Drowning in data is not always useful for organizations unless you know how to make sense of them for decision-making and understanding customers. When Microsoft went through a major transformation in their supply chain, they knew that analytics and data science would play a big role. Putting their data together allowed them to see a pattern, one that became even more relevant to predict trends and future behavior that ultimately helped them address their customers' needs in the right way.&nb...
Streamlining processes is crucial, especially for organizations with large-scale international supply chain operations. Take it from full-service logistics company CastleGate Forwarding with bases in Boston, Berlin, and Hong Kong. To successfully do that, they worked with the right partners with excellent tech capabilities and prioritized transparency and open communication.We talked to Jack Echeverria, Senior Manager for Global Logistics at CastleGate Forwarding, about the role of tech and p...
How long does a relationship with an information/analytics firm lasts❓For Paul Bingham, Director of Transportation Consulting for IHS Markit Now Part of S&P Global, it might depend on the kind of goals the client has. Some have definite goals that can be addressed depending on budget, level of effort, etc. while others remain as ongoing relationships where Paul and their team continue to work together to help improve their client's service or features.🎧 Don't miss out on this insight and ...
How can you successfully implement a phased supplier management process?For Nicole Engelman, Director of Planning and Logistics at ASML, the key is to always involve your supplier earlier in the process. This gives them the opportunity to be part of the solution early on, and not having to force fit something in the later stage of development.Don't miss out on this insight and more. Listen to our podcast now!"If we involve the supplier earlier in the process, we prevent having to reengineer t...
“We started in the world of digital transformation with EDI many years ago. We built an amazing platform that allows our customers to trade information, such as purchase orders and forecasts. We've advanced that by not only being able to take traditional EDI types of formats but all formats, whether it's Excel, CSV files. That allows us to automate our business processes.Over the last few years, APIs have become one of the most important elements of the supply chain. It drives speed through o...
How can you be more agile in adapting to the changes in your industry?For Craig Adderley, Former Global Transportation and Logistics leader at Air Liquide and now Distribution and Logistics Leader at Stryker Endoscopy, it’s important to have an integrated and robust ERP system that allows you to streamline information, remove small inefficiencies, and solve more important problems. Stryker did it in phases with strong emphasis on the value of value stream mapping and getting everyone onboard....
"We are very interested in how machines, without necessarily a lot of human intervention or minimal human intervention, can actually do this negotiation themselves to allocate who gets access to various spots within the center for loading and offloading.In the maneuver, it is getting from the gate to that location safely and with respect to the limitations of any of the vehicles: their turning radius, their ability to back up and do particular kinds of maneuvers. It ensures that all of that h...
We all love data. We all love our technology. Sometimes, we have too much of it. The challenge is to figure out how to turn all the data into usable information.The most recent and applicable example is our yard management project:Connect end-to-end, both from the manufacturing facilities and warehouse operations team for the empty trailersCreate visibility to inbound raw materials Looking for specific SKUs and line items that are coming in inboundThe goal is to manage the yards more eff...
"What we learned very quickly was that not all of the technical knowledge that we had gained in all these different parts of the world were immediately transferable into the market.We talk about being a startup business here in the U.S. The reality is that we have a storied reputation with our customers in Europe, and we need to make sure that the level of service that we provide pays homage to that.To do that, we've had to look at different solutions within the framework that the global team...
"One of the first ones I'll talk about is one of our big infrastructure customers that do an awful lot with the logistics companies. They spent about the last 6 to 12 months doing an intelligent operations project. They're very asset-rich. One of the important things for them is decreasing the amount of downtime. Whenever one of their assets is out of action, money goes out the door and is lost with every minute of downtime they have.How can they be more predictive?How can they be proactive w...
"I'll focus on a recent initiative that's been a long time in planning and execution. That initiative is the establishment implementation of a standard Canon warehouse management system across our entire distribution network. You can imagine the challenge of implementing a standard system across five different 3PLs and Canon facilities.We recently completed implementation at all 12 DCs, and we continue to refine the system to meet our business needs.Previously, we worked with a number of diff...
🚛 Are 3PLs worth investing in? 🎧 In today's podcast episode, we're chatting with Muhammad Imran Tahir, Logistics Advisor for Aramco Americas. Join us now to learn about the benefits of 3PLs and more! “We've been in business for many years, and we would handle our own logistics from ground zero. When I say ground zero, meaning sourcing, trucking, packaging. We would do the whole nine yards to deliver what we have for our end-users, our customers. But for a period of time, we were not...
🦾 API is the key!How do you keep up in a world where there’s just tons of data, everything moves fast, and needs real-time updates? For Wayne Wayne Ellis, SVI’s VP of Supply Chain North American Operations, utilizing API was key in solving these issues and more! 🎧 Listen to our podcast today to learn more about this exciting program.“So the problem is there's a severe global shortage of many electronic components today, making it very difficult to find available inventory in the market. ...
📍 What are the considerations for cross-dock network optimization that you should consider?According to Ivan Hernandez, Director of Transportation, Operations and Procurement for Daimler Trucks North America, improving customer service and building relationships with partners are essential considerations when it comes to working on and leveraging solutions to cross-dock network optimization.🎧 Listen to our podcast today to learn more!“Major consideration, as I mentioned, is customer service. ...
Is transitioning to new processes worth it❓YES! Considering the current trends and other developments in the industry, it might just be the right time to check your process and how you manage logistics and costs. It's best to see if these and other aspects can be improved for better business development and customer experience. 🎧 Listen to our podcast as we sit down with Candy Heien, Logistics and Trade Compliance Manager for Daikin Applied Americas. She shares with us her expertise and ...
What solutions are you putting in place to keep your supply chain agile?With buying natural products, we rely on crops and if there's a drought in an area or locusts or something that affects the harvest, you have to predict it. Not only do I have a partnership with my suppliers, I have to have a very close partnership with my sales team. Knowing what their customers are actually going to need and getting my resources in time is very important.Sometimes it means pulling in supply e...
“The global logistics team is handling shipments on a truly global scale. We're moving everything from small parcels to complete rigs working with numerous carriers, lanes, modes, and service levels.And we've automated the invoice processing and audit. So with greater visibility and control, we were able to reduce the number of carriers we use and better leverage our logistics spend to negotiate for improved pricing.We also connected the TMS application with our existing back-office applicati...
“Shippers tend to be data rich but information poor. Shippers have access today to more data than at any point in history. Because of the fact that their data sources tend to be disparate, meaning I've got data coming out of a purchase order management system, out of a warehouse management system, out of a transportation management system and then probably downstream in a freight audit payment solution.What that means is that shippers tend to not have a way to pull out actionable insights and...
"We’re very environmentally focused. We have an environmental pillar as one of our strategic pillars.We want to reduce the amount of paper being used in our operations. Right now, prior to this week, we printed two or three pages per order. And we had people manually picking orders and checking off the boxes making sure that the right products were picked and so forth. So we've gotten away from that.We are reducing our paper usage down to zero with web order picking and packing."-Tony Whyte, ...
“ The system allowed us to load the rates for all of our parcel carriers into one centralized location and to shop rates between different carriers and service offerings without having to rely on the human factor. It gave us a system which allows us to force the operator to use the best possible service at the best possible rate with the fastest delivery for the customer's purchase.”