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Tag: supply chain

Logistics 5.0 Opportunity to Improve Resilience, Sustainability

Posted on by Keith McKinley

DANX Carousel Group’s thought leadership white paper, ‘Logistics 5.0: Strategy Beyond Data – Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity,’ concludes that adaptability, resilience, and carbon footprint reduction are the key areas for technology investment to focus on as the supply chain industry enters the next chapter of digital transformation.

The report, which surveyed supply chain leaders, acknowledges the leap forward brought about by digital transformation from Logistics 4.0, but forewarns how Logistics 5.0 will demand a broader approach to how technology is used.

“When deciding on new technology to support your business it is important, from a technology perspective, not to be overly excited by the new shiny toys out there,” said Thomas Wad Jelle (pictured), Chief Technology and Information Officer, Danx Carousel.

“Instead, focus on the business risks and customer requirements to understand what needs to be solved and how technology can be part of that solution. There is no silver bullet for bringing your data perfectly together across companies and supply chain.”

In a note of caution, the white paper highlighted concern among those surveyed over the worrying lack of talent needed to make successful digital transformation and development possible. The report revealed that 21 percent of organisations attributed their experienced disruption to a loss or lack of talent, while 15 percent are struggling to find the right people to lead their organisation into this new era of optimisation.

“Technology is the enabler, not the solution,” said Ulrik Find, Chief Operations Officer, DANX Carousel Group, adding that tapping into the talent pool and attracting the right people to a career in the supply chain industry is essential.

Find illustrated his point by pointing to the example of organisations that had the right tech during the pandemic, but lacked the “nimble, ‘fleet of foot’ mentality” embodied by many start-ups who thrived.

When setting out his three-point roadmap to transformation, Find also emphasised the need for a ‘mindset shift’ among industry leaders, calling for them to reinvent how they attract talent, who they do business with and why, how they build their strategy, and where they allocate their capital.

“The dawn of Logistics 5.0 has very much arrived – it marks a new phase in the supply chain, one that is heading toward an increasingly digital world, but this time with the incorporation of sustainability and learnt lessons from the past,” concluded Find.

 

Transporeon Unveils Platform Innovations

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Transporeon, a leading Transportation Management Platform and a Trimble Company, has announced new platform innovations that enhance its spot quotation, contract rate benchmarking and freight audit capabilities. With a robust network of 1,400+ shippers and retailers and 150,000+ carriers and logistic service providers, Transporeon’s neutral Transportation Management Platform (TMP), which provides equal benefits to both shippers and carriers and enables companies to simplify collaboration, will now further streamline internal operations and embrace new business opportunities.

Stephan Sieber, CEO of Transporeon, commented: “In today’s fast-paced world of transportation and logistics, adaptability is key for companies to survive and thrive. Digital technologies can significantly reduce cumbersome, manual processes. We have seen that when companies adopt more collaborative approaches, improved efficiency often follows. This is precisely what Transporeon’s platform enables. With our latest platform innovations, logistics teams can gain access to even more detailed market insights and codify tedious manual tasks into fully automated processes – not just within their own company, but between business partners.”

Autonomous Quotation

Price negotiations remain opaque and manual in the growing freight spot market. Freight forwarders, brokers and LSPs spend considerable time manually researching and building quotes.

Transporeon’s Autonomous Quotation solves this challenge by enabling brokers and LSPs to prioritise incoming transport requests easily and automatically serve customers with instant, accurate pricing for truckload spot transports based on predicted market rates.

By fully automating the spot bidding process with Autonomous Quotation, brokers and LSPs can increase the volume of opportunities they quote for, which in turn, can lead to new business opportunities. Automating the process can also unlock cost-savings by minimising the manual work involved in the quotation process.

Autonomous Quotation generates quotes based on companies’ individual quotation strategies. Users can define their own tactics based on criteria including margin requirements, equipment type, distance, stop location and pick-up and delivery windows. The module is based on a customised trained prediction model and is backed by data science and machine learning algorithms that incorporate bidding outcomes over time to increase accuracy.

Jonah McIntire, Director Procurement and Chief Network Officer at Transporeon, said: “Freight brokers and logistics service providers have faced an uphill battle when competing in the spot market, navigating time-consuming manual price negotiations and freight auction portals. With Autonomous Quotation, companies can decouple their spot revenue growth from their staffing costs to win those shipments by issuing quotes instantly, accurately and at scale. No more manual admin but more opportunities. After all, you can only win what you can quote!”

Rate Benchmark

Rate Benchmark extends the capabilities of Transporeon’s existing Market Insights solution, which democratises truckload pricing by providing real-time insights into markets, lanes and their development. Rate Benchmark takes Market Insights one step further by allowing companies to benchmark their contracted rates against the market.

With Rate Benchmark, users can easily spot opportunities and make informed procurement and pricing decisions and improve tenders. It calculates average monthly contract rates on a postal code level and compares them with the user’s rate on the same lane.

McIntire explained: “Shippers, carriers and logistics service providers have very few reliable and neutral data sources that deliver high-quality freight rate information. When Transporeon launched Market Insights, it had a transformative effect on our network. Rate Benchmark builds on this success, permitting customers to compare their contracts against the market with precision. We’re delighted to share this development with our network.”

Freight Audit

Freight Audit represents the next evolution of Transporeon’s audit functionality. It allows customers to audit shipments executed on Transporeon’s platform and combines a variety of specific capabilities, including cost allocation, online dispute management, invoice legal information audit, billing instructions, accruals and accounts payable. Freight Audit doesn’t require additional customer input as it uses existing platform data, such as rates and transport orders.

Freight Audit minimises invoice discrepancies through upfront billing instructions. Fully integrated with the Transporeon platform, it helps to eliminate the need for separate tools for freight buyers and logistics providers. Moreover, the product is not limited to the invoice audit – it provides an accounts payable file, fully automating the accounting process.

Each process within Freight Audit has a complete audit trail for compliance, and invoices are approved according to governmental invoice requirements. In addition, it enhances data accuracy by ensuring all data is confirmed by shippers, carriers and FAP (freight audit and payment). As a result, Freight Audit enables companies to eliminate transport overspend and simplify internal and external compliance.

Stefanie Bergfeld, Director Audit and Payment at Transporeon, added: “With fragmented finance and audit processes, it can be easy to overspend on transport and make compliance missteps. Not only does Freight Audit address these problems, but it also significantly reduces manual processes with a high level of automation, minimising administrative work. Thanks to its seamless integration with the Transporeon platform, Freight Audit can also be used by smaller customers who wouldn’t normally look for a standalone audit solution.”

The three innovations were unveiled at Transporeon NEXT, Transporeon’s flagship bi-annual launch event, which is taking place this week at its annual summit.

Freight Marketplace Launched

Transporeon furthermore announced the launch of Freight Marketplace, a neutral (of equal benefit to both shippers and carriers) deal-making hub for freight procurement.

Both buyers and sellers of transportation services face ongoing challenges in aligning capacity and assessing fair pricing. In addition, insufficient transparency and fragmented systems can lead to low relevance on carrier tender invitations and inefficient alignment with shippers’ service preferences. Negotiating efficiently and fairly is also a challenge due to the lack of standardised data sets, which hinder like-for-like comparisons and make it difficult to consider factors beyond price, such as sustainability and service levels.

Transporeon’s Freight Marketplace addresses these challenges head-on with a new solution designed to transform logistics procurement and redefine how companies buy, sell, negotiate and contract. Its key benefits include:

  • A central location for deal-making: Freight Marketplace unites carriers and shippers ‘under one roof’ to do business based on their specific needs, capabilities and requirements. It taps into Transporeon’s extensive network of 1,400+ shippers and 158,000+ carriers for instant scale, creating a definitive catalogue of buyers and sellers.
  • Simplified negotiations: Freight Marketplace uses advanced algorithms to simplify negotiations and optimise the procurement process.
  • Multi-dimensional negotiations that factor in sustainability: Negotiations between shippers and carriers often focus solely on price, disregarding other factors such as volume, lead time and sustainability. Freight Marketplace solves this challenge, enabling shippers and carriers to factor pricing, volume, CO2 emissions and more into negotiations. Buyers can prioritise low-emission options, while sellers have a platform to showcase their efforts in reducing emissions.
  • Enhanced visibility and transparency: Freight Marketplace allows logistics providers to build comprehensive profiles that include their expertise, services, performance metrics and fleet data. To establish transparency, it blends self-declared facts with third-party verified information and real-world insights from the Transporeon platform. Shippers have similar profiles, enabling both parties to search for partners that precisely match their specific requirements, ensuring a smooth matchmaking process.

Platform neutrality

Freight Marketplace drives value for both buyers and sellers through neutrality, ensuring an environment where all players can benefit equally:

Buyers benefit from pre-structured, standardised data that simplifies finding new partners through high-quality profiles. Freight Marketplace makes it easy to access fair pricing and optimise decisions based on other factors such as volume, lead time, and sustainability.

Sellers gain access to a broader range of shippers and mini tenders, allowing them to win new business. Since every event is structured the same way, sellers can also evaluate opportunities more efficiently, meaning they no longer need to decipher shipper-specific jargon or endless Excel table names.

Sieber said: “Finding reliable partners, aligning capacity and securing fair agreements is a long-standing industry challenge. That’s why we built Freight Marketplace to take freight procurement to the next level. At its core, our new solution is a one-stop shop for deal-making, empowering buyers and sellers alike to connect, negotiate and close new business. This is supported by advanced algorithms, full transparency and a focus on sustainability.”

Chris Keating (pictured, left), Group Head of Strategy at Trimble, has been announced as the incoming CEO of Transporeon as Sieber will be stepping down and leaving the business at the end of this year. Additionally, it was revealed that, following Trimble’s takeover of Transporeon, the Transporeon brand will be withdrawn towards the end of 2024, meaning the business will be henceforth known purely as Trimble.

Automotive Supply Chains not Sustainable

Posted on by David Priestman

According to the latest report The automotive supply chain: Pursuing long-term resilience from the Capgemini Research Institute, automotive organisations now feel more confident to tackle future supply chain disruptions. To achieve this, automakers have been forced to rethink, restructure, and refinance their supply chain management. While issues have been stabilised in the short-term, supply chains are still transforming due to their complexity and evolving factors: the acceleration of electric vehicle (EV) production, the new regulatory and government policies, and the adoption of more software-based features like ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), increasing the demand for semiconductors.

A global re-orchestration is underway as procurement from offshore locations fell by 22% in the past two years. Europe leads this trend having reduced offshore procurement by a quarter since 2021. This is followed by APAC and the US who have reduced offshore sourcing by 20% and 18% respectively.

The report finds that automotive organisations expect procurement from offshoring locations to reduce by a further 19% by 2025, as electric vehicle production surges and the fabrication of key electronics components relocates.

Sustainability Efforts are Faltering

Successive supply chain crises have sapped automakers’ time and diverted focus and investment away from sustainability initiatives. Consequently, sustainability is not currently considered a priority for many of them, with only 37% of respondents stating that issues such as carbon footprint management and environmental risk influence supply chain decision-making. Investment across the industry reflects this trend and while OEMs’ total investment in supply chain sustainability is on par with last year, suppliers’ annual investment has significantly reduced by 17%.

While sustainability and circularity are key components for building a more resilient supply chain and to future-proof operations, the scaling of circular-economy initiatives has been delayed due to a shortage of suppliers of recycled materials (and of the materials themselves).

Automotive organisations need to balance sustainability and circular economy with factors like cost and affordability. According to the report, digital solutions can help address this delicate balance between these various competing factors.

Accelerate of Nearshoring

Driven by a surge in efforts to deliver software-based features and services, the average proportion of vehicle value attributed to semiconductors and sensors increased by 51% over the last two years. This is expected to increase by a further 46% between 2023 and 2025.

However, only half of OEMs consider the current supply of semiconductor components as secure. Of those surveyed, 70% said the majority of supply is currently being obtained from China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. In a bid to achieve a greater level of supply-security OEMs are investing in alternative supply methods and moving away from tier-1 and -2 suppliers. Similarly, OEMs have secured only three years of EV battery raw materials on average.

Inventory Building not Feasible in Long-Term

According to the report, half of OEMs feel confident that they would be able to avoid 60% of the revenue loss they incurred in 2022 if the same scenarios – including the semiconductor shortage – happened again today.

To address operational and logistic issues, both suppliers and OEMs have adopted strategies based on adding operational investment and working capital. This is led by the building of inventories, which 81% of suppliers and 44% of OEMs have implemented. However, it’s clear that this is unsustainable in the long-term as holding excessive inventory risks a variety of negative effects on the operational and financial wellbeing of automotive organisations.

Lack of Data-Driven Intelligent Supply Chains

Visibility and transparency are key to create a more trustworthy supplier ecosystem – just over half (53%) of respondents have a mature intelligent supply chain in place to enable data-driven decision making, allowing for the integration of newer technologies such as AI and data analytics. With growing participation in standardised, open, and trusted data ecosystems that include new suppliers for software driven services, automotive organisations can further progress resilience and sustainability ambitions.

Alexandre Audoin, Global Head of Automotive Industry at Capgemini, comments: “Over the past few years, organisations have been forced to restructure and refinance supply chain management on the fly in order to navigate multiple disruptions from all fronts. While in a more positive place today, automakers need to look at delivering a long-term, intelligent, and data-driven strategy that will build resilience and competitive advantage. More so, this needs to incorporate circularity as an essential component, not only to help organisations navigate regulatory changes, but to embed new players in the supply chain ecosystem and also achieve ambitious climate-targets.”

CLICK HERE to download the report.

 

 

How to Win During Peak Shipping Season

Posted on by David Priestman

Freight procurement processes have always been noted for their high levels of complexity which increases exponentially during peak shipping season. These busy months demand operational efficiency, agile collaboration, proactive rate management, and a sharp focus on sustainability throughout the transportation management process.

This article by SHIPSTA addresses six of the most common challenges that can surface in peak shipping season, while providing solutions on how to best address them.

1. Pressure to Save Costs

Transportation accounts for a significant amount of total operational costs, consequently becoming a huge target for potential cost savings. However, constantly changing freight market rates can make it difficult for procurement teams to secure the best deals and maintain predictable costs.

To prevent this, it is recommended to move away from standalone data sources and look at leveraging centralised rate management solutions which bring together all your data and provide one sole source of truth. This allows you to turn your data into insights and action and surface the best opportunities by giving you visibility across different pricing options vs the best combination of lanes, modes of transport or other business requirements.

Leveraging the power of an eAuction feature can help you with dynamic negotiations, bringing your qualified carriers or other LSPs into a bidding process, securing your access to the best price and increasing your efficiency.

2. Capacity Shortages & Time Constraints

As demand surges during peak season, the limited capacity of LSPs or unforeseen disruptions can lead to difficulties in providing the needed transportation services in time, causing delays, increased costs or even higher risks or loss. Capacity constraints can turn into missed delivery deadlines and force the company to seek last-minute transportation solutions at higher rates, significantly impacting transportation budgets and overall supply chain costs.

Having fast access to a larger database of LSPs, the ability to pivot to real-time (spot) requests in case of emergencies, as well as instantly connecting with carriers through a centralised and automated platform, while having better visibility on their availability, can be your greatest allies in such situations where time becomes of the essence.

3. Increased Workload and Limited Resources

Even outside peak seasons, transportation procurement is a very heavy process that requires teams to spend countless hours between spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls to ensure smooth sailing. With an even higher growth in demand and workload during peak season, the need for automation and speed has been highlighted more than ever by logistics and procurement teams.

Technology in the logistics sector has evolved to provide tailored solutions for these needs. Such an example is leveraging a specialised freight procurement platform that helps with data-heavy & time-consuming operations, increasing work efficiency and accuracy, while streamlining all communications with your LSPs.

Using such platforms can save up to 70% of the time you would have spent on repetitive and manual tasks. Running tenders, launching RFQs, analysing the outcomes and going through a truly data-driven decision process, can now become a matter of minutes instead of weeks.

4. Complex Freight Landscape

Working with a wide range of carriers, brokers, and other LSPs can complicate the freight procurement process, making it difficult to evaluate and select the most optimal ones as per your business requirements.

However, combinatorics allows you to set your own business rules, flexibly integrate all the relevant criteria based on organisational priorities, like speed, cost, sustainability KPIs, etc. and automatically calculate optimised award scenarios. This will enable you to compare and evaluate at scale multiple suppliers, build detailed reports, and surface the best alternative, especially from a cost perspective, with much less effort.

5. Governance of Sustainability KPIs

With such a large volume of CO2 emissions coming from transportation, governmental and business requirements around sustainability have increased significantly across the years. Even more when we talk about such high shipping volumes like the ones during peak season, meeting these complex regulations and KPIs can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly, in the absence of a proper setup.

The foundation for success is to integrate sustainability criteria from the beginning into your freight procurement strategy and monitor it using dedicated green procurement dashboards.  It is important to ensure that your carriers, LSPs or other type of partners are aligned with your expectations in terms of such business requirements, so you can select the best option accordingly.

6. Compliance and Risk Management

Even in a regular, day-to-day context, handling compliance and risk management in freight procurement becomes an exceedingly difficult and sensitive task. With all complexity increasing exponentially in peak shipping seasons, meeting transportation & other government regulations, as well as business compliance standards, can become difficult and leave room for exposures.

Integrating your end-to-end freight procurement processes, managing LSPs, contracts, award of business and relevant documents within a dedicated platform helps you ensure that compliance is well up to company standards and will prepare a solid base for auditing when the time comes.

In uncertain times, allocating money to technology cannot always seem like an easy decision, but it quickly becomes one when ROI and further cost savings top by more than 10x the price.

Take a closer look at SHIPSTA to see how its platform and services can help you both during and outside the peak shipping seasons. To uncover more ways to win this peak shipping season, read the complete e-book here.

DHL Supply Chain Invests in Latin America

Posted on by David Priestman

In view of the global trend of omni-sourcing, DHL Supply Chain, the world’s leading logistics company and part of DHL Group continues its strategic investments into emerging markets and fast-growing economies. Today, DHL Supply Chain announces a landmark investment of €500 million into the strategically located Latin American markets. These investments made until 2028 are supposed to strengthen DHL’s operations in Latin America. Projects include decarbonizing the domestic fleet through greener alternatives; building, developing and retrofitting its real estate assets and warehouses in the market; as well as significant investments into new technologies, robotics and automation solutions intended to improve workplaces whilst at the same time making operations more effective, flexible and resilient for customers. The investment is part of DHL Supply Chain’s strategic investment plan to further strengthen logistics capabilities in high-demand sectors, such as: Healthcare, automotive, technology, retail, e-commerce, among others.

Oscar de Bok, Global CEO of DHL Supply Chain (pictured) said: “Companies all around the globe are looking for more diversified sourcing and supply chain strategies by bringing stock points closer to their production and sales markets. Therefore we see increasing demand for logistics support in Mexico, Brazil and the other strategic markets in Latin America. That trend of investing in multiple source points closer to the large sales markets – which we call omni-sourcing – helps industry customers to build more resilient, robust and flexible supply chains to better cater to the needs of their end customers. That is why we are strategically investing in our logistics infrastructure in Latin America and those geographies that are strategically located and equipped to play a vital role in global trade.”

With the investment into its Latin America infrastructure the DHL Supply Chain is now complementing a long-standing history of strategic investments, acquisitions, and partnerships in the region. Not only the geographical proximity to large consumer markets in North America make the region a springboard to accelerate further growth, it is also the regions own booming sales markets which make it attractive for industries to invest and therewith request additional logistics support.

Agustin Croche, CEO in DHL Supply Chain Latin-America said: “At DHL Supply Chain we are fortunate to be an essential part of daily life; we are more than 40,000 people in this region and each of us is a unique link that contributes positively to the industry, supporting each of our clients with whom we always seek sustainable growth and long-term relationships. This is THE moment for Latin America, and we must take advantage of it.”

Following the announcement of the investment by Oscar de Bok and Agustin Croche, DHL Supply Chain Mexico also inaugurated a new Centre of Excellence for Electric Vehicles, with the participation of Mario Rodríguez, President of DHL Supply Chain in Mexico and Fathi Tlatli, Global President of the Automotive Sector for DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation. The mission of this new EV center is to provide synergy to the automotive industry in the region.

With more than 240 locations, the company has increased its operation in the region. In Brazil, for example, it recently announced the expansion and modernization of its Distribution Centre located in Goiás, while expanding its operations and presence in Extrema Minas Gerais for various clients and sectors such as the Pharmaceutical and Retail Fashion.

On the other hand, in Chile DHL Supply Chain has announced its new Distribution Centre in Pudahuel, while in Mexico, where demands are high due to the trend of bringing supply nearer to the North American sales markets, the company has expanded its presence with new warehouses. in Tijuana and Monterrey, as well as a new campus in the State of Mexico that will serve the e-commerce, retail, fashion, consumer, medical devices, aerospace, electronics, and automotive sectors mainly.

Life Sciences & Health Care | End-to-end traceability

With a robust portfolio made up of digitalization initiatives, standardized and sustainable logistics solutions and a deep understanding of regulatory frameworks in Latin America, DHL Supply Chain is at the forefront of end-to-end solutions with operational excellence for both temperature-controlled medicines, medical devices, and clinical trials, among others. In addition to the specialized distribution centres in Brazil, the company particularly has a fleet of 500 vehicles that serve this sector. In Mexico, during the third quarter of 2022, DHL Supply Chain acquired NTA, a company focused on logistics services for the pharmaceutical industry.

Commitment to sustainable and diverse logistics

The DHL Group has a clear sustainability roadmap aiming for a zero emissions operation by 2050. With investments of up to €7 billion in the period of 2020 – 2030 the group on an ambitious road towards achieving that goal. This has triggered a number of actions and investments made by the company in the Latin American countries be it the new electric, hybrid and biogas vehicles, with a fleet of close to 200 units, in addition to solar panels, energy management and recycling programs in its Distribution Centres.

In terms of diversity and inclusion, and with the objective of closing the gender gap in the logistics sector, among its inclusion programs, DHL Supply Chain has launched the Women at the Wheel Program in both Brazil and Mexico, where women drivers are who drive part of the company’s electric fleet, thus marking a new way of operating in these markets.

Concerns over Human Rights in Supply Chains

Posted on by David Priestman

More than two-thirds of chief executives at British companies are concerned about human rights issues in their supply chains, research has suggested. A survey, commissioned by procurement consultancy Proxima, surveyed 1,000 UK CEOs about their approach to supply chain issues.

It found that 67% are concerned with potential issues around human rights and labour rights. Concern is highest in the construction sector (77%), leisure and hospitality (77%), retail (72%), and the food and beverage manufacturing sector (70%), the survey found.

It comes as companies come under increasing scrutiny for emissions and human rights issues across their operations. According to the survey, almost half of UK bosses – 49% – said they expect to spend more time focussing on supply chain issues in the next 12 months.
It found that 42% are considering “onshoring” – moving their entire supply chain to their home country – as a way to prevent disruption and improve transparency.

Meanwhile, 36% said they are looking at “nearshoring” – moving supply chains to countries closer to the UK.

Simon Geale, executive vice president and chief procurement officer at Proxima, said: “Addressing human rights issues across the supply chain is a huge challenge for businesses and it is clearly high up on the agenda for CEOs. We’ve seen a number of businesses fall victim to human rights issues and, as we see increased scrutiny from customers and regulators, supply chain transparency is going to become increasingly critical. This is the emerging priority for CEOs at a time when business leaders are spending more time than ever tackling supply chain issues.”

The UK private sector has seen movement to tackle supply chain issues in recent years through initiatives like the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, Scope 3 Peer Group, AIM-Progress and the Sustainable Procurement Pledge.
Unilever has been using satellite tracking to monitor deforestation and behavioural patterns around key factories while IMB has developed a supply chain solution blockchain technology, used by companies like Vodafone.

James Butcher, CEO of Supply Pilot, a tech platform that allows companies to better engage with their suppliers, said: “The supply chain disruption continues and this is why so many CEOs are focused on their supply chains. But this unfortunately is at the expense of progress on sustainability as reflected in the poor strategies on supply chain decarbonisation. I believe this is because of the internal narrative reflecting it as an either/or decision on where to focus, whereas a good supplier engagement programme focused on more sustainable and responsible procurement can address both the E and the S of ESG but also delivers more resilient supply chains.”

Neil Robson (pictured), partner at Katten UK, added:

“The fact that 67% of polled UK CEOs are concerned about human rights issues in their supply chains is testament to the fact that ESG is now well-and-truly coming of age. The “S” – the social element of the Environmental, Social and Governance framework used by firms and investors to assess an organization’s business practices – has long taken second or third place to environmental sustainability issues and good governance. However, given ESG’s evolution from ethical investing and ‘corporate social responsibility’, the social element has to remain in focus.

“Concerns with potential issues around human rights/ labour rights in the supply chain seem to have been growing in recent years, following requirements for UK businesses to adhere to the UK Modern Slavery Act, which has been in force since October 2015. As a world-leading piece of legislation, it sets out a range of measures on how modern slavery and human trafficking must be dealt with in the UK and focuses (at section 54) on ‘Transparency in Supply Chains‘. As the survey notes, addressing human rights issues across the supply chain is a huge challenge, but nonetheless supply chain transparency is a potential area of risk that is becoming increasingly critical – especially where those supply chains are overseas, opaque and unclear. Businesses that hold themselves out as ESG-compliant must address their sustainability and good governance, but they must also understand their impact on their entire supply chain and do their best to ensure they are doing the right thing for all concerned.”

Retailers to Reduce Cost and Impact of Returns

Posted on by David Priestman

New global research from DHL Supply Chain among e-commerce decision makers in retail and consumer goods businesses reveals that the rise in returns is driving a major re-evaluation of policies and processes. Nearly half of the businesses surveyed are considering changes to returns handling processes to bring down the cost and environmental impact of returns.

Returns handling processes that aren’t designed for the current large volumes are a major source of the challenge. Retailers are struggling to effectively process and extract maximum value out of returned items leading to financial loss as well as environmental waste. According to the research, 17% of businesses are turning to disposal as their primary method for handling returned items that aren’t being restocked and sold.

With returns increasing on average 19% in the last two years, recent inflation is causing businesses concern and hastening the need for change.

A lack of integration between e-commerce and other channels is exacerbating the problem as it reduces the ways in which returned items can be restocked and resold. Designing product flows and cycles in the most efficient, and environmentally friendly way is key to tackling this challenge. DHL’s omnichannel returns handling capabilities bring together returns from all sources and its digital returns system enables colleagues to ‘grade’ items to determine the best way to handle the product, whether restocking at full price or discounted rate, repairing, reselling on a secondary marketplace or recycling. DHL then has the capabilities to fully manage the goods through each route, from specialist repairs to charitable donations.

While the financial burden of returns is being felt more acutely due to global economic instability, environmental concern remains one of the main drivers for change. A third of businesses stated they are already calculating the carbon emissions associated with returns and the same number plan to start doing so. What’s more, nearly nine out of ten retailers have plans or targets to reduce carbon emissions associated with returns.

As well as looking at returns handling, businesses are exploring the use of technology to drive down volume such as virtual fitting rooms. Meanwhile, many businesses are considering changes to their customer returns policies with a quarter of those surveyed exploring charges for returns not made in-store. However, these changes are being approached with caution due to concerns they could impact customers.

Nabil Malouli, Senior VP E-commerce & Returns Global, DHL Supply Chain, said: “We’ve reached a tipping point in returns both financially and environmentally, and retailers are right to examine their current returns processes and reverse supply chains. Our research shows that customer experience remains the number one priority for retailers but that doesn’t have to be sacrificed with dramatic changes to returns policies. Innovative ways to bring down overall volumes, combined more sophisticated returns handling capabilities allow retailers to offer faster refunds, quickly restock across multiple channels, repair for resale, and recycle responsibly. Enhancements like these have the potential to drive-up revenue and reduce waste, while also enhancing the overall customer experience.”

The full research findings can be found here. All figures are from an industry survey conducted by YouGov in March 2023 of 1,059 senior decision-makers in e-commerce retail across 5 markets: US, UK, Germany, Japan and Mexico.

Key findings:

• Over the last two years, returns have increased on average 19%
• 54% of businesses are concerned about the cost of returns
• 91% say inflation is driving re-evaluation of returns processes and policies
• 42% are considering changes to their customer returns policies
• 47% are considering changes to their returns handling processes
• 40% want to drive down the volume of returns being disposed of
• 29% currently calculate the carbon emissions associated with returns, 32% plan to start doing so
• 40% have plans to invest in any automation and robotics to improve e-commerce fulfilment and returns processes
• 57% are investing or plan to invest in technology initiatives to reduce returns volumes such as virtual fitting rooms
• 41% of businesses’ e-commerce returns are not integrated with non-e-commerce channels
• 23% are planning to introduce charges for returns not made in store
• 44% are considering plans to reduce the timeframe in which customers can return items
• 46% have concerns that changes to returns policy could impact customer loyalty
• 58% want to be able to offer faster refunds
• To reduce the financial impact of returns, the top priorities are (in order):
. Reducing the volume of returns
. Faster processing of returns
. Reducing the timeframe in which returns can be made
• 72% believe that giving consumers multiple returns options (drop off, collection etc) is positive for customer loyalty

Infor Benefits Food & Beverage Industry

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Infor, the industry cloud company, has formed a partnership with Ivy Mobility to strengthen the solution ecosystem for consumer packaged goods (CPG), food and beverage manufacturing and distributing businesses requiring mobile solutions for direct store delivery (DSD), and merchandising and in-store operations.

Ivy Mobility offers intelligent route-to-market solutions for consumer goods manufacturers and distributors. The company supports DSD, merchandising and in-store activities with mobile solutions. Ivy Mobility is a modern cloud-based solution that fits well with Infor’s industry cloud platform. Ivy Mobility has its head office in Singapore and has operations in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The company has operations in 57+ countries.

“Infor has more than 1,000 food and beverage manufacturing and distributing customers, many of which are in markets and product categories that are delivered directly to stores and other points of sale, such as bars, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and fuel stations,” says Marcel Koks, Infor’s industry and product strategist for the food & beverage industry. “This sales channel requires advanced and easy-to-use mobile solutions for the workforce on the road and in the stores that are available on- and offline.”

Ivy Mobility and Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage are complementary software solutions. Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage manages the customer and product master data, sales order entry, warehousing and accounts receivable. Ivy Mobility covers the execution of route deliveries, van sales, taking field orders and returns, accepting credit card payments, as well as executing merchandising and in-store activities. Ivy Mobility also supports route and visit planning, van load and end-of-day van stock reconciliation.

“Ivy Mobility is excited to partner with Infor and give our 100+ global CPG customers access to the combined portfolio of solutions. As our industry looks to adapt and excel in a post-COVID world, there is a growing need for partnerships between best-in-class solutions,” says Douglas Remick, senior sales director and global partnership lead at Ivy. “With this partnership, CPG companies around the world can access clear and organised information in real time, enabling the frontline to execute at a much higher level.”

Wiliot Appoints VP of Climate & Circularity

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Wiliot, the Internet of Things pioneer whose ambient IoT platform is enabling trillions of “things” to gain intelligence, has appointed Antony Yousefian to the position of VP of Climate & Circularity. In his role, Yousefian will oversee the company’s climate strategy, where he will accelerate the development and implementation of climate products that, for the first time, enable businesses to track in real-time their supply chain’s impact on nature and carbon footprint.

Prior to Wiliot, Yousefian held various executive positions at climate technology startups and impact investment funds, where he developed products and invested in companies that work to restore the planet for future generations, through carbon removal in supply chains and biodiversity restoration.

“The ambient IoT is a breakthrough technology paradigm that brings intelligence to every single thing in our supply chains – which unlocks new efficiencies, profits, and revenue streams for the global businesses,” stated Wiliot CEO Tal Tamir. “However, equally important as these financial benefits are the ambient IoT’s impact on the climate. The ambient IoT aligns profits and planet in ways rarely seen – and Antony’s appointment will accelerate a transformational shift in real-time carbon footprint tracking that will make a material impact on both corporate profitability and environmental sustainability.”

The Wiliot IoT Platform connects the digital and physical worlds using its cloud platform and IoT Pixels, which are stamp-sized compute devices that cost pennies and feature a fundamental breakthrough in ambient computing technology – or computing that’s self-powered, harvesting radio waves that are all around us.

The platform not only offers real-time data on a product’s status and journey through the supply chain but also leverages AI capabilities in the cloud to transform sensor data into actionable insights. This enables companies to take actions that reduce their carbon emissions and costs.

“Wiliot’s technology will play a significant role in addressing the unsustainable human demand on Earth’s natural resources, which currently stands at around 1.7 times the planet’s capacity to regenerate,” stated Yousefian. “As a leader in the ambient IoT, Wiliot has developed innovative battery-free sensing solutions that capture essential data – driving real-time and accurate understanding of a product’s impact and climate risk. Wiliot represents a paradigm shift in carbon accountability and climate intelligence, and I feel privileged to join a team that’s poised to make a material impact on the climate crisis.”

With Wiliot’s ambient IoT technology, sustainability shifts from being a side project or separate team to an integral part of procurement, production, and distribution – in line with companies’ commitments to net zero and regulatory compliance.

This is particularly relevant for industries like food, where up to 90% of emissions can come from scope 3 sources. By leveraging Wiliot’s ambient IoT technology, companies can better assess their ecological footprint and take proactive steps toward a more sustainable future.

“I’ve been involved in IoT for several years and have seen first-hand the positive impact it can have for businesses – from reducing waste to increasing crop yields,” concluded Yousefian. “However, while status quo IoT battery-powered sensors proved effective in small-scale implementations, it failed to scale across entire supply chains – which is where the real, material impact can be achieved. Wiliot, with its low-cost battery-free technology, has solved this blocker to enable real-time visibility and traceability of every finished good or even resource in our supply chains. It is well-positioned to unlock the circular economy potential for businesses and the planet.”

Wiliot is currently working with many of the world’s largest companies across CPG and grocery; apparel and soft goods; pharma; and healthcare on a variety of ambient IoT projects.

FourKites Named a Gartner Leader

Posted on by Keith McKinley

For the third consecutive year, real-time supply chain visibility company FourKites has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms (RTTVPs). Gartner evaluated nine vendors for its report, and FourKites received its position as a Leader both for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

FourKites, the largest global visibility solution, tracks over 3 million shipments per day across all modes and connects the global supply chains of 50% of the Fortune 500, including customers in Europe such as Barilla, Henkel, Bayer, Dow, Volvo Group, cargonerds, Spotos and Bacardi. In 2022, FourKites achieved a 70% YoY growth in global customers — totalling over 1,200 — nearly 50% growth in total shipments and 37% growth in connected facilities, the latter of which now total over 3.2 million individual facilities around the world. In Europe specifically, FourKites saw 2x growth in shipments, across 120 countries and territories; 40% growth in European customers; 24% growth in the number of carriers tracking shipments; and nearly 3 billion miles tracked in the region.

“2022 was a year of tremendous growth and acceleration of our business,” said FourKites CEO and founder Mathew Elenjickal. “In addition to growing our shipper and carrier base around the world, we have forged strategic partnerships with industry titans, grown our C-suite with seasoned executives, and continued to innovate with our customers to add meaningful business value to their most critical pain points. We’re proud to be recognised as a Leader yet again by Gartner.”

What Customers are Saying

FourKites continues to earn accolades for its unique customer-driven innovation model; for the maturity of its end-to-end, multimodal platform; and for its unwavering commitment to customer success.

“Supply chain management has become so much easier now,” said a Global Mobility Project Manager, UK, Finance. “Gratification arises from knowing that our cargo has been safely delivered, because FourKites allows our team to keep track of exactly where it is. Having access to the data and analytics that FourKites has supplied has been necessary for decision-making, controlling the items exiting our facility, and efficiently monitoring shipments.”

“As a solution provider, FourKites provides a remarkable coverage and support experience. They are an accelerator of our digital transformation initiatives and a great partner who pro-actively seeks feedback in order to gleam future needs and innovations to their roadmap,” commented a Global Futurist, UK, Software Industry.

A VP of Supply Chain, Services (non-Government) Industry added: “To serve our customers, we need a platform that enables supply chain professionals to act quickly to fulfil their orders. Making decisions, regulating what leaves our facilities, and effectively tracking shipments have all required access to the data and analytics that FourKites has provided. The user interface is relatively simple and adaptable to the needs of each individual user, which makes it quite easy to use. As the product has been so successful in the US, we want to expand it to our offices and affiliates abroad to take advantage of its popularity.”

Leading Industry Innovation

FourKites pioneered the real-time transportation visibility (RTTV) category in 2014 and was the first company to extend real-time visibility across supply chains end-to-end, from yards to warehouses and more. In addition to strategic investments in 2021 from industry heavyweights Qualcomm Ventures, LLC, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, FourKites recently has inked strategic alliances with Mitsui & Co., Ltd., FedEx, Quiet Platforms, Sony, Microsoft and Narvar. In addition, FourKites has been recognised for its industry leadership and innovation by SupplyChainBrain, Blue Yonder, Builtin Chicago, Manhattan Associates, and it is one of only four Transportation and Logistics companies to receive Inc.’s Best in Business Award.

Recent FourKites innovations include Sustainability Hub, which provides supply chain leaders with advanced emissions tracking and reporting capabilities; Data Connector, which accelerates time-to-insights by allows customers to automatically access and leverage FourKites data directly within their existing business intelligence tools; and FourKites Connect, which accelerates the carrier connectivity process from hours or even days to just minutes.

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