Supply & Demand Chain Executive June 2019

2019 SDCE100 AWARD RECIPIENTS Global Supply Chain Solutions Covering Procurement, Risk, the IoT and More

JUNE 2019

2019

MAKE BLOCKCHAIN WORK

Five key questions for successful implementation

DRIVE WAREHOUSE SAFETY

A two-pronged approach for a safetyfocused culture

A WORLD

AT ODDS Companies accustomed to complex global supply chains should consider a more local approach

Fresh new content daily at

www.SDCEXEC.COM

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2019 SDCE100 AWAR

Global Supply Chain Solutions Cov

2019

MAKE BLOCKCHAIN WORK

Five key questions for successful implementation

DRIVE WAREHOUSE SAFETY

A two-pronged approach for a safetyfocused culture

A

AT

Compa ch

Fresh new content daily at

www.SDCEXEC.COM

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18th Annual

2019

1 0 0 G R E AT SUPPLY CHAIN PROJECTS This year’s Supply & Demand Chain Executive (SDCE) 100 highlights supply chain solution and service providers that are working with small, medium and large enterprises to transform their supply chains and deliver value to the bottom line. These leaders are helping their customers meet the challenges of the new normal—and laying the framework for successful supply chain transformation.

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June 2019 | Volume 19 | Issue 2

CONTENTS 12

FEATURES COVER STORY A World at Odds

20

Deciphering the mixed signals of A.T. Kearney’s Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index.

2019 AWARD Taking the Leap Toward Supply Chain Success

The 2019 SDCE100 showcases the industry’s most successful and transformative projects that deliver value to enterprises across a range of supply chain functions.

metamorworks/iStock/Getty Images Plus Zoonar RF/Zoonar/Getty Images Plus

SPECIAL REPORTS

30

32

D t a

EXECUTIVE FOCUS

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THE INTERNET OF THINGS The Marriage of IoT & the Supply Chain

It cannot be denied that the supply chain’s marriage to the IoT has created a fast and major opportunity for IoT-savvy supply chain executives.

WAREHOUSING Technology, Innovation Drive Warehouse Safety Warehouses and distribution centers need a two-pronged approach to safety focusing on corporate culture as well as systems and training.

BLOCKCHAIN 5 Key Questions to Shape a Successful Blockchain Initiative

32

COLUMNS

06

To separate blockchain hype from reality, focus on use cases specific to your business that blockchain is designed to solve.

26 36

MicroStockHub/iStock/Getty Images Plus

EXECUTIVE MEMO MADE IN AMERICA WORK HARD, PLAY HARD

26 Cover Photo Credit: shutter_m/iStock/Getty Images Plus

SDCEXEC.COM

Exclusive online features and solutions for successful supply chain operations

The Case for the 19 Year-Old Truck Driver

www.sdcexec.com/21070765

4

Nanotechnology: The Surefire Way to Combat Counterfeit Goods www.sdcexec.com/21071411

Winning the Battle for Warehouse Talent

www.sdcexec.com/21068472

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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© 2019 Penske. All Rights Reserved.

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EXECUTIVE MEMO

By John R. Yuva, Editor jyuva@ACBusinessMedia.com

INNOVATE

IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN Our 2019 SDCE100 showcases the industry’s most successful and transforming projects.

T

he first half of the year is always a busy time for traveling. Over the last two months, I’ve had the opportunity to attend several industry events ranging from SAP Ariba Live to ProMat to Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Conference and most recently Manhattan Associates’ Momentum Conference. And while each of these events is unique, there’s a similar message reverberating from all of them—technology plays a critical role in supply chain strategy.

During the Momentum Conference, several companies shared success stories about implementing automation into their warehouse and distribution center (DC) operations. I spoke to Adam Kline, senior director of product management for Manhattan Associates.

He acknowledged the proliferation of automation, particularly the growth in areas such as robotics.

“We’ve already seen a large increase in the variety and sophistication and overall volume of automation that exists in new DCs as well as retrofitted into existing DCs,” says Kline. “And while 6

www.SDCExec.com

2019

there’s constraint in how existing DCs can grow, it offers a great play for robotics vendors. Robotic automation is typically either a smaller footprint or often times not bolted to the floor, so there’s much greater flexibility for deployment.”

Kline also spoke about the company’s new initiative to advance robotics and automation called the Manhattan Automation Network. The program launched with five inaugural members: Kindred AI, Locus Robotics, Matthews Automation Solutions, Right-Hand Robotics and VCO Systems.

He says the intent of the program is to reduce the cost of warehouse robotics and automation because it’s the first bot that carries the majority of the cost. All the backend systems must be integrated with the first bot to make it functional—with that implementation complete, it’s simply deploying more bots.

“We can reduce the integration costs by a significant margin because the basic flows are prebuilt into our systems,” says Kline. “A certified Manhattan Automation Network member provides those cost advantages and network flows, which customers can tap into during the vendor selection process.”

In this month’s issue, we have a diverse set of articles. It’s also our issue featuring the SDCE100 winners—our own list and profiles of companies innovating the supply chain.

We hope you enjoy the issue.

Happy reading!

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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Published by AC Business Media 201 N. Main Street, 5th Floor, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 (800) 538-5544 • www.ACBusinessMedia.com

PRINT AND DIGITAL STAFF GROUP PUBLISHER Jolene Gulley ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Judy Welp EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lara L. Sowinski EDITOR John R. Yuva WEB EDITOR Mackenna Moralez CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Barry Hochfelder SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Cindy Rusch ART DIRECTOR Kayla Brown AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Wendy Chady AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Angela Franks ADVERTISING SALES (800) 538-5544 JOLENE GULLEY, jgulley@ACBusinessMedia.com SHEILA SPINCK, sspinck@ACBusinessMedia.com EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD LORA CECERE, Founder and CEO, Supply Chain Insights TIM FEEMSTER, President, Foremost Quality Logistics JOHN M. HILL, Director, St. Onge Company, and Board of Governors, Material Handling Industry of America RORY KING, Analytic and Big Data Advisor, SAS Institute KAREN MASTER, Vice President of Communications, SAP Ariba WILLIAM L. MICHELS, CEO, Aripart Consulting JULIE MURPHREE, Founding Editor, Supply & Demand Chain Executive ANDREW K. REESE, Senior Portfolio Marketing Manager, IHS, and Former Editor, Supply & Demand Chain Executive CHRIS SAWCHUK, Global Managing Director and Procurement Advisory Practice Leader, The Hackett Group RAJ SHARMA, CEO, Censeo Consulting Group KATE VITASEK, Founder, Supply Chain Visions CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS P.O. Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605 (877) 201-3915, Fax: (847) 291-4816 Email: circ.sdcexec@omeda.com LIST RENTAL Jeff Moriarty, Infogroup (518) 339-4511 Email: jeff.moriarty@infogroup.com REPRINT SERVICES JOLENE GULLEY, jgulley@ACBusinessMedia.com AC BUSINESS MEDIA CEO Barry Lovette CFO JoAnn Breuchel VICE PRESIDENT, SALES & MARKETING Amy Schwandt EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Greg Udelhofen DIGITAL OPERATIONS MANAGER Nick Raether DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Monique Terrazas Published and copyrighted 2019 by AC Business Media All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive [USPS #024-012 and ISSN 1548-3142 (print) and ISSN 1948-5654 (online)] is published four times a year: March, June, September and December by AC Business Media, 201 N. Main Street, 5th Floor, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. POSTMASTER: Please send all changes of address to Supply & Demand Chain Executive, P.O. Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605.

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The information presented in this edition of Supply & Demand Chain Executive is believed to be accurate. The publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of claims or performances of items appearing in editorial presentations or advertisements in the publication.

June 2019 / Volume 20 / Issue 2

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CHAIN REACTIONS

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

GOOD CLOUD PARTNERS WITH STELLA MCCARTNEY TO

TRACK THE FASHION SUPPLY CHAIN

The fashion industry has a notorious reputation for having an unsustainable supply chain, with at least a half-million tons of nonbiodegradable mirofibers reaching the oceans every year.

To address oversight in the industry, Google is building a Google Cloud data analytics and machine learning service that will allow brands to have a more comprehensive view into their supply chain, specifically at the level of raw production.

According to Venture Beat, the company is working with fashion brands, experts, NGOs and industry bodies to create an industry-wide tool to determine the impact of raw materials production on the supply chain and in the regions where they are produced. Stella McCartney was named its first partner on the project.

“At Stella McCartney, we have been continuously focusing on looking at responsible and sustainable ways to conduct ourselves in fashion; it is at the heart of what we do,” says McCartney in a statement. “We are trying our best—we aren’t perfect, but we are opening a conversation that hasn’t occurred in the history of fashion.”

The tool will target “Tier 4” production of cotton and viscose— as cotton accounts for 25 percent of all fibers used by the fashion industry and viscose is often linked to deforestation.

“Now more than ever, the fashion industry is heeding the call to sustainability. Its environmental impact is significant and growing— among other statistics, the fashion industry accounts for 20 percent of wastewater and 10 percent of carbon emissions globally,” Good Cloud Head of Retail Nick Martin said in a statement. “We hope that our experiment will give fashion brands greater visibility within their supply chain and actionable insights to make better raw material sourcing decisions with sustainability in mind.”

BLOCKCHAIN INITIATIVES WILL SLOW DOWN BY 2023 Blockchain continues to be a buzz word among the industry as companies continue to invest in the technology. However, Gartner predicts that by 2023, 90 percent of blockchainbased supply chain initiatives will slow down because of lacking results.

A Gartner supply chain technology survey of users’ wants and needs found that 19 percent of respondents claim blockchain was very important to their business, while only 9 percent have invested in it. The low number could be because blockchain projects are very limited and do not match the hype that surrounds it.

Currently, most blockchain projects have focused on improving traceability and visibility and verifying authenticity, but haven’t progressed to full implementation as there’s a lack of standards. Often times, organizations are unable to identify and target specific highvalue use cases for the technology, forcing them to run multiple development trials before finding one that provides value. The survey also found that the technology is too expensive, so companies cannot buy an off-the-shelf complete and packaged blockchain solution.

The survey recommends that companies continue to remain cautious about early adoption of blockchain and to not rush into implementing it within their supply chain when the capability of the technology is still in question.

CONTROLANT USES REAL-TIME SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY SOLUTION for Temperature-Controlled Environments Controlant has launched its PR-T80 Digital Temperature Probe, an innovative real-time solution for pharmaceutical ismagilov/istock/Getty Images Plus products requiring low temperature control and real-time visibility.

The solution is the first of its kind to monitor and fully validate pharmaceuticals. It is designed for dry ice 8

applications, active pharmaceutical ingredients, clinical trials, and additional pharmaceutical and life sciences products that require transport and storage in low temperature-controlled environments.

The new probe extends the capabilities of Controlant’s Supply Chain Monitoring solution, measuring low temperatures and sending data to a validated and compliant cloud software platform.

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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ADVERTISEMENT

By Sami Peltonen, Product & Business Management, Basware

Open Your Eyes to the Force that is Transforming Supply Chains

I

often get the question, ‘What do you see for the future of Purchase to Pay (P2P)?’

From a technology perspective, looking five to fifteen years out is like looking a lifetime ahead because disruption and innovation seem to occur rather rapidly. But there are two ways I always respond: organizations that will be successful in the future are committed to capturing 100% of data, and; the business world will be striving for and thriving on holistic visibility across all financial transactions and the entire supply chain. At Basware, we’ve coined this state of transparency as Visible Commerce.

VISIBLE COMMERCE IS TRANSPARENCY BEYOND TRANSACTIONS Visible Commerce, in concrete terms, is complete transparency into all the flows of money, goods, and services around the world.

This refers not only to the transactional transparency of things like buying, selling, and paying transactions, but also much more holistic transparency into who (not what) is underneath all those transactions, what they stand for, and why we should care.

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Beyond the concrete definition, Visible Commerce is about harnessing the power of all the amazing technology that we’ve built as a society to not just become faster-cheaper-more efficient but to truly become better businesses in the altruistic sense. I see Visible Commerce requiring us as people, business professionals, and inventors of technology to think more in the mode of humans as we pioneer emerging technologies.

VISIBLE VISIBLE COMMERCE COMMERCE ISIS ABOUT ABOUT HARNESSING HARNESSING THE THE POWER POWER OFOF ALL ALL THE THE AMAZING AMAZING TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY THAT THAT WE’VE WE’VE BUILT BUILT ASAS A SOCIETY…TO A SOCIETY…TO TRULY TRULY BECOME BECOME BETTER BETTER BUSINESSES BUSINESSES ININ THE THE ALTRUISTIC ALTRUISTIC SENSE. SENSE. EVOLUTION, ECONOMICS, AND GLOBALIZATION CATALYZED A ‘PUSH-BUTTON’ SOCIETY A rich history based on commerce has propelled us to this critical edge, teetering on the brink of complete digital transformation. The

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marriage of technology and travel pushed trade to increase across physical boundaries, strengthening commercial links across the globe. Over centuries this pushed major paradigm shifts – colonization, democratization, the industrial revolution, and now digitization. We’ve seen the sophistication of e-commerce evolve from early online buying to sites that connected thousands of buyers and sellers like eBay, and a service the modern world can’t live without – the giant that is Amazon Prime. We can now order and pay for goods with the literal push of a button: food from our favorite restaurants, a ride to almost anywhere, even a car from a vending machine. We now live in a pushbutton society.

MODERN CONVENIENCE COMES AT A COST But with this push-button society, our human connection is fading into the background as the ‘person’ has been effectively removed from the exchange of funds for goods and services. With mass commoditization, our supplier ecosystem is expanding exponentially to an unmanageable state as we continuously seek the cheaper, better, faster options. The personal relationships that once made up the foundation of business are increasingly more anonymous.

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS DEMANDS VISIBLE COMMERCE

ES

Some may contend that cheaper, faster, more efficient is better – isn’t that the whole point of automation technology and moving to a digital work environment? Why do we need to intensify visibility and know more about our suppliers?

Why do we need Visible Commerce?

From our perspective at Basware, we see three major drivers of Visible Commerce: ❯ Brand Integrity: How people feel about your brand is directly tied to your bottom line. If you are found to be connected to suppliers with unethical and immoral business practices, this will degrade

the public image of your company and negatively impact profitability. ❯ Risk Mitigation: From fraud to major manufacturing interruptions to geopolitical forces, the sources of risk are strong. If you don’t know exactly who you’re doing business with, then there’s no way you can eliminate supply chain risk or ensure sustainability and reliability of partners within your supply chain. ❯ Business Growth: Embracing automation and moving to a digital work environment is an iterative process. Continuous improvement and hitting strategic business goals require visibility across your operations so you can simplify operations and spend smarter, and focus resources on what matters most to your organization.

PUSH THE BUTTON ON VISIBLE COMMERCE As a new decade looms over the horizon, I’d like to challenge supply chain professionals to think differently about the role they play and the influence they wield with the greater global economy. Think less about the everyday tasks and more about every way those tasks contribute to a bigger picture. Embrace the state of consciousness that makes businesses aware of how to make more money, reduce risk, and hit targets, while also contributing to a financial infrastructure built on transparency, responsibility, and accountability.

Leverage technology to move toward a more connected and informed ecosystem. We can no longer turn a blind eye toward what threatens us from the darkness; it’s time for all of us to push the button on Visible Commerce.

THINK LESS ABOUT THE EVERYDAY TASKS AND MORE ABOUT EVERY WAY THOSE TASKS CONTRIBUTE TO A BIGGER PICTURE.

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FEATURE

By Erik Peterson

A WORLD AT ODDS

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SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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Deciphering the mixed signals of A.T. Kearney’s Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index.

T

he results are in for The 2019 A.T. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index®, and they reflect the profound uncertainty that supply chain executives confront as their companies place big—in some cases, existential—bets on the longer-range global economic outlook. And for good reason. In the face of a slowing global economy, structural impediments that cloud medium-term growth prospects, the rise of populism and nationalism, renewed geopolitical tension, mounting concerns about trade openness, technology disruption, and lack of policy and regulatory consistency, strategic planners certainly have their hands full.

One thing is for sure, however: in a world drifting toward higher levels of parochialism when it comes to national economic and trade policies, firms today have substantially greater agility than they have had in the past pertaining to managing core operations and global supply chains. In light of all the paradoxes currently at work, those companies will need all the agility they can get. The FDI Confidence Index results provide key insights for the agile management of this external volatility that apply to firms across diverse geographies and sectors.

INTRODUCING THE INDEX The FDI Confidence Index, established in 1998, is a survey conducted each year of 500 global business executives of firms with annual revenues of more than $500 million. In contrast to data that track historical developments in FDI, the Index is forward-looking because it challenges respondents to rank markets that will attract the most FDI in the next three years. This year, the pool of respondents extends to 30 countries that by UNCTAD statistics make up more than 90 percent of the global flow of FDI. Over the years, the metamorworks/istock/ Getty Images Plus

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countries ranked have tracked closely with the top destinations for actual FDI flows in subsequent years. So, at the macro level, we believe, the Index is a relatively reliable predictor of where FDI flows go in the subsequent three-year period.

What, then, did the Index reveal last year?

Three main conclusions stood out: The first was that the United States continued to represent the most attractive target for FDI flows. After displacing China in 2012, it was at the very top of the list for the sixth year running. Second, it was a big year for European economies, which staged a comeback to capture more than half of the top 25 spots after its share of positions on the Index had declined in the two previous years.

Finally, it was clear that localization—the practice of shifting management, operations, production, and/or marketing to local markets—was top of mind. Ninety percent of business leaders indicated that they were pursuing or considering pursuing localization strategies.

We were curious to see whether this year’s results would mark a continuation or a break from last year. The 2019 FDICI survey was in the field in January 2019. Imagine the context—which was marked by transformations and volatility.

Jair Messias Bolsonaro started his four-year term as president of Brazil. Nancy Pelosi regained her position as speaker in the House of Representatives after the 2018 mid-term elections enabled Democrats to regain control. The Yellow Vest protests in Paris were intensifying. Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly in Venezuela declared incumbent president Nicolás Maduro as illegitimate and attempted to remove him.

Militants stormed a hotel in Nairobi, killing 21 people. The United States and China were just a third of the way through the “cease fire” of their protracted trade dispute marked by the impositions of tariffs by Washington and retaliatory measures by Beijing. The expansion of the global economy had weakened. According www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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FEATURE to the updated IMF World Economic Outlook, the global economy was projected to grow at 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.6 percent in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage point below its projections three months earlier.

CONTINUITIES IN THE 2019 FDI CONFIDENCE INDEX …

This year’s Index contains both validations and paradoxes. On the validation side, the data this year reaffirm some of the conclusions that came through last year. Only one new economy— Singapore—was able to break into the top-10 frontrunners—at the expense of Switzerland, which fell to 13th. Hardly a reshuffling of the deck. The United States remains at the top of the list, while Germany displaces Canada for second place (in a near statistical dead heat). The United Kingdom, perhaps reflecting all the pressures of pre-Brexit positioning of investment, maintains its fourth position. And France enters the top-five for the first time since 2002.

…THE MARGIN BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND PLACE HAS DECLINED FROM LAST YEAR. THIS MAY REFLECT SOME EROSION OF CONFIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES DUE TO THE UNCERTAINTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMIC POLICIES AND REGULATIONS. There are some subtle but important shifts in the rankings, though. The first is that the margin between first and second place has declined from last year. This may reflect some erosion of confidence in the United States due to the uncertainties associated with the government’s economic policies and regulations. Another shift is the continued decline of China’s position; Beijing dropped two spots to seventh place this year. It remains, however, the highest ranked emerging market on the Index—having firmly held this position since 1999.

Another important reaffirmation from last year is the number of developed markets at the top of the list. Developed markets account for 22 of the 25 spots on the Index—hitting their highest-ever share, 14

even outpacing last year’s record. European markets hold steady with 14 spots—once again claiming the title of the region in which investors are most confident about the likelihood of future investments.

Furthermore, Europe includes all of the markets that marked the largest gains in rankings: Denmark (+6 places), Spain (+4), Austria (+3), and Belgium (+3). And Finland is a newcomer on the 2019 Index.

Continued investor focus on European markets likely reflects ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit, as companies invest in other European Union (EU) member economies to maintain their preferential access to the EU market.

A third confirmation is that the Asian economies continue to flex their muscles when it comes to FDI attractiveness. The highest level goes to Japan, in 6th place. Generally speaking, though, Asia Pacific performs strongly, with 8 markets in the top 25 and 4 ( Japan, China, Australia and Singapore) in the top 10.

… AND SOME IMPORTANT PARADOXES But while many of the results in this year’s Index did confirm our earlier results, there were also a number of conspicuous paradoxes that, we believe, reflect the profound uncertainty that supply chain executives and other business leaders must confront. In particular, five paradoxes stand out.

1) The big one is the decline of emerging markets. In fact, only three emerging markets (China, India and Mexico) rank among the top 25 economies for FDI in the next three years.

Brazil, the only other emerging market in the 2018 Index, has fallen off the list. This represents the continuation of the steady decline in the number of emerging markets over recent years. The paradox is that there continues to be enthusiasm among investors for emerging and frontier markets.

Some 43 percent tell us they are seeking new opportunities in emerging markets—slightly more than the 42 percent seeking new opportunities in frontier markets and the 41 percent doing so in developed markets. More strikingly, while there are increases in the average scores for almost all countries included in our Index, the average score for frontier markets increases the most (+0.15), followed by emerging markets (+0.12) and then developed markets (+0.09).

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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FEATURE 2) A related paradox illuminated by our Index is the attitude among investors for developed markets. As mentioned above, developed markets stole the show in the 2019 Index. But investors also tell us that they are significantly concerned about the prospect of political instability, economic downturn, or the emergence of a more restrictive environment to business in these same markets.

3) The third paradox is the gap between what investors say and what they do when it comes to FDI. This year, again, respondents indicated in no uncertain terms that they assigned a high priority to FDI and forecast increased flows. Almost fourfifths of investors said their companies would increase their level of FDI in the next three years.

Bullish as the respondents may be, the reality is that FDI levels continue to fall. The most recent estimates from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show a 19 percent fall in global FDI flows in 2018. In

fact, the aggregate level of FDI has been falling precipitously for the past three years.

4) Fourth is that in an era of more nationalist fervor and rhetoric, investors are not focused on the country level. In fact, almost 60 percent of investors tell us that they start their FDI assessments at the regional or city level. Investor focus on cities appears particularly strong. The majority of investors are paying more attention to cities as a driver of investment decisions now and almost two-thirds say that their companies are engaging more with city-level stakeholders than they did just two years ago.

5) Finally, business leaders—who in the past have been bullish about the outlook for the global economy—are having second thoughts. Our data this year show that while there is still some enthusiasm for the global economic trajectory, fewer respondents are expecting the significant recovery that many had been forecasting in past years.

Smarter Logistics Need Data Location

Temperature

Humidity

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CHALLENGES TO GLOBAL OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAINS How, then, should supply chain executives respond to these findings? Among the takeaways from our Index of relevance to global business operations decision-makers, a few deserve special mention: ❯ Prepare for what probably will be a gradual decline in world economic growth. This is reflected not only in the lower optimism among investors in our survey, but also in the continued downgrades that the IMF, World Bank Group, and OECD have all made in their projections. ❯ Extended, global supply chains—already complicated—could become even more difficult to manage with political, economic and social volatility. Executives would be well advised to take a good, long look at existing supply chains with a view to simplifying the framework and reinforcing their positions at every stage of the value chain.

Companies should become what we call “locally integrated enterprises,” which involves executives being continuously aware of local conditions and how they are shifting, recognizing the company’s role in shaping and reacting to those conditions, and using that knowledge to develop tailored business insights and strategies. ❯ Prioritize cities, which are increasingly important in FDI decisions. While country-level politics are characterized by populism and nationalism, more globally-minded cities are rising in importance in terms of both economic prowess and political leadership. The numbers of our Index show how much investors assign a priority to how well cities function. ❯ Is the FDI winter coming? No. The signs suggest that the FDI environment will continue to be characterized by incremental change. The reaffirmations of our results year-to-year certainly support the notion. But business leaders up to the task will need to monitor developments closely, exercise foresight when possible, and show significant agility when rapid responses are needed to address complicated challenges.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ERIK PETERSON is a partner at A.T. Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm, and managing director of its Global Business Policy Council (GBPC). He supports a range of initiatives pertaining to strategic planning, foresight, global trends, scenario planning, contingency assessments and quantitative forecasting.

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MILLIONS OF ORDERS PROCESSED DAILY When selecting an e-commerce provider, choose an industry leader.

SSI SCHAEFER is the most innovative automation solution provider for e-commerce supported by a fully integrated software suite.

ssi-schaefer.com

FULL-SERVICE PARTNER SPECIALIZING IN: • • • • •

WMS Software & Controls Storage & Retrieval Systems Shuttle Systems Custom Automation Solutions AGV’s

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Lippert Components connects data, processes and people for simpler, faster supply chain planning

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Lippert Components is a global supplier of components to the recreational vehicle and residential housing industries, as well as adjacent industries including bus, cargo and equestrian trailer, marine and heavy truck. With multiple facilities worldwide, Lippert needed a supply chain planning solution that could integrate their systems and processes – and help improve planning across the enterprise.

Multiple M&As and ongoing growth lead to supply chain challenges Acquisitions have helped fuel Lippert Components’ growth over

Quick facts

the years. Unifying people, systems and processes presented

y Tier-one component supplier

many challenges throughout the enterprise.

“Poor demand visibility challenged our manufacturing facilities with determining what to make because they did not have the

y 65 facilities throughout the US, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the UK

right raw materials to meet production needs. Plants would

y 9000+ employees

increase safety stocks, which led to excessive and costly inventory

y 60+ acquisitions in past 15 years

and increased the risk of building obsolescence. Conversely, inventory shortages for new and promoted products impeded

y $2.5 billion in revenue

the promotional programs that were being pushed by sales.

Stockouts occurred because we failed to have the right product at the right place at the right time, which led to increased costs

chain data, but the data needed to present in a timely, clear and

due to expedited orders or, even worse, lost sales,” says Kristen

informative way. The goal was to better forecast customer demand,

LeBaron, Director of Supply Chain.

optimize inventory to meet that demand, and improve supply to meet customer expectations while maximizing profit. Their strategy

A vision for the future To manage their supply-demand balance, Lippert Components needed to measure it over time. They needed visibility into supply

SDC0619_10-19_CoverStory_JY.indd 18

also focused on building strong relationships with key stakeholders from each department in their organization. It was important that their strategy wasn’t isolated from the rest of the business.

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y

“My goal was to build a cohesive supply chain culture. That meant instilling a high sense of urgency and accountability. Being demand-driven has required us to view the business through a

Transformation benefits

different lens, look at it from the outside-in, and then understand

y Clear visibility of demand and supply

what the market wants to satisfy future demand. As simple as that

y Increased inventory turns over 16 consecutive months

sounds, without a sophisticated planning platform, combined with data integrity, it was a difficult concept to execute,” says LeBaron.

After reviewing its options, the team selected Kinaxis®

y Reduced material shortages

RapidResponse®. “We chose Kinaxis to develop a comprehensive

y Improved work-life balance

view of our entire supply chain to reduce decision latency by

y Improved on-time delivery

connecting all links throughout our organization,” says Scott Meiner, Chief Supply Chain Officer.

y Reduced number of reporting requests sent to internal BI team.

Increased visibility, communication and collaboration

y Increased the number of ways to analyze information

RapidResponse gives Lippert the ability to see and connect hundreds of siloed data points. Instead of manually bringing all of that information together, the company can now quickly and easily

y Empowered collaboration across multiple teams

build custom reports across all of its platforms providing a holistic view of the entire global supply chain and enabling simpler, faster planning of demand, inventory, production and capacity.

As an added bonus, other Lippert departments have been able to take advantage of RapidResponse to increase their own capabilities; production, engineering, sales, finance, and inventory teams to name a few. External vendors are also able to

collaborate and integrate their datasets, giving Lippert access to even more upstream information.

“We can now quickly and easily build custom reports for any department, providing a peripheral view of our entire global supply chain which has enabled simpler, faster planning – of demand, inventory, supply and capacity. We often find ourselves saying, if you can think it, you can build it in RapidResponse,” says LeBaron.

“Without the support from our executive teams, business

Kinaxis has not only delivered one of the most amazing planning platforms, but they have also introduced us to a community of companies where knowledge, strategy, and design is shared on a daily basis. We could not have asked for a better partnership – thank you, Kinaxis!

KRISTEN LEBARON DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN,

intelligence, business systems, sales, lean, finance, leadership, training, and our operations – none of this would have been possible. Although we are still early in our supply chain transformation, all of our teams continue to position us for a bright future,” conclude Meiner and LeBaron.

Learn more by visiting www.kinaxis.com

LIPPERT COMPONENTS

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AWARDS 2019

By Mackenna Moralez

Supply & Demand Chain Executive announces the recipients of its SDCE100 award.

TAKING THE LEAP

TOWARD SUPPLY CHAIN SUCCESS In order to achieve supply chain success, companies will face a series of challenges. It is essential that a company continue to pursue, develop and implement best practices that leverage wellorganized projects that are relevant to strategic objectives. The outcome of these projects brings further insights into the innovation and opportunity for improved processes within supply chains.

The 2019 SDCE100 showcases the industry’s most successful and transformative projects that deliver value to enterprises across a range of supply chain functions. The projects offer a forward-looking

perspective for the industry on new opportunities that allow companies to take the leap toward success.

FEATURED PROJECTS

ENABLER: 3GTMS — www.3gtms.com CUSTOMER: RedStone Logistics PROJECT GOAL: TMS implementation

to support a growing 3PL client base with increasingly complex requirements to help RedStone differentiate its services SOLUTIONS: TMS implementation BUSINESS IMPACT: RedStone’s growth is based on blending services and pricing models along with excellent client service. It was crucial that the company implement an easier and more efficient system for on-boarding clients. On average, the company has gone from a 10-12 week on-boarding range to just a few weeks, 20

allowing it to deliver value to clients faster. The company can also maximize the use of its creative pricing strategies and attract industry leaders in e-commerce, automotive and freight hauling.

ENABLER: 6 RIVER SYSTEMS — www.6river.com CUSTOMER: Healing Hands PROJECT GOAL: Double the warehouse pick rate

to achieve same-day shipping for customer orders SOLUTIONS: 6 River Systems’ Fulfillment Automation solution powered by collaborative mobile robots and artificial intelligence and machine learning software in the cloud

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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chain business intelligence system, known as ALOM BI, the company was able to monitor and achieve the key supply chain metrics critical to customer success. With the value-add, customers were able to meet 100 percent of daily production and fulfillment goals, boosting ALOM’s customer satisfaction rates. The tool is deployed at least once a week, providing real-time visibility to supply chain performance metrics. This access to centralized and continuously monitored data gives customers a competitive advantage of speed, agility and control to quickly identify and mitigate any potential disruptions or determine areas of opportunity and growth.

shutter_m/iStock/Getty Images Plus

BUSINESS IMPACT: Previously, Healing Hands’ associates were manually picking with one order per cart. Now with 6 River Systems’ Chuck robot, the company is picking at 180 UPH with some associates even picking at 300 UPH. Because the robots come equipped with scanners, associates can scan items hands-free more easily and validate correct items on the spot. In addition, there is now 75-percent less walking as Chuck eliminates needless walking by autonomously driving to and from products, and active picking and takeoff areas.

This allows associates to stay focused on picking.

ENABLER: ALOM — www.alom.com CUSTOMER: Customers representing top brands

from the automotive, technology, medical device and financial industries PROJECT GOAL: Implement a business intelligence system providing ALOM customers with real-time visibility and control over supply chain performance metrics SOLUTIONS: Proprietary, database integration, data analytics, business intelligence, machine learning and mobile device app development BUSINESS IMPACT: With a powerful supply

ENABLER: ARKIEVA — www.arkieva.com CUSTOMER: Nouryon PROJECT GOAL: Achieve a harmonized S&OP

process with cross-functional team collaboration SOLUTIONS: Arkieva Products, Third-Party Integration BUSINESS IMPACT: By working with Arkieva, Nouryon achieved a harmonized S&OP process across all its units. It also integrated a financial planning system used by controllers and financial analysts to create an annual budget using Arkieva and received access to a more robust demand segmentation system that makes it easier to recognize demand patterns and create plans accordingly.

ENABLER: AVERCAST LLC — www.avercast.com CUSTOMER: Kawasaki Motors Corp.

PROJECT GOAL: Improve forecast accuracy and

provide end-to-end planning visibility SOLUTIONS: Avercast Business Forecasting and Avercast Supply Planning BUSINESS IMPACT: Previously, Kawasaki was technologically constrained as to what it could accomplish. By partnering with Avercast, the company is now empowered to spend more time analyzing and adding value to the forecast and demand plan with user-defined outlier identification capabilities and greater forecasting visibility. With Avercast’s solutions, Kawasaki has

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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AWARDS 2019

seen a substantial improvement in inventory turns and a decrease in overall inventory levels.

ENABLER: AVNET — www.avnet.com CUSTOMER: Avnet PROJECT GOAL: To accelerate profitable

corporate growth and drive higher customer satisfaction by expediting time to value SOLUTIONS: Deploy array of supply chain digitization technologies including robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics and conversational bots BUSINESS IMPACT: Avnet has enhanced its operations by deploying intelligent automation across the business, including warehousing, quoting, customer service, supply chain, sales and procurement. Among the benefits of these initiatives are notable gains in the efficiency of the ordering process, improved data quality and demand forecasting, as well as more time for people resources to focus on delivering a differentiated customer experience.

ENABLER: BLUJAY SOLUTIONS — www.blujaysolutions.com

ENABLER: CASESTACK — www.casestack.com CUSTOMER: Leading food and agribusiness

company

paper-based process used to manage 1,200 ocean bookings per year. Improve visibility, accuracy and efficiency while providing relief for IT staff. Reduce risk and eliminate errors by automating the booking process and AES filing for international exports.

SOLUTIONS: BluJay Global TMS BUSINESS IMPACT: BluJay’s Transportation Management ocean mode provides the full picture. With more visibility, the customer knows the total landed cost and can make educated decisions on all aspects of the journey.

Some benefits that the company achieved were: sizable reduction in hours spent on ocean export processes, visibility to better sourcing decisions, planning cohesion, cost savings and increased digitization.

PROJECT GOAL: Reduce or eliminate retail supply chain performance penalties, control transportation costs and facilitate expanded penetration for new division SOLUTIONS: CaseStack’s Retail Freight Consolidation Programs BUSINESS IMPACT: CaseStack helped the client save an average of $0.18 per pound shipped to their major retailers by transitioning them into its Retail Freight Consolidation programs.

The programs reduced their exposure to retailer supply chain performance penalties, significantly reducing their transportation costs compared to LTL. The consolidation also helped create incremental revenue and margin growth for the client by helping them expand penetration and helping win placements at other major retailers.

CaseStack helped the client meet consumer expectations by reducing out of stocks by achieving a 99.6-percent average fill rate as well.

ENABLER: B-STOCK — www.bstock.com CUSTOMER: Fortune 500 retailer

ENABLER: CELESTICA — www.celestica.com CUSTOMER: Electronics Manufacturing Company

CUSTOMER: Private-label dairy manufacturer PROJECT GOAL: Modernize the manual,

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PROJECT GOAL: The primary business objective was to increase buyer engagement and pricing for the retailer’s returned and excess merchandise SOLUTIONS: B-Stock’s B2B online marketplace platform and services, including auction strategy, payment processing and customer support BUSINESS IMPACT: A Fortune 500 warehouse club retailer had been working with B-Stock to sell its returned and excess inventory through a private B2B liquidation marketplace. As pricing and buyer engagement on these mixed lots leveled, the company needed a new strategy to increase bidding and recovery. B-Stock recommended that the retailer implement specific storage strategies, resulting in increased buyer engagement. The electronics lots achieved a 50-percent increase in recovery, while seasonal items generated a 66-percent increase in recovery over mixed lot pricing. The retailer experienced an overall 155-percent jump in recovery for general merchandise as well.

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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PROJECT GOAL: Maximize customer satisfaction by enabling on-time delivery, reducing shortages, avoiding supply premiums and improving customer delivery performance SOLUTIONS: SAP Enterprise Inventory and Service Level Optimization, Kinaxis Rapid Response BUSINESS IMPACT: Celistica improved the company’s Days of Supply by 22 DOS during the project period. Despite a demand upside the project resulted in inventory reduction and it continued to see working capital benefits throughout the year. The loading of an optimized safety stock reduced shortages and helped the manufacturing teams to improve its delivery performance and increase end customer satisfaction. Leveraging a persistent data source streamlined the optimization process, allowing Celestica to refresh the recommended safety stock more frequently and simplifying the onboarding process for future customers.

ENABLER: CT LOGISTICS — www.ctlogistics.com CUSTOMER: Wholesaler of plumbing and

HVAC supplies

PROJECT GOAL: Consolidate LTLs into TLs with stop-offs; reduce costs/fuel; shippers choose shorter transits; and allow greener choices while decreasing spend

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SOLUTIONS: Software developed internally by CT BUSINESS IMPACT: CT Logistics sequenced

deliveries in the most efficient way with its route optimization software, providing truck routes that minimized mileage for its client. The company’s software allowed the client to meet its transportation requirements and decrease its carbon footprint. With the software, it was able to reduce its “per pallet” CO2 emissions by 14 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018.

ENABLER: DW MORGAN COMPANY — www.dwmorgan.com CUSTOMER: Fortune 100 Electronics

Manufacturer

PROJECT GOAL: Conversion of an outsourcemanaged, multi-supplier ground transportation network to an asset-based infrastructure for utilization, cost, visibility and quality gains SOLUTIONS: ChronosCloud-based systems for visibility, data gathering, analytics and connectivity across supplier networks and platforms. Morgan’s proprietary FlexShip system for route management and operations.

BUSINESS IMPACT: With the combination of high-value goods, regular transit frequency, common service levels and shared lanes across suppliers, it provided the framework for a transformation to an asset-based carriage. DW

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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AWARDS 2019

Morgan used technology and analytics to assess and redesign the network, transforming the model. In addition, Morgan provided real-time visibility, management and all transit operations and infrastructure. The electronics manufacturer saw overall cost savings exceed 10 percent compared to the previous model. Deliveries are on time 99 percent of the time with the new model, a significant improvement over the prior outsourced network. Empty truck trips have been reduced by at least 10 percent, adding to cost savings and increasing sustainability performance because of reduced carbon emissions. In addition, customer reports show satisfaction and improvement in trustworthiness ratings.

ENABLER: ELEMENTUM — www.elementum.com CUSTOMER: Fortune 500 healthcare company PROJECT GOAL: Reduce logistics lead time and

improve the process for imports to Brazil from

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Europe and North America SOLUTIONS: Elementum Platform BUSINESS IMPACT: By utilizing Elementum’s Transport and Incident Management workspaces, the customer gained more granular visibility into its Brazil import process, creating optimized workflows to address key inefficiencies within its end-to-end supply chain. The company used Elementum’s incident management with over 20 people who collaborated and expedited an incoming replenishment import order.

This prevented an order cancellation by the customer, thereby protecting $3 million in revenue. After implementing this project and undergoing improvements, the customer achieved a 30-percent reduction on most transportation leads and increased inventory cost savings and improved inventory turns ratio.

ENABLER: ELEMICA — www.elemica.com CUSTOMER: Global chemical company PROJECT GOAL: Merger of two global supply

chains and creation of a digital supply network SOLUTIONS: Elemica Digital Supply Network BUSINESS IMPACT: Three business entities created by the M&A enabled the company to allocate capital more effectively, apply powerful innovation capabilities that are more focused and productive, and expand value-added products and solutions to more customers worldwide.

Through multi-tenant architecture, the company has extended its core ERP systems. And the Elemica Digital Supply Network has allowed other businesses to run on its infrastructure. With Elemica, the company has moved forward on its digital transformation by introducing frictionless business processes that save time, reduce labor costs and free up working capital through more efficient inventory management.

ENABLER: HILTON SUPPLY MANAGEMENT — www.mysupplymanagement.com CUSTOMER: N/A PROJECT GOAL: Procurement model

SystechOne.com | Advice@SystechOne.com 24

transformation to better meet customers’ needs, strengthen relationships, grow a diverse supplier network and drive massive economies of scale SOLUTIONS: HSM 2.0

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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BUSINESS IMPACT: By rolling out HSM 2.0, a rebranding effort to note the restructuring and reorganization, the company’s overall revenue was up 32 percent year over year. In addition, average market competitiveness was up 13 percent in 11 major categories and total global savings were up 11.5 percent. The creation and addition of a “Procurement Center of Excellence” helped streamline data, category intelligence activities and analytics capabilities, helping grow team satisfaction 6 percent in all major categories.

ENABLER: KINAXIS INC. — www.kinaxis.com CUSTOMER: Lippert Components Inc. PROJECT GOAL: Implement a planning solution

for statistical forecasting, consensus demand planning and supply planning to unify people, systems and processes SOLUTIONS: Kinaxis RapidResponse BUSINESS IMPACT: In order to have a successful implementation, Lippert Components understood that it had to align its decentralized models, define and support the culture shift, and bridge the siloes that had previously existed. By collaborating with Kinaxis, the company was able to provide tools that were needed to achieve organizational goals. Since starting in 2014, Lippert has clear visibility of demand and supply, reduced material shortages, improved on-time delivery, empowered collaboration across multiple teams and many more.

coordinate routing between suppliers and carriers by capturing data points at the hand off between participating organizations. By pin-pointing the source of transportation delays through captured data, the company was able to take corrective action.

ENABLER: NOODLE.AI — www.noodle.ai CUSTOMER: Transplace PROJECT GOAL: Help Transplace

monetize the depth and breadth of its transportation network, lower transportation costs and minimize exposure to the spot market

SOLUTIONS:

Noodle.ai System of Intelligence for Transportation

ENABLER: LOGISTICS PLUS INC. — www.logisticsplus.net CUSTOMER: Fortune 100 Global Industrial

Manufacturer

PROJECT GOAL: Increase network velocity/ reduce total transportation time, increase supply chain visibility and improve routing reliability SOLUTIONS: Custom 3PL SaaS, predictive analytics, global tracking and tracing, customized user interfaces and a multi-tenant, multi-client system BUSINESS IMPACT: Within 30 days, Logistics Plus and its client had gone from concept and napkin drawings to live operations. By mapping out the client’s global supply chain, Logistics Plus reconfigured it into individual processes for each supplier context and established local teams to www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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BUSINESS IMPACT: The use of Noodle. ai’s apps added a system of intelligence to Transplace’s operation and helped Transplace fully leverage its large network and achieve optimal transportation costs and service benefits for its shipper customers. By partnering with Noodle. ai, the company experienced lower exposure to the spot market and reduced carrier costs by building probabilistic itineraries that reduced empty miles while increasing acceptance rates.

Transplace is expecting a 10-percent reduction in transportation costs and upwards of $7 million in savings for shippers.

ENABLER: OPTRICITY — www.optricity.com CUSTOMER: Global healthcare equipment

company

PROJECT GOALS: Increase picking productivity, reduce replenishments and stock-outs, and decrease cycle time

through the selected scenario, OptiSlot was able to highlight via heatmaps and associated reports expected slotting optimization results.

When comparing the current state to the selected scenario, the team saw a 12.97-percent increase in lines per hour and 19.6-percent decrease in travel times, resulting in an overall increase in productivity. Replenishments were reduced by 15.85 percent and total costs were reduced by 11.48 percent, giving much-needed improvements that the company could benefit from.

ENABLER: RATELINX — www.ratelinx.com CUSTOMER: Rockwell Automation PROJECT GOALS: Improve transport

performance

Self Healing.

SOLUTIONS: Intelligent Invoice Management, Integrated Data Platform BUSINESS IMPACT: Since using RateLinx’s intelligent invoice management DaaS, Rockwell Automation has captured freight data from its invoices and runs it through a modeling environment that produces information that can make more precise shipping decisions in real time.

The project has yielded considerable benefits to the company’s transportation execution, as well. For inbound freight, the company achieved real-time access to clean, precise data and has produced more accurate monthly reports of missed savings and route violations, enabling more strategic long-term decisions and collaborative work with suppliers. The smoother workflow has made a difference for employees.

RateLinx’s DaaS provides a single interface for research and quoting activities, compared with the sources and systems.

The Moves Conductor AI

ENABLER: SWANLEAP — www.swanleap.com CUSTOMER: Leading snack and ingredient nut

Reactivate

Slotting.

Software

Advanced Slotting Optimization

Stimulate

TM

Accelerating Intelligent Movement

Op tricity 26

SOLUTIONS: OptiSlot DC Software BUSINESS IMPACT: By running actual orders

+1 (919) 237-4846 info@optricity.com www.optricity.com follow us:

manufacturer

PROJECT GOAL: Improve efficiencies in supply chain and cut transportation costs SOLUTIONS: TMS with Lightning Integration BUSINESS IMPACT: As a result of leveraging SwanLeap’s system and services, the client is on track to meet its cost savings goal of $1.25 million. In addition, the client is experiencing the

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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WW3rdwave/Blinco Systems Inc., www.3rdwave.co WW42Q, www.42-q.com WW4SIGHT Supply Chain Group, www.go4sight.com WWA. Duie Pyle, www.aduiepyle.com WWAFS Technologies, www.afsi.com WWAIMMS Inc., www.aimms.com WWAligni Incorporated, www.aligni.com WWAtlatl Software Inc., www.AtlatlSoftware.com WWBlueGrace Logistics, www.mybluegrace.com WWCausometrix LLC, www.causometrix.com WWCelect, www.celect.com WWCentricsIT, www.CentricsIT.com WWChainalytics, www.chainalytics.com WWCheetah Software Systems Inc., www.cheetah.com WWCHEP, www.chep.com WWCimcorp, www.cimcorp.com WWCloud Logistics by E2open,

WWEsker Inc., www.esker.com WWFASCOR Inc., www.fascor.com WWFetch Robotics, www.fetchrobotics.com WWFleet Advantage, www.fleetadvantage.com WWFourKites Inc., www.fourkites.com WWGEP, www.gep.com WWLenovo, www.ibm.com WWiDrive Logistics, www.idrivelogistics.com WWInfinityQS® International Inc., www.infinityqs.com WWInmar, www.inmar.com WWInnovation Centric Group, www.icgteam.com WWIvanti, www.ivanti.com WWLevData, www.levadata.com WWLiquidity Services Inc., www.liquidityservices.com WWLocus Robotics, www.locusrobotics.com WWLogistical Labs, www.logisticallabs.com WWMatchBack Systems Inc.,

WWCommand Alkon, www.commandalkon.com WWConexiom, www.conexiom.com WWConvey, www.getconvey.com WWCrown Equipment Corporation, www.crown.com WWCrunchTime! Information Systems,

WWmondCloud Inc., www.mondcloud.com WWNGC Software, www.ngcsoftware.com WWOM Partners, www.ompartners.com WWOmnichain Solutions, www.omnichains.com WWOracle, www.oracle.com WWPace Harmon, www.paceharmon.com WWPathGuide Technologies, www.pathguide.com WWPeoplevox Ltd., www.peoplevox.co.uk WWPINC, www.pinc.com WWProtolabs, www.protolabs.com

www.gocloudlogistics.com

www.crunchtime.com

WWDeliveryCircle, www.deliverycircle.com WWdexFreight, www.dexfreight.io WWDMW&H, www.dmwandh.com WWecUtopia, www.ecutopia.com WWEmerson Cargo Solutions, www.emerson.com/cargo WWenVista, www.envistacorp.com

www.matchbacksystems.com

WWRadley Corporation, www.radley.com WWriskmethods GmbH, www.riskmethods.net WWRoambee Corporation, www.roambee.com WWRyder System, www.ryder.com WWSaddle Creek Logistics Services, www.sclogistics.com

WWScoutRFP Inc., www.scoutrfp.com WWSilvon Software Inc., www.silvon.com WWSimplify Workforce, www.simplifyworkforce.com WWSource One, a Corcentric Company, www.sourceoneinc.com

WWSPS Commerce, www.spscommerce.com WWTecsys, www.tecsys.com WWThe Raymond Corporation, www.raymondcorp.com

WWThe Red Flag Group, www.redflaggroup.com WWTradeshift, www.tradeshift.com WWTrax, www.traxtech.com WWUber Freight, www.uberfreight.com WWUltraShipTMS, www.ultrashiptms.com WWUNEX Manufacturing, www.unex.com WWVizinex RFID, www.vizinexrfid.com WWVoiteq, www.voiteq.com WWWarehouseOS, www.warehousemobilesolutions.com

WWWorklete, www.worklete.com WWWorkspend, www.workspend.com WWYale Materials Handling Corporation,

www.yale.com/north-america/en-us/

benefits of being known as a “shipper of choice” because of an implemented dock scheduler that delivers savings through cost avoidance from increased rates resulting from detention charges.

By partnering with SwanLeap, the client is now maintaining and exceeding its strict On Time In Full requirements.

ENABLER: SYSTECH — www.systechone.com CUSTOMER: Haircare manufacturer PROJECT GOAL: Identify unique, individual

products, secure the supply chain, mitigate product diversion risk and protect company revenue SOLUTIONS: Systech’s Brand Protection Suite BUSINESS IMPACT: Systech delivered the ability to authenticate and track products at the individual item level and leverage aggregation to move a case or an entire pallet of items with one scan, enabling the brand to secure its supply chain, mitigate product diversion risk and protect its revenue. Since the rollout began, the company has increased product throughput to over 500,000 unique e-fingerprints, solved the “brushed metal” challenge and improved risk management.

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MADE IN AMERICA

By Mackenna Moralez

QUENCH YOUR THIRST WITH LIBERTY BOTTLEWORKS

Liberty Bottleworks maintains a sustainable supply chain while providing customizable water bottles for its customers.

Photo Credit: Liberty Bottleworks

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here are an estimated 60 million plastic bottles thrown away every day in the United States, making it a global crisis. As consumers become more environmentally friendly, they are turning toward companies that share the same values as them.

An easy way many have found to cut down on their plastic waste is by using reusable water bottles. This is something Liberty Bottleworks has made its mission since realizing profound results of its own.

Since being founded in 2008, Liberty Bottleworks has aimed to help save the world by producing the greenest, highest-quality bottles made in the United States. The company took into account that less than 25 percent of all plastics are recycled and looked to make efficient bottles that also appealed to the consumer.

A majority of its bottles are custom manufactured for globally recognized brands and are customizable for its customers.

“From printing a family photo on a single bottle, to thousands of bottles for a concert, we can —and have— done it all,” says Shawn Hill, sales manager for Liberty Bottleworks. “I compare our printing to the ‘heart and soul’ of Liberty as a company.

While there are many other bottle manufacturers on the market, we take great pride in our printing process and design bottles that reflect our corporate and owner’s personalities.”

“When our company first started, no other bottle manufacturers offered printed designs, only solid colors. We wanted to be different,” Hill adds.

“Our custom bottles allow individuals’ freedom of expression.”

The company celebrates diversity and encourages individuality, believing that someone’s bottle design is a window to who they are wherever they go. Liberty even went as far as to survey customers about what they didn’t like about water bottles, developing a prototype over two years that was of the highest quality. Hill credits asking for advice, working hard and learning from mistakes as part of the reason why Liberty Bottleworks is successful.

“American manufacturing is starting to make a comeback. Talk to others who have been there before. You can spend hours trying to solve a problem on your own or seek knowledge from others who have experienced the same issue,” Hill advises. “Not only will you save precious time, but you could also win over a future customer in the process.”

With the opinions and suggestions from its target audience, Liberty began selling its bottles in 2011.

“As a small American manufacturer, we are a tight-knit family. Each bottle

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Photos Credit: Liberty Bottleworks

is inspected as it passes through the production line, and again after powder coating,” Hill explains.

“We then print each bottle individually, inspecting it again before and after print. Finally, all bottles are turned over to our quality check team. There, they are closely inspected as we cap and package them for shipping.”

At the heart of Liberty Bottleworks is its determination to better the world. The company has a “zero waste” policy at its facility and helps maintain its sustainable practices by having “big recycling bins and very small trash cans,” Hill jokes.

“We operate on a daily zero-waste mind-set. Recycling bins are placed at every desk and we have recycling stations in every department to help encourage employees to ‘think green,’” Hill says. “Throughout our manufacturing process, conveyor belts and vacuum systems have been set up to collect all scrap metal pieces and metal shavings, sending them straight to various recycling bins.

Even our power coating booths are equipped with vacuum pumps to collect and recirculate excess powder so we can operate at over 95-percent efficiency.”

The company has even implemented an employee-led “Green Team” that looks for ways to improve the facility’s performance—and Liberty takes notes on what they have to say.

Installing motion sensors and energyefficient lighting and the suggestion to use solar panels for powering various machines all came from employees.

Liberty also aims to give back in any way it can. The company donates bottles to local charities as fundraising items and donates 5 percent of net sales of its Karm collection bottles to various nonprofits.

“We also extend discounts and donation bottles to organizations we

Making metal water bottles in the United States remains important to Liberty Bottleworks as most of its competitors continue to manufacture outside the country. According to the company’s website, Liberty set out to make its metal bottles using recyclable materials, supporting the U.S. and its suppliers, while manufacturing in a clean factory that it knew was safe.

“Aside from creating jobs and growing the domestic economy, American manufacturing can help the environment as well,” Hill suggests. “If we have the capability to reduce carbon emissions from global transit by manufacturing closer to home, it is our responsibility to do so. We want to create a country— and a world—that future generations can thrive in, and it begins with being ‘Made in the USA’.”

“WE WANT TO CREATE A COUNTRY— AND A WORLD—THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS CAN THRIVE IN, AND IT BEGINS WITH BEING ‘MADE IN THE USA’.”

— SHAWN HILL, SALES MANAGER

feel are making an impact nationally or globally,” Hill says. “We donate part of our sales to Keep America Beautiful and Travelers Against Plastic.”

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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6/11/19 10:15 AM

SPECIAL REPORT THE INTERNET OF THINGS

By Peter Nilsson

THE MARRIAGE OF

IoT & THE SUPPLY CHAIN

The supply chain’s marriage to IoT has implications to the bottom line.

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ome things in life are just meant to be together and that now includes the Internet of Things (IoT) and the supply chain.

But not so long ago, few imagined such a marriage could exist. Many supply chain executives were comfortable with age-old practices and processes that had served them well for decades.

I had many conversations on this topic, but one conversation has stayed with me because of the sheer denial and close-mindedness that this individual evoked. The executive in question was a well-known 3PL professional who could not—or would not—imagine a world where the supply chain would one day live happily ever after with IoT, raising (growing) dozens of vertical markets together.

He was not alone. Not everyone is an early adopter.

It was mid-morning back in 2013 at the Interlog Conference in San Diego, California, when the conversation occurred. The following is the most telling excerpt from that exchange.

Me: What do you think of all this talk about machine to machine (M2M) and the idea that the supply 30

PeterSnow/iStock/ Getty Images Plus

chain is on a crash course to marry IoT? And that the supply chain will one day rely on the internet to survive?

3PL Executive: It will never happen.

Wrong.

The ensuing conversation took several not-so-enlightening twists and turns, but he could not be swayed. It just wasn’t going to happen. But in the end, the wedding occurred.

IOT PROGESSES The now wholly symbiotic relationship between IoT (then known as M2M) and the supply chain has been going through periods of incubation, maturation and enhancement for many years now— and there is no end in sight. Fleet management systems have improved and evolved into complete, end-toend telematics solutions.

Warehouse management systems (WMS) now organize billions of disparate parts across multiple warehouses around the world— without error. And there is a new widget or technology announced every week—all designed to better the supply chain, and all connecting to IoT in one way or another.

As a result, today’s supply chain is

not only happily married to IoT, it is 100-percent reliant on 4G (soon to be 5G) technology for its very survival.

While there are some individuals who are not the world’s earliest adopters, the vast majority of the supply chain world is now tapping into the power of one sensor or connectivity device or another. We have containers out at sea communicating not only location, but temperature, balance, weight, security and more. And that is just the tip of the wireless iceberg.

IOT SOLUTIONS ABOUND Current supply chain IoT applications take many critical and important forms, including warehouse management and agriculture. But the list of supply chain markets touched and enhanced by IoT is truly endless.

For example, MDG Connected Solutions is one leading company that offers a number of different solutions that make it easier for companies of all sizes to connect and stay connected to IoT. Company founder and CEO Michael Ginsberg says, “MDG has always operated under the premise that IoT solutions and services do not have to be complex.”

MDG’s warehousing solution is the company’s fulfillment system and network. Each customer securely stores its products in MDG’s Chicagoland fulfillment center, and the company picks, packs, ships and provides customer service for all warehoused products. The biggest differentiator, according to Ginsberg, is the company’s custom-built, proprietary software solution, a WMS, that guarantees zero errors in package contents or destination.

“We talk to a large number of executives across a wide range of

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SPECIAL REPORT THE INTERNET OF THINGS

growing conditions, as well as optimal logistical operations to store, transport and deliver food while maintaining freshness and nutrients. Today’s IoT connectivity solutions offer the insights to do that by monitoring sensor data every step of the way.”

So whether you are a leading IoT product company or a provider that offers products and services to connect “things” to the internet with IoT technology, the fact is that the supply chain is a much better and functional system since the advent and advancement of IoT and all its connected solutions.

industries every day about how to easily keep them connected better, faster and more cost effectively,” continued Ginsberg. “Whether it’s an external communication need for something like a PBX-type solution or an internal need for something like a signal booster, we’ve got solutions for both and we have been able to help a lot of leading companies solve these issues.”

Another leading IoT solution provider, MultiTech, is implementing its IoT solutions across the agriculture industry, among others, and working with customers ranging from

Many innovative security companies are attempting to mitigate attacks, but hacking continues to explode—even in cloud data centers, where millions of dollars are spent on security.

IOT SECURITY

local growers to heavy equipment manufacturers to irrigation systems suppliers. The company sells and implements the connectivity devices, which can be found on farms around the world, improving both yield and efficiency by monitoring: ❯❯ Soil moisture and nutrient content ❯❯ Animal activity and location ❯❯ Building temperature, air quality and humidity monitoring systems ❯❯ Feed monitoring systems ❯❯ Water usage ❯❯ Equipment health.

Sara Brown, vice president of marketing for MultiTech, says, “The United Nations estimates that global food production needs to increase 70 percent by 2050 in order to meet the basic nutritional needs of our growing population. That’s a tall order and requires careful fine tuning of

We’d be remiss if we did not talk about the absolute criticality of implementing a top-notch security solution to protect not only your communications, but all of your assets domestically and abroad.

The McKinsey Global Institute conservatively estimates that over $1 trillion in value is being created

by IoT. Yet, in spite of the size and growth in the market, security continues to be an afterthought. Many innovative security companies are attempting to mitigate attacks, but hacking continues to explode—even in cloud data centers, where millions of dollars are spent on security.

The need is in preventing an attack before it happens.

One company that has proven its ability to do just that is Mountain

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Sudowoodo/iStock/ Getty Images Plus

View, California-based BlastWave. The company has eliminated entire classes of vulnerabilities where blockchain can’t, and this was done specifically by design with the company’s virtual airgapped mesh network. The BlastWave solution redefines how computation and communication occur for IoT applications.

BlastWave CEO Tom Sego says, “In the case of high-value assets, the traditional model of detect and patch is not good enough. BlastWave’s holistic and proactive solution gives users the security of an air-gapped network with the benefits of connectivity,” he says.

“For example, we completely eliminate phishing with our multi-authentication process that does not require usernames or passwords.

“We also eliminate configuration errors with our zero-configuration nodes that self-authenticate to join the network. If we are serious about protecting our electric grid, critical infrastructure, global shipping processes and self-driving vehicles, we must start with a secure hardware root of trust with an encrypted chain of custody from the processor all the way to the human layer, across the supply chain, and beyond.”

Thus, for those who always believed, as well as for those that were a little late to the party, it cannot be denied that the supply chain’s marriage to IoT has created a fast and major opportunity for IoT-savvy supply chain executives to tap into some great technologies and significantly impact the bottom line.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PETER NILSSON is a marketing executive and writer with more than 25 years of experience working with global supply chain and IoT companies. He is currently the president of Performance Public Relations.

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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6/11/19 10:36 AM

SPECIAL REPORT BLOCKCHAIN

By TK George

5 KEY QUESTIONS

to Shape a Successful Blockchain Initiative To separate blockchain hype from reality, focus on use cases specific to your business that blockchain is designed to solve.

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lockchain is a hot supply chain topic and it is hard to discern what’s hype and what’s real.

It’s billed as a potential panacea for everything from eliminating fraud and counterfeit goods to the supply chain holy grail—end-to-end supply chain visibility. It can be challenging to determine when and where to start with blockchain.

Blockchain technology is uniquely positioned to alleviate issues stemming from increasingly complex supply chain networks, shorter and more dynamic product life cycles, increased regulation and more. However, while blockchain has real promise, as with every new technology, we are going through the early learning curve.

5 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER What is the current state of blockchain applications for the supply chain? Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business (2018) shows Blockchain in Supply Chain initiatives are almost at the “Peak of Inflated Expectations.” The supply chain is further along in implementing and evaluating blockchain than industries such as retail, oil & gas, life sciences or healthcare. What this means is while there are use cases being explored 32

that the success of any technology-enabled initiative is more about the business than the implementation of the actual now—and some will technology still holds show success—there true. Your business will be lessons learned processes, people and before blockchain is culture are critical to widely adopted in the MicroStockHub/iStock/Getty Images Plus execution success. The supply chain. transparency, accountability and So, do you wait, or innovate now cultural changes that blockchain with blockchain? will drive may be less disruptive Following are five questions to for one use case versus another. help you evaluate your blockchain As Forrester says, “Technology options and shape a more successful shortcomings won’t be the blockchain initiative. biggest inhibitor (to blockchain)...

1) What is your most promising blockchains are 80 percent supply chain use case? The blockchain business, 20 percent technology.” use case you select is critical. It ❯ Evaluate if blockchain is should align strategic business value, the RIGHT technology for technology and organization readiness your use case. Blockchain and, most importantly, challenges is not a hammer for every that blockchain technology is designed nail—but it is uniquely able to to solve. provide capabilities that other ❯ Define a targeted use case that technologies cannot. It can also drives demonstrable business provide easier implementation in value and impact. Is your use some use cases. Of course, there case easy to articulate and is it are use cases where blockchain going to deliver results that align is not the perfect match and a to strategic business objectives? different technology may work “Begin with the end in mind.” In better due to capabilities or cost/ other words, get prescriptive with benefit analysis. Keep in mind a use case that is going to deliver that your cost/benefit analysis results, best practices and deliver can be greatly impacted by your more than cool technology. decision to buy or build. ❯ Assess organization, partner and stakeholder readiness for 2) Are you ready from a digital blockchain-enabled change supply chain perspective? Evaluate and innovation. The old adage your readiness with respect to digital

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SPECIAL REPORT BLOCKCHAIN

The burden of innovation also rests with your team, so you need resources with the knowledge to create a roadmap for future applications and ensure ongoing service enhancements and value to the business. ❯❯ Partner. This option accelerates your path to a blockchainenabled supply chain. Here, the technology partner provides and manages the infrastructure as well as the purpose-built applications to solve critical supply chain challenges.

The partner also owns the roadmap for new applications and enhancements. There are partnering advantages that go beyond the blockchain infrastructure and application management. A strong

networks, processes and transactions.

Focus on where your digital readiness and optimal business value intersect.

Even if you may not be considering a blockchain initiative in 2019, prioritize expediting your digital supply chain strategy now. Your investment will pay dividends because technology-enabled innovation that improves your bottom line and customer satisfaction depends on the digitization of your business.

3) Should you build or partner?

The next aspect to consider is how you will source your blockchain platform and applications. You have a few options and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. ❯❯ Build your own. This is the most resource-intensive path. You need subject matter experts (SMEs) with knowledge of the business challenge and blockchain technology who can execute on the vision and build, manage and scale the solution. You also need a substantial budget for the infrastructure and tools they require. This approach may be optimal for large organizations that want to internally build and centralize blockchain solutions for the enterprise. ❯❯ Subscribe to Blockchain-asa-Service. In this instance, you alleviate the technology burden of building the blockchain platform by working with a vendor that provides and manages cloud-based, blockchain infrastructure.

However, you still need SMEs to define the solution, oversee the project as well as build, manage and scale the purposebuilt applications, services and functions your business needs.

The ability to integrate with your current ecosystem will accelerate connectivity and information flow between parties and allow you to realize faster time to value. technology partner also seeks to understand your use cases, incorporate your feedback and is invested in your success. As an equipment manufacturing client said recently about partnering with us, “We would have brainstorming sessions [with IBM] about the solution and then there it would be—the capability was developed, and we were able to have it live and ready to meet our needs.”

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4) Does your approach leverage existing investments in EDI, systems and processes? Whichever path forward you choose, make sure you can continue to leverage and gain returns on your existing investments.

Blockchain can complement and extend your investments in EDI and automation processes, bringing immutability, security and visibility to your connections with partners and systems. The ability to integrate with your current ecosystem will accelerate connectivity and information flow between parties and allow you to realize faster time to value.

5) Can you easily extend the blockchain investment to solve new problems? Keep the end game in mind.

As you evaluate your solution options, think about how you will leverage your investment to tackle additional use cases and solve new challenges. For example, you might start by addressing the challenge of transaction visibility for permissioned partners from order to delivery. From there you might add invoice reconciliation capabilities, then returns management and extend to additional solutions.

Technology-enabled business innovations are typically met with a certain amount of skepticism.

This is the norm for all emerging technologies—and blockchain is no exception. In the case of blockchain, the trick to separating hype from reality is to focus on use cases specific to your business that blockchain is designed to solve, make sure you’re digitally ready, and think through how you will realize a return on your investment and your vision for the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR TK GEORGE is product marketing manager, Watson Supply Chain, IBM and Duke University Adjunct Associate Professor.

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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EXECUTIVE FOCUS

{ WAREHOUSING}

By Mary Siegfried

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION DRIVE WAREHOUSE SAFETY Warehouses and distribution centers need a two-pronged approach to safety focusing on corporate culture as well as systems and training.

W

hile warehouses and distribution centers may look different than they did 20 years ago—thanks to the increased use of technology and robotics—the focus on worker safety remains as sharp as ever.

CREATE A SAFETY CULTURE Brian C. Neuwirth, president of UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., in Lakewood, New Jersey, says safety is rooted in company culture. “And companies that embrace safety and the culture of safety will be successful,” he says. Creating that culture, he explains, requires: Consistency. Training must be consistent and continual. Safety has to be an everyday topic, not a once-ayear training program.

Continuity. Everyone must be on the same page when it comes to safety procedures and training. And safety is for everyone, including full-time, parttime or temporary workers.

Commitment. There should be at minimum a manager-level person 34

responsible for safety. And that person’s job is to make sure safety issues are front and center, and all workers are aware of requirements and responsibilities.

At NFI Industries, safety has always been a core value, and is being emphasized in 2019 as one of NFI’s corporate goals, explains Stephen Truono, senior vice president for enterprise risk management. The other goals, which span operating performance and attracting and retaining talent, are also closely tied to safety. “By leading with safety, our employees know we have their best interest at top of mind.”

BEHAVIOR-BASED TRAINING NFI, which operates approximately 50 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space, “continues to focus on enhancing its safety culture through behavior-based training in addition to regulatory and compliancefocused initiatives,” Truono says. Safety sponsorship begins with the executive committee and cascades down to operations managers, who are tasked with leading the safety initiatives at

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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WAREHOUSING

proactive approach to identify, analyze and then improve the situation can help a company address issues, many of which can be fixed with easy solutions such as improved lighting or lift assists.

The commitment to process improvement at UNEX is reflected in the company’s ISO certification, Neuwirth says. “ISO is about standardization and work processes.

Does that make our organization a safer environment? Yes, because everything is documented on exactly how to do things. It evolved our processes to the point where documentation and training go hand in hand, which ultimately makes our production a safer environment.”

Following are some key safety topics centering on systems and training.

Material handling. Many warehouse safety issues still revolve around lifting, twisting, reaching and bending. That’s why Truono says NFI is looking at ways to “engineer out the lift” for improved worker safety. Ways to do that include vacuum-type lifts; more and better conveyor systems, including articulated conveyors inside trailers; and safer forklifts. Also, RFID tags are used for employees who work around automated material handling equipment to avoid pedestrian-type accidents.

Robotics. Robots are not new to warehousing, but improvements have made them more affordable, increasing their use. Robots create a safer environment because they are programmed and are more predictable than an employee around moving equipment, Neuwirth says. Truono adds that GPS-coordinated robots that assist with product location and picking helps reduce physical exertion of employees searching for items.

Training. Training is key to any

warehouses and distribution centers.

“Additionally, as we implement the behavior-based safety process, it will also be a bottoms-up initiative,” he says. “Because in a true behavior-based

Zoonar RF/Zoonar/Getty Images Plus

safety system, the employees drive the process, and management provides the resources and structure.”

The premise is to acknowledge good behavior, recognize those that are following safety procedures, encourage employees to coach one another, and build a relationship by following safety that is employeeto-employee based. Truono explains a warehouse manager recently took “a very simple” step toward that goal during a facility redesign.

“He walked around and asked the associates what changes could improve their job and workplace safety,” he says.

“He received lots of feedback, ranging from moving certain stations to a different side to lowering a belt a couple of inches. We were able to incorporate most of them, and employees were happy to share their ideas.”

FOCUS ON STANDARDIZATION Neuwirth notes that if a company finds continued safety issues in a certain job function or area, it should use a process improvement plan. This type of

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safety program, and Truono says technology is improving the way workers train today. Micro-training, a two-to-three-minute lesson on a specific topic, is available on a smartphone or tablet. The lessons are progressive, with additional information offered with each continuing session. “Companies are finding micro-training is more effective than sitting in a room for 40 minutes talking about material handling safety.”

Although still very new, virtual reality training is also being used in safety training. Wearing VR glasses, workers walk through scenarios on how to safely perform their jobs. Truono says VR and micro-training also provide a documentation trail for employers.

Temporary workers. Safety becomes more complicated with the influx of seasonal and temporary workers. Even if a worker is temporary, Neuwirth says the safety training should be the same.

He says it starts the employee, who may become full time, off on the right foot. Often, temporary workers will receive basic safety training from the staffing agency that hires them. Truono says in that case, NFI also follows up with additional training about its specific warehouses. But both agree that a temporary or seasonal labor force is challenging for workplace safety.

No matter what the safety challenges are, Truono says that professionals have to recognize that “warehouses are not just buildings that store inventory anymore. They are smart properties that are increasingly using technology and innovation to drive safety and operating performance.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR MARY SIEGFRIED is a freelance writer based in Chandler, Arizona. She has written about the supply chain industry for more than 20 years.

www.SDCExec.com | June 2019 | SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE

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6/11/19 10:43 AM

WORK HARD,

By Amy Wunderlin

A NEW WORLD

Kristina Bowden brings children into the world of ocean ports and carriers with her first children’s book, Casey the Container.

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rowsing the children’s book section, you will find endless stories about trains, planes and automobiles.

There are also hundreds of options exploring construction, outer space, and fire and rescue. But when Kristina Bowden’s son Noah asked her if they could read a story about the ocean port near their home in Southern California, her exhaustive search came up short.

“I did what any parent in today’s age would do; I Amazoned it, and there was nothing,” recalls Bowden.

She then began visiting bookstores and asking managers to search their master databases, with the same results—children’s books about ports just don’t exist.

“I saw an opportunity to fill this knowledge gap,” says Bowden.

“My mom always encouraged me to find a way to share with the world what happens at the port. This idea always resonated with me, but I never thought it would present itself in the form of a children’s rhyming book.”

Bowden grew up surrounded by West Coast ports, and from an early age, they made a big impact on her.

Today, she works to keep port workers safe as the president of West Coast Resource Services, a consulting firm 36

happiness

Karen Miller @wishingyou

Casey the Container is a rhyming book that follows a new shipping container named Casey along her journey on her first day in port.

Bowden was inspired by some of her son’s favorite books, which often are rhyming or repetitive. She used that idea to brainstorm verses of rhyme to build a theme around.

“I would carry pen and paper everywhere, and there were legal pads all over the house. I would have pages and pages of rhymes,” she says.

Eventually, a story formed that maintained the integrity and specific industry vernacular.

“I didn’t want to make it generic and lose those words,” she notes.

Bowden also included a glossary in the back of the book that includes eight pictures and descriptions to help both parents Karen Miller @ and children identify the correct wishingyouhappiness terms for the equipment within the story and the industry.

Bowden adds that today so many children are pushed into four-year “It was really important to me to universities, but she is a big supporter write the book operationally correct... and believer in trade schools. “There but I also wanted to reinforce the are other opportunities out there for idea of work family,” Bowden adds. really good jobs that don’t always “Whether you’re in management mean you have to go to college. And or work on the docks, within the this [book] creates some awareness longshoreman community, we all do this about that,” she notes. job, and we all have to work together.” specializing in occupational safety for terminal operators and stevedores.

That knowledge, coupled with a passion for education, inspired her to write the first children’s book specifically addressing the ocean port industry.

“I felt really lucky that I had an early introduction into the port, but not everyone gets that,” she explains.

“I wanted to bring a very basic but accurate level of knowledge regarding port operations and the supply chain, but I also wanted to bring awareness to kids that there is a lot of opportunity for them to be a part of it.”

SUPPLY & DEMAND CHAIN EXECUTIVE | June 2019 | www.SDCExec.com

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