Category: Supply Chain Management

Food Industry Delivery Trends!

Food Waste and World Hunger – The Food Supply Chain is Broken!

It’s never been easier for food companies and food industry to reach their customers. Restaurant delivery has grown 20% in the last five years; while estimates differ, online food delivery sales are estimated to grow as high as $220 billion by 2023 – 40% of total restaurant sales.

Online grocery may lag behind restaurants in online delivery adoption, but it’s definitely growing. Deutsche Bank estimates that the $24 billion online grocery market will surge to 120$ billion by 2025.

One reason for this growth is the recent proliferation of delivery models and fleet types: same hour, same day and next day delivery; single fleet, multi-fleet, crowdsourced fleets and in-house fleets; deliver from store, curbside pickup, delivery from robotic warehouses, and so many others.

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The Supply Chain Progress Poll! Denial or Action and Innovation?

Supply Chains Are Broken. Denial Will Kill Your Company!

As pandemic related restrictions are lifted in our personal and professional lives, the key question is what will our lives be like? What will our new normal be? How will Supply Chain progress?

The level of Supply Chain disruption has been pervasive, unrelenting and indiscriminate. Still there is a danger that once we get past the pandemic people will just go back to their old ways, ignoring all of the signals that things need to be improved.

As such we conducted a poll to determine how Supply Chain progress will be manifested in the future. Will companies be in denial and make no improvement or will they understand the lessons of the pandemic induced disruptions and work to make major improvements?

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The Nature Positive Supply Chain!

The Ocean Plastics Environmental Crisis!

There is a lot of information floating around in the media about the environment, climate change, sustainability, pollution, nature preservation and more. It cannot be understated how important these topics are to our present and to our future.

But a phrase that recently caught my attention from the World Economic Forum (WEF) was the “Nature Positive Economy”. That sounded like phrasing that would capture the interest of environmentalists and business people alike.

What did they mean by a “Nature Positive Economy”? And given that nothing can happen without a leading and supportive Supply Chain, by extension what is a “Nature Positive Supply Chain”?

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Why ERP and PLM are No Longer Standard SCM Software!

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For decades, forward-thinking supply chains were defined by how robust their investments into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) was. In the early days of supply chain digitization, these SCM software systems provided increased visibility and data pools to improve supply chain operations.

As time has gone on, antiquated ERPs and PLMs have become a drain on supply chain resources and a bottleneck to scalable digitization. As we look forward to the next-generation of the digital supply chain, businesses will need to invest in configurable supply chain management platforms to unify their current tech stack or displace investments into legacy systems.

Let’s define these three terms to create a clear understanding of what each system includes.

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Supply Chain Menace: Case Study on Pharmaceutical Infiltration!

Conquering Hurdles in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain!

The pharmaceutical industry plays a pivotal role in safeguarding public health by providing access to safe and effective medicines. However, the increasing complexity of the global pharmaceutical supply chain has exposed vulnerabilities that can be exploited by bad actors seeking financial gains at the expense of patient safety.

This pharmaceutical infiltration case study delves into a documented example of bad actors infiltrating the pharmaceutical supply chain with substandard or falsified medicines, highlighting the potential risks and consequences for public health.

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Growing Significance of Supply Chain Education in Today’s Job Market!

Supply Chain Education and Certification – What’s Missing?

Supply Chain Management is one of the essential mechanisms that help to make things work for basically any industry. It is the set of standards and tools that help establish certain bonds and logistics that help customers make correct decisions and purchase products at lower costs.

It happens because of an efficient solution provided by marketing specialists and analysts offering appealing proposals.

The challenging part is to teach future experts as they take an interdisciplinary approach to supply chain management.

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The Single Point of Failure in Supply Chain – Baby Formula!

The Single Point of Failure in Supply Chain – The Suez Crisis!

There are over 3.5 million births in the United States every year. That is a lot of babies who need baby formula.

With such a large number of births you would expect that there would be a steady, well established industry supporting the supply of all needs for new mothers, babies and their families.

Yet in mid 2022 there is a shortage of baby formula. This certainly is completely unacceptable. So how is that possible?

Apparently there is a single point of failure in the baby formula Supply Chain!

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The Supply Chain Detective™ and the Holiday Readiness Catastrophe!

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It was our first Holiday season working in Retail. From a Supply Chain perspective the pressure was intense. Despite massive investments the previous year and repeated assurances of Holiday readiness from the incumbent staff the entire experience was disastrous.

First the Distribution Centre (DC) ran out of storage space. Delays by the planning team in releasing orders to the DC resulted in a mad scramble to get goods to the stores and fill their empty shelves. And a never-ending slew of stock-outs and productivity issues made the next few months an absolute nightmare. Potentially blowing the Holiday season was a constant reality which would undermine the very survivability of the company.

The entire team was on the verge of being fired. What on earth happened to Holiday readiness and how could be prevent this from ever happening again?

This was a case for the Supply Chain Detective™.

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Food Waste and World Hunger – The Food Supply Chain is Broken!

The Baby Supply Chain!

There are many different Supply Chains in the World covering every industry, every business or institution and every aspect of our lives.  But the single most important Supply Chain is the Food Supply Chain!  Our very survival depends on there even being a Food Supply Chain.

But there are two very opposite, yet unacceptable, problems in this Supply Chain.  On one hand there is a horrendously large amount of Food Waste.  Yet on the other hand an enormous portion of humanity suffers from Hunger!  The Food Supply Chain, the most important Supply Chain in the World, is BROKEN!

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Supply Chains Are Broken. Denial Will Kill Your Company!

The Supply Chain Renaissance Has Begun!

I recently saw the headline for an article which said that Supply Chains are NOT broken, but rather it is just a demand planning issue.

I couldn’t believe it. The author must have either a very narrow view of what Supply Chain is, or be oblivious to what has been going on in the world.

It is this very head-in-the-sand thinking and denial, and the resultant inaction which will ensue, that will kill companies in the future. Supply Chain’s Moment of Truth has arrived!

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Pallet Tracking: The Key to Streamlining Warehouse Operations!

The Pallet Supply Chain and Lumber Price Impacts!

Pallet tracking is an essential element of modern warehouse management. With the development of e-commerce and the growing demand for accurate and quick order fulfillment, warehouses are experiencing increased challenges in terms of optimizing their operations.

Given this, the management should pay increased attention to tracking pallets in the warehouse, which can increase the overall efficiency of the company.

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The Clothing Supply Chain: From High Fashion Runway to Landfill!

Food Waste and World Hunger – The Food Supply Chain is Broken!
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Every 3-6 months my wife and I accumulate a bag full of clothing that we no longer wear. We take it to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army. In our minds we believe that we are contributing to help those who want gently used clothing. We didn’t realize we were a part of the Clothing supply chain.

I expect that many of you do the same. You either make donations to these or similar institutions or you avail yourself of used or second hand items that are for sale at numerous outlets.

There is an extraordinary amount of time and money spent on new clothing. But only a small portion of that ends up being recycled and repurposed. In the U.S. alone over 2.5 Billion pounds of textile waste is generated each year and 85% of that goes into landfills!

And did you know that the clothing and textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world?

What exactly is happening in the Clothing Supply Chain?

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Most Popular Women in Cryptocurrency!

What’s the Difference Between Blockchain and Supply Chain?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency and is based on encryption techniques, which are used in regulating the currency units. The same encryption techniques are used in the transfer of funds and these digital currencies operate independently, without the role of a central bank. This has also brought to the forefront the most popular women in cryptocurrency.

The penetration of digital advancements in every field and sector of the society has given impetus to the growth and development of cryptocurrencies as well.

But the term and its workings are still quite unknown to the common person and to understand it, let us take a closer look at the main role of cryptocurrency and how it is valuable to the society.

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Supply Chain Woes with Inflation Rising … What’s Next?

10 Vital Supply Chain Lessons from the Coronavirus Pandemic!

Companies rely on supply chain management to reduce costs and increase their production cycle. Sadly, with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, many global organizations had to rethink their supply chain strategy with inflation rising, especially those who depended solely on China for their requirements of raw or finished materials.

For getting the final product from its original source to the customer, there is an involvement of different persons, resources, and activities to ensure that the link does not break down and companies are able to fulfill their contractual obligations timely.

Unfortunately, the transmission of the virus changed everything.

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Resilient Supply Chains: Lessons to Learn from Other Industries!

How Small Businesses Can Build Resilient Supply Chains!

On the face of it, you may not think that there are many similarities that could make the supply chain and gaming industries exchange words of wisdom, but a lot of the successful strategies implemented by game developers can be extremely useful for improving the efficiency of resilient supply chains. 

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