Category Archives: Supply Chains

Port of LA leader calls for industrywide digital transformation

Posted on September 19, 2020 by | 1 comment

Gene Seroka, Executive Director of the Port of LA, is calling on people to cooperate and share data on logistics activities. He wants to see a bold information transformation, for the maritime industry and also for on-shore logistics. He was put in charge of coronavirus-related logistics by the Mayor of Los Angeles, a very big job in addition to his own.

In the video you get to hear him directly.

He makes great claims for the Port of LA logistics information systems. But the port has needed to be dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age. It’s taken much longer to get them to act than it had to. Scholars and also logistics participants such as forwarders, shippers, and NVOOCs (Non-vessel-owning ocean carriers, sort of freight forwarders for ocean cargoes) have been screaming for coordination of systems ever since the 2000’s. It’s just very hard to do without standards. And it takes forever to negotiate standards that don’t place some participants at a disadvantage.

The role of standards could be a lot like their role in the PC market. Used to be, when you bought a PC you had to buy the disk drive, and memory from the same vendor– it had to be compatible. Software also must be compatible with the operating system. Nowadays, these parts are made to standards, and you can go buy any replacement or upgrade memory or disk that are compatible, You can even replace your hard drive with a matching SSD that is transparent to the computer. The adoption of standards allowed computers to become affordable, software to work on all the hardware, and be useful for all. It’s called a network effect. The same is true for logistics software. To connect partners together they need to each conform to standards of data structure (schemas, we call them) and standards of transmission. Nowadays the buzzword for this is APIs, but the concept has had lots of names over the years. My favorite was ‘middleware’.

And the need to share has to be seen by the prospects as more important than preserving the confidentiality of their company data. That is perhaps the largest barrier. So participants have to see tangible economic benefits to sharing, and that is sometimes hard to get direct evidence of. Even the economic network effect is hard to justify economically with hard numbers.

Gene Seroka is a good leader, and for coronavirus, we hope he is able to pull together what’s needed for the job.

Kim Link-Wills, Senior EditorWednesday, September 16, 2020

Port of LA leader calls for industrywide digital transformation (with video) – FreightWaves

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Posted in analytics, Logistics, Ports, Supply Chains

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Mexico trucking capacity crunch

Posted on September 16, 2020 by | 1 comment

The USMCA replacement for NAFTA has not improved anything regarding trucking between the US and Mexico. COVID-19, movement of production from the Far East to Mexico, and no change in regulations, has put demands on trucking firms and on drivers that they cannot meet without large cost increases.

This is another fine example of the law of unintended consequences. A crisis is emerging, and it is borne on the backs of the truckers themselves. Equipment shortages, payment for deadhead runs, and a change to transloading at the border replaces the vision of through-traffic by Mexican or US trucking firms serving both countries in a seamless manner.

And it is a good example of how logistics is central to the value proposition of any product. The costs of logistics must be figured in, and accurately, and any system must be built to withstand severe shocks.

Scenario analysis may be the only way. The days of Just-In-Time are almost over.

By Ian Putzger, Americas correspondent 16/09/2020

Link: https://theloadstar.com/capacity-crunch-gives-shippers-a-pain-as-us-mexico-trucking-rates-soar/

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Posted in Logistics, Supply Chains, Trucking

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Walmart tightens on-time, in-full requirements

Posted on September 14, 2020 by | 1 comment

A large shipping firm has grabbed a problem by the throat.

Wal-Mart has raised its on-time in-full (OTIF) shipment requirements for all suppliers to 98%. It’s in response to a significant drop-off of on-time deliveries and short shipments, possibly due to COVID-19, but also connected with general carrier and business distress. By punishing suppliers, Wal-Mart sets a standard that others will want to match.

Failure of on-time and in-full deliveries poses a severe problem for managing inventory and matching supply to demand. Carriers won’t be able to get away with it now, and suppliers won’t do as much short-shipping. The standard will ripple over first to other consumer-oriented firms, then to all sorts of firms.

Standards for delivery are a good thing if they become industry-wide. They change the stakes, and give the consumer a clear idea of what to expect for a shipment. They set a basis for deciding what a reasonable charge is. If you can cheat on the delivery date or amount and get away with it, you are likely to when you think it’s to your advantage. And that violates customer trust.

A good example is Amazon’s pioneering of two-day shipping via Amazon Prime. It created a standard for the e-Commerce practice that firms in that market have to be clear about when they set the price for their full offer (including shipment terms)– are they following it or not?

Improving customer trust is a good thing, and sets up sound guidelines for customers to evaluate the value of an offering.

Mark Solomon Friday, September 11, 2020

Link: https://freightwaves.com/news/walmart-tightens-on-time-in-full-requirements

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Posted in Logistics, Production Operations, Strategy, Supply Chains

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