Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

CSCMP EDGE 2023

Supply chain visibility key to tackling resource scarcity

A panel of industry experts shared strategies and best practices to enhance supply chain visibility and safeguard business operations.

Maintaining a seamless flow of supply in the face of bottlenecks and resource scarcity is crucial for sustaining service levels. According to panelists at a recent CSCMP EDGE 2023 Conference session, the key to responding effectively to resource scarcity is supply chain visibility. 

For Chris Papadopoulou, professor of supply chain and director of the Masters of Supply Chain program at Rotterdam Business School (RUAS), the first step to enhancing your supply chain's visibility is understanding the five megatrends impacting supply chains. Once you understand how these trends—demographic changes, economic power shifts, climate change, rapid urbanization, and technological changes—are impacting your supply chain, organizations can better tackle and mitigate resource scarcity.


However, it can often be difficult first to distinguish between resource scarcity and inventory depletion and then to accurately predict whether either of these scenarios will disrupt the flow of supply. To address these challenges, retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is reshaping its talent and culture to become more proactive when responding to disruptions rather than reactive, according to Kristen Kravitz, Abercrombie's vice president of supply chain

Abercrombie's vision, according to Kravitz, is to build a "self-healing" supply chain. The company's goals center on connecting cross-functional data, automating routine processes and decisions, creating faster cross-functional decision-making actions, and improving sales while optimizing margins. 

In the end, the companies that can establish end-to-end visibility of their supply chains will be better able to handle future resource shortages and supply disruptions.

The Latest

More Stories

ITS Logistics truck carrying Sherwin Williams products
ITS Logistics

Transportation challenges, solved

Sometimes, all you need is the right partner to solve your logistics problems.

In 2021, global paint supplier Sherwin Williams faced driver and hazardous material (hazmat) capacity constraints: There simply weren’t enough hazmat drivers available in its fleet to maintain the company’s 90% fleet utilization rate expectations for key partner store deliveries while also meeting growing demand for service. Those challenges threatened to become even more acute in the future, as a competing paint supply company began to scale back its operations in the Pacific Northwest, leaving Sherwin Williams with an opportunity to fill the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

drone flying through warehouse

Robotic revolution

Robots are revolutionizing factories, warehouses, and distribution centers (DCs) around the world, thanks largely to heavy investments in the technology between 2019 and 2021. And although investment has slowed since then, the long-term outlook calls for steady growth over the next four years. According to data from research and consulting firm Interact Analysis, revenues from shipments of industrial robots are forecast to grow nearly 4% per year, on average, between 2024 and 2028 (see Exhibit 1).

market forecast for industrial robots - revenues graphEXHIBIT 1: Market forecast for industrial robots - revenuesInteract Analysis

Keep ReadingShow less
Freight Science dashboard screen
Freight Science

High-tech solution helps truckload carrier drive change

The trucking industry faces a range of challenges these days, particularly when it comes to load planning—a resource-intensive task that often results in suboptimal decisions, unnecessary empty miles, late deliveries, and inefficient asset utilization. What’s more, delays in decision-making due to a lack of real-time insights can hinder operational efficiency, making cost management a constant struggle.

Truckload carrier Paper Transport Inc. (PTI) experienced this firsthand when the company sought to expand its over the-road (OTR), intermodal, and brokerage offerings to include dedicated fleet services for high-volume shippers—adding a layer of complexity to the business. The additional personnel required for such a move would be extremely costly, leading PTI to investigate technology solutions that could help close the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less
indigo software screenshot WMS

Aptean adds British WMS vendor in latest acquisition

The Georgia-based enterprise software vendor Aptean today said it had acquired Indigo Software Ltd., a British provider of purpose-built warehouse management and logistics software solutions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aptean said the move will add new capabilities to its warehouse management and supply chain management offerings for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. Aptean currently provides enterprise resource planning (ERP), transportation management systems (TMS), and product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms.

Keep ReadingShow less
schneider app screenshot for owner operators

Schneider seeks more business with owner-operators

Transportation and logistics service provider Schneider National Inc. is reaching out to owner-operators, encouraging them to do more business with the Wisconsin company using an updated digital platform.

Schneider says its FreightPower platform now offers owner-operators significantly more access to Schneider’s range of freight options. That can help drivers to generate revenue and strengthen their business through: increased access to freight, high drop and hook rates of over 95% of loads, and a trip planning feature that calculates road miles.

Keep ReadingShow less