SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT / LOGISTICS BLOG: November 4

This blog is about supply chain management and logistics, especially the New Supply Chain Managemen with Amazon started and which has breathed fresh air into SCM.  

Disruption and transformation are occuring in retailing and manufacturing, driven by the new selling reality and the supply chain management that drives its success.  

This began with e-commerce which has swept across the world thanks to the new end-to-end supply chain management that is strategic and weaponized.  It is redefining selling/retailing with its customer convenience, customer expectations, and customer service.  All while being challenged as to costs--last mile, IMO 2020/ocean, warehouse, and more.

  
This supply chain management has perfect orders, extends the supply chain upstream, recognizes supply chain complexity, creates inventory velocity and order delivery speed, compresses time, and much more.

Transforming to the new SCM begins with supply chain assessment to know where you are.  Then it moves to where you are going and how to get there.

Logistics, because of what is happening with customers' supply chains and because of events internal to logistics, is also encountering disruption and change.  This ranges from technology--digitalization and its disintermediation, platform business, IoT, AR/VR/3D, drones, robotics, blockchain, and more.  Logistics role in the new end-to-end supply chain is being challenged and redefined.

For more, visit www.ltdmgmt.com

Here are some observations and comments on what is happening now:

E-commerce is a global reality. Manufacturers face a challenge adapting to its underlying elevated lean requirements when so much lean potential is in the Supply Chain & outside the 4 walls.

E-commerce returns. Be nice to see comparative context too. As percent of shipments. Versus returns for in-store purchases. Breakdown as to product--thinking much of clothing related. And discussion of what AR/3D/VR at websites would do to reduce returns?
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ups-26-jump-returns-peak-season/566537/

Will carriers make IMO 2020 a non-negotiable, take-it-or-leave it subject? Do they have the fortitude? For contracts and spot market?

Retail. E-commerce. SupplyvChain investment. Article has answers with no understanding of the SCM to drive it. IMHO
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/retail-profits-to-take-a-hit-from-price-wars-and-investments-moodys-says.html

The retailers & manufacturers who have much inventory across their end-to-end supply chain. All kinds. Too much. Wrong product. Out of stock. In the wrong place. Gathering dust. Tying up capital. Waste. Where is the inventory velocity? 

Imagine a retail, manufacturing, omnichannel e-commerce that focused on inventory velocity & turns, not Last Mile. What would the company be like with more investment opportunity & the profit generation? That velocity is possible with the New Supply Chain.

Segments of 3D printing can be a game changer. 3D printing in warehouses and transport vehicles. Another elevation of end-to-end supply chain velocity & order delivery speed. Redefine manufacturing as part of Supply Chain Management. Make it about customers. Not factories.

Can we talk about the real issue—ocean transport and its failures to deliver reliable speed in the new reality of end to end supply chain velocity? Everything is relevant or not to that.

If your e-commerce is driven by your Last Mile provider, that is a sign your online program may be in trouble.

Does the chase for cheap transport/logistics rates contribute to the economic slowdown and eventually the real price of cheap? Aka, you get what you pay for.

Where supply chain management and logistics must go, all current job descriptions are out dated. Hire where you are going. Not where you are. Or better, do you know where you are going?

JC Penney.  Interesting approach to bring in customers. Debt & too much inventory. Are they emphasizing stores? Not e-commerce/omnichannel. Do they need Supply Chain transformation too? Like the stores, it may be outdated in the new reality. Without SCM update, are they really fixing things?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-c-penney-plots-a-comeback-less-clutter-more-yoga-classes-11572535484?shareToken=st70213600f5954c19b01b7a0c38409b4d

Economic reality hitting against selling reality of inventory speed and “Beam my order up, Scotty”. Trucking recession slams CH Robinson.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trucking-recession-ch-robinson-chrw-q3-earnings-2019-10

Amazon has breathed fresh air into Supply Chain Management. They made it strategic & weaponized. True differentiation that drives customer service, convenience, & expectations. No more homogenized, commoditized SCM. Hello Blue Ocean strategy. Retail. Manufacturing. CPG. FMCG.

Novel idea time. Last Mile providers. When retailers & manufacturers negotiate/beat you up for lower prices so they can compete with Amazon, suggest they set up their own service to compete with Amazon. Protect your margins.

The Order Delivery velocity of e-commerce vs the outdated business model of parcel and other Last Mile transport / logistics providers. Is not the real issue becoming--change or die? Learn the strategic, weaponized Supply Chain Management for starters.

Container lines with slow steaming & canceled sailings act against the required end-to-end Supply Chain velocity required for e-commerce order delivery success. Given CMA CGM’s core business, what will they really do here in integrated logistics?

It is difficult to claim best practices in #ecommerce logistics/ #SupplyChainManagement when we are in the early stages and there are few leaders & many laggards. Retail. Manufacturers. CPG. FMCG

Is this how some transport / logistics providers have transformed their business models to compete in the new end-to-end Supply Chain velocity reality?