enough, British exports also declined significantly in the first quarter. The value of Britain’s exports to the EU fell a whopping £7.1bn to £32.2bn, compared to the last quarter of 2020.

“Why are these numbers so woeful? Last week, ParcelHero revealed that Brexit regulations are having a significant impact on British businesses. Over 39% of UK importers are struggling with new customs duties and 38.6% are battling increased transport costs. Exporters report similar challenges.

“It’s all because the hastily cobbled-together UK-EU free trade agreement is simply not fit for purpose. Under the deal, goods flowing between the UK and the EU that are sourced and manufactured in the UK or Europe don’t have to pay tariffs. However, how many products are entirely sourced and made in a single area in today’s world of global supply chains? The answer is very few. Electronics, for example, incorporate components from across the globe, while clothing can include materials from many continents.

“Any products unable to prove all their sourcing meets the new regulations are likely to be slapped with new duties. This has resulted in higher fees for UK importers as well as EU-based customers of UK exporters. In addition, transport costs are rising due to mounting delays and returns.

“However, there were some small, green shoots in the latest trade figures. Exports and imports both crept up by £2.3bn between February and March this year. Businesses and consumers alike will be hoping this could signal the beginning of a welcome increase in profits for exporters and more choice for shoppers.”

For more details on the increasing problems facing UK importers, CLICK HERE to see ParcelHero’s new EU-UK e-commerce report.

Zencargo raises £30m in investor funding

Posted on by David Priestman

Zencargo, the London-based digital freight forwarder enabling organisations to make smarter decisions through a real-time overview of their supply chain, has raised £30m in Series B financing, led by Digital+ Partners, and with participation from existing investors including HV Capital.

Zencargo will use this latest round of funding to grow its team from 150 to 350 people over the next two years and further expand internationally to the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and the United States. Zencargo has now raised a total of £42m, and is targeting revenues of £100m for this year, and over £200m for 2022.

Zencargo is a digital freight forwarder moving sea, air and road cargo, enabling businesses to be more efficient, accurate, and sustainable in their logistics operations.

Relied upon by the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Swoon Furniture, Farfetch, and Soho Home, Zencargo not only handles all the necessary components of transporting goods, from point of production to end-customer, including warehousing, packing, documentation, and customs clearance, but also provides complete visibility of the supply chain down to the item level.

 

Successfully navigating myriad global logistics challenges

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Events such as the Icelandic volcano eruption in 2011 that grounded thousands of flights and the more recent Suez Canal blockage illustrate that there is an almost infinite number of points at which things can start to go wrong with global logistics, writes Yaseen Khan, Chief Executive Officer NSC Global.

Enterprises that are undertaking IT logistics globally no longer just face the traditional challenges of transport, they must now carefully traverse local customs and cultures, regulatory differences and the impact of digital transformation – making up-to-date and expert knowledge essential.

In our connected and globalised world, there are numerous parties involved to get an item from where it is manufactured to its end destination. Businesses operating in a globalised economy, need to understand that cultural differences can impact how they perform in the local markets. With a sound working knowledge of local cultures, enterprises will benefit from faster transit when transporting goods within a country.

Regulatory differences

Regulatory knowledge is essential to ensure certainty of movement and avoid goods being rendered useless in the destination country. Although speed-to-market is key, don’t let that be a substitute for poor planning. Where possible consolidate loads to ship more effectively and look for flexible services.

Sea-freight may be one-fifth of the cost of airfreight door-to-door, but if you don’t have the correct clearance requests and product-specific licenses/permits, pay the right taxes and duties and meet the varying audit requirements, you risk delaying or even stopping the clearance of goods.

Almost all countries charge taxes on imported goods, but it’s rarely a flat rate even within countries. Having the knowledge to take advantage of tax exemptions or discounts can be extremely economical; equally, so can knowing when not to ship goods, but to purchase them in the country where they’re required.

The impact of digital transformation

Efficiency, optimisation, speed and timing have always been crucial in global logistics. The digitalisation of logistics, can reduce fraud, facilitate seamless transactions, enhance accuracy and will allow for an accurate recording of data. This level of transparency provides absolute clarity on where goods have come from, where and what slows down the supply chain, how it can be made more economical, and where accountability for supply chain failures lies.

The digitally accumulated data can also help to address ethical concerns around child labour, origin of materials and packaging waste while enabling faster action related to changing customer demand, optimum routes, fuel consumption and overall turnaround times.

 

Cloud Computing

The pandemic has accelerated an already existing trend – Cloud Computing. Mandatory stay-at-home orders made remote work a basic requirement for almost all organisations seeing Cloud spending soar 37% in the first quarter of 2020 alone.

Cloud computing now extends far beyond storing data and files off-site. Enterprises could choose to streamline many of their logistics needs meaning for some businesses their entire IT service stored to just one location, raising the question of whether bulky servers and other technology goods will need to be transported in the future.

What is clear is that in order for businesses providing global logistics to continue to thrive in a globalised economy, they must invest the time to address and understand cultural and regulatory differences, and the outstanding growth opportunities and competitive advantages for companies that are willing to embrace these new technologies.

Supply chain costs have a huge impact on a business’ P&L and requires careful management. By retaining some supply chain expertise within your business to oversee your supply chain solutions, and working with a global IT logistics expert that provides an end-to-end service, businesses benefit from the efficiency of single partner with the expert knowledge of local customs and legalities even in complex and unusual locations.

 

Savoye brings real-time visibility to supply chain execution

Posted on by David Priestman

Shippeo, a leader in real-time transportation visibility, has been chosen by designer and integrator of complete supply chain solutions Savoye to provide a real-time shipment visibility service within its combined warehouse and transport management system, ODATiO.

“With over 30 years’ experience designing complete logistics and supply chain management software solutions, we recently launched ODATiO to offer customers a more seamlessly integrated, modular and customisable platform for managing day-to-day supply chain execution,” explains Savoye software publishing director, Abdessalam Khobizza. “The inclusion of real-time shipment tracking is essential to enable Savoye’s ODATiO to provide its users with full visibility into the lifetime of an order, from its creation to its delivery to the end customer.”

Operating across North America, Asia, in the Middle East and Europe, Savoye offers a large portfolio of logistics solutions combining hardware and software and ranging from manual or mechanised to highly automated or robotic installations. Unveiled in early 2021, ODATiO is a new modular, fully web and cloud-native combined WMS and TMS solution.

The innovative platform makes it possible for organisations to gain a more complete view of their end-to-end supply chain transport, to help streamline processes, better overcome challenges and elevate service levels.

“Integrating Shippeo’s multimodal tracking data will enable our customers to improve decision-making abilities by combining Shippeo’s predictive capabilities to be alerted and informed, together with the power of ODATiO’s operational workflows to react,” says Khobizza.

Tracking over 10 million transport orders across 72 countries around the world, Shippeo’s RTTV connects with over 140,000 carriers. The integration allows Savoye customers to take advantage of real-time location data and predictive insights for every delivery, as well as the most reliable and accurate ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) calculation available on the market.

These data will enrich the level of information included within Savoye’s digital ecosystem and further enhance ODATiO’s capabilities, which cover flow synchronisation, order preparation, picking prioritisation, warehouse management and performance analysis.

Thanks to the information gathered through Shippeo’s standard API, users will be able to access Shippeo’s visibility platform via a direct link within ODATiO or directly in the solution making it possible to embed Shippeo’s visibility interface directly within the ODATiO platform.

Shippeo CEO Lucien Besse is thrilled to be working with Savoye: “We couldn’t be happier to see our real-time visibility and predictive capabilities creating more value for Savoye customers. Our combined solution will have a significant impact on their day-to-day supply chain activities thanks to better data and greater automation within processes.

“At Shippeo, we really believe that the future of supply chains lies in automation and we look forward to more collaborations with partners like Savoye to drive innovation in this space.”

Covid research highlights supply chain struggles

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed key differences between “fit” and “fragile” supply chain organisations with regards to how they deal with disruption, according to Gartner, Inc. The most fragile focus on short-term survival, while the fittest supply chain organisations see disruptions as inflection points to improve the value that supply chain provides to the business.

“Disruption is not a short-term situation, but a long-term trend that will most likely accelerate as we face climate change impacts, global power balance shifts and more,” said Simon Bailey, senior director analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice. “In the future, disruptions will occur more frequently and supply chains must be able to deal with whatever is coming next. Some supply chain leaders have understood that already and prepared their organisation accordingly.”

“Fit” supply chains are able to move ahead of the competition after dealing with the high-impact events, such as the Covid pandemic, while “fragile” supply chains fall behind.

Structural Shifts

For fit supply chains, the most impactful disruptions are those that involve fundamental, structural shifts in the context in which the supply chain operates, such as new technologies and changing competitive dynamics.

By contrast, fragile supply chains find operationally focused disruptions — such as demand and supply shifts — to be most impactful. While focusing on these operational challenges, they lose sight of their long-term goals and overlook how structural shifts could help them maximise the value and thus they fall behind the fit supply chains.

“It’s not the type of disruption that determines the supply chain impact. The type of supply chain determines the impact of the disruption,” Mr. Bailey said. “Fit supply chains excel at focusing on the structural disruption and proactively translating those into competitive advantage. They are able to change their organisational design to capitalise on structural shifts and create new value for their customers.”

Long-Term View and Investments

One of the most visible differences between the approach of fit and fragile supply chains to disruption is how they treat their long-term strategies and investments. Most fit supply chains maintain focus on the long term and preserve strategic investments during disruptive events, while fragile supply chains prioritise current-year performance and cut strategic investments.

“During a disruption, supply chain leaders should try to avoid emergency cost cutting that put both short- and long-term effectiveness at risk. Instead, cost optimisation should be an ongoing effort in the supply chain and cost decisions must take all the operating outcomes across fulfilment, reliability, risk and growth into consideration,” Mr. Bailey concluded.

 

 

woom digitises supply chains for faster availability

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Austrian children’s bike producer woom, based in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, has commissioned German company Setlog to set up and implement its OSCA cloud-based supply-chain-management software. The goal is to achieve secure procurement of products and managing rapidly growing procurement volume due to accelerating business growth at woom.

The abbreviation OSCA stands for Online Supply Chain Accelerator. The staff in Klosterneuburg is relying on this software to speed up procurement processes and slash procurement times. Moreover, the solution will make all of the procedures along global supply chains more transparent and efficient.

“I am convinced that OSCA will give us major support as we tackle the current challenges in the supply chain,” says Guido Dohm, Managing Director of woom. “The cloud-based technology will improve the reliability of statements about the availability of the bikes. Real-time information and more efficient communication will cut procurement times.”

“We are pleased that the young and innovative company, woom, is relying on OSCA to manage their value chain.” says Ralf Duester, Managing Director of Setlog: “The focus of the implementation will be to create transparency along the entire supply chain and accelerate processes through collaborative work on a single platform between all of the partners involved.”

Over the coming months, departments at woom will be networked with suppliers, factories, warehouses, freight forwarders, shipping lines and quality assurance personnel through the platform of its German partner. Order tracking, including document exchange, will be fully automated and paperless – container transport will be optimised. All communication will be handled directly through the dialogue function of the platform.

The woom supply-chain team in Klosterneuburg can centrally manage and control all procurement procedures – from supplier selection to price negotiations and allocation of production orders, through to production and shipping management.

“The new digital supply-chain management not only means cutting procurement times and better service quality for our customers, but it also encourages the steady integration of social standards into our operational procurement activities and will help us to be more conscientious in our use of resources,” says Dohm.

The digitalisation of supply-chain management is just one of a range of measures designed to improve reliability in procurement and raise sustainability at woom. Another measure is a gradual shift of production for the European market to Europe. Since the beginning of this year, at a factory owned by the German company Sprick Cycle GmbH located in the southern Polish town of Świebodzin, woom Original bikes – the classic woom 1 through 6 children’s bikes – have been rolling off the production line.

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