GOODQUESTION Readers Weigh In
What’s one supply chain misnomer? What would be a better term?
S c a ot. Some people hear “automation” and think people are being made obsolete. But when we add automation, we also create new roles for workers to support and drive implementation. Automation does not replace human talent; it gives organizations an opportunity to develop workers’ skills and accelerate their success. Maybe we should call it SUPPLY CHAIN AUGMENTATION. The supply chain is becoming more automated, but it’s augmented with talented workers who keep it moving. –Jonathan Park SVP of Supply Chain, iGPS Logistics L me. It can mean so many dierent things. The last mile can be delivery to a house, a store, a construction site, etc. Using more specific language like RESIDENTIAL DELIVERY based on the type of delivery is much more clarifying.
Don’t Call It “Driver Shortage”
The problem is not a lack of drivers. The problem is drivers do not want to stay. What would be a better term? Driver retention.
Solution: Redesign the job. Create a job that a driver wants to keep. This means re-thinking the position and creating a job that is substantially dierent from the other x million open driving jobs. But no, I will be hearing weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth about the “driver shortage” for the next several years, all while oering the same basic job that has not changed in the past 50+ years. –Terry Clear While the number of drivers is shrinking, there are ways to attract enough for your fleet. A better phrase would be the quality job deficit. By oering fair pay, work-life balance, and transparent communication, companies can fill their trucks with qualified drivers. –Adam Putzer Director of Sales for Permanent Transportation Logistics Services, CPC Logistics
–Daniel Sokolovsky CEO and Co-Founder, WARP
S c o z i is a common misnomer as optimization is about doing the best with what you have, but you must also focus on improving what you have so it aligns better with corporate objectives. Instead, the phrase DYNAMIC ALIGNMENT is an approach that accounts for holistic supply chain management. –Troy Prothero SVP, Product Management Supply Chain Solutions, SymphonyAI Retail CPG Di l f fr r have exploded in popularity for good reason. Digitizing processes to provide
better, faster, leaner ways for customers to interact with their freight forwarder is here to stay. However, technology will never entirely replace the human element, and for that reason, I prefer the term DIGITIZED FREIGHT FORWARDER. –Martyn Verhaegen CTO Digital Forwarding, Magaya A r c E. APIs are a type of EDI, not a replacement for EDI. APIs are electronic data interchange between browser interfaces and/or separate servers. APIs are wonderful and versatile and can complement or replace older, more traditional
system-to-system data exchange such as FTP. –Bryn Heimbeck President/CEO, Trade Tech Inc. The concept of waiting for supply chain conditions to r u t nl. By nature, supply chains are complex and depend on so many dierent variables that DISRUPTION AND ULTIMATELY CHAOS ARE THE NORMAL conditions. A simple, stable, and predictable network are the actual outliers. –Mike Williams Exec VP, Commercial & Logistics, ContainerPort Group
12 Inbound Logistics • January 2023
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