Optimizing value with a win win SCM

http://www.scmr.com/article/optimizing_value_with_a_win_win_supply_chain

Today’s supply chain practitioners are under constant pressure to bring value to their organizations. Two of the biggest supply chain challenges are exponential growth in complexity of the supply chain and cost savings fatigue driven by a relentless and unsustainable pursuit of achieving bottom-line growth by constantly cutting costs.

Companies are responding to these challenges with a renewed approach to their supply chains. A University of Tennessee white paper, “End-to-end Supply Chain Collaboration Best Practices,” shows a highly collaborative end-to-end focus on supply chain, which enables organizations to achieve greater levels of optimization as supply chain partners collaborate to drive continuous improvement and innovations.

But end-to-end optimization is not easy. It demands that supply chain partners shift from traditional transactional business models with the focus on cost savings to models that shift the focus to value creation. To make the shift organizations must first understand the fundamental differences in value extraction, value exchange and value creation.

Value extraction occurs when an enterprise attempts to shift value from one player in the supply chain to itself (classic win-lose scenario), extracting profit and value from one member of the supply chain and transferring that value to a leading player. This is often done using highly competitive bids and power-based negotiations approaches. Value exchange is better, but still falls short. In a fair and balanced value exchange, organizations check their power at the door and instead focus on getting to a fair price versus value tradeoff (such as quality/service). While definitely better than value extraction, value exchange still falls short because the parties’ focus is to optimize within their own four walls.

The winners of today’s supply chains have made the shift to focusing on value creation, enabled by true end-to-end collaboration and win-win pricing models. By working as true partners with a more transparent, win-win mindset, parties can identify opportunities that they simply cannot see by working within their four walls. The longer-term strategic focus, coupled with transparency and a win-win approach, motivates suppliers to invest in solutions they likely would not feel comfortable with.

Strategic Sourcing Best Practices Driving Collaboration

Collaboration is a key to unlocking supply chain optimization. Unfortunately, far too many organizations rely on conventional arms-length procurement methods and commercial models that disincentivize true collaboration and value creation. Traditional buy decisions tend to be based on transactional models, which at its most basic level, rely on a competitive environment to drive lower costs and creates an arms-length buyer-supplier relationship.

Progressive companies are shifting along a sourcing continuum to more sophisticated and collaborative sourcing business models that are purpose built for making the shift to towards value creation as seen in graphic below.

As suggested by the diagram, transactional contracts work best to drive general market improvements. Market-based improvements are typically incremental in nature as suppliers seek to improved products or services and lower prices to beat out their competitors. 

Organizations seeking productivity driven improvements should shift to a preferred provider model or a performance-based/managed services model. When an organization shifts along the sourcing continuum to a preferred provider model or performance-based model they are making a commitment to the supplier who then commits to driving productivity improvements.  Often these productivity improvements come from working in a collaborative manner and investing in continuous improvement programs.
  
As organizations move even further along the sourcing continuum they shift from a mindset of buyer-supplier relationship to one of a highly strategic partner.  A Vested business model and investment-based model encourages investment in innovation because there is equal partnership between buyer and seller.  Structured properly, a Vested model and investment-based models rely on win-win economics where all parties “win” when improvements are made.
  
Win-Win economics makes sense when you think about an equity partnership (e.g., a joint venture) because both parties are investing with the hope to drive value for the partnership. A Vested business operates in a similar manner as an equity partnership –  but unlike an equity partnership a Vested model uses a buyer-supplier relational contract instead of shareholders agreement. 

A Vested model – like investment-based models - works because it creates a win-win outcome-based economic model that aligns the interest of the buyer and supplier partners. In short, the parties shift from a buyer-supplier to one of a mindset of strategic business partners focused on a common end in mind – to drive business outcomes that will create value for both the buyer and the supplier.

Total Value Optimization

A second enabler for success outlined in the UT white paper is a focus on end-to-end total value creation that focuses on breaking through silos and building value from across the supply base, through the four walls of the organization right through to the customer’s customer. 

Maine Pointe’s Total Value Optimization™ (TVO) is a best practice method for value optimization that allows an organization to dynamically anticipate and meet demand by synchronizing its buy-make-move-fulfill supply chain to deliver the greatest value to customers and investors, while still achieving lowest costs to the business.

Senior executives are universally interested in meaningful tools to help communicate where and how opportunities can be realized in their business to achieve high performance and competitive advantage. TVO is an easily communicated maturity scale of how any firm is performing in the critical buy-make-move-fulfill supply chain across the critical dimensions of Procurement, Logistics, Operations, Data Analytics, Leadership and Organization.

Source: Maine Pointe

Using the methods outlined in Total Value Optimization, it becomes more realistic to add a true level of competitive differentiation through the supply chain – ultimately transforming the supply chain into a competitive weapon. The Total Value Optimization approach looks beyond the basic metrics such as cost of ownership and purchase price variance, and adds an increased focus on the total added-value characteristics of the relationship with each supplier.

Total Value Optimization ranks that added value in a maturity scale of zero to five, with the higher levels incorporating that value-added consideration and allowing a firm a more sustainable process that permits themselves as well as their supply chain to continue to grow and improve.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line? It is the bottom line. Creating an end-to-end collaboration culture is never easy, and it takes considerable time and resources. 

Steven Bowen is the Chairman and CEO of Maine Pointe, and the author of Total Value Optimization: Transforming Your Global Supply Chain into a Competitive Weapon. He can be reached at sbowen@MainePointe.com.

Kate Vitasek is recognized for Vested® business model for highly collaborative relationships. She is the author of 6 books and a faculty member at the University of Tennessee. She can be reached at Kate kvitasek@utk.edu 

Pertumbuhan ekonomi harus diimbangi dengan infrastruktur

https://m.suara.com/bisnis/2018/09/21/132942/pertumbuhan-ekonomi-harus-diimbangi-dengan-infrastruktur

Menteri Keuangan Sri Mulyani Indrawati mengklaim ekonomi terus tumbuh namun tidak diikuti dengan pembangunan infrastruktur yang memadai. Maka di satu titik itu akan menimbulkan beban tambahan seperti biaya pengeluaran perusahaan.

Pemerintah tengah mengembangkan skema Public Private Partnership(PPP) untuk mempercepat pembangunan infrastruktur.

“Dalam kurun 10 tahun ke belakang, Pemerintah telah berusaha mengembangkan skema Public Private Partnership. Kementerian Keuangan kemudian mendirikan PT Indonesia Infrastruktur Finance (PT IIF), PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (PT SMI), dan PT Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PT PII),” katanya di Jakarta, Jumat (21/9/2018).

Skema pembangunan menggunakan PPP saat ini menurutnya masih perlu dikembangkan. Ia menuturkan, membangun infrastruktur tidak sekedar membangun tembok dan aspal tetapi membutuhkan persiapan yang detail dan mendalam seperti perencanaan masalah teknis, assessment ekonomi, maupun sosial. Terlebih lagi, proyek infrastruktur merupakan komitmen jangka panjang.

“Dulu proposal proyek diberikan namun tidak detail sehingga tidak memunculkan rasa yakin alasan pembangunan infrastruktur tersebut dan bagaimana membiayainya. Oleh karena itu, Kemenkeu mendirikan PT. SMI, PT. PII dan PT. IIF untuk mempersiapkan pilot project preparation fund,” ujarnya.

Ani menambahkan di masa kerja sekarang, ia tidak lagi hanya meminta anggaran tetapi juga meminta proyek yang akan diajukan. Ia juga kerap meninjau proyek-proyek infrastruktur.

“Ini cara Saya untuk berkomunikasi dengan masyarakat bahwa ketika Anda membayar pajak maka akan menjadi sesuatu,” katanya.

Top list of best schools for SCM

http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/news/20180907-penn-state-tops-list-of-best-schools-for-supply-chain-management/

The top-ranked supply chain graduate program in North America is Pennsylvania State University, based on a biennial survey conducted by the research firm Gartner Inc. that evaluates schools' curricula, experiential content, and public reputations, the firm said Thursday.
The survey also showed that supply chain paychecks are on the rise industry-wide. According to Gartner, the average starting salary for a master of business administration (MBA) graduate with a supply chain concentration is US$88,935, up from US$83,597 in 2016. Likewise, the average starting salary for a student holding a master of science in supply chain management (MSSCM) degree is US$83,066, up from US$79,232.
Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner surveys and ranks universities in the U.S. and Canada every other year, in order to help recruiters like chief supply chain officers (CSCOs), heads of supply chain strategy, and supply chain human resources (HR) partners to identify the programs best equipped to help them hire the right talent, the firm said.
This year, Gartner collected responses from 46 qualifying schools that replied to its survey and produced a top-25 ranking of both undergraduate programs and of advanced degree programs, including either campus-based or hybrid online/campus approaches.
The results showed that Pennsylvania State Universityled the graduate rankings for the second time in a row, while the University of Michigan moved up two spots to number two, and the University of Tennessee was ranked number three. See Figure 1 for the full list of all 25 schools.
The survey also revealed several trends in supply chain education, including a rapid growth in the number of academic programs being offered. The number of one-year or part-time MSSCM programs grew by two-thirds in two years, from 18 programs in 2016 to 30 programs in 2018, according to Dana Stiffler, research vice president at Gartner.
Another trend is the increasing role that technology plays in supply chain education. Seventy-nine percent of supply chain MBA programs now feature dedicated technology content, up from fewer than half of the programs in 2016. MSSCM programs showed a similar change, with 83 percent offering dedicated technology content, compared to just two-thirds of the programs in 2016, Gartner said.
A third trend revealed by the analysis is that the new generation of students shows much broader diversity in gender and ethnicity than past classes. "Graduates on average are more diverse than the supply chain organizations that want to hire them, with women accounting for 37 percent of the supply chain graduate student population and ethnic minorities for 48 percent," Stiffler said.
Gartner did not supply demographic data for the portion of women and minorities currently employed in supply chain jobs.

Top 25 2018 North American Graduate Supply Chain ProgramsRankProgram
1Pennsylvania State University
2University of Michigan
3University of Tennessee
4Michigan State University
5Rutgers University
6University of Minnesota
7Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8Arizona State University
9The University of Texas at Dallas
10University of Wisconsin-Madison
11Georgia Institute of Technology
12Indiana University
13Northeastern University
14Ohio State University
15North Carolina State University
16Texas Christian University
17Wayne State University
18University of Southern California
19Howard University
20The University of Texas at Austin
21University of South Carolina
22Syracuse University
23University of Houston
24University of Washington
25University of San DiegoSource: Gartner (September 2018)

Supply chain putting blockchain to work

http://www.scmr.com/article/nextgen_supply_chain_putting_blockchain_to_work

Blockchain is as enigmatic as a screen siren from the era of black and white movies. One the one hand, a number of commentators tout its potential for transforming the way we do business; on the other hand, use cases have been hard to pinpoint. In some ways, it reminds me of the discussions around RFID in the supply chain more than a decade ago during the Walmart mandate. At one RFID conference, I literally heard a presenter argue that the information collected by RFID tags could deliver medical breakthroughs that might one day lead to a cure for cancer. So much for that!

But based on a few conversations I’ve had recently, including one with Mark Walton-Hayfield, a digital business leader with Accenture based in the U.K., use cases may be emerging. And, I think emerging is the right word. Since to be effective, blockchain requires the collaboration of partners up and down the supply chain, it’s not enough for Company A to implement a blockchain strategy if its partners aren’t interested. It’s a little like being the first home on your block with a telephone: The technology is of little value if there’s no one you can call.

At a macro level, Walton-Hayfield notes that blockchain may be new to the supply chain, but in the world of cryptocurrencies, it’s been around for about a decade. In that regard, it’s proven. Now, we’re at the stage where organizations are looking for ways to apply it in their organizations. Early adopters, according to Walton-Hayfield, are heavily regulated industries with complex supply chains and heavy customer demands, such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace and defense. In both instances, supply chains have traditionally relied heavily on paper-based records to document a chain of custody and prove that the right steps and procedures were followed when it comes to repairs.

“These are industries the require a level of traceability and proof of what’s happened in the supply chain,” Walton-Hayfield said. They also operate with a degree of trust that trading partners have done what they are supposed to do, and blockchain “is really a technology that enables trust.”

One company piloting blockchain in the U.K. is Thales Group, a manufacturer of avionics and sonar, to name a few products, for aerospace and defense. “The idea was to see if blockchain can be used to improve transparency and visibility around the certainty that parts had the right certifications and weren’t counterfeit or from the grey market,” Walton-Hayfield says. The project began as a pilot and proof of concept; with that stage complete Thales is now investigating whether it can apply blockchain to the inbound supply chain of some specific long-term, high value contracts. “One of the things that Thales does is maintain their kits and supplier kits to ensure that parts are available when they’re needed,” Walton-Hayfield says. “They have to have a specific part for a specific project and in a specific configuration. Using blockchain in the inbound supply chain, they can make a decision when parts come into the port about where and in what condition and configuration they stock it at that point in time.” That is important to Thales, which often works on parts availability contracts.

Down the road, Thales may consider adapting blockchain to its MRO supply chain, to create the record of how a part has been serviced and maintained.

As to the evolution, Walton-Hayfield says it’s still an emerging technology. “Last year was about proof of concept and pilots,” he says. “Now, organizations are doing real world validation and testing of the solutions in a limited scope. I think by 2020, we’ll see success stories.”

Cognitive Technology for SCM

intelligence and machine learning are thrilling solutions that will change the world of manufacturing, services, and retail. In supply chain, cognitive technologies can turbocharge your analytics to give them eyes, a brain, and a voice that lets them speak to you – wisely and intelligently. Doesn’t that get your heart racing?

Traditional supply chain analytics are time consuming, expensive, and tell you almost nothing. They’re only capable of providing information after-the-fact, as against cognitive-driven analytics (CDA) systems that can sense, interpret, and spill the beans on market trends and customer expectations well in advance. While the former simply helps you plan to do better in the future, the latter catapults your business into the super-leagues. With CDA, you will always have a finger on the pulse of the market, deliver on expectations, and win loyal customers and advocates every day.

As illustrated in Figure 1, when you apply cognitive technologies to supply chain analytics, you can transform your network design, forecasting, manufacturing, procurement, inventory, planning and scheduling, product proliferation, and logistics and fulfilment functions among other things. To learn why and how you can get future ready with CDA, read my whitepaper Rethinking Supply Chain Analytics with Cognitive Technology.

Figure 1: Cognitive Technologies Impact Functions Across the Supply Chain

SCM World in a recent article about the future of supply chains, cited three examples that are indicative of what tomorrow’s cognitive-driven supply chains could become. These are the IBM Watson Supply Chain, ToolsGroup’s supply chain optimization software, and TransVoyant. Collectively, they help manufacturers take their prediction and management skills to the next level by tapping into private and public data, and running intelligent algorithms to analyze them. These, in my opinion, are brilliant technologies that could be weaved into your existing systems with the help of a specialist integrator to conjure supply-chain magic.

Imagine a system that factors in everything about your products, your competitors’ products, your customer’s choice, tastes, preferences, and understands their usage pattern to gives you tangible insights. These insights could be like ‘the demand for each of the next 12 months will be a certain number’ and that ‘your prospective customers choose a substitute product because of X and Y factors, and this is what you can do to win their business’.

The CDA system then empowers you to make decisions about how you use such insights. It also tailors your logistics and fulfillment capabilities to make sure you’re stocked up when and where you need to be to make on-time deliveries and meet customer expectations.

New technologies in supply chain management, at their core, are centered on one thing – what the customer and the market want. Companies that are quick to embrace will lead in the digital age and be heralded as innovators who won by creating supply chains that read, think, and speak.

https://www.tcs.com/blogs/business-and-technology-insights

Orshestrating Supply Chain

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/orchestrating-supply-chain

An increasingly constrained freight market is ratcheting up the pressure on shippers to improve the performance of their supply chains and make better use of the limited hauling capacity of their own private fleets and for-hire carriers.

To further streamline the movement of goods, many companies are adopting various forms of technology to improve shipment tracking and enhance the flow of information.

“We want total supply chain visibility,” said Chris Sultemeier, the former head of supply chain at Walmart Inc. who is working as an industry consultant.

2018 TOP 100 PRIVATE CARRIERS:See the new rankings

LIVEONWEB: Watch "Orchestrating the Supply Chain"

When Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Sultemeier said he realized how little he knew about the location of goods that would be needed to help the region recover.

Chris Sultemeier

“That resonated loud with me,” Sultemeier said in an interview with Transport Topics. “And it started the ball rolling.”

Later, as the head of Walmart Transportation, Sultemeier remembers meeting with a vendor to discuss an upgrade of the onboard computers used in the company’s fleet of trucks.

“I remember thinking, this isn’t about hardware. It’s about information and connecting things. We can’t be wrapped around a hardware solution,” he said. “In an age of iPhones and open-source applications, what we need is an agnostic device that connects all the components of the truck and gives us the ability to go in and build any application we want that meets our business needs.”

Such a solution didn’t exist then, and still doesn’t, at least in a complete form, although Sultemeier says he sees it “on the horizon.”

Since retiring from his position at Walmart in 2017, Sultemeier has joined forces with Platform Science, a technology firm that is attempting to provide connect­ivity among trucks, stores and distribution centers and is headed by Jack Kennedy, a former president of trucking technology supplier Omnitracs.

“Now we have the ability to do it,” Sultemeier said of the effort to create a digital view of the supply chain for shippers. “What is not yet fully defined is do we go down to the product level or caseload ­level in terms of connectivity. Does Walmart, for instance, want to know where every box of ramen noodles is that sells for 89 cents?”

A walmart employee stocks electric fans. (Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg News)

What’s important, Sultemeier said, is that shippers not be forced to wait for vendors to develop a product that they believe will be in demand in the broader market.

Just tracking cargo on trucks and containers gives most shippers the means to cover 90% to 95% of their supply chains, and that can produce major potential benefits, Sultemeier said.

“Today an overseas shipment runs between 35 and 50 days. If we can reduce that by just one day, we save the cost of carrying that inventory,” he said. “And if we know where stuff is, we can reduce out-of-stock items, which is the Holy Grail for retail.”

With more precise information on the status of shipments and better forecasts of shipping demand, companies have the opportunity to switch to lower-cost modes of transportation.

“If we get better information, the entire supply chain is more efficient,” Sultemeier contends. “Trucks are not sitting and waiting. Drivers are doing more work during their hours-of-service limits.”

Delays at loading docks represent a huge waste of time for drivers and cost shippers billions of dollars in detention fees and higher freight rates, according to Jason Foshaug, a former shipping executive who recently launched a business called VelocityRater.

This company uses data on dwell times to identify sites that have excessive delays in the loading/unloading process and provides benchmarking tools to help both shippers and carriers understand the impact delays are having on their businesses.

“Shippers know how to fix this, they just need to know where to start,” Foshaug said, “but many are simply not aware of the problem or [don’t] understand how this can negatively impact their competitive position in a local market.”

Envisioning the Future of Freight

Readers describe their vision of the future of freight.
 
Technology will continue to drive developments in trucking, from more fuel-efficient equipment to autonomous vehicles. Creative alternatives to offset the continuing driver shortage will be created. Outsourced logistics will continue to grow as private fleets will become more expensive to own and manage.
— Rob Hooper, CEO, Atlantic Logistics
 
Trucking is one of several massive global industries that is evolving rapidly because of new technology. I believe that data collection and network synchronization can bring increased efficiency to trucking and dramatically impact the way that trucking companies operate in the global economy.
— Ozan Baran, founder and CEO, QuickLoad
 
Create the backbone for freight to communicate in real-time environmental conditions, location (indoor and outdoor), security and price through the use of blockchain-connected sensors.
— Orlando Remédios, co-founder and CEO, Sensefinity
 
Tracking of all equipment so customers can see where the truck is and know the [estimated time of arrival]. Customers — both receivers and shippers — knowing the value of the driver’s time and loading quickly. The future driver will be more of a relay driver to ensure they are home with their family.
— Teresa Oswalt, operations manager
 
I think it will go to driverless trucks, but the first- and last-mile industry will be the last and the hardest to complete.
— Jackie Mattare
 

An autonomous TuSimple truck drives on a highway. (TuSimple)
 
Freight transport would need to fix the problem of rising freight rates with driver shortages.
Freight movement now has a clear and renewed focus on tracking driver behavior and hours of service. The future would see a dominating need to optimize capacity across all types of vehicles.
Better driver management would help allocate the right trip to the most suited driver well-versed with the route and learned in the type of vehicle assigned.
Automated allocation of shipments to vehicles and drivers would speed up transportation, bringing down lead time and downtime.
Machine learning would be used more and more to design faster and safer routes for trips. This would bring down the turnaround time, in turn bringing down the fuel and maintenance costs.
Live tracking of moving resources would make transport companies agile and responsive.
Companies would be able to track driver behavior such as speeding, unnecessary detention, deviation from planned routes, harsh braking, etc., with instant alerts and notifications passed on to the supervising manager or stakeholder.
Real-time traffic pattern analysis would help predict the best route and accurate ETAs for reaching the in-transit hubs and destination locations.
Fast scanning with in-app or connected scanners would help with fast loading and unloading at hubs, reducing the total time spent there while increasing the transparency with error-free documentation and tracking of each unit transported.
All this would help companies better manage the hours of service of each driver to comply with regulatory and service-level agreements. Instances where a driver’s mandatory break time ends up delaying critical orders would be almost nullified as the driver’s time would be well tracked and managed right from a single dashboard giving end-to-end visibility over all moving and on-ground resources.
Such automation of allocation, routing, tracking and compliance would be the primary need for most companies to run their operations sustainably and profitably.
— Faiz Shaikh, brand content head, LogiNext

Motor carriers typically charge $50 to $100 an hour if drivers are detained beyond two hours. Foshaug estimates that $35 billion is paid out each year in detention charges and in higher freight rates.

Delays also reduce capacity for shippers as carriers increasingly avoid going to locations with slow turnarounds.

“Shippers that turn trucks around in one to two hours are not struggling to get capacity,” Foshaug said.

Foshaug said he successfully dealt with the problem of detention in the past by monitoring metrics daily, pre-staging loads where possible and instituting a special bonus pay program for dockworkers. He also used a clock that began ticking when trucks arrived to provide a visual reminder of the time spent loading and unloading.

In addition, shippers can mitigate delays by ramping up their work forces during high-volume peak periods and by staying open later in the day and on weekends.

Foshaug does not recommend using appointment times to manage the flow of trucks.

“It’s not helpful to carriers,” he said. “Appointments should be set by day or even blocks of time during the day, then first come, first serve, but not a specific time.”

When drivers miss an appointment time, they generally go to the back of the line and that leads to major problems for dispatchers in keeping the drivers on schedule for their next pickups.

At Eaton Steel Bar Co. in Taylor, Mich., company officials have taken steps to make their own facilities and those of their customers more welcoming to drivers. The company is building a new truck maintenance facility in Detroit that will offer food and recreational amenities for drivers while they wait for loads. Also, a new racking system has been installed at some of its facilities to speed up loading and unloading of flatbed trailers.

In addition, the company implemented a detention charge of $100 an hour after the first two hours and raised its rates for customers that create the most delays for drivers.

“We see a lot of changes,” said John Lamarand, operations manager for Atlas Trucking & Logistics, a private fleet for Eaton that operates 125 tractors.

For private fleet managers surveyed by Transport Topics, the most important technologies are those that have an impact on safety and efficiency.

Paul Mugerditchian, president of DOT Transportation, said he is looking for “anything related to safety.” Brad Peppers, fleet manager at Shamrock Foods in Phoenix, seconded the motion, saying he wants “anything safety related.”

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service in Dallas recently took delivery of six new tractors with advanced safety features, including automatic braking and blind spot monitoring, which, according to a company spokesman, already proved to be a factor in helping one of its drivers avoid a crash after his vehicle was cut off in traffic.

“We’ve ordered 20 more,” the spokesman said, adding that the company is looking at deploying real-time tracking, telematics and predictive analytics and event recorders in its fleet.

The use of cameras in the cab and driver coaching were priorities for a number of fleets surveyed, including Air Products in Trexlertown, Pa., and Silver ­Eagle Distributors in San Antonio.

“Right now, it’s driver behavior monitoring, lane departure, collision avoidance,” said Ed Pritchard, senior vice president at Silver ­Eagle Distributors. “In the future, autonomous technology will be taking over out of necessity.”

David Adney, vice president of transportation for Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City, cited engine diagnostics and “predicting the next breakdown before it happens” as a key area of interest for his firm.

Several fleets cited electronic logging devices and one fleet, Valley Proteins, listed “dynamic dispatching tools” as an important technology for its business.

A few companies, including McLane Co. and The Sherwin-­Williams Co., mentioned autonomous vehicles or electric-­powered vehicles.

Several fleets have announced plans to invest in alternative-fuel trucks.

In May, Anheuser-Busch Cos. in St. Louis placed an order for up to 800 hydrogen-electric powered tractors from Nikola Motor Co. That followed an order in December for 40 Tesla battery-­electric tractors.

Sysco Corp., the nation’s largest food service distributor, placed orders for 50 Tesla Semis in a move that company officials described as the beginning of a process of incorporating alternative-fuel trucks into its fleet.

A Sysco tractor waits at a loading dock. (TT File Photo)

“This reinforces Sysco’s commitment to corporate social re­sponsibility by reducing the environmental impact of our operations,” said Tom Bene, president and chief operating officer. “We will also benefit from reduced fuel and maintenance costs and drive associate enthusiasm with the introduction of new and unique technology.”

For some, the increased focus on monitoring drivers and shipments is a prelude to the event­ual adoption of broad-based data sharing platforms.

Blockchain is one of the technologies that could provide shippers and carriers with a secure network to record data on the movement of goods.

Blockchain is an especially valuable resource for tracking shipments across borders, said Ricardo Costa, chief information officer for Purolator Inc.

The first effects will be seen in the technology and pharmaceutical industries, he said.

“Getting parts and product delivered using blockchain offers all involved parties complete transparency,” Costa explained. “Different factories creating parts for a technology product will be able to trace back any malfunctions or issues using serial numbers and address any problems faster.”

Likewise, blockchain will give food and drugs makers the ability to monitor products from origin to destination, making it easier to identify sources of contamination and eliminate waste.

FedEx Corp., for example, is developing a blockchain application to identify and retrieve unused medications from cancer patients in Memphis, Tenn.

And in Switzerland, the nonprofit Olam Foundation is using blockchain to identify food that is at risk of being thrown away because of spoilage or expiration due to shipping delays.

While blockchain may form the basis for a new collaborative relationship between shippers and carriers, a recent report by KPMG suggests that future supply chains will also need to have the ability to adapt to changing market conditions and new technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics and autonomous vehicles.

“We call this the learning supply chain,” Sam Ganga and Arun Ghosh, principals at KPMG, said in the report. “The fundamental premise is that companies need to change the way they are run by using leading indicators of measurement and performance and managing it as a real-time, event-driven network supplemented by intelligent automation.”

Manufacturing is a business that could be disrupted by 3D printing. (Fast Radius)

One variant of 3D printing even applies to food.

Tyson Foods is investing in companies, such as Memphis Meats, that are replicating animal products in a laboratory. If successful, this process will have implications for companies that transport livestock and meat products.

Manufacturing is another industry that could be disrupted by 3D printing, according to Rick Smith, founder of Fast Radius, a 3D printing company backed by UPS Inc.

Speaking to members of the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association recently, Smith said manufacturing is ripe for disruption because it is “incredibly inefficient.”

“The entire system has been built on one simple equation, and that is the more things you make, the lower the cost of each. Eventually, you’ll be able to print anything that you can imagine. And costs are not tied to the number of units produced.”

The need for a more responsive supply chain, coupled with capacity constraints and rising freight rates, will force many shippers to adopt technology to streamline operations, including dock scheduling and yard management software, said Dan Clark, president of Kuebix, a firm based in Maynard, Mass., that provides a free multimodal transportation management program.

“Shippers who don’t begin embracing technology will continue to face increasing pressure in the coming months because of the changing supply-chain environment,” Clark said.

supply chain management via blockchain and IoT

https://www.econotimes.com/VeChain-Revolutionizing-supply-chain-management-via-blockchain-and-IoT-1417957

supply chain management via blockchain and IoT

VeChain is the one of leading blockchain technology companies in the world established in 2015 in Singapore. Its platform is currently used in various industries such as luxury goods, liquor and agriculture. Vechain mixes the blockchain and smart chip technologies for tracking items. The smart chip can be integrated with different Internet of Things such as QR codes, RFID tracker and NFC chips.

The main vision of VeChain is to build trust free and distributed business ecosystem based on blockchain.

The main features of VeChain are

Highly scalable compared to Ethereum

High speed transaction

Trust free ecosystem

How VeChain works?
All manufacturers who use VeChain platform assign products with unique identities. These identities are produced using VeChain Identity (VID) technology. Each VID is generated using a SHA256 hash function. This VID is stored simultaneously in the blockchain and integrated on the product with an NFC chip, RFID tag or QR code. So, using this both retailer and consumer can track the product’s movement.

Consensus mechanism:
VeChain Thor –Consensus mechanism of coin – Proof of Authority.
This model has some similarities with Proof of Stake. But it has developed to remove obstacles presented in Proof of Work (POW), Proof of Stake (POS). The platform has low computational power requirements, no requirement for communication between nodes to reach consensus.

Each node that holds at least 10,000 VET with single public key will have right to vote. Each node cannot have more than one vote.
The node structure of VeChain:

Trudheim Masternodes (>250,000 VET) – 101 Authority Nodes

Mjolnir Masternodes (>150,000 VET)- 30 day maturity period

Thunder Nodes (>50,000 VET)- 20 day maturity period

Strength Nodes (>10,000 VET)- 10 day maturity period

VeChain uses two types of Master nodes namely

Authority Masternodes - Node that create blocks and ledger records. Every AM has a n equal opportunity to produce one block. To be selected as AM one must put up 25,00,000 VET as collateral.

Economic Masternode- point of distributing power and privileges with the blockchain. It is not used to validate the block chain, but to offer stability to the ecosystem.

VeThor :
VeChain has announced at end of 2017 to rebrand to VeChain Thor. The new platform will use two different tokens

VeChain Tokens (VET)

Thor Power (THOR)

VET is used by the companies for payment on its block chain. The other token Thor Power which is the token that allows individuals to invest in the VeChain (THOR) blockchain.
VeChain major partners:

Price water Coppers (PWC) VeChain has become part of the PWC’s incubation program which gives it access to the worldwide network of clients for the company.

DNV GL - the top risk management and Quality assurance firm has bought a stake in VeChain to develop its My story digital assurance.

KUEHNA NAGEL- Global transport and logistics company will use VeChain to smartly parcels especially luxury goods.

China Unicom- state owned telecom operator of China. VeChain blockchain helps to improve supply chain.

Chinese government national level partnership.

Other partners include Renault,hyperledger,D.I.G,BABYGHOST, Madeforgoods etc.

Recent news and updates:
VeChain has signed an agreement with Chinese Government to provide drug and vaccine trace-ability​

VeChain partners with major Japanese telecommunication company called NTT DOCOMO for newly launched 5G open partner company.
VeChain partners with DECENT.bet 2.0. VeChain will be supporting DECENT gaming platform.
Technical:
VET has increased almost more than 150% from the low of $0.00602 made on Aug 14th 2018.The near term resistance is around $0.0170and any violation above targets 0.01965
On the lower side, near term major support is around $0.011 and any break below will drag the pair to next level till $0.00850/$0.00600.
It is good to buy on dips around $0.011 with SL around $0.0850 for the TP of $0.01700.