Some Vendors Say They will Need New Warehouses to Store All the Corrugate, as Flexographic Printing May be Required Specific to Each SKU; Reaction to Continued Out-of-Stock Challenges?

Retail giant Walmart has caused quite a stir in its vendor community, after recently releasing new standards for carton marking that have the potential to add huge costs to its suppliers.

Largely out of the blue, Walmart sent letters and supporting materials to vendors in February and March, stating that the changes would "improve receiving, stocking, inventory management and on shelf availability while reducing shrink and labor hours in our stores."

Supply Chain Digest Says... There are less draconian steps that can be taken, as noted above, and Walmart may be in effect punishing all vendors for the poor bar code quality of a few. What do you say? Click here to send us your comments Click here to see reader feedback

To that end, the letter further states that the following are "non-negotiable requirements to be implemented immediately" on all four sides of each carton:

• 14 Digit Case GTIN - Lithograph Printed (Flexo-Graphic). Ink Jet is not in compliance
• Brand and Sub-brand if applicable
• Department Number
• Case Pack QTY and Space for Writing Manual Adjustments by Store Associates
• Temperature Rhetoric
• "Single Stock, PDQ Capable or Case Cut Capable" must be indicated on TOP FLAP of case
• All 4 sides require item information. Black Ink.
• Lot-Code
• Sell-By Date - Legible, Large Font. Short Side
• Online Item File must reflect what is printed on the Master Case, including 14 Digit Case GTIN

A graphic of the requirements provided by Walmart to suppliers is shown below. A copy of the Walmart supplier letter can be found here: New Walmart Carton Labeling Requirements Supply Letter

A little background here will be helpful. Contrary to a general belief by many in the industry, Walmart has never required - in fact cannot use - serialized carton labeling employing GSI128 (formerly UCC128) bar code standards. That is in large part because GSI128 labeling really only provides value if tied to an advance ship notice (ASN) that details the contents of each case linked to the unique serial numbers on the carton shipping label. But Walmart has never required such ASNs.

Instead, Walmart has relied on the GS1 case code, basically like a UPC code but at a carton not item level, encoded using the interleaved 2 of 5 bar code symbology. In general, at its distribution centers, Walmart applies its own serialized bar code on incoming cases, some manually, some using automated print and apply, which then drives each carton's movement through the miles of conveyor and sortation systems before it winds up either on a truck heading for a store or into DC inventory.

In this regard, Walmart might be said to be some 25 years behind some of its competitors. Rivals such as Target, Kmart, and many department stores starting UCC128 labeling and ASN programs in the early to mid-1990s, though the grocery industry largely did not adopt the process until just recently, with a few pioneers now with programs in their early stages.

Walmart hoped to leapfrog the GS1128 labeling paradigm with its carton-level RFID mandate announced in 2003, which would have provided unique case level identification. But that program collapsed.

So Walmart has instead required use of the GTIN case code for a couple of decades or more. What is changing in these requirements now are two important things:

First, that the GIN case code be achieved using flexo-graphic printing. In summary, this means that this bar code must be pre-printed by the carton supplier. That in turn means that a Walmart vendor would therefore have to maintain a separate inventory of empty cartons for each and every SKU.

That is very different than the practice used by most companies today, which print the case code using an "on-demand" approach, typically an inkjet printer, but also sometimes by applying a label. This enables these companies to maintain a reduced set of carton inventories that are then customized for each SKU as they are coming off the production or packing line.

Historically, there have been sometimes been issues with case codes printed by inkjet in terms of quality, and if you look in a grocery store it usually doesn't take too long to find a carton that has a case code that looks like it is slanting one way or the other, a result caused by mis-calibration of the equipment. However, even these codes are often readable with today's improved scanning technology.

(See More Below)

But bar codes printed on white labels actually have superior readability than bar codes printed on the darker corrugate material.

Furthermore, "A number of observers I spoke to want to know where Walmart gets off saying that ink-jet-printed bar codes are unreliable when both ANSI and UCC councils thoroughly analyzed their use for an extended period of time and pronounced them reliable," wrote Pat Reynolds of Packaging World magazine. "The same observers are quick to point out that if indeed ink-jet-printed bar codes are not as consistently legible as Walmart wants them to be, there's a much less draconian solution available: Require CPG companies to scan 100% of the ink-jet bar codes they print on their packaging lines and use readily available controls technology to immediately reject any case that is not up to par."

Many suppliers are said to be in quite a lather over this.

"We will have to build a whole new warehouse just to hold all these cartons," one supplier complained on a recent webinar held by Walmart to explain the changes, according to another supplier who was on-line for the event but described to SCDigest what transpired.

In addition to the bar code printing requirement, the other problem for Walmart vendors is that the rest of the marking requirements - which can be printed with on-demand technologies - now have to be printed on all four sides, rather than just one or two as is generally the practice now.

That will mean that Walmart vendors likely will have to reconfigure their manufacturing lines with "bump-and-turn" stations. Not only will there be an investment in equipment and systems to make the change, it will slow down the flow of cartons say to a palletizer, perhaps significantly so, increasing production costs.

What's driving all this? It is not clear what is behind the concern for bar code quality on cases, though it can be assumed Walmart must be having some bar code read issues in its DCs and perhaps its stores. That said, there are less draconian steps that can be taken, as noted above, and Walmart may be in effect punishing all vendors for the poor bar code quality of a few.

Walmart has also stated its personnel have a hard time identifying what products are in what cartons when looking for merchandise in back rooms needed for replenishment on the store floor, with the inference that the expanded and four-sided marking will improve this situation.

And thus, this whole initiative might be seen as one of the ramifications from Walmart's battle in recent years to keep its shelves stocked and avoid out-of-stocks. For example, in 2013, then Walmart US CEO Bill Simon had told a meeting of store managers that the retail giant's two-year problems with keeping store shelves stocked were "getting worse," and a major threat to its operations. (See Walmart US Chief Says Sales are Suffering Because of Challenges in Keeping Stores Shelves Stocked.)

Then in March of 2014, more of the same, as Bloomberg reported that Walmart executives told another meeting of store managers that if they could solve the out-of-stock issue it could lead to as much as $3 billion in additional sales in the US alone each year. Managers were told that improving "in-stocks" was a top operational priority for the year.

Writing on Labeling Now's web site, David Holliday of print and apply and inkjet printing system provider ID Technology observes that Walmart-s own frozen baked goods group has a mandate for two-sided labeling that can be met with on-demand printing, as shown in the graphic below.

Besides the operational and carton inventory impacts of the new Walmart requirements, vendors are also upset with the schedule for compliance. The letter we saw required vendors submit artwork files for the new packaging specs in just a couple of weeks - virtually impossible.

Our vendor source said that on another of the webinars that one supplier noted his company has 1,100 SKUs that his company ships to Walmart and surely it couldn't be expected to get all this artwork submitted in such a short time frame.

He was told the timeline was firm, our source tells SCDigest.

Some vendors are said to planning to refuse to comply. Certainly many if not nearly all would at this point have little or no idea how these changes would impact their costs, nor would they have plans developed on how to store and manage this huge increase in the number of cartons they would have to now maintain.

While defying a Walmart mandate may seem risky, that is in fact the path most vendors took with regard to the RFID mandate in the mid-2000s - and that turned out to be the smart move, as Walmart did not ever enforce the mandate, and the program was dropped not long afterwards.

Our take: Walmart seems to have rushed headlong into this with little vendor input or consideration. While there may be real benefits here for Walmart, as structured the program will increase supply chain costs and thus end user prices in the end - while Walmart continues to push vendors for lower prices. There are clearly better ways to meet Walmart's goals. SKU specific pre-printed cartons are simply an archaic concept.

What do you think of these new Walmart marking requirements? What do you think is going on? What should vendors do? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below - if you want to remain anonymous, please indicate so.

Your Comments/Feedback

Srihari Senior Consultant, Infosys Posted on: May, 22 2016 Great article. I am a little suprised not to see BNSF in the mix while I understand their financial mode/operation is a little different.  That would only give a complete perspective with all the players in the pool.

Mike O'Brien Senior editor, Access Intelligence Posted on: May, 26 2016 Surprised to see Home Depot fall off the list; thought they were winning with Sync?

Julie Leonard Marketing Director, Inovity Posted on: Jun, 27 2016 Using the right tool for the right job has always been a best practice and one of the reasons, we feel, that RFID has never taken off in the DC as exponentially as pundits have been forecasting since 2006. While these results may seem surprising to those solely focused on barcode scanning, the adoption of multi-modal technologies in the DC makes perfect sense for greater worker efficiency and productivity.

Carsten Baumann Strategic Alliance Manager, Schneider Electric Posted on: Aug, 19 2016 The IoT Platform in this year's (2016) Hype Cycle is on the ascending side, entering the "Peak of Inflated Expectation" area. How does this compare to the IoT positions of the previous years, which have already peaked in 2015? Isn't this contradicting in itself? Editor's Note:  You are right, Internet of Things (IoT) was at the top of the Garter new technology hype curve not long ago. As you noted, however, this time the placement was for “IoT Platforms,” a category of software tools from a good number of vendors to manage connectivity, data communications and more with IoT-enabled devices in the field. So, this is different fro IoT generally, though a company deploying connected things obviously needs some kind of platform – hoe grown or acquired – to manage those functions. Why IoT generically is not on the curve this year I wondered myself.

Jo Ann Tudtud-Navalta Materials Management Manager, Chong Hua Hospital, Cebu City, Philippines Posted on: Aug, 21 2016 I agree totally with Mr. Schneider. I have always lived by "put it in writing" all my work life.  I am a firm believer of the many benefits of putting everything in writing and I try to teach it to as many people as I can. This "putting in writing" can also be used for almost anything else.  Here are some general benefits (only some) of "putting in writing": 1. Everything is better understood between parties involved.  There are lots of people types who need something visual to improve their understanding. 2. Everyone can read to review and correct anything misunderstood.  This will ensure that all parties concerned confirm the details of the agreements as correct.  This is further enhanced by having all parties involved sign off on a hard copy or confirm via reply email. 3. Everything has a proof.  Not to belittle the element of trust among parties involved, it is always safest to have tangible proof of what was agreed on. 4. There will be a document to refer to at any time by any one who needs clarification. 5. The documentation can be useful historical data for any future endeavor.  It provides inputs for better decisions on related situations in the future. 6. This can also be compiled and used to teach future new team members.  "Learn from the past" it is said. There are many more benefits.  Mr. Schneider is very correct about his call to "put it in writing".

Sandy Montalbano Consultant, Reshoring Initiative Posted on: Aug, 24 2016 U.S. companies are reshoring and foreign companies are investing in U.S. locations to be in close proximity to the U.S. market for customer responsiveness, flexibility, quality control, and for the positive branding of "Made in USA". Reshoring including FDI balanced offshoring in 2015 as it did in 2014. In comparison, in 2000-2007 the U.S. lost net about 200,000 manufacturing jobs per year to offshoring. That is huge progress to celebrate! The Reshoring Initiative Can Help. In order to help companies decide objectively to reshore manufacturing back to the U.S. or offshore, the nonprofit Reshoring Initiative's free Total Cost of Ownership Estimator can help corporations calculate the real P&L impact of reshoring or offshoring. http://www.reshorenow.org/TCO_Estimator.cfm

Robert Transportation Manager, N/A Posted on: Aug, 30 2016  Good article!  I am sending this to my colleagues who work with me.  We have to keep this in mind.  Thanks!

Ian Jansen Mr, NHLS Posted on: Sep, 14 2016 SCM is all about getting the order delivered to the Customer on date/ time requested because happy Customers = Revenue. Using the right tools to do the right job is important and SCM is heavily dependent on sophisticated ERP systems to get right real data info ASP. I've worked in a DC with more than 400,000 line items and measured the Productivity of Pickers by how many "picks" per day. I've learned that one doesn't have to remind Germany about your EDI orders.

Don Benson Partner, Warehouse Coach Posted on: Sep, 15 2016 Challenge - to build and sustain effective relationships at the level of the organizations that are responsible for effectively coordinating and colaborating in an otherwise highly competitive environment

Jade Admin, Fulfillment Logistics UK Ltd Posted on: Oct, 02 2016 Of course we all need to up our game. We need to move with the times, and always be one step ahead of what the future will bring.

Mike Dargis President of asset-based carrier based in the Midwest, Zip Xpress Inc. (at ZipXpress.net) Posted on: Oct, 03 2016 Thanks for the article, but I know there's a lot more to this issue than just the pay rates. Please check out my blogs on the subject at www.zipxpress.net.

Blaine Inventory Specialist, Syncron Posted on: Nov, 16 2016 Lora, great article! I agree that companies choose the 'safe' solution more often than not. My solution is a bolt-on for legacy ERP's and we even face challeneges of customer adoption. Most like to play it safe and choose an ERP upgrade, which is more costly, time consuming, and has lower ROI across the board. Would love to learn more about your company, we are always looking for partnerships. Blaine blaine.schultz@syncron.com

Bob McIntyre National Account Executive, DBK Concepts LLC Posted on: Nov, 21 2016 This is a game changer in GE's production and prototyping.  It also has huge implications across the GE global supply chain with regard to the management of their support and spare parts network.

Kai Furmans Professor, KIT Posted on: May, 22 2017 I am referencing to the comment that leasing of warehousing equipment (beyond forklift trucks) is a vision for 2030. Just recently in Europe, such a business model has started, see here: https://next-intralogistics.de/ I am following with a lot of interest, how the business develops.

Stuart Rosenberg Supply Chain Consultant, First Choice Supply Chain Posted on: Jun, 05 2017 If we limit the standard on judging or determining the best supply chain to just three calculations it does not tell the entire picture.  Financial performance metrics are valuable as they capture the economic consequences of business decisions.  But supply chain managers make decsions and use organizational resources that impact a company's financial well being.  Where is a firm's earnings over a period of time determined by sales less product costs and general/adminsitrative costs?  Where is the metric for determining the sources and uses of cash from three perspectives - operational, investment and financial?  Where are these supply chain metrics: on-time delivery, lead time, response time to customers, product returns, procurement costs, network distance, inventory carrying costs, forecasting accuracy, sourcing time, etc,.  Without knowing the results of all these supply chain calculations the there must be a question as to the accuracy of the 25 top supply chains.

Dustin Calitz Project Commercialization Manager, Mondelez Posted on: Jun, 06 2017 I feel this ranking misses the mark in SC. It does not seem to consider a key indicator in days inventory on hand, which is key to determining a SC company's ability to forecast, manage inventory costs and reduce aged stock. In additiion I realize it's difficult to understand what goes into the customer survey, but would I assume specific metrics are being asked. For examples customer's opinion on service level differentiation and the ability to deliver the right product on time, which should then be allocated a bigger weighting than 10%. It would also be interesting to take a view of the above list's SKU portfolio complexity, seasonality and launches/promotions. I would again assume some companies on the list above have a far more complex SC to manage and lead, ultimately requiring a lot more innovation within a SC to stay ahead of competitors, and ultimately satisfy their customers demands.  I understand above metrics are difficult to measure, as mentioned in the article, but they somehow need to be considered to give a true reflection.

Michael Hurd Lean Consultant, Unemployed Posted on: Jun, 10 2017 A Very Good Article... While some feel that lean is a scam that pushes for more out of the personnel and out of the companies through reduction of waste and adding value for the customer, there are several things to remember: 1) Lean methodologies are designed and implemented to reduce time wasting, so this may seem that you are working harder as an employee. 2) Lean methdoligies only work when everyone from the janitor to the owner of the company get involved and back the program. 3) Lean methods are there to make you work smarter not harder, although it may feel you are working harder. 4) YES... Sometimes lean methodologies fail! This is due to project overun or taking on too large a problem and trying to fix it all in one go and not taking the smaller problems that are associated with the large problem and fixing them first. Sometimes fixing the small problems leads to resolution of the larger problem.

Akhil Director Supply Chain , skuchain Posted on: Jul, 31 2017 The Supply Chain technology is not considered a problem because traditionally supply chains are thought to be cost centres unlike sales functions. The tendency, in general, to limit expenses and cost cutting on upgrades for technology and for talent have been hindering progress for the businesses. Supply chains lack real time visbility and above all trust across the value chain (not that the participants are dishonest) rather it's about the cascading effects referred to as the bull-whip effect which causes higher magnitudes of disruptions.  Supply chain real time information should top the list . Another problem is that of multi homing as so much data is available across several feeds of IOT/Email/Internet /Mobility/ERP that organisations tend to have issues around finding a single platform to collate them for meaning analysis.  Blockchain (if deployed appropriately) can be a great solution for solving the issues around the supply chain.

Mike Ledyard Vested Program Faculty, Vested Way / University ofTennessee Posted on: Aug, 04 2017 Excellent article.  It very much points to the need for Shared Risk / Shared Reward as we teach at Vested.  Suppliers will respond when they are made part of the team, and they have a lot to bring to the game.  The service provider is the subject matter expert in the services provided, and in an excellent position to enhance the capabilities and services offered by the shipper.

Andrew Downard Managing Director, AD Supply Chain Group Pty Ltd Posted on: Aug, 05 2017 As the article points out it is not a lack of technology that is holding back performance but rather a failure to form the right sort of relationships.  As well as the length of such relatiohships, practitioners should consider employing arrangements that incentivise both parties to innovate and deliver levels of performance and profit that neither thought possible.  By far the best model I have come across to achieve this is the Vested Outsourcing model developed by researchers from the University of Tennessee.  See www.vestedway.com for information on the model and case studies that show how others have benefited from creating a Vested deal.

Najma logistics, threelineshipping Posted on: Aug, 23 2017 Very informational article. The major focus of logistics is on e-commerce. There is a need to optimize every component of logistics by following the latest trends and technologies. Thanks for uploading this article.

Sameer Shukkla Consulting Partner, Wipro Inc. Posted on: Sep, 17 2017 I have recently co-authored a white paper with my colleague wherein we have looked at 2 fundamental guiding principles  - 1. Always have enough to Sell / Produce 2. Do not have excess to Sell / Produce These 2 Golden Rules can be the foundation of keeping optimal inventory levels and for organizations to achieve the same. We have looked at a framework which tries to reduce the phase mismatch between Demand & Supply, and tries to bring the shape of the supply curve closer to shape of the demand curve. We have classified symptoms and underlying root causes for the above "Phase mismatch" and "Curve Mismatch" between Demand and Supply, and then talked about addresssing those individual root causes to strive towards Leaner Inventory levels while maintaining or improving service levels. So to answer your question, we feel the Companies which have addresed these causes have been able to keep DIO horizontal or even going down, while others have not been able to control rising DIO because of not addressing the root causes.

Simon Eagle SCM Consultant, Camelot MC Posted on: Sep, 17 2017 You ask why turns are flat or declining despite lots of attention and technology. The answer is, I think, 2 fold: the supply chain environments VUCA (Volatliity, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) is on a continuous upward curve and this means that forecast accuracy inevitably declines in parallel - and much of that inaccuracy is hidden by the statistics. For instance a company with, seemingy good, 80% mix accuracy will find that figure is skewed so high by the few high volume / low variability items. 80% of the items will be achieving considerably less than 60% error. So most item level forecasts used for driving replenishment through an MPS (be it ERP or APS) are simply leading to unbalanced stocks, service threats and continuous expediting / fire-fighting. These schedule interrutions are "variability" that is disrupting flow and, thereby, increasing lead-times, using unplanned capacity and generating excessive (and still unbalanced) inventories. The replacement in ex-stock supply chains is "enterprise(s)-wide" pull which also uses "push" for extreme/exceptional events. Its other key characteristics are that the supply chain is decoupled and is demand-driven. And now it can be implemented using SAP since they announced they they have co-developed an enhancement for IBP that supports this transformational way of working - up to 50% inventory reduction, requiring less capacity and shorter lead-times all while achieving planned service levels. See https://www.camelot-itlab.com/en/camelot-demand-driven-lean-planning-suite-for-sap/ and https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/supply-chain-flow-what-why-how-simon-eagle/

John Smith Research & Development, Octopus Tech Solutions Posted on: Sep, 18 2017 IoT is without a doubt starting to become a major factor in the profitability of various companies. In the manufacturing sector, we will see it come into the front by the end of 2020 completely. Various sectors have already adapted IoT solutions like the security industry or companies offering BPO Services India. Contact centers not just in India and China but across the world have adapted technology following the principles of IoT. The manufacturing sector is soon going to follow.

Girish Maniyar Chief Manager Development Initiatives, Asian Paints Posted on: Sep, 28 2017 I  can speak with some context. While efficiency and tools can reduce inventory, we also see the number of SKUs and new products increasing, and also the number of sales/depot points. This means the inventory in such cases, can start with very high number and with more customization and choices available to the consumer, so there is no end to the long tail of products available within a category. It is unlikely that the slow/dead goods are written off so easily to be not included here. A larger question, would it be purely an IO problem or also a Demand Planning (Forecast Error) problem? A higher cycle time of service but a better fill rate can improve inventory performance, by aggregation. But a bad forecast can do away all the good work you do in inventory planning. Do you have numbers for decorative coatings in the list? I did not see something there only for decorative coatings.

Reo B Hatfield Chief Operating Executive , BestTransport Posted on: Oct, 20 2017 My opinion is that peaks and valley are just nice graphics to explain.  Smooth responses save the day.   3PLs  just adjust to the climate and the areas of movement of Logistics.    One purpose of the 3PL movement was to adjust to an always changing market.   They will never be fixed and will flex as the logistics changes.   3PL companies have vast knowledge of their business.  Their success is their ability to move up and down as the market flows.  They bring a level playing field to the transportation world that in the past was rigid but looked good on spreadsheets.  Industry graphic personnel like to be able to answer all the changes because they can only see documents.  3PLs see the needs, the issues, the positive changes and the knowledge to know why and when to adjust.   They (3PLs) have smoothed the waves of the past and everybody likes to see the spikes so they know something is there to clearly report on. Smooth sailing is boring but sure gets you where you want to go.

Catherine Dennis Supply Chain Manager, Indak Mfg Corp Posted on: Oct, 26 2017 So the horrific and severe worldwide allocation of electronic components is not an issue?  Don't tell that to the automotive buyers.  It's HORRIBLE.  Lead times out to up to 76 weeks.  Why not write about that?  It's killing us, our customers and the big automakers.

Huub Logistics Manager, Shell Posted on: Nov, 11 2017 I suggest McKinsey to do a bit more research in Prof Gattorna’s dynamic alignment. This article only scratches the surface a tiny bit. Much more to be found reading about the alignment concept.

Joseph George Farmer, Field Vista Posted on: Dec, 07 2017 Primarily Vision is required followed by Assigned Focus on objectives.  Or maybe just love for USA.  The market will not find its way unless it's for organic vegetables and RRR.  Two to three years later will take two to three years longer to the end of the decade, and this is viable today.  God bless america from its present distraction.

Gary Buchs Owner Operator , Self, Landstar Business Capacity Owner Posted on: Dec, 17 2017 In My Opinion, the fact that capacity will tighten should be obvious to everyone engaged in the transportation.  Capacity to move freight isn’t how many trucks or trailers are in the system or what a computer  program says, it still is truck driver based and poorly-managed companies won’t be able to imporove this fact.  Investing in people is still most important! Get ready to pay higher prices for goods and services. I think we could lose 10% of Capacity in many areas.

Dan Pres., Bioptechs Posted on: Dec, 20 2017 After all the ground we have lost in the productive sector and the additional burden that loss of our productive momentum has placed on our society, somebody tell me why so many people are against the actions necessary to restore our vital productive infrastructure! It is like the left enjoys shooting itself in the foot!

Jayaram Business Development, Raghava Logistics Posted on: Mar, 04 2018 Great article and thank you for summerizing the predications.  What does it mean to country like India where the labour is still cheap? Where the logistics cost is still on the higher side compared to some of the developed nations?

Herb Shields President , HCS Consulting Posted on: Mar, 06 2018  I agree that robots can replace some amount of manual labor in logistics centers.  However as you mention, the labor pool is shrinking.  We need more training programs such as the one provided by the Greater West Town organization in Chicago.   Www.gwtp.org.  (It is a program that your readers should find interesting.)

Billy Associate, BJO Posted on: Mar, 13 2018 Thanks for this very informative article.

Doug Murless Country Manager, krunchbox (www.krunchbox.com) Posted on: Mar, 18 2018 Gone are the days when consumers will wait for a retailer to have the product back in stock, those days are done. We live in the "I want it now" society and with Amazon in their pocket consumers can easily "now" it to themself the next day right from their phone. The importance of product availability is under the microscope at all retailers as an empty shelf equals lost customers, a poor customer experience and entirely abandoned purchases. We are on a mission at krunchbox to help suppliers fix their product availability and sell thru and improve their buyer relationships, hopefully before their retail partner fines start rolling in and or we see more retailers close.

NikhilSingh Executive, Carmatec INC Posted on: Mar, 21 2018 You are correct There are government programs to encourage investment at small and mid-size manufacturers, but McKinsey says these programs generally have smaller budgets, less certainty of ongoing funding, and more constraints on their mandates than comparable programs in other countries. Policy makers should examine which existing initiatives are producing the most promising results, then scale up those efforts and commit to them for the long term.

Mike Mortson CEO, Supply Chain Game Changer Posted on: Jun, 15 2018 I wrote a similar article on supplychaingamechanger.com about the same topic:  Gartner's 2018 Top 25 Supply Chain List!  Is it Still Relevant?  at https://supplychaingamechanger.com/gartners-2018-to…t-still-relevant/

Chuck Nemer Trainer, The Guru of Biz Posted on: Aug, 16 2019 Nice metaphor and nice picture.  I'd like to see a bit more meat on the bones if you're going to completely sell me on the concept.

Charles Quail CLO, Belair Posted on: Jan, 20 2020 The truth from the road is that rates were so good, that 2018 was the best year we had since 1997.  So as we saw this happening, we saw carriers increased their fleets to capitalize on this gravy train, thus depressing the rates for 2019 from overcapacity.  They also flooded the used truck market, and sales dropped 70%. We know because we also were thinking of retiring, but cannot sell our lightly used 2019 Mack Anthem because of this.  So we claim it was not the high cost structure, it was the greed.

Tom Miralia CEO, Distribution Technology Posted on: Feb, 26 2020 Multistory Bronx DC  $700 million and 1.2 million sqft- what's the rent going to be- $3.50 per sqft per month?  $40+ per sqft annually.  In many metros, thats higher than the best Class A office rent and about 9-10 times a going rate in the suburbs?  Well, space cost is the least cost in supply chain typically- still, must be a compelling business model to drive this? Let's pretend that a product is valued at $50 a case, 60 cases per pallet, maybe stored in rack at 8 sqft per pallet in a narrow aisle single-select layout of some form- if total logistics expense ranges 8% maybe, then there's $240 in budget to flow goods from sourcing to customer.  Now the retail customer may spend more to get it to the end purchaser which is beyond my scope (and may folks ability to truly model I suspect).  if that pallet occupies that rack spot for 2 months that rent expense might range about $56?  That takes almost the whole budget for warehousing portion of logistics costs before labor, equipment, admin, materials and so on? I dunno if I'm seeing this right?  Likely I'm off base?

Peter Sales, Freight sales Posted on: May, 08 2020 From a sales prospective:  Our company only uses small trucking companies and gives them the business directly. We sell right to the manufacturer.   The companies we sell for have no sales force and are good hardworking companies who would usually have to rely on only brokers. We help them with appointments billing bids when needed. This year despite our companies doing an excellent job and not raising there rates we lost many accounts or were reduced significantly to brokers.

Harry Moser President, Reshoring Initiative Posted on: Sep, 24 2020 Mr. Meidinger is correct that high healthcare costs have hurt U.S. mfg. He overstates his case by describing healthcare as the primary cause: U.S. healthcare costs % of GDP are about 7 points higher. Our mfg. costs are 20 to 40% higher. The costs paid by taxes in the other countries require highrer salaries and selling prices to obtain the same after tax benefit. His graph shows correlation, not causation. For a clear comparison of the impact of various factors, see the Competitiveness Toolkit https://reshorenow.org/search/. We include lower healthcare costs as one of several important factors in driving further increases in reshoring.

Chris Imamura Executive in Residence, University of Colordao Posted on: Oct, 10 2020 You note that 28% of Amazon's operating income came from its AWS web services unit.  However, from their 2019 Annual Report, Amazon reported $9.2B of the total $14.5B operating income came from AWS = 63%.  What am I missing?

Robert Simoneau Consultant, PolyEd Posted on: Oct, 13 2020 This is an excellent article but a few more details would help. As a lecturer for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers spent a lot of time working with and teaching Tier suppliers. The stories they told were grim from two perspectives. First US automaker are slow to pay their bills, net whenever. The second is the timeline to pay for tooling, some claimed it took one year to get paid. As one group said we spend most of our time hiding money. I consulted for one of the big three and when I asked a group of managers and engineers, when do you pay your bills, they all laughed in unison ... big joke. I was furious and tried to explain to them how this affected their supply chain. It took a lot of effort for GM to go from 50% market share in the 50s, to less  than 20%. When doing thier financial analysis they forgot about quality related issues and the eventual loss of market share. Interesting Boeing is doing the same thing with pretty much the same result ... sad.

Jerry Saltzman Professor, Zicklin Business School, Baruch College Posted on: Jan, 24 2021 After all the rhetoric and  bluster, it's great to see a data driven the year in review analysis.   it was certainly a wild year but the data shows the resilience of the global and domestic supply chain despite political interference and Policy by tweet.

Dave Individual, NA Posted on: Mar, 15 2021 How come SPSC, SPS Commerce isn't included in supply chain software?

Steve Murray Senior Analyst, Warehousing Education and Research Council Posted on: Apr, 07 2021 From 1967 to 1972 I worked as a business systems analyst and developer for Safeway Stores, Inc.  At that time Safeway was the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. based on revenue.  It was also highly unionized.  While Safeway supported the efforts to develop a machine readable code for retail checkout, it's relationship with the union kept it from doing so openly as it might reduce the need for price ticketers, and checkers.  Quite frustrating for those of us who were developing solutions.  But back then we had plenty to do working on accounting systems, procurement, warehouse inventory control, retail store replenishment and labor planning - after all this was the dawn of the retail supply chain.  Eventually Safeway signed on to the UPC movement and the rest is, as you say, history.

AL WEISS CHAIRMAN, WEISS SUPPLY CHAIN CONSULTANTS Posted on: Apr, 09 2021  GREAT ARTICLE!

Rick supply chain manager, Fresh Mark Posted on: May, 28 2021 Do you have any information about Hormel's supply chain?

Daniel Druwe Araujo CPIM, CSCP, T2People Posted on: Jun, 04 2021 Very appropriate article, explaining the non-qualitative ranking, at least from a Supply Chain Management perspective.  Once understood what it is not, the ranking is very interesting in terms of identifying the most successful companies in absolute terms. The question that remains for the professionals interested in learning from the best supply chain designers and managers is exactly which are the most useful ideas and practices that can be learned from the best companies.

Terry Haider Owner, TC Haider Group Posted on: Aug, 18 2022 We were one of those contractors who failed in year 1 due to inflation in costs & FedEx not being willing to renegotiate our contract.  There was absolutely nothing we could do to be cash flow positive with paying acquisition debt so we ceased operations on June 30.  I know of another contractor in our smaller terminal who also has been in business several years who doubted he'd make it to peak.  This is a serious problem & if FedEx doesn't get a handle on it soon, their Ground network is very vulnerable & the reputation damage to the business model will stop anyone with a brain from buying in (I obviously didn't and I have an MBA in finance but could not cover the impact from fuel cost & labor cost escalation from my original forecast - mostly fuel cost).  Sorry I ever got involved.  I won't recover financially from this loss over what is left of a potential finance career from my experience.  I counsel colleagues to stay the hell away.  FEdEx is not a real partner in this with their contractors.

Asher Rapp None, None Posted on: Aug, 24 2022 I find it interesting that the company making all these assumptions and graphs is one of the leading underwriters in alternative investments Carbon related funds.

Rosemary Coates Host, The Frictionless Supply Chain Podcast Posted on: Sep, 28 2022  I would love to interview someone from Schneider about this initiative. My podcast highlights women in supply chain management and is hosted by Supply Chain Management Review.  Please contact me at rcoates@ReshoringInstitiute.org

Mike Loughrin CEO, Transformance Advisors Posted on: Oct, 13 2022 The dramatic fall in ocean container shipping rates is just another sign we are seeing a massive bullwhip effect coming. Other indications are early sales for Christmas items as retailers have too much inventory. Sales on new cars because the dealer lots are full. Sales on bicycles after a period of severe shortages. We are going to see how many supply chian people over-reacted to the constraints during Covid and now need to deal with excess inventory and capacity.

Mike Albert VP Business Development, N/A Posted on: Mar, 15 2023 I'd suggest that Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn should be considered for induction.  They revolutionized the international trade business by devising a process of fly Trade / Clearance documents to speed clearance of international shipments.  They also happen to be the founders of DHL.

Nick Seiersen Title, Company Posted on: Mar, 17 2023 AI and ML are indeed intruiging developments of information technology. My understanding is that Machine Learning happens when the system weeds through reams of information and identifies high probability correlations, and infers a relationship of causation. This is extremely dangerous. Think back a century. Men who wore top hats rarely died in poverty. Would a policy of giving out top hats to the poor have been effective? Yet the data would have recommended it. The case of the chips you give is one of supervised learning. The situations are scored by an expert. When the system encounters another situation, it assesses the characteristics, and makes a determination. This is all brute force computation, hashing through massive amounts of data and scoring correlations (or data matches), and that is the basis for this "new" technology. So if you have a solid base of massive amounts of high quality data that has been or could be scored, AI tools (i.e. correlation) are a real option. Such as item level forecast/actual sales, associated with external causation factors. The breakthrough of ChatGPT is associating a text generating capability as a front end to an inference engine (the massive language model GPT2 or 3). But it is still brute force correlation, hence the propensity for nonsense or what they call "hallucination." Plain text makes the interface with the artificial intelligence system much easier - everyone knows how to ask a question. The quality of the question will impact the quality of the response, so solid systems understanding will still be a real asset.

Iris Digital marketing, Vanhaigroup.com Posted on: May, 25 2023 Great article,I share the same sentiment regarding companies learning towards the safe option. I would be interested in learning more about your company, as we are continuously seeking partnership opportunities.    http://vanhaigroup.com/ TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian     TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back

Name Title, Company Posted on: Jul, 13 2023 The unions are freeloading off the backs of union workers and they don't care about the employees.

John Smith Road driver, Yellow Posted on: Jul, 13 2023 Sean O'Brien is using Yellow freight as a pawn in the UPS and T-Force negotiations. He is willing to sacrifice 22,000 Teamster jobs to make his legacy known. He sounds all professional on the news but he was nothing but reckless and acting like a child when he sabotaged Yellow in the media with our customers. 22,000 households over a hundred thousand people not to mention all the folks that support our business that will cut jobs because of our closing. Folks with sick family members, folks who will lose their homes. Families are bankrupted by this. All while Sean is eating up his moment in the spot light. He probably goes home and replays the news broadcast so he can see himself. I don't know how he can look in the mirror at himself when he knows what he is doing to us at Yellow!!!

Name Title, Company Posted on: Jul, 13 2023 Made my pension 17 years ago. Thanks its over. Good people work only for long term companies.

None Provided None Provided, None Provided Posted on: Jul, 13 2023  It's time for the ceo to step down and yellow needs to be audited immediately.

Name Title, Company Posted on: Jul, 14 2023 My question is how is it that a company like Yellow keeps buying other companies that were making money and shortly later they are broke.  This is the same way ANR operated for years, then they want to blame the union for not making money.

None Provided None Provided, None Provided Posted on: Jul, 14 2023 As a former Holland/Yellow driver I saw what drinking the Yellow Kool-aid did to Holland.  Holland was a great company to work for.  They treated drivers with respect . Once Yellow bought  Holland things changed. Management seemed against the union. Service got worse, customers only stayed for cheap prices. Negotiations in the last contract, Yellow had over 50,000 union employees.  Today only 22,000 remain. Yellow got $700 million in a government bailout but instead of pulling up the boot straps and running a better machine they chose to give themselves bonuses.  I ask how can that happen? Bonuses are for a job well done. What job was well done? In the last contract any bonuses must be shared with the union workers. Every Teamster got around $500 before taxes. Yellow has only paid back the taxpayers $230 on the principle but lots of interest over $50 million. It is time for Yellow to just go away.

Name Title, Company Posted on: Jul, 16 2023 Since the merger they've managed to sell all Roadway assets to cover their costs and going for the last of them just to cover costs but somehow they managed to never have any money. Some people are so greedy all they think about is themselves, someone needs to be held accountable for where the money has gone, well you know Trump had a hand in this just saying.

anonymous clerk, one yellow Posted on: Jul, 18 2023 First and foremost, one Yellow needs to clean house of those upper corporate executives including D. Hawkins.   That in itself would free up a great deal of money.  Next, reduce the corporate employee force and combine jobs, again, freeing up a great deal of money.   There are too many corporate executives and assistance in the corporate office.  Reduce the head count, combine the jobs and reduce the pay of those that are needed.      This is quite easy, since they did it to the teamsters way back when so it's time for pay back, so do it to them!

Big pappa P&D, Company Posted on: Jul, 23 2023 This one of the most devastating situations I have ever faced in 53 years of life. I'm angry and sad for the people, I love my co-workers and they are family to me and Yellow freight has destroyed my family.    I hope they have remorse, but upper management knew what they were doing 9 months ago, so it seems they set themselves up to fail?    They had no plan and no safety net, as long as you have a plan of some type you would think there is hope. I've been a truck driver 22 years and have never seen this kind of idiocy in my life. Basically Hawkins and his croneys took the money and ran, they knew what they were doing by lining their pockets with the American tax payers money. Now the American tax payer is going to take the hit by losing their money and paying higher freight rates and 22.000 hard working tax payers are going to lose their jobs with no insurance and little to no retirement.    I have brothers and sisters that have been with this corporation since they were in high school. They have been here for decades. Now they have no health or welfare or retirement, and for some it's time to retire. The big question is "now what". The Federal Government should take over this company and step in and clean house with federal charges against the guilty.    You can't tell me these people are not white collar criminals and nothing but.   They cant blame the IBT, we kept them afloat for alot of years.

danny owner, richards enterprises Posted on: Jul, 26 2023 Management at Yellow have ruined many other trucking companies they have bought. They now have done it to Yellow. Employees are lowest paid in industry they are not at fault.The CEO and other managment should have been replaced a long time ago.

Benjamin Parkinson Title, Local 881 Posted on: Jul, 28 2023 I've been here for 5 years and every time yellow says they are going to do something it lasts a couple days then it's right back to the same way it was.  They can't keep a terminal manager here long enough to fulfill their changes and promises, the work weather conditions are dreadful. It's either 10° hotter or -10° in temp change then outside, no climate controlled facility. I'm done with their game with teamsters by going bankrupt, oh now were not, oh now we are, now we're not. Make up your mind. Iv'e already have other plans that were in the making since Monday so they can lay me off because I'm sick and tired of the game. We get no answers no information till the last second.  Now once again now we are at the bargaining table and we might not file bankruptcy. It's s joke, make up your mind right now. People it's over, all your customers have fled, you have no revenue, all your employees are gone, you failed as a company so deal with it and move on.

Tony Morrow Title, Company Posted on: Jul, 30 2023 Why Yellow bought Roadway, I'll never knew. Unless they wanted more bricks and mortar stations and equipment  and hopefully a large part of Roadway's customer base. I was in the freight business for many years and this rarely if ever happens.

Mark Lilien IT Director, Kleinfeld Bridal Posted on: Sep, 18 2023 Many 7-Eleven stores have offered 30 minute delivery around the clock.   It is not too hard if the store uses DoorDash or a similar service.

Marc Wulfraat President, MWPVL International Posted on: Nov, 07 2023 The Amazon 2022 revenue figure of 117.716bb is directly off of their 10K statement where they provide supplemental financial information.  This is the figure for all of their third party seller services which includes fulfillment services + shipping services.  In point of fact the true transportation revenue component is likely in the 48.8bb range.  Amazon used to report shipping revenue until Q12017 which was 2.5bb for the quarter and then they stopped reporting it.  So one needs to extrapolate and estimate this figure which is how I arrive at the 48.8bb/year estimate.  This transportation revenue is a far cry from the 100bb from UPS so I find this chart distorted.

Paul Baddick account manager, LD Systems Posted on: Feb, 29 2024 This article caught me by surprise.  I cover the Eastern part of Penna. and I have seen move distribution centers being build all across Interstate 78 from Easton to Harrisburg and the 81 corridor from Harrisburg to Scranton.

Mat Woodcock RVP, Supply Chain Strategy, Coupa Posted on: Mar, 01 2024 Thanks for sharing!  The additional decision making dimensions Bain are suggesting align pretty closely to the conversations we've been having with our Supply Chain Design & Planning customers.  The days of simply trading off the classic triangle of Cost/Cash/Service are behind us. In terms of the Bain comment re: resilience being very expensive, and monitoring/recovering and flexible design being a needed capability, that you move on rapidly from in the article - my personal take on that is since it's realistically impossible to build a fully resilient supply chain.  The focus switches to where do you focus your resilience invesment and design for flexibility (excess capacity, switchable manufacturing sites, non-optimal transport lanes, etc.) at a cost - albeit a known one, in the places where it provides the most benefit - which means when something happens you can switch the most critical elements.  While at the same time investing in parallel in being able to see that event happening as early as possible and have the reactive process already established to know where and what you can switch (and critically the senior leadership alignment to press the button).    I believe it is David Simchi-Levi that coined the approach of increasing your time to survive (ie resilience), while decreasing your time to thrive (the processes and alternatives to get back on track).  As long as you "thrive" before you run out of "surviving time" then you have enough resilience!

tom moore partner, ProvisionAi Posted on: Mar, 22 2024 Good article.  The need to optimize loading while routing is an unfilled niche in the market -- but, based on your notes, I don't think they go there.  Like all of us in load optimization, it looks like they do a post routing truckload build.  Only then do you know if everything fits or if there is space.

Thomas L Dadmun VP SCM Retired , ADTRAN Retired. Posted on: Apr, 10 2024 It is important for SCM Profesionals to set up a heirarchy of KPI's based on their business. Soliciting input from the business is key but you need to benchmark your " Best in Class " competitors as well. This seems like a daunting task but most folks welcome the ability to share data as long as your willing to reciprocate as well.  Here's an example of a hierarchy that was presented in a past SC Digest video, an informative tutorial on how to develop one with your team and with your competitors. Good luck!!

Bryan Jensen Chairperson/EVP, St. Onge Company Posted on: Apr, 19 2024 John will be greatly missed indeed.  And from my perspective, it was John who generously kept working with us, as was his nature, completely, as you mention, without ego.   We are so much better for having known him.

Joe Nickence General Manager, Dracowolf Enterprises Posted on: May, 07 2024 This is something that is practiced from the smallest to the largest companies. Amazon simply got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Once AGI and DAOs are in the wilds, this is going to compound.

Steve Murray Sr. Process Analyst, WERC Posted on: Jun, 15 2024 Spot on Dan.  I think that we, material handling suppliers and customers, are trying too hard to cover everything with the "AI" paintbrush.  I think of AI as "Intelligent Automation", and as you say "not new age".  There will always be cool new stuff and ways of using it, but I personally believe that we should look at the tools that are available, new and old, and understand better how to use them without thinkng that they will tell us. I like the old IBM adage "Machines should work, people should think".

Steve Murray Sr. Process Analyst, Warehousing Education and Research Council Posted on: Jul, 18 2024 We have used "decoupled" processes for hundreds of years.  We call them "Silos".  I understnad the value of the flexibility in the Gartner modes, but I am concerned about the silo effect on both operations and most importantly data.

Jonathan Smith, Tata Consultancy Services Posted on: Aug, 05 2024 Although Texas has three schools with undergraduate programs in the top 10, the states of TN, SC, & GA combined have a 20% smaller population while having three schools that outrank the three in Texas. So much for TX dominating the list. Go Vols, Gamecocks, & Jackets!

Norman Katz President, Katzscan Inc. Posted on: Aug, 28 2024 Walmart's offering of LTL and TL services should help their vendors reduce supply chain vendor compliance chargebacks - financial penalties - that occur when shipments are damaged or late.  Inasmuch as the vendor should not be penalized when using the retailer's carrier of choice, by using the carrier that is the retailer itself, this should further diminish the retailer's ability to charge the vendor for late or lost shipments when the shipment was picked up on time. This effectively moves the retailer's (e.g., Walmart's) responsibility for the goods closer to the point of pickup.