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EDUCATION/CAREER SOLUTIONS: CRAMMING FOR SUCCESS
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BITE SIZED SUPPLY CHAIN / LOGISTICS INFORMATION Info SNACKS
$214.6 Billion U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2021, a decrease of 3.3% from the second quarter of 2021. 13% of total sales Percentage of e-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2021
TRACTOR-TRAILERS THAT PARK THEMSELVES Outrider, an autonomous technology provider, announced a first-of-its-kind backing feature for tractor- trailers. Imagine it this way, the company says—an untrained 5-year-old could now, in theory, back up a semi-trailer with the click of a button.
BOEINGBUILDS WORLD’S LARGEST TWIN-ENGINE AIRFREIGHTLINER As part of a new 50-aircraft deal with Qatar Airways, Boeing has introduced its new 777-8 Freighter, the world’s largest, longest-range twin- engine freightliner, with the same payload capacity as the 747-400 Freighter. Being built at Boeing’s Everett, Washington facility, the first 777-8 Freighter is scheduled for delivery in 2027. 73 Days Average time it takes a company to deliver goods to truck or rail carriers after booking with an ocean carrier and completing the cross- ocean journey. This is 15 days longer than this same quarter in 2021. ––E2open, Ocean Shipping Index, as of Jan. 1, 2022
–U.S. Census Bureau
“When every carrier has more business than they can handle, a shipper becomes a glass of water in the ocean. Hopefully, shippers had been cultivating their relationships
with carriers before the pandemic.” – Lonny Holston, export operations coordinator, Mickey
REAL ESTATE GETS REAL • Industrial vacancy rates hit a new historic low in Q4 2021, while some coastal markets saw double-digit rent growth. • Newly completed buildings are leasing up quickly, and a record 652 million square feet of space is still under construction. • The supply chain crisis persists, with no end in sight. • Prices are rising for goods, labor, and transportation, with increased inflation challenging industrial production. • Consumer trends, including high e-commerce demand, will support strong warehouse market fundamentals in 2022. — Savills, Q4 2021 U.S. Industrial Market Update
February 2022 • Inbound Logistics 1
CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2022 | VOL. 42 | NO. 2
6
SPONSORED 24 THOUGHT LEADERS Is the dynamic unified logical data model the silver bullet? 26 SMART MOVES Effective ways to find and retain talent 28 VIEWPOINT Retail inventory: old method, new tricks 30 IT MATTERS GOOD QUESTION What’s the difference between traceability and transparency? INFO 54 WEB_CITE CITY 58 SUPPLY CHAIN INSIGHTS 62 CALENDAR 63 RESOURCE CENTER INPRACTICE 12 LEADERSHIP Tony Small, chief business officer at machine-learning platform Wiliot, has big ambitions for the Internet of Things. Aiming to make an impact on customers around the globe, Small leads with empathy. Digital transformation: the experience is king
32 AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS GO ARM IN ARM
60
New lithium- ion stacker lifts loads as high as 140 inches
As e-commerce grows and labor shortages continue, today’s robotics innovators give warehouses and fulfillment centers a hand with flexible and scalable automation solutions that are within reach for any company. 38 9 STEPS TO SAFEGUARD YOUR DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN Digital supply chains have become as essential to success as boxes, pallets, and containers, but they’ve also become increasingly vulnerable to attack. Here’s how to lock up your information. 42 SUPPLY CHAIN FINANCE: YOU CAN BANK ON IT Supply chain finance programs can successfully keep the cash flowing, enabling companies to go all in on profitability and providing a buffer against a changing business climate. 46 SUPPLY CHAIN EDUCATION: CRAMMING FOR SUCCESS As the business world gets more complex, supply chain education must follow suit. Today’s students need to ace resilience, technology, analytics, operations, and strategy—and how they all add up.
INFOCUS 1 INFO SNACKS 14 VERTICAL FOCUS: LUXURY GOODS 16 NOTED 18 TAKEAWAYS 60 IN BRIEF 64 LAST MILE A look-sea at container shipping
INSIGHT 4 CHECKING IN Bullwhip or just bull? 6 GOOD QUESTION
What’s the difference between traceability and transparency? 8 DIALOG 10 10 TIPS Selecting a TMS 22 SPONSORED KNOWLEDGE BASE Filling the supply chain education gap 23 SPONSORED SOLVED Manhattan Active WMS for a leading retailer
12
64
About 95% of global goods ship by sea
Inbound Logistics (ISSN 0888-8493, USPS 703990) is mailed monthly to approximately 60,000 business professionals who buy, specify, or recommend logistics technology, transportation, and related services, by Thomas, a Xometry company, 5 Penn Plaza, NY, NY 10001. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. All rights reserved. The publisher accepts no responsibility for the validity of claims of any products or services described. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic means, or stored in any information retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. POSTMASTER SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: Inbound Logistics, 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001
2 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
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CHECKINGIN
Vol. 42, No. 2 February 2022 THE MAGAZINE FOR DEMAND-DRIVEN ENTERPRISES www.inboundlogistics.com
Bullwhip or Just Bull?
STAFF
PUBLISHER Keith G. Biondo
publisher@inboundlogistics.com
A re shipping lines pricing themselves out of business? Blame the bullwhip effect, a distribution channel phenomenon in which demand forecasts yield increasing swings in inventory. Let’s take that idea a bit further. Financial pressures on publicly traded companies drive short-term policies that please The Street analysts to satisfy investor expectations. Yielding to those pressures sometimes runs counter to long-term company
EDITOR Felecia J. Stratton
editor@inboundlogistics.com
SENIOR EDITOR Katrina C. Arabe
karabe@inboundlogistics.com
Jaclyn Ix jix@inboundlogistics.com
PLATFORM CONTENT MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Sandra Beckwith • Merrill Douglas Karen M. Kroll
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jeof Vita
jvita@inboundlogistics.com
Keith Biondo, Publisher
DESIGNER Nicole Estep
nicole@inboundlogistics.com
and customer bene ts, especially when you raise prices tremendously. And examples abound of capricious actions by U.S. and/or foreign governments that give the global business community ts and starts, and then ts and stops. Both factors have motivated companies to take a strong hard look at considering locating supply and production close to where the bulk of the buying market is. Inbound Logistics has focused on the bene ts of reshoring or nearshoring for more than the past two decades. During that time, many companies took action. Many others did not. Recently, there has been more talk in boardrooms about reshoring and nearshoring and even more action—pandemic lessons learned. But those fundamentals were there long before the virus and the chip shortage, despite the strong and compelling siren song of “cheap labor.” But now, transport lift rates from low-cost labor regions to the consumption markets have risen dramatically. For some, those increases have eclipsed the low-cost labor bene t. In January 2021, the average price of a 40-foot Shanghai container was $4,535. In January 2022? $5,431. In Ningbo, $3,359 in January 2021 versus $5,633 in January 2022, and in Qingdao $4,509 in January 2021 compared to $5,349 in January 2022, according to Container xChange data. Are shipping lines riding bull market pricing now, forgetting they are motivating a whipping as global reshoring and nearshoring dents future growth? Yes. And it’s all because of the high costs of shipping, says Stefan Pierer, CEO of Pierer Mobility, in a recent Bloomberg report. “The logistics costs to ship stuff from China to Europe currently are 10 times what they were before the pandemic, and they won’t fully come down again,” he says. “To ship products around the globe, given those costs, you need a continental supply chain. We will change the system.” When you add the explosion in transport lift costs to the other motivations, there is clearly a bull market in reshoring and nearshoring as global supply chains recon gure. But nancial pressures on companies are strong. As things normalize, and transport prices come down, will reshoring be long-term company policy or just another example of the bullwhip effect? n
Amy Palmisano apalmisano@inboundlogistics.com
DIGITAL DESIGN MANAGER
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CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Carolyn Smolin
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4 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
PLANS CHANGE. DEADLINES DON’T. With Lynden you can choose the mode – air, land, or sea – that best ts your schedule and budget. Important shipment? Track it from anywhere using Lynden’s mobile app, or choose to receive email updates as the status changes.
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GOODQUESTION Readers Weigh In
What’s the difference between traceability and transparency in the supply chain?
chain—end-to-end. Traceability enables you to trace a particular product and its components from origin to end user and is paramount in industries where safety and quality are top concerns. —Michael Wohlwend Managing Principal Alpine Supply Chain Solutions TRACEABILITY IS THE ABILITY TO TRACK AN ITEM and its associated activities as it progresses through the supply chain. Transparency is the ability to demonstrate this information to stakeholders, regulators, trading parties, and consumers. —Kieren James-Lubin President & CEO, BlockApps TRANSPARENCY IS A RETAILER’S RESPONSIBILITY to communicate and provide visibility to shoppers who are focused on sourcing ethics, such as sustainably caught seafood, hormone- free chicken, or cage-free eggs. Traceability relates to food safety
and recalls so retailers know exactly where an impacted item is, and can take swift appropriate action. —Troy Prothero VP, Product Management– Supply Chain Solutions Symphony RetailAI TRACEABILITY IS THE ABILITY TO TRACK THE PROGRESS of products from the acquisition of basic raw material to assembly, storage, and distribution. Transparency is the management expectation that all movement through the supply chain remains visible. —John Tillison SVP, Sales & Marketing A. Duie Pyle THESE TWO MEASURES have different audiences and objectives. Transparency is about strategic supply chain structure and management, to provide visibility to stakeholders, confidence to investors, and trust for suppliers.
—Mitchell Houston CI Engineer, TA Services
TRACEABILITY MEANS DECENT TRACKING . GPS-enabled tracking doesn’t need a human scan to give an update. Transparency in the supply chain is similar, but adds in reliable human contacts to give more information than a scan or GPS update can. Someone to talk to about what they are experiencing, and how it may affect our timetable. —Brian C. Gaffney
Supply Chain Specialist Natural Fiber Welding
TRANSPARENCY REFERS TO VISIBILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY to data at every stage of the supply chain, while traceability is often used to discuss the process of tracking the products and their inputs throughout the entire supply chain journey. Both are essential to supply chain management.
—Erik Severinghaus Executive VP, Strategy & Business Development Conexiom
Who put what, where? And when did they do it? Use a warehouse management system (WMS) to protect your inventory chain of custody and drive single point of contact accountability. That’s traceability. Give the enterprise easy access to the information to drill down to the “why.” That’s transparency. —Eric Allais President & CEO, PathGuide Technologies
THE TWO TERMS ARE OFTEN INTERCHANGED, but they are not the same thing. Transparency focuses on mapping the entire supply
6 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
GOODQUESTION
Traceability is more transactional— looking at how products progress through the supply chain to manage inventory, KPIs, and costs. —Tavleen Kaur Senior Manager (Supply Chain) The Smart Cube TRACEABILITY IS YOUR ABILITY TO TRACK GOODS —from rawmaterials through final shipment—back to their origin. This includes both physical location and underlying supplier(s). Transparency is understanding your partners’ strengths and dependencies.
From the Ground Up
You cannot have transparency without traceability, but you can have traceability without transparency. Being able to see where a shipment is does not help the situation when it is not on time or has an outstanding issue that needs to be resolved. Traceability gives a false notion that since it’s being tracked it will arrive as expected, but as we all see from Amazon in our personal lives, this is indeed not true. Traceability gives us the opportunity to create transparency. It will allow us in advance to create the next action after identifying an issue of what needs to take place, meaning contacting a customer to notify them of their delay and creating a solution to fix the issue. Transparency goes further to the internal trip wire (mechanisms) that will kick in to rectify the situation. Being transparent allows for development of relationships within the supply chain to create outstanding partnerships. —Nicole Glenn Founder and CEO, Candor Expedite
—Michael Sinkovitz SVP Modal Solutions Coyote Logistics
TRANSPARENCY IS MUCH BROADER, encompassing visibility both within your organization and across your business network of suppliers, contract manufacturers, logistics service providers, and other trading partners. —Richard Howells VP, Solution Management for Digital Supply Chain, SAP TRACEABILITY IS TRACKINGWHAT HAPPENED. Transparency is seeing it while it’s happening. Whereas transparency focuses on mapping the whole supply chain, traceability looks at individual batches of purchase orders as they progress through the supply chain. The data used in traceability allows more targeted recalls, reducing scale and cost.
traceability looks at individual batches of components or purchase orders as they progress through the supply chain. Key benefits of traceability include increased visibility, improved quality control systems, and reduced risk. Advantages of transparency include brand loyalty; trust between suppliers, companies and customers; and, of course, stronger partnerships.
that help accelerate and automate their manual efforts and improve operations. —Lindsey Shellman Chief Commercial Officer, Centerboard TRACEABILITY REFERS TO PINPOINTING where each piece of material originates within your supply chain whereas transparency is offering relevant information to share with different parties. With import tariffs, you must know where components come from and share that with customs versus the public knowing the originating region of your product.
—Alexandra Bogusevici Sr. Product Manager, Cin7, DEAR Products
—Brian Belcher COO & Co-founder, Vector
AN ITEM IS TRACEABLE if somebody—not everybody—can find out details about where it came from (e.g., plant, lot, material source). The supply chain for that item is transparent if data is shared about how the participants transact. The more data and the more sharing, the more transparent. —Dustin Burke Managing Director & Partner, Boston Consulting Group SHIPPERS REQUIRE GRANULAR DETAILS regarding essential tracking updates and data information (traceability) but must also address a larger set of objectives. This is where transparency comes in, to include processes, tools, and technology
TRANSPARENCY IS THE FULL VIEW of the supply chain network status. Traceability is the view of the supply chain details, including data from sourcing to delivery, which essentially maps the journey of rawmaterials to finished goods—an especially important tool for industries with safety and quality requirements, such as food products and pharmaceuticals. —Gregory Tuthill Chief Commercial Officer SeaCube Containers TRACEABILITY RELIESON TRANSPARENCY. Transparency focuses on mapping the whole supply chain and captures high-level data;
—Nancy Korayim CEO, MetroSpeedy
Have a great answer to a good question? Be sure to participate next month. We want to know: What ’s your best reverse logistics tip? We’ll publish some answers. Tell us at editorial@inboundlogistics.com or tweet us @ILMAGAZINE #ILGOODQUESTION
February 2022 • Inbound Logistics 7
DIALOG @ILMagazine [ INSIGHT ]
Want to join the conversation? FOLLOW US: linkedin.com/company/inbound-logistics facebook.com/InboundLogistics twitter.com/ILMagazine youtube.com/user/InboundLogistics inboundlogistics.com/cms/podcast DROP US A LINE: editorial@inboundlogistics.com
Re. 2022 Supply Chain Predictions bit.ly/SC_predictions_0122
Micro warehouses will continue to open up in urban neighborhoods to create close proximity to customers and rapid fulfillment. In addition, retailers are increasingly expected to leverage their existing stores for fulfillment. To control more of the supply chain and keep up with demand, we expect to see increased M&A activity, with retailers buying logistics companies to handle their deliveries to customers and upstream in their supply chains. Manufacturing supply chains will also begin to move closer to the customer to limit further disruption. We’ll also see increased use of drones, delivery bots, and automation. Smarter tracking and big data will be a focus in 2022 as we’re seeing smart tech needed from inventory management to re-routing. Most importantly, we’ll see more focus on batching technology so the customer receives their complete order in one delivery. —Nancy Korayim CEO, MetroSpeedy Losing trust in the supply chain is likely to drive adoption of the fast-emerging zero-trust market and other zero-trust methodologies. However, as zero-trust concepts take hold in 2022, buyers should steer clear of vendors who claim to singlehandedly solve the problem of zero trust. It’s simply not possible. Instead, organizations will need to layer combinations of technologies in order to truly achieve their zero-trust goals. —Tony Pepper CEO, Egress
Re. What’s the Word: What’s the difference between logistics and supply chain? bit.ly/whats_the_word_0122
Canadian convoy protest against vaccine mandates in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 1, 2022.
Logistics is the connector in all phases, whereas supply chain is the sequence of events enabled by those connectors. —Jonathan Parks SVP, Supply Chain, iGPS Logistics Logistics refers to the portion of the supply chain relating to transporting and storing goods. Supply chain refers to the companies and activities involved across operational stages, from procurement to delivery. —Michael Levy Chairman/Co-Owner, Undercover Snacks Re. Good Question: What is the biggest supply chain lesson you learned from the past two years? bit.ly/good_question_0122
Fast TAKES
The convoy has reduced U.S./ Canada trade, hampered global
distribution of U.S. and Canadian production, and also disrupted global import to nearby regions. This is yet another sign supply chain disruptions are the new norm. project44 data shows early spikes in transit time and delays between the United States and Canada and localized regions such as in Windsor and Ottawa. But more important is the broader ripple-effect impact this will likely have on an already strained supply chain. Product may shift to U.S.-Canada rail routes instead, or movement of product may increase from other DCs and suppliers. Because these things will keep happening, the only way around it is resilience and agility—which requires visibility. Companies need to procure visibility now for all modes in all regions of the world at the order level, and extended visibility with accurate data. —Adam Compain SVP, Supply Chain Insights, project44
Be flexible and adapt to market conditions daily.
—Brad Collins Vice President, Logistics RMX Global Logistics
Disruption can be the mother of innovation. We’ve seen the best logistics and supply chain teams responding to pandemic-related challenges by doubling down on technology.
—Devon Copley Co-founder and CEO, Avatour
8 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
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10 TIPS
Given the large number of options available, it is critical to determine the best transportation management system (TMS) based on your operation’s unique needs. The goal is to maximize potential before making a decision. Selecting a TMS
1 ESTABLISH YOUR BUSINESS GOALS. Gather key internal stakeholders to identify current business challenges, areas of opportunity, and goals to determine how a TMS solution can best support. There is no one- size-fits-all TMS. Prioritize finding a solution that checks the boxes on your non-negotiables.
8 EVALUATE DATA ANALYTICS AND REPORTING CAPABILITIES. Because the main purpose of a TMS is to gain access to data to make informed business decisions, evaluating its analytics and reporting capabilities is key. While a TMS can provide a significant amount of data, you also need to consider how to integrate that information into other parts of your business along with your enterprise-wide reporting tools. 9 DETERMINE YOUR TRANSPORT MODES. The business rules and routing for a large volume e-commerce and parcel shipper can significantly differ from shipping less-than-truckload and full truckload. The same can be said for domestic vs. international requirements. Ensure your TMS can support all your transport needs as some have more sophisticated capabilities than others.
2 LOOK TO THE FUTURE. Because no business can predict what will happen next, look for a TMS that offers a modular approach that is flexible enough to grow alongside your operations. This will enable you to scale and add new capabilities as needed in the future. 3 DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET. Understand the fixed costs and contract structure associated with a TMS. Based on your business needs, you may have to factor in additional budget to cover enhancements. If you are debating between insourcing or outsourcing, consider costs and resources. For example, could a third-party logistics provider manage your day-to-day TMS work for less cost than what you can do internally? 4 UNDERSTAND IMPLEMENTATION. A critical factor that will make or break the success of a TMS is
to manage that on your own. If you choose to do it in-house, the cost of an internal IT team to oversee carrier connectivity could be more than what a TMS provider charges. 7 CREATE A FREIGHT AUDIT AND PAYMENT PLAN. While some companies prefer to handle it internally or through a separate third-party vendor, many TMS solutions offer real-time freight auditing and payment. For instance, a TMS can provide an automated audit of freight invoices against contracted rates and the ability to authorize carrier payment to streamline the process.
the implementation process. Ask about a TMS vendor’s implementation, dedicated resource team and the skill set of those executing. Typically, the implementation process for a large-scale company takes 6 to 12 months based on the complexity of the operations and system integrations. 5 ASSESS ENTERPRISE INTEGRATIONS. Are you planning to integrate the TMS with your enterprise resource planning and accounting systems that manage your daily operations? What about your warehouse management system that handles the daily flow of orders? Look for a TMS vendor with the expertise to integrate with your current systems smoothly and successfully. 6 STRATEGIZE CARRIER CONNECTIVITY. Some TMS providers enable you to leverage their pre-existing connectivity with hundreds of carriers while others expect you
10 CONSIDER ADDITIONAL FLEET AND TRUCKING NEEDS.
Do you have a dedicated f leet or trucking assets that you also need to manage within the TMS? As many companies have their own trucks and dr ivers, determine if the TMS needs to suppor t your abilit y to manage equipment, dr ivers, and more.
SOURCE: JEFF McDERMOTT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT, GEODIS IN AMERICAS
10 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
LEADERSHIP Conversations with the Captains of Industry
It ’s a Small World
Tony Small has big ambitions for the Internet of Things (IoT). Since July 2021, Small has served as chief business of cer of Wiliot, an Israel-based startup, with U.S. headquarters in San Diego, that offers a cloud-based IoT platform with many supply chain applications. The system features tiny, low-cost tags called pixels, equipped with sensors and Bluetooth communications. Wiliot’s platform can uncover supply chain challenges that companies don’t even realize they face, Small notes. In a recent conversation, Small discussed his leadership role at Wiliot and explained what’s on his agenda these days. IL: Before Wiliot, you worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and Zillow, among other companies. Is there a theme to the companies you’ve picked in your career? I like fast-paced, innovation-oriented companies and environments. Although in the past 15 to 20 years I’ve focused on sales, marketing, and business development, I come from a technology and product background. I minored in computer science, and I’m a programmer. This allows me to better communicate, relate, and empathize with other parts of a company, beyond marketing. IL: What’s one experience from earlier in your career that helped to shape you as a leader? Partway through my time at Zillow, when they acquired Trulia, I was in charge of merging the two go-to-market teams for their B2B product. We had to combine 1,000 people across two organizations and four cities, along with the product and infrastructure. That kind of integration usually takes several years, but the CEO gave us six months. I learned that you can usually move faster than you think possible. You can analyze, predict, and think of as many things as you want, but until you do something, you don’t know the outcome. We had debates about whether A, B, or C would be the top issue, and how to plan for that. We nally made an informed judgment and decided to address A. But the biggest issue turned out to be something entirely different. That process taught me about bias toward action, a value I consider really important. IL: What keeps your customers awake at night? They don’t know what they don’t know. For example, we put our tags on crates in which one of our customers was
Tony Small, Chief Business Of cer, Wiliot
With a goal to get Wiliot ’s products to customers around the world and make a big impact on them, Tony Small learned that you can usually move faster than you think possible.
by Merrill Douglas
12 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
LEADERSHIP
IL: Is there something you believed strongly when you started your career that you have since changed your mind about? My first full-time job after college was working on the products and engineering side and designing features for one of Microsoft Outlook’s early versions. Ease of use was not paramount. We thought we’d just get the functionality out and then we’d train people; we’d have documentation and people would figure it out. Over the past few decades, people have grown less patient. If they don’t get something instantly, they assume it doesn’t work and they won’t use it. I’ve had to adjust to the trend of prioritizing that first out-of-the-box experience. IL: Have you had a mentor or role model? Although he wasn’t officially my mentor, Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow when I worked there, was an important role model. He’s direct, he’s empathetic, and he’s incredibly brilliant and strategic. I like to model my leadership style after him. I don’t know if I’m there yet. IL: How do you like to spend your time outside of work? I have a family and two teenagers in high school. I travel when I can. I’m not good, but I enjoy playing piano for fun. I also have two dogs. Those things take most of my time. n Scratching the Surface Plenty of companies track product from factory to warehouse to point of sale. They capture data when items are checked out and when they’re returned. But howmany retailers know what goes on with their products inside the walls of a brick-and-mortar store? “Imagine a store with tens of thousands of items, some in the back room, some out front,” says Tony Small. “If our pixels are attached to all those items, we can show a visual of how products are moving throughout the store.” Capturing data from tags on an individual shirt, for instance, Wiliot’s systemmight reveal that many customers brought the item into the fitting room, but no one bought it. That suggests an opportunity for change. Wiliot has not yet implemented this application, but at least one customer is eager to put this kind of tracking data to use. “It could point to different strategies about how they should pair products or structure the store,” Small says. “We’re just scratching the surface of the possible interesting insights.”
transporting food. Data from the sensors allowed them to see that crates for this product line were significantly delayed, and in an area where the temperature was higher than normal. In the past, there had been nothing to alert them to this problem. We combined data on time plus temperature to find the biggest opportunity to improve the freshness of their food. IL: What do you most look forward to accomplishing in 2022? We want to get our product into hundreds of customers’ hands around the world and make a big impact on them. In part, that means building out a successful network of partners who are also engaging customers and making them successful. IL: What’s your leadership style? When I give my team instructions or guidance, I try to be empathetic, understanding where they’re coming from, what else is on their plate, and what their challenges and goals are. At the same time, I try to be direct. And I like to give them a lot of autonomy. My team is so talented, I know I can trust them. IL: What are your daily priorities? First, to make sure customers are having a good experience and achieving their goals. We hold internal meetings where the person who works directly with each customer reports on what’s going well and what could go better. As we scale up the business, we’ll create a more streamlined, automated feedback process. Second is checking on inventory levels. There’s a lot of demand for our products, so we need to make sure we allocate the right products to the right customers at the right time.
IL: Do customers ever come to you with unexpected applications for your technology?
They do. In one example, a customer had a pallet of items that was maybe six products deep and 10 products wide—a big rectangle of products. They wanted to be able to tell what’s in the pallet without breaking it up and scanning each item individually. I wasn’t sure this would work, because Bluetooth technology doesn’t always give perfect results in a scenario like that. But as it turned out, the Bluetooth worked incredibly well. We got 100% accuracy with that pallet. We recently had another customer who wanted to do exactly the same thing. Once you hear about a new scenario, it opens up new opportunities.
February 2022 • Inbound Logistics 13
Luxury Goods
YOUNG COUPLES PUT A RING ON IT As more millennials and Gen Zers
tie the knot, they’re ushering in a surge in jewelry sales and changing up the diamond supply chain, prioritizing lab-grown gems and sustainable practices, says a CNBC report. Highlights from the report reveal: • More marriages : Young consumers will splurge not only on engagement rings, but also on wedding bands and other accessories. In a four-decade high, 2022 is expected to bring about 2.5 million nuptials. • Resilience : Consumers are looking for ways to show appreciation toward a loved one during the pandemic, and jewelry is one way to do that. Although jewelry sales dropped 4.3% last holiday season, the category outperformed apparel retailers and department stores. • Pandemic savings : Some consumers did not spend on travel and experiences during the pandemic, and were able to save up for aspirational purchases such as engagement rings. • Sustainability : Young consumers prioritize sustainability, fueling the growth of lab-grown diamonds. More jewelry companies, such as De Beers and Brilliant Earth, have added eco-friendly options with this in mind, fueling growth in the industry. • Social media : Jewelry chain Brilliant Earth says 87% of its active consumer base is either millennial or Gen Z, who find the brand primarily through social media platforms and make purchases via its website, which offers virtual appointments. JEWELRY MARKET SHINES ON Manufacturing innovations, increased demand for seasonal gifts, and online shopping surges are driving the growth of the jewelry e-commerce market in North America. Trends include: • The global online jewelry market will grow by $19.9 billion between 2019 and 2024 as demand for fine and fashionable jewelry among millennial women increases. • Increased availability of online jewelry collections fuels demand for newer designs, which are priced higher. Brands are widening their range of jewelry collections. • Integration of technology, such as 3D printing, into manufacturing processes has increased, enabling jewelry companies to innovate in terms of design, check the purity of precious metals and stones, and differentiate their products. • Increased demand for fine jewelry for special occasions, such as Valentine's Day and Mother’s Day, drives growth in the segment. • At $23.9 billion, 2022 is the second-highest spending year on record for Valentine’s Day. • Shoppers were able to place same-day or advanced flower deliveries through Doordash for Valentine’s Day, with the chance to win free diamonds from Kay Jewelers. The promotion aimed to capture consumers looking for last-minute gifts.
Dolce & Gabbana joins several other luxury fashion brands in banning fur from all future collections starting in 2022. It will continue to work with fur artisans in its supply chain to incorporate into its designs sustainable faux fur made from recycled materials, the fashion house says. The company has used fox, mink, and rabbit fur in previous designs, but recently opted for synthetic fabrics such as polyester and acrylic. Dolce & Gabbana is the second luxury fashion brand to announce a ban on fur in 2022; outerwear brand Moncler has also decided to go fur-free. The company says it will no longer use fur by 2024. Many brands were already fur-free, including Gucci, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen. Prada, Burberry, Oscar de la Renta, and Chanel have also recently committed to not using fur. Fur bans are not limited to fashion. Italy's senate recently approved an amendment to a budget law that permanently bans the farming of fur- bearing animals. If approved, the law would close down the country’s remaining fur farms by June 2022, adding Italy to a growing list of countries including France, Hungary, and the Netherlands, that are passing fur bans. SHEDDING ANIMAL MATERIALS FUR GOOD
14 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
LAPPING UP LUXURY GOODS Despite retail closures, fashion show cancellations, and low confidence in the economy, global sales of luxury goods made a full recovery ( see chart ) and will continue to surpass pre-pandemic levels, with sales increasing from $321 billion in 2021 to $352 billion in 2022, Financial Times reports. Here's what the report predicts for the sector: Consumer shifts . A surge of buying among Americans in inland cities such as Austin and Pittsburgh is happening after many people moved out of larger coastal cities during the pandemic. The shift from spending on experiences to goods will likely persist for another year. Pricey items . After remaining stable for years, luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Chanel raised prices during the pandemic. With material and labor costs rising, price hikes will continue into 2022, with some brands considering double-digit price increases. Supply chain ownership . Brands such as Chanel and Prada are acquiring more of their suppliers as access to materials and manufacturers becomes more difficult and costly, and customers demand greater transparency. The trend will continue in 2022. Secondhand grows . The secondhand market continues to increase. More brands are partnering with secondhand platforms, such as The RealReal, to offer authentication services and incentivize customers to consign their items via store credit, or are using their websites to facilitate secondhand sales directly. NFTs take off . By 2025, Gen Z will account for more than one in five luxury purchases. Brands will invest further in gaming partnerships and NFTs, which are becoming a formidable revenue stream. Metaverse gaming and NFTs could offer a 25% uplift to profits for the luxury industry by 2030. E-commerce investments . E-commerce luxury sales nearly doubled from 12% to 22% during the pandemic, and are expected to rise to as much as 30% by 2025. Brands such as Gucci and Alexander McQueen are moving to consignment models and improving their websites to gain greater control over inventory, pricing, and customer relationships.
While retail sales slowed as factory shutdowns in Asia halted production, high- end sneaker platform GOAT.com sprinted through supply chain bottlenecks, a Yahoo Finance report says. Here are ve ways the platform jumped those hurdles: 1. Sneakers have become more than just athletic gear—they’re now coveted luxury items that can go for $10,000 or more on GOAT.com, such as a pair by Kanye West and Louis Vuitton ( pictured ). 2. Sneakers are one of the best-selling products in the luxury e-commerce market. The global sneaker market was valued at $79 billion in 2020 and is predicted to reach $120 billion by 2026. 3. Women buyers are boosting the popularity of high-fashion sneakers. This demographic represents 40% of GOAT’s consumer base and continues to grow. 4. E-commerce platforms are getting into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), allowing traders to buy and sell collectible items without physically shipping them. On Black Friday, GOAT started a campaign that allowed consumers to drop into virtual worlds where they could access their products in different settings. 5. GOAT tapped into increased demand for cross-body bags, which have become staples for Gen Z and millennial urbanites wanting to stow masks and hand sanitizer. U.S. sales of men’s and unisex handbags were up almost 700% in 2021 compared to 2018. SNEAKERS SIDE-STEP DISRUPTION
By customer nationality (%)
$ Billion
300
100
Other Asian Rest of world
250
80
Chinese
200
60
Japanese
150
40
American
100
20
50
European
0
0
2007 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
2019 2021
Year
Source: Bain-Altagamma Luxury Market Monitor
February 2022 • Inbound Logistics 15
NOTED [ IN FOCUS ]
The Supply Chain in Brief
> GREEN SEEDS
> M & A
• Container shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, one
n Logistics technology company ecovium and warehouse management system provider Mantis Group merged under the umbrella of ecovium Group. n North American tank truck transporter and logistics provider The Kenan Advantage Group acquired K-Limited Carrier , an Ohio-based liquid bulk transporter of chemical products. n Blume Global , a provider of end-to- end supply chain visibility technology solutions, acquired LiveSource , a multi- enterprise supply chain business network for complex manufacturers. n RLS Logistics , a third-party cold chain logistics provider, acquired Michigan- based Hutt Trucking and Logistics and Utah-based Performance Cold Storage . n Supply chain solutions provider J.B. Hunt Transport agreed to acquire the assets of LTL transportation services provider Zenith Freight Lines , a subsidiary of Bassett Furniture. n Ascend , a full-truckload dry van carrier, acquired Dedicated Transport Solutions , a South Carolina-based transportation company. n Fortna , an engineering services and software company for warehousing, acquired Optricity , a warehouse optimization software company.
decade earlier than previously announced, as shipper demand for green transportation rises. The target now covers not only the company's vessels, but its entire business, including indirect emissions. A.P. Moller-Maersk has ordered 12 vessels that run on carbon-neutral methanol and aims to transport one-quarter of its seaborne freight using greener fuels by 2030. • Materials handling systemmanufacturer Rite-Hite recently installed 900 roof-mounted solar panels on its global headquarters project. The solar panels are one of several green elements used in constructing the 9.5-acre campus, others include DuctSox fabric ductwork and underfloor air dispersion systems. • Sustainability insights platform Higg introduced new performance benchmarks for consumer goods manufacturing. Users can compare their environmental and social impact internally and against industry peers, enabling them to build comprehensive environmental and social governance programs. The platform offers performance measurement across carbon, water, waste, and working conditions.
> GOOD WORKS
• Atlantic Logistics introduced a volunteer and philanthropy initiative called Atlantic Cares, a formal program that grants paid workdays to employees for helping those in need. The company contributes one dollar for every load of freight moved in 2022, and each month a different organization will be chosen for a donation, such as Toys for Tots ( pictured ).
• In its largest-ever contribution, truck drivers and other employees at Averitt Express raised more
than $1 million in 2021 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This is the third consecutive year Averitt has donated more than $1 million to the hospital. In addition to employee contributions, the company makes contributions in honor of associates' accomplishments, life events, and participation in community service projects.
16 Inbound Logistics • February 2022
NOTED
> SHOVEL READY
> SEALED DEALS
n Walmart plans to build a new fulfillment center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, as part of its continued effort to grow its national supply chain network and e-commerce capabilities in the South. The 1-million-square-foot facility is set to open in spring 2022 and will store millions of items ready to be shipped directly to consumers. n Texas-based developer Cold Creek Solutions broke ground on a 300,500-square-foot cold storage facility in San Antonio. About 294,500 square feet of the site will be a fully convertible temperature- controlled space, providing storage for 45,000 pallets of frozen or refrigerated products. The site will allow for single or multi-tenant use.
• SMC³ , a less-than-truckload transportation technology solutions provider, extended its long-standing partnership with LandAir , a privately held less-than-truckload carrier in New England. LandAir utilizes SMC³'s managed EDI infrastructure with 24/7 monitoring to provide crucial shipment visibility information to its customers.
• Logistics company Odyssey Logistics & Technology selected RPA Labs to automate customer emails that request shipment tracking details. Receiving thousands of tracking inquiries every month required time-consuming, manual work from customer service teams. The email automation solution, RPA Engage, is built with a proprietary combination of robotic process automation and a library of logistics terminology that can answer any logistics inquiry in seconds. • Hewlett Packard selected One Network to support its digital transformation. Its NEO Platform will help Hewlett Packard integrate supply chain data from partners into a single model, enabling real-time collaboration. One Network's Digital Supply Chain Network enables visibility, improves execution, and drives process improvements across all operational segments. This improves on-time deliveries and customer service levels, and reduces the cost of goods.
> UP THE CHAIN
> RECOGNITION
• Jeff Born has been named North American director of procurement and supply chain solutions for Tubelite , Alumicor , and Linetec , which provide storefront and finishing solutions as part of Apogee Enterprises. Born has more than 20 years of experience leading supply chain
• Logistics services provider Schneider was honored with the SanMar Mask Award . The award recognizes the company's role in supporting SanMar's mask distribution when the apparel company pivoted to work with the White House to produce millions of face masks amid short supply during the pandemic. • Manhattan Associates’ Manhattan Active Supply Chain was named Best Distribution Innovation in the 2022 Vendors in Partnership Awards. The distinction recognizes innovation that provides the largest productivity improvement, cost reduction, speed to destination, and competitive advantage in the retail industry.
planning, distribution, and warehousing, most recently as vice president of global supply chain at medical device manufacturer SunMed. • Job search startup Supply Chain Careers hired Chris Gaffney as a partner to help expand its reach. Gaffney brings more than two decades of supply chain experience with Coca- Cola. He most recently served as vice president of global strategic supply chain at The Coca- Cola Company and is a principal at ECG.
> IN MEMORIAM
Coty Dupré , chairman of the board at Dupré Logistics for 33 years, died on January 9, 2022. His business acumen and genuine style of building relationships was invaluable to the company. Dedicated to giving back to his family, community, and employees, Dupré was instrumental in numerous organizations in the Acadiana, Louisiana, community.
February 2022 • Inbound Logistics 17
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