Author Archives: just2bruce

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JB Hunt offering new drop-and-hook service

JB Hunt is a powerhouse in managed logistics. Offering a drop and hook service seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Many firms have yard space to keep a spare trailer, and it allows them to load it on their own time instead of waiting for the truck to show up.

In my experience int he telecom equipment business, this was a big deal. We were always loading up to midnight, but sometimes had to wait for drivers to arrive. Or the drivers had to set aside the time to appear so the trailer could be loaded, and wait in a queue.  It would have changed our whole production system to be able to load the trailers, even a few, in advance.   In fact, we could have loaded a couple trailers with generic equipment that could be customized on site in case there were last minute orders; we were always looking to grab as many orders before quarter close that we could.

Having warehouse workers work at odd hours for truck arrivals is difficult for operators.  And drivers would appreciate the convenience as well.

Shortly in the future, paperwork will be able to be handled electronically as well, son the driver would just need to grab and go.  The right clients will make this work well.

Hunt has an astute management team and is a frequent adopter of new ideas in logistics.

screenshot-www.supplychaindive.com 2018-01-29 09-45-53-153

via JB Hunt announces new drop-and-hook service with 500 trailers | Supply Chain Dive

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Posted on May 7, 2019 in Logistics, Supply Chains, Trucking

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Globalization in transition

This is a fascinating report about global trade, with many interesting statistics, and with points of view not often presented so cogently.

Authors Susan Lund, James Manyika, Jonathan Woetzel, Jacques Bughin, Mekala Krishnan, Jeongmin Seong, and Mac Muir point out that global trade in services already probably exceeds that for goods. If a fair value is placed on it, we would see the US trade deficit, for example,wiped out and replaced by a larger surplus.  They also point out that labor is a declining factor both in the value of production, and in labor cost’s ability to determine where products get made.  The intellectual property value is much higher, and often moves in reverse fashion to the goods. But it is hard to price into conventional labor statistics.

I can’t wait to read the whole document!

mckinsey-logo1  via Globalization in transition: The future of trade and global value chains | McKinsey  

Here is the full document link.

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Posted on February 9, 2019 in Logistics, Ports, Production Operations, Strategy, Supply Chains

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Driving Risk Out of S&OP Forecasts

MIT’s Supply Chain blog presented a nice research study by Minhaaj Khan and Srideepti Kidambi and supervised by Dr. Tugba Efendigil.  Their study is a good example of using less data rather than more to design a simple readily explainable approach that increases profits while reducing errors in ordering.  It’s an easy win.  Will it work in all scenarios? No, probably not.  But it also doesn’t take long to try and implement.  Occam’s Razor in action. It’s interesting they did not even need to know about promotions to achieve their gains. In many businesses the promotions can wreck plans. But in this consumer product it turns out they don’t disrupt.

Big data can sometimes confuse us rather than enlighten.

scamit-logo  via Driving Risk Out of S&OP Forecasts

 

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Posted on February 2, 2019 in Logistics, Quantitative Methods, Service Management, Supply Chains

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