Review of Storage and Warehousing Supply Chain Start Ups

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Storage and Supply chain today has undergone a evolution. From the time consuming process of loading , tracking and following shipments, many supply chain start ups are " disrupting the existing space by " providing faster service and GPS tracking to their consumers which makes shipping and tracking easy

 LIST OF SUPPLY CHAIN WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE START UPS 

1.)Lockitron A remote controlled lock and mobile app enabling users to store locally instead of using warehouses.
2.)MakeSpace An on-demand storage solution. MakeSpace provides pickup, urban storage, and on-demand retrieval.

3.)Boxbee Much like MakeSpace, BoxBee provides pickup, urban storage, and on-demand retrieval for homes and businesses through an easy web/mobile interface.

4.)ShareMyStorage On sharemystorage.com people are brought together to provide a common sense self-storage solution – using space such as the attic, garage, basement, or spare room in the back-office.

5.)Cubbyhole An app-based service that lets users rent their storage space out to strangers. Renters specify how much space they need and for how long, and snap a photo of the goods they need to store. Prices start at $15, renters pay via credit card directly through the app

6.)Keycafe Store your keys securely at the local cafe and exchange them remotely with your home-rental guests via the app. Keycafe is not classic ‘storage’ but about managing access to your home remotely.

7.)Swapbox: Shop online and ship your packages to a Swapbox located nearby. It’s a modern, always-open postoffice. You get notified via email and/or text message when your packages arrive.

8.)Cargomatic A platform that provides shippers with instant access and real-time visibility to trucks around them via mobile app and cloud-based software.

TruckTrack A cloud app for trucking business management, giving instant insight into business KPIs, fleet and human resources. The app also provides you business optimization recommendations.

source : Johathanwichmann

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Supply Chain Logistics and Transportation Start Ups

Transportation & Logistics Start Ups 

 Matternet is a transportation system made up of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), landing stations and routing software. The system aims to transform the way we move goods locally, starting with the pharmaceutical delivery market in areas inaccessible by traditional infrastructure.

 Freightos A website – and a network of freight forwarders – that provides automated freight quotes and a contract management system for shippers.

 Transporteca: A website giving shippers and consignees a much-needed tool to easily compare shipping and transportation prices from freight forwarders.

iContainers: An end-to-end pricing tool and freight forwarding service offering best available prices for ocean and sea freight as well as international moves. With iContainers you can get a quote online instantly from multiple carriers.

 Shippo" Shippo  is “shipping made easy”. With the Shippo API and apps you can get discounted shipping rates and labels within minutes. Shippo is basically selling discounted labels when connecting shopping cart apps with carriers such as DHL, FedEx and UPS – making things easier and cheaper for those who want to ship.

Retigence : A company specialising in " providing predictive analytics, which will help retail  and businesses to align inventory to the real time demand of the product.By mapping inventory in real time it helps retailers predict ' demand forecasting  better

Freight Filter An easy-to-use service to help you find the best shipping options. It’s divided into three simple steps – get the price, book it, and ship.

Xeneta A service that ads transparency to the shipping industry by enabling companies to benchmark their ocean freight rates. Useful for both importers, exporters and freight forwarders, e.g. for understanding the market and when negotiating prices.

source :jonathanwichmann

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5 Steps in creating a Sales and Operations (SOP) Planning Process

 source :supplychaininsights
The 5 steps in creating a sales and operation Planing are

1) demand planning
2)Supply planning
3)Determine most profitable
4)Conduct If what Analysis
5)Collaborate among cross functional departments

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Auditing Supply Change Delays and Disruption: Top 5 Findings

Global supply chain risk management infographic from Retigence Technologies Private Limited

HOW SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS IMPACT COMPANY BOTTOM LINE

A recent research report on the risks of supply chain shows us some startling statistics. Since most manufacturers outsources a fair amount of work to “ their suppliers and vendors” the chance of “ supply chain disruption, delays or external natural factors is always omnipresent .

 • However just 25% of a typical company’s end to end supply chain is being assessed for risk auditing The risk factor

 • 90% of respondents do not formally quantify risks when sourcing production • In a survey 45% firms indicated a looss of revenue due to supply chain distruption

• 14% of companies revenue loss on account of supply chain distruption exceded one million euros • Supply chain distruption caused shareholder returns to decline by 33-40% over a 3 year period

• Share prices  of companies that  experience delay and disruption in supply chain tended to be more volatile ( on average around 13.5% higher)

 • 58% of firms indicated that a loss of productivity as the main reasons for supply chain disruptions • while 11% firms believed that supply chain risks and delays lead to increase in cost of production

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The numbers behind the Trucking Industry: Infographic

The numbers and data behind the US trucking Industry: top 5 trends

1. Trucking statistics in the United States The trucking industry employs a total of all most 9 million, out of which 3.5 million are truck drivers 
2.  There are currently 62 million unregistered vehicles in the United states and approx 6.4million unregistered Vehicles Out of which 32% consists of heavy vehicles including construction Vehicles, bulldozers, and heavy machinery vehicles out of which 2 million tractor trailers. 
3.  The US economy is heavily dependent on Trucking industry to deliver 70% of freight transported annually
4.  Approximately 671 billion of manufacturing and retail goods are transported by Trucking industry in one year.Truck Transportation of goods to Canada makes up $295 billion of the truck trade and $195billion with Mexico
5.  1 out of 9 truck drivers are independent, a majority which are owner operators Approx 5.7 % of truck drivers in the United States are the woman.

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Reviewing the Supply Chain process in Beer Manufacturing

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Reviewing the role of Information Technology in enabling effective Supply Chain decisions

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN DECISION  MAKING 

Information technology plays a huge supporting role in ensuring the right mix of decisions and designs that helps supply chain managers take the right decision Information technology helps managers to access information on the functions and status of all other supply chain across geographic units.

For example a retail store can not only afford to figure out the store inventory, but also need information on consumer demand, lead times and associate variability’s like “logistic and transportation “

1. The IT department provides seamless and friction less support across the supply chain implementation , which forms the core of the supply chain. Any process related to order and purchase, manufacturing , inventory, transportation and logistics , and warehouse are mapped and tracked
2.  IT provides internal collaboration across departments, which are shared across the internet and cloud . It helps vendors, suppliers and other stakeholders across the supply chain to co-operate and collaborate.
3.  IT based decisions support systems is used to aid better decisions through the supply chain mechanism and ecosystem. Any critical issue on delivery, demand fluctuations ,lead time and risk can be “ tracked in real time” therefore giving the operational managers, the flexibility and the time to ensure compliance 
4. The role of Information Technology in terms of  measuring the entire supply chain performance and aid the operational managers to set internal metrics and benchmarks and observe “ their effectiveness”cannot be more emphasized. Business Intelligence tools includes a technology stack with layers for reporting and analysis

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Reviewing Supply Chain Redesign : Centralization vs Decentralization

HOW CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION OF  IMPACT SUPPLY CHAIN  REDESIGN

A supply chain redesign has a significant impact on the inventory and supply chain costs. This can be done only by a rigorous cost benefit analysis The centralization and decentralization example also illustrates the benefit of Risk Pooling.

  For example a company has 10 regional stock points which it serves its dealers from the stock point that is the closest and wants to centralize its stock holding, which means that the stocks will be held at one point and the retailers would be served from there.

However this arrangement, will increase the transportation costs along with the fact that it cannot force the retailers to hold excess inventory. This means that the company has to work on a much faster transportation and logistics scheme.However this  will increase its logistics  costs.

Whereas in the decentralization model, the transport costs will be low, but the cost of holding inventory at the companies warehouse will be  high.

Thus its essential to do a rigorous and effective costs analysis by “ using a preductive software to estimate demand and supply chain redesign In general whenever we pool demand across locations , the phenomenon of rik pooling may be observed. Risk pooling suggests that demand uncertainity is reduced when one pools demands are spread across location

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5 Supply Chain Predictions for the Manufacturing Industry

Supply Chain Predictions

International Data Corp (IDC) has predicted that the next four years are likely to see a re-imagining of the manufacturing supply chain process, amid changing customer demands and technology. Here are the IDC top 5 Predictions for global chain

The IDC Future Scape provides the top 10 predictions for global supply chains for 2016. 

• Top 10 Supply Chain Predictions: ● By the end of 2016, the majority of all manufacturers will be actively employing eCommerce networks and marketplace model
• By 2018, supply chain will be driven by the  proliferation of advanced, purpose-built, analytic applications aligned to the Internet of Things (IoT) will result in 15% productivity
• By 2019, 50% of manufacturers will have modernized their logistics network to leverage 3D printing, robotics, and cognitive computing
• By the end of 2017, the need for visibility, scalability, and flexibility across the value chain will drive 60% of manufacturers to invest in cloud-based WMS and TMS solutions aligned to their trade partner networks.
•  By 2018, 40% of manufacturers will be investing in robotics, autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and associated systems within their warehousing operations to drive automation into their fulfillment processes.
•  By 2020, 50% of the operational jobs in the supply chain will have evolved into “knowledge” roles required to support new technologies like cognitive computing and modern robotics.

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5 Biggest Supply Chain Challenges for Manufacturers

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES

In an  McKinsey survey opinions  are divided on their companies’ preparedness to meet those challenges, and fully two-thirds expect supply chain  challenges risk to increase. This chart shows  the top 5 biggest supply chain challenges for manufacturers and retailers across industry

Different organizations in the supply chain may have different, conflicting objectives depending by type

1. Manufacturers: Transportation and Shipping Costs Manufacturing and production ,quality control
2. Distributors: low inventory, reduced transportation costs, quick replenishment capability 
3. Retailers:shorter order lead time,  stock shortage,high in-stock inventory, no of SKU,efficient inventory management analytical engine
Bullwhip effect; One of the most glaring challenges ,in supply chain  is the phenomenon of orders and inventories getting progressively larger (Bull whipping happens when ordering/producing is done on large lots which increase the safety stock of suppliers and its corresponding carrying cost.
4. Vendors/Suppliers:Uncertainity of vendors,suitability of suppliers 
5. Omnipresent Supply Chain :The effective presence or lack of an omnipresent supply chain 
6. Labor and arbitration issues, shortages of labor

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Reviewing 5 Trends that will shape supply chain and logistics by 2016

5  trends that will shape   supply chain  and logistics by 2016

The next 5 tech frontiers : that will change the supply chain and logistics industry :

1)Algorithm, Remote and real time shipping : Powered by  drones, this technology is set to go where no man, machine or android has ever been before.. At the customers doors without a human waiting to deliver goods.
The development of drones has progressed much faster that users expected. Automated Drones with Remote sensing, using powerful algorithms, along with geo targeting,remote sensing capabilities will deliver packages to consumers in flat 60 mins
The top speed of a drone : 50 mph per hour while the max done payload is less than 5 LBS, at this capacity the drone can deliver 86% of Amazons inventory Trend :
How Soon :in very near future within 2-5 years

2)Same day delivery is now MUST ‘ In the early 2012, shipping time used to be one week as a standard. In 2012, around 50% of consumers felt ok to wait seven days ( a week for a package delivery) In 2014, only 35% felt ok with one week deliveries

How soon? An overwhelming 85% believe that same day delivery should be the norm by 2017-18

3)RFID zation of managing inventory by :The RFIP market is further set to grow with increasing consumer online buying.Another step towards industry moving toward internet of things , fuelled by increasing adoption of RFIDs, as they reach the point of sale quickly.An Idtechex research data show that RFID market will be up from $8.9billion in 2014 to $27.31 billion by 2024

4)Real vs Retail : The lines between retail stores and online stores  is soon to get blurred : Closer home online retail will have much bigger share of the wallet with more than 10% of all retail sales coming from internet by 2017

infographic: via

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Reviewing the Supply Chain process of Apple's iPhone

 Though most of us know that " Apple products" including iPhone has this tagline " Designed in California and Made in China, but not many know how the apple supply chain runs. To summarize the " below infographic makes it clear how big an exercise is it to manage a global supply chain, when the  individual  components that support the iPhone come from countries as varied as China, Taiwan, Malta, Japan, South Korea and Germany.
Apple contracts have enabled its suppliers to invest in their own businesses. Foxconn, Apple's biggest supplier, for example, has invested heavily in robotics to help it meet its production quotas. Other emerging economies are getting in on the act too with iPhones now being assembled in Brazil. There are Apple suppliers in more than 30 countries around the world.

A recent AMR Research 'Supply Chain Top 25' list, Apple topped the spot outwitting  Nokia, Dell, Procter & Gamble, IBM, Wal-Mart and others, due to what it called " a supply chain with  "an intoxicating mix of brilliant industrial design, transcendent software interfaces and consumable goods that are purely digital,

Most of the iPhone components are outsourced except the Apple iOS, which is sourced at US. Here is the breakdown of Apple component maker by supplier and the country where it is manufactured.

1. Samsung in South Korea : Application Processor & Memory
2. GT Advanced Technology in Austin: Sapphire Crystal Components 
3. Texas Instruments in US : Touchscreen Processor
4. Micron in US  : Flash Memory
5. LG in South Korea : The Largest Display Panel supplier
6. Dialog Semiconductors makes the power management components
7. STM Microelectronics of Taiwan used to make the accelerometers and the gyroscope, but recently it lost out to  Invensense, a San Jose, California-based company
8. Cirrus logic makes the audio controller
9. Murata in Japan creates the WiFi and Bluetooth components
10. Infineon in Germany make the phone network components
11. Sony in Japan : supplies both rear and front cameras

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Reviewing the evolution of Supply Chain models

15 Key Innovations in supply chain strategy:  Ford Assembly line, EDI, MRP, ERP, Dell Direct, Walmart Cross Docking

1913 – Ford Assembly Line – Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line of an entire automobile, the Model T, first produced in 1908.

The 1950s - Ocean Shipping Container: Malcolm McLean invented the standard steel shipping container first implemented in 1956 at the port of New Jersey.

The 1960s – Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Started when computer systems first had the capability to transfer data to other computer systems. Enables the exchange of electronic business documents.

1961- Material Resource Planning (MRP) – Josef Orlicky makes the first MRP system in Racine, Wisconsin. A year later, Gene Thomas from IBM invents the Bill of Materials Processor.

1990: Universal Product Code (UPC) – a company called Logicon wrote a standard for something close to what became known as the Universal Product Code (UPC) to identify via a barcode a specific SKU. The first implementation of the UPC was in 1974 at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, OH.

 The 1980s – Enterprise Resource Planning – In 1990, Gartner Group first employed the acronym ERP which came to represent a larger whole, reflecting the evolution of application integration beyond manufacturing.

 1984 – Dell Direct Orders – Michael Dell started his company in his dorm room shipping computers to customers. This developed a unique model of make to order that provided custom configurations to customers and shipped to them.

1985 – FedEx Tracking System – After re-inventing the category of express parcel shipments, FedEx went a step further by developing a new computerized tracking system that provided near real-time information about package delivery.

1987- P&G's Continuous Replenishment: Order patterns were totally dependent on sales and retail buyer input until P&G bought a mainframe application from IBM for "continuous replenishment" re-wrote it for retail,

1988 – Walmart Cross Docking – With the rapid expansion in the number of Walmart stores, the company needed an effective communication system. They introduced the first cross docking system, which enabled them to track goods across all their DCs and stores

Source: opsrules

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5 Things Retailers hate to encounter

Running a retail business without using technology is more like locking horns with the bull. It can give you nightmares that you never imagined. Here is a list of 10 things that retailers never want to encounter.

1. An empty shelf of an important product– There are few products which sell like hotcakes in the retail space. And these same products are often missing on shelves. To this retailers can only surmise in retrospect about what went wrong.
2. Delay in delivery of much-awaited products– Sometimes there are issues of transportation or miscommunication that can lead to a plethora of problems in the supply chain. Hence, the much-awaited products are delayed which leads to losses on every front.
3. Expiry of products even before they get sold– There are products on shelves which do not sell at all. Often as a customer, we hate to even see them on shelves. Still no one seems to care about them. So with the passage of time, they get expired leading to your loss only.
4. Cluelessness on demand and supply– There is supply in accordance to the demand. And demand is volatile, so keeping a track of it is impossible.
5. Losing customers– All these mentioned problems leads in losing of customers which is the most dreaded experience for any retailer. This happens due to inventory mismanagement. And inventory is mismanaged because it is done manually. So taking the help of technology is a smart way of avoiding loss of the customer. Predictive analytics can be that saviour.

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Reviewing The Top 10 Logistics & Supply Chain Management Softwares

From tracking vehicles to knowing where your transporter has kept  the goods.  From  knowing if your distributor has received the goods in the warehouse,  to knowing when your next shipment would be picked up.  Below are the top 10 most used  supply chain logistics and Fleet  tracking software   All the  logistics   supply software's are  analysed according to users,size of the  customer base  and social media recommendation... 

Top 10 Transportation & Supply Chain Softwares from Retigence Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

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Managing Inventory across the Real Estate Market

DEMAND FORECASTING ACROSS THE REAL ESTATE MARKET

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Reviewing The Most Popular Business Intelligence Softwares

This list of the most popular business software comes from capterra. The chart shows the most popular business intelligece tool by usage, by marketshare, by social media recommendation, and acceptance by top 5 customers. Also included among the criteria is rhe size of the vendor in terms of scaling up their business and catering to wider clients Sap with more than 37,000 customers and almost 5 million users along with a high visibility presence across social web reigns as the number one o Business Intelligence softwares SAP, QLIK AND ORACLE ARE THE TOP 3

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The Most Popular Marketing Automation Softwares reviewed

© 2011 Capterra, Inc.

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Web Based Inventory & Demand Forecasting Software :10 Softwares Reviewed

THE TOP 10 WEB BASED INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEWED

Top 10 reviews on web based inventory management and demand forecasting softwares

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