A very interesting report from Dan Gilmore of Supply Chain Digest. Once again the shortage of analytics professionals is at the forefront. And the pressure to use prescriptive tools rather than just visualizations and statistics is growing.
Interesting Thoughts Generated from Two Days at the Logility User Conference in Atlanta
Posted in Advanced Computing, Logistics, Supply Chains
Can we use software and analytics to help insure supply chain resilience? MIT and others are doing a lot of study in this area. and so are a lot of companies. This will be a growth area for software companies who come up with clever solutions that can be integrated with existing data and systems and which actually work. Entrepreneurs, start your engines!!
Here is the survey mentioned in the article: cse-2016-final-dsciwhitepaper-resilience
Source: Automating Supply Chain Resilience Should Be High on Your Digital Agenda
In the post there is a link to an article from a Drewry analyst about the possibility that more firms will make close relationships with their terminal operators.
If ocean lines and terminal operators consolidate, this would have the effect of improving coordination between that line and the terminal, but would disrupt coordination with other lines. It’s as if American Airlines and O’Hare airport in Chicago made a deal that there would be preferential loading and unloading there for American flights. Easy to pick up or unload passengers, get baggage, priority for landing and takeoff slots, de-icing (I was just there!), lines for tickets, baggage checking, TSA clearance, and so on. It would be good for American passengers and cargo, presumably (Perhaps American would drop the unpleasant $25 fee for domestic checked bags!)
So coordination of all air traffic and passenger or cargo handling for the other airlines would be disrupted. Delays would occur. Any issues that appeared would take longer to settle. And it would take me longer to get in and out of the airport.
Would it make me choose American if I had to go to O’Hare? Just maybe– but rather unlikely that it alone would be enough to sway me. After all, someone else might still be cheaper.
Coordination has to be horizontal in logistics to be truly better for all customers.
Posted in Logistics, Ports, Shipping, Strategy, Supply Chains
Tagged container shipping, intermodal, Logistics, mergers, ports, Shipping, supply chains
Supply Chain Digest Port Technology International Marine Link
Supply Chain and Logistics 