Art van Bodegraven was, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy. He passed away on June 18, 2017. He will be greatly missed.
Outsourcing, in general, has been a hot topic in American business for the past several years. And the debate only heats up when the outsourcing discussions start focusing on supply chain functions. In theory, outsourcing is simply another procurement exercise, subject to the same basic procurement rules and recommendations as everything else. But we tend to regard supply chain outsourcing in a special light. Supply chains are our lifelines, the way products reach customers.
Providers of outsourced logistics services are prominent—even leaders—in our profession. Yet despite the visibility and good reputations of these providers—call them 3PLs for the moment—estimates are that 25 to 50 percent of outsourcing deals fail, or at least fail to meet expectations.
So, the topic is important; many companies are making "bet the business" decisions on supply chain outsourcing, whether they realize it or not.
Who are the players in the game?
First, what is the game? We've used the term 3PL for a long time. Then 4PL came into vogue. One consultant attempted 5PL, but that didn't fly. A friend in the U.K. tried to tell us that he was heading up a 41/2PL (which is no longer in business).
We prefer the terms promoted by Cliff Lynch: logistics service provider (LSP) and lead logistics provider (LLP). But we're pretty relaxed about calling all of them 3PLs in conversational shorthand.
The distinctions between and among providers are changing. We used to talk about those who had their origins in transportation and those who began life as public warehouses—and it was easy to tell which were which. That was before globalization.
Today, the marketplace is very fluid, with almost daily changes. After waves of acquisitions domestically and internationally, the LSP world is moving toward what will ultimately be a bimodal model, with a few large multinational/global players at one end, and several niche specialty (by function or geography) companies at the other.
As the major leaguers assemble portfolios of skills and establish a presence across the globe, the objective becomes clearer: to plan, manage, and control execution of supply chain activities from manufacturing/extraction sources to customer delivery. Today's LSPs routinely offer a panoply of services in warehousing, transportation, inventory management, reverse logistics, freight audits, freight bill payment, sourcing, order management, assembly, customs brokerage, and more. The scope of services, and continually growing capabilities, change the traditional analysis of when to consider using LSP services and how to do it.
Why consider using (outsourcing to) an LSP?
There are loads of really good reasons to evaluate what an LSP can do for a specific company. They include high internal costs, expansion to new geographical markets, introduction of new products or materials, a need for overflow capacity, expansion into new roles (like order fulfillment or value-added services), a need for operational flexibility, and a desire to preserve capital. The lack of internal resources or skills, or decisions to shed non-core businesses might also provide motives to outsource.
Experience indicates that there may be more reasons to contemplate the possibility than there were 10 years ago. The supply chain world demands more skills than ever before. LSP successes in activities beyond transport and warehousing continue to demonstrate the feasibility of an LSP solution.
Buyer beware
But all is not roses. There are ample opportunities for disappointment, even failure. The major disconnects center on two points. First, contrary to popular opinion, customers are unlikely to see savings from LSP outsourcing in the short term, especially when business processes don't change and communications are less than complete. Second, the transition to the LSP is unlikely to be seamless. The keys to getting past these issues are to avoid becoming fixated on short-term cost savings, and to select an LSP that can react quickly when things don't go quite to plan.
For instance, a study conducted by Georgia Tech showed widespread dissatisfaction with 3PL technology services within the user community. This could result from the stilltoo- common practice of users squeezing the absolute lowest prices out of their LSPs. How much creativity—or leading- edge technology support—can they really expect to get for free?
So how do you get off on the right foot when bringing an LSP on board? Here's a sequence of steps that can get you off to a good start:
Rough-cut the likely scope.
Test probability; apply sanity checks to the first effort.
Do the best you can to get your arms around the possible benefits.
Select the five to nine candidates most likely to meet your immediate (and next five year) scope of need; get advice to find the right fit of players (don't forget to look at where the business is going).
Decide early what the show-stopper and nice-to-have issues are—and do it systematically.
Prepare/send/evaluate requests for information.
Proceed with the request for proposal process with the three top candidates.
Once you've reached this point, continuing with an organized approach—a methodology, if you will—can be the key to successful implementation and achieving LSP outsourcing objectives. Among other things, that means providing the candidates with the information they need to make informed proposals.
Beyond that, it is also the customer's responsibility to provide good data and hide nothing, to keep contracts simple and clear, and to establish flexible performance targets. In addition, it's important to know the real costs on both sides, to get to know the people, and to find and resolve misconceptions early. Finally, the customer must see to it that a problem resolution process is established at the outset.
With these steps, success is more than a possibility—it is likely.
Editor's note: Useful information about outsourcing and third-party logistics service providers may be found at www.3plogistics.com.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Krish Nathan is the Americas CEO for SDI Element Logic, a provider of turnkey automation solutions and sortation systems. Nathan joined SDI Industries in 2000 and honed his project management and engineering expertise in developing and delivering complex material handling solutions. In 2014, he was appointed CEO, and in 2022, he led the search for a strategic partner that could expand SDI’s capabilities. This culminated in the acquisition of SDI by Element Logic, with SDI becoming the Americas branch of the company.
A native of the U.K., Nathan received his bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering from Coventry University and has studied executive leadership at Cranfield University.
Q: How would you describe the current state of the supply chain industry?
A: We see the supply chain industry as very dynamic and exciting, both from a growth perspective and from an innovation perspective. The pandemic hangover is still impacting decisions to nearshore, and that has resulted in a spike in business for us in both the USA and Mexico. Adding new technology to our portfolio has been a significant contributor to our continued expansion.
Q: Distributors were making huge tech investments during the pandemic simply to keep up with soaring consumer demand. How have things changed since then?
A: The consumer demand for e-commerce certainly appears to have cooled since the pandemic high, but our clients continue to see steady growth. Growth, combined with low unemployment and high labor costs, continues to make automation a good investment for many companies.
Q: Robotics are still in high demand for material handling applications. What are some of the benefits of these systems?
A: As an organization, we are investing heavily in software that will allow Element Logic to offer solutions for robotic picking that are hardware-agnostic. We have had success deploying unit picking for order fulfillment solutions and unit placing of items onto tray-based sorters.
From a benefit point of view, we’ve seen the consistency of a given operation improve. For example, the placement accuracy of a product onto a tray is far higher from a robotic arm than from a person. In order fulfillment applications, two of the biggest benefits are reliability and hours of operation. The robots don't call in sick, and they are happy to work 22 hours a day!
Q: SDI Element Logic offers a wide range of automated solutions, including automated storage and sortation equipment. What criteria should distributors use to determine what type of system is right for them?
A: There are a significant number of factors to consider when thinking about automation. In my experience, automation pays for itself in three key ways: It saves space, it increases the efficiency of labor, and it improves accuracy. So evaluating which of these will be [most] beneficial and quantifying the associated savings will lead to a “right sized” investment in technology.
Another important factor to consider is product mix. With a small SKU (stock-keeping unit) base, often automation doesn’t make sense. And with a huge SKU base, there will be products that don’t lend themselves to automation.
With any significant investment, you need to partner with an organization that has deep experience with the technologies that are being considered and … in-depth knowledge of the process that is being automated.
Q: How can a goods-to-person system reduce the amount of labor needed to fill orders?
A: In most order picking operations, there is a considerable amount of walking between pick faces to find the SKUs associated with a given order or set of orders. Goods-to-person eliminates the walking and allows the operator to just pick. I have seen studies that [show] that 75% of the time [required] to assemble an order in a manual picking environment is walking or “non-picking” time. So eliminating walking will reduce the amount of labor needed.
The goods-to-person approach also fits perfectly with robotic picking, so even the actual picking aspect of order assembly can be automated in some instances. For these reasons, [automation offers] a significant opportunity to reduce the labor needed to fulfill a customer order.
Q: If you could pick one thing a company should do to improve its distribution center operations, what would it be?
A: Evaluate. Evaluate the opportunities for improving by considering automation. In my experience, the challenge most companies have is recognizing that automation is an alternative. The barrier to entry is far lower than most people think!
Toyota Material Handling and its nationwide network of dealers showcased their commitment to improving their local communities during the company’s annual “Lift the Community Day.” Since 2021, Toyota associates have participated in an annual day-long philanthropic event held near Toyota’s Columbus, Indiana, headquarters. This year, the initiative expanded to include participation from Toyota’s dealers, increasing the impact on communities throughout the U.S. A total of 324 Toyota associates completed 2,300 hours of community service during this year’s event.
The PMMI Foundation, the charitable arm of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, awarded nearly $200,000 in scholarships to students pursuing careers in the packaging and processing industry. Each year, the PMMI Foundation provides academic scholarships to students studying packaging, food processing, and engineering to underscore its commitment to the future of the packaging and processing industry.
Truck leasing and fleet management services provider Fleet Advantage hosted its “Kids Around the Corner Foundation” back-to-school backpack drive in July. During the event, company associates assembled 200 backpacks filled with essential school supplies for high school-age students. The backpacks were then delivered to Henderson Behavioral Health’s Youth & Family Services location in Tamarac, Florida.
For the past seven years, third-party logistics service specialist ODW Logistics has provided logistics support for the Pelotonia Ride Weekend, a campaign to raise funds for cancer research at The Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. As in the past, ODW provided inventory management services and transportation for the riders’ bicycles at this year’s event. In all, some 7,000 riders and 3,000 volunteers participated in the ride weekend.
After years in the military, service members and their spouses can find the transition to civilian life difficult. For many, a valuable support on that journey is the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) SkillBridge program. During their final 180 days of service, participants in the program are connected with companies that provide them with civilian work experience and training. There is no cost to those companies while the service member continues receiving military compensation and benefits.
Both sides benefit from the program. “We’re proud to work with SkillBridge to give back to our military veterans for the bravery and sacrifices they’ve made for all of us,” Troy Pederson, director of training and development at LiftOne, a Hyster-Yale dealer and established SkillBridge employer, said in a release. “In the last year, we’ve helped 10 SkillBridge interns transition from military to civilian life, and the value and positive impact of the program can’t be overstated. At LiftOne, we’ve gained so much from the experience and diverse mix of technical and leadership skills of our SkillBridge candidates.”