John Johnson joined the DC Velocity team in March 2004. A veteran business journalist, John has over a dozen years of experience covering the supply chain field, including time as chief editor of Warehousing Management. In addition, he has covered the venture capital community and previously was a sports reporter covering professional and collegiate sports in the Boston area. John served as senior editor and chief editor of DC Velocity until April 2008.
To the relief of its vendor partners, Target has launched an RFID pilot program that is kinder and gentler than rival retailer Wal-Mart's.Meeting with suppliers in mid-August, Target announced that between 10 and 20 vendors would participate in Target's pilot program, which will begin this month. Each manufacturer will tag just three products. Like Wal-Mart's, the pilot will be launched at a distribution center in Texas. That DC will initially serve 10 stores.
Unlike Wal-Mart's pilot, Target's policy appears vendor friendly. Target has communicated to vendors that only a small number of products will be involved in the initial pilot. It has also promised to share all pilot results with vendors, something Wal-Mart has declined to do.
"Wal-Mart [took] this Draconian kind of approach, where everyone needed to get started on this," says Scott Lundstrom, senior vice president and chief technology officer at AMR Research in Boston. "Wal-Mart has been selective about the data [it] releases, while Target has promised a much more collaborative and open process with its suppliers. Target has engaged its vendors much more as partners."
Target will expand its RFID pilot in June 2005 to include its top 100 suppliers, which will be asked to add stock-keeping units (SKUs) incrementally for the remainder of the year. In December 2005, that group of suppliers will be expected to ship all products with RFID tags.
Target has earned praise for its willingness to limit its demands to what it can realistically handle. "Target has been very clear about the fact it's [testing] a small number of items going to a single DC," says Lundstrom. That's in stark contrast to Wal-Mart's approach, he says, referring to Bentonville's refusal to scale back on its demands. "They're holding a gun to their suppliers' [heads] and saying, 'You need to be ready to ship 100 percent of your products to all locations.' Most of those tags are going to destinations where they are not even processed."
Target and Wal-Mart have most of their top 100 suppliers in common. That has some predicting smooth sailing for Target's RFID project, since many manufacturers will already be in compliance with Wal-Mart's decree. However, other analysts question whether Target will be able to complete its data-synchronization program before its RFID project gets off the ground.
welcome to RFIDba
It's said that there's an organization for everything under the sun, so it makes sense for RFID—the hottest technology on the planet—to have its own advocacy group. Sure enough, the International RFID Business Association (RFIDba) announced its official launch at the Frontline 2004 Conference in Chicago last month.
Members of RFIDba, both solution providers and end users, will work together in a strategic partnership aimed at providing education and training and at ensuring the growth and successful implementation of RFID technologies. The association, through its various vertical industry committees, will serve as a forum for vendors and end users to come together and learn from each other and share successes and failures. The group is not intended to compete with any standards or trade organizations.
"With the rapid growth of the global RFID industry, now's the time for the creation of a dedicated international association that represents the global interests of the RFID industry," says Harry P. Pappas, the president and founder of RFIDba. "Through educational programs, the RFIDba will assist the end user community to better understand this new technology and to help them smoothly integrate RFID into their enterprises.
"We are moving into a new century and the business community needs to adapt to new technologies, just as they have done with the World Wide Web. RFID and other complementary technologies are helping to bring about another paradigm shift in the business world as we move to a global, real-time, digital economy."
For more information or to join the organization, visit rfidbusiness.org.
The U.S., U.K., and Australia will strengthen supply chain resiliency by sharing data and taking joint actions under the terms of a pact signed last week, the three nations said.
The agreement creates a “Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group” designed to build resilience in priority supply chains and to enhance the members’ mutual ability to identify and address risks, threats, and disruptions, according to the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade.
One of the top priorities for the new group is developing an early warning pilot focused on the telecommunications supply chain, which is essential for the three countries’ global, digitized economies, they said. By identifying and monitoring disruption risks to the telecommunications supply chain, this pilot will enhance all three countries’ knowledge of relevant vulnerabilities, criticality, and residual risks. It will also develop procedures for sharing this information and responding cooperatively to disruptions.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the group chose that sector because telecommunications infrastructure is vital to the distribution of public safety information, emergency services, and the day to day lives of many citizens. For example, undersea fiberoptic cables carry over 95% of transoceanic data traffic without which smartphones, financial networks, and communications systems would cease to function reliably.
“The resilience of our critical supply chains is a homeland security and economic security imperative,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a release. “Collaboration with international partners allows us to anticipate and mitigate disruptions before they occur. Our new U.S.-U.K.-Australia Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group will help ensure that our communities continue to have the essential goods and services they need, when they need them.”
A new survey finds a disconnect in organizations’ approach to maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), as specialists call for greater focus than executives are providing, according to a report from Verusen, a provider of inventory optimization software.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of the 250 procurement and operations leaders surveyed think MRO procurement/operations should be treated as a strategic initiative for continuous improvement and a potential innovation source. However, just over half (58%) of respondents note that MRO procurement/operations are treated as strategic organizational initiatives.
That result comes from “Future Strategies for MRO Inventory Optimization,” a survey produced by Atlanta-based Verusen along with WBR Insights and ProcureCon MRO.
Balancing MRO working capital and risk has become increasingly important as large asset-intensive industries such as oil and gas, mining, energy and utilities, resources, and heavy manufacturing seek solutions to optimize their MRO inventories, spend, and risk with deeper intelligence. Roughly half of organizations need to take a risk-based approach, as the survey found that 46% of organizations do not include asset criticality (spare parts deemed the most critical to continuous operations) in their materials planning process.
“Rather than merely seeing the MRO function as a necessary project or cost, businesses now see it as a mission-critical deliverable, and companies are more apt to explore new methods and technologies, including AI, to enhance this capability and drive innovation,” Scott Matthews, CEO of Verusen, said in a release. “This is because improving MRO, while addressing asset criticality, delivers tangible results by removing risk and expense from procurement initiatives.”
Survey respondents expressed specific challenges with product data inconsistencies and inaccuracies from different systems and sources. A lack of standardized data formats and incomplete information hampers efficient inventory management. The problem is further compounded by the complexity of integrating legacy systems with modern data management, leading to fragmented/siloed data. Centralizing inventory management and optimizing procurement without standardized product data is especially challenging.
In fact, only 39% of survey respondents report full data uniformity across all materials, and many respondents do not regularly review asset criticality, which adds to the challenges.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help users build “smart and responsive supply chains” by increasing workforce productivity, expanding visibility, accelerating processes, and prioritizing the next best action to drive results, according to business software vendor Oracle.
To help reach that goal, the Texas company last week released software upgrades including user experience (UX) enhancements to its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) suite.
“Organizations are under pressure to create efficient and resilient supply chains that can quickly adapt to economic conditions, control costs, and protect margins,” Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle, said in a release. “The latest enhancements to Oracle Cloud SCM help customers create a smarter, more responsive supply chain by enabling them to optimize planning and execution and improve the speed and accuracy of processes.”
According to Oracle, specific upgrades feature changes to its:
Production Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations improve manufacturing performance by providing real-time insight into work orders and generative AI-powered shift reporting.
Maintenance Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations increase productivity and reduce asset downtime by resolving maintenance issues faster.
Order Management Enhancements, which help organizations increase operational performance by enabling users to quickly create and find orders, take actions, and engage customers.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Enhancements, which help organizations accelerate product development and go-to-market by enabling users to quickly find items and configure critical objects and navigation paths to meet business-critical priorities.
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.