Transport ahoy! Securing supply despite high volatility
Matching themes: Covid19, Risk Management, security of supply, transport management, VUCA
For more than a year now, logistics and supply chain managers around the world have been struggling with unprecedented challenges. The impact from the first coronavirus-induced shutdowns, when supply chains and transportation networks around the world collapsed, continues to ripple through the industry. High volatility in demand, natural disasters and vessel incidents such as the recent one blocking the Suez Canal have further aggravated the situation.
Problem is, transportation capacity is extremely scarce and in hot demand. Numerous aircraft are still grounded. Container shortages continue to persist for quite a while. All of this is not only hampering sea and air cargo, but also road transports.
As a result, freight rates skyrocketed, as did uncertainty for manufacturers that rely on smoothly functioning logistics chains. In many cases, it’s unclear or at least hardly possible to plan when exactly their materials are going to be transported. So, the ever more pressing question is: How can companies best secure their shipments and thus ensure the flow of supplies to their plants and customers? Read more
Commercial vehicle provider reforms its order management with SupplyOn
Matching themes: invoicing process, Purchase to Pay
The customized production of a commercial vehicle manufacturer resulted in many individual orders from suppliers that are difficult to plan. By using SupplyOn, the company was not only digitizing its collaboration with its suppliers, but also optimizing it: In addition to individual orders more plannable delivery forecasts were introduced. This was the starting signal for a completely digital end-to-end process—from purchasing to invoicing. Read more
Remember suppliers put the “supply” in “Supply Chain”
Matching themes: control tower, Onboarding, supplier collaboration
In North America we’re seeing our clients actively re engage in supply chain digitization projects. One topic that our clients tend to overlook at first is how to get suppliers to buy into these projects. End-to-end visibility is the holy grail everyone is looking for, but it’s impossible without suppliers feeding data into the system. Read more
User enablement — or how we facilitate usage
Matching themes: UX
From the user’s perspective, it always involves some effort till she or he can actually successfully use a (new) software or app. This learning process that users go through is also called “user onboarding”. It ranges from: “I’ll just try this out.” All the way to: “I know how to achieve my desired result with this product.” Ultimately, it is primarily about teaching users how they can best (or most easily) work successfully with a product. Read more
Digital and smart control of containers
Matching themes: container management, empties management, transport management
What makes for an efficient and future-oriented container management system, also known as empties management? What should companies look out for when implementing it? Here are the most important factors. Read more
The sense of security we learned from the pandemic
Matching themes: Risk Management
Although the global pandemic continues, we should always keep positive mindsets. I am located in Shanghai, China. New local COVID-19 infected people just appeared in Shanghai after several of months of no infections. But people here are not in panic after experiencing the pandemic ‘war’ last year. Instead we are full of a sense of security resulting from three aspects – SPEED, PROCESS, and SOVEREIGNTY.
Finance Portal: how to harmonize e-invoicing, dunning and inquiries
Matching themes: e-invoicing, Purchase to Pay
Paper invoices are still common with some suppliers. But paper-based invoice processes are not only inefficient as the information needs to be keyed in again in the customer system. Moreover, they are also prone to errors, due to typos or missing information.
Why you need to move beyond plain digitized invoices Read more
No more out of supply: how capacity management builds resiliency into supply chains
Matching themes: analytics, capacity management, production planning, Production-to-Supply, Risk Management, security of supply, VUCA
“High demand, low supply”: what a nightmare for supply chain managers. And this doesn’t just happen in boom times. In economically uncertain phases, too, supply bottlenecks are more than painful for businesses. This can currently be witnessed for the microchip shortage the automotive industry (among others) is battling with.
Thus, it is all the more important to safeguard production by having a sophisticated capacity management system for critical components in place. But what does this mean in practice? What is the difference to conventional demand collaboration with suppliers? And which aspects do manufacturers need to consider? Read more
Pizza Trackers and Control Towers
Matching themes: analytics, control tower, visibility
Does anyone else remember in 2008 when Domino’s came out with the Pizza Tracker? You could order a pizza and watch as is it moved from order, to being cooked, to being put in a box and ultimately delivered. It was fun and informative for the customer to follow the pizza’s journey to your doorstep. This was mainly done on a desktop computer since Smartphone apps were in their infancy.
What does a Pizza Tracker have in common with a Control Tower? Read more
Leonardo advances its supplier collaboration with AirSupply
Matching themes: aerospace, AirSupply, supplier collaboration
Leonardo, a major aerospace, defence and security company, wanted to harmonize and improve the digital collaboration with its suppliers throughout the group. By implementing AirSupply, Leonardo benefits group-wide from efficient electronic processes that increase transparency, traceability and responsiveness throughout its supply chain and improve inventory control. Read more