Stat of the Week: Page 2

Reopening draws down inventory, but volatility expected for remainder of year

The total business inventories-to-sales ratio echoes trends seen throughout the pandemic: Apparel retailers are struggling to bring customers in while grocers are having a difficult time staying stocked.

By Matt Leonard • Aug. 18, 2020

Diageo falls short on packaging weight reduction goal

More than 85% of the alcoholic beverage company's packaging is glass — a material that presents a dilemma because it's highly recyclable yet heavier than plastic.

By Matt Leonard • Aug. 11, 2020

The pandemic has complicated the WMS procurement process

Vendors and warehouse managers typically use multi-day conferences and whiteboarding to buy and implement warehouse management systems. The pandemic has turned that process upside down.

By Matt Leonard • July 28, 2020

MIT, CSCMP: 35% of companies lack supply chain sustainability goals

Social issues — child labor or slavery, worker welfare, etc. — received "far more" focus in companies' sustainability goals than environmental issues.

By Matt Leonard • July 20, 2020

Robots, automation seen as solutions to social distancing hurdles in supply chain

The biggest benefit of automation during the pandemic has been the ability for companies to increase social distancing measures within their facilities, according to respondents to a survey from Honeywell and KRC Research. 

By Matt Leonard • July 14, 2020

Intel's automated inventory planning: How it swapped 'rule-of-thumb' for algorithms

The company generated millions in inventory cost savings from SKUs using the automated model and increased gross profits $1.3 billion from 2014 to 2017.

By Matt Leonard • July 07, 2020

Consumer demand: The big supply chain question mark

Statistical models work best when making predictions in a consistent environment. The coronavirus pandemic is a sharp turn off the consistent course of demand for many products. 

By Matt Leonard • June 30, 2020

Sales plummeted 14% in April leaving companies with bulging inventories

The inventory-to-sales ratio paints a clear picture of the pandemic and the economic turmoil it has created across retail and manufacturing, leaving product to languish in stockrooms, destined for markdowns or donations.

By Matt Leonard • June 23, 2020

More automation means more reusable packaging: survey

Highly automated fulfillment environments rely on standardized, reusable packaging, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. 

By Matt Leonard • June 16, 2020

Inventory management a top skill for 58% of supply chain pros: survey

Effective inventory management "is at the core of supply chain and that is making sure that you've got the right product at the right price with the right consumer at the right place," said ASCM CEO Abe Eshkenazi.

By Matt Leonard • June 09, 2020

Manufacturers tap into WMS, ERP for end-to-end data management

A so-called "digital thread" creates visibility throughout the supply chain and allows an organization to respond faster to potential disruptions.

By Matt Leonard • June 02, 2020

Volkswagen boosts manufacturing volume with automated operations planning

The automaker increased personnel utilization by 26% using an automated system that pulled in existing ERP data. 

By Matt Leonard • May 19, 2020

Warehouse capacity contracts as imports arrive amid low demand, closed storefronts

XPO and Flexe said customers are looking for places to store inventory that has nowhere else to go.

By Matt Leonard • May 12, 2020

Quarterly inventories fall for first time since 2018

Depleted inventories in the first quarter were largely the result of supply issues, but this will transition to a demand-driven reduction moving forward, experts suggest.

By Matt Leonard • May 04, 2020

Pandemic could cost Tractor Supply an extra $50M in operations spend

Most of the expected expenses, about 80%, are related to labor or benefits, while the remaining 20% is for supplies, safety and cleaning, executives said.

By Matt Leonard • April 28, 2020

How a new framework can improve an existing inventory management system

For one hospital pharmacy, researchers found inventory management is about using the tools available and looking beyond cost.

By Matt Leonard • April 20, 2020

Warehouse storage should consider SKU correlation and picker traffic, study finds

A group of researchers from Binghamton University concluded in a paper published earlier this year that warehouse operators should consider picking delays caused by warehouse traffic when building fulfillment models.

By Matt Leonard • April 07, 2020

Inventory, network optimization among most widely adopted supply chain technologies

More than half of survey respondents said they think inventory management technology has the potential to disrupt the industry or provide a competitive advantage to users.

By Matt Leonard • March 31, 2020

So only 12% of supply chain pros are using AI? Apparently.

Low-level AI implementation could be the result of the difficulty hiring technology talent and the inability to properly manage enterprise data streams, according to experts.

By Matt Leonard • March 24, 2020

53% of US manufacturers expect operational impact from coronavirus: survey

Operational changes include the implementation of business continuity plans involving workplace sanitation, limiting in-person interaction and managing shifts to account for an uptick in worker absences, according to The National Association of Manufacturers.

By Matt Leonard • March 17, 2020

What tech and metrics do you need for omnichannel?

A modern order management system will have most of the data needed to measure omnichannel success. However, some operations will require more creativity.

By Matt Leonard • March 09, 2020

Each industrial robot displaces 1.6 workers: report

China has seen the greatest decline in its manufacturing workforce since 2000, with 550,000 fewer people working in the sector as of 2016.

By Matt Leonard • March 03, 2020

Internal actors account for 30% of cyberattacks in manufacturing

Proper network segmentation can minimize the threat from internal actors by limiting access to applications or databases to specific employees. 

By Matt Leonard • Feb. 25, 2020

Flexible plastic makes up 28% of global packaging: report

PET bottles and flexible plastic are lightweight, easily customizable and cheap to manufacture, the association wrote in its "2019 Global Packaging Trends" report.

By Matt Leonard • Feb. 10, 2020

How manufacturers are preparing for the next recession

More than half of respondents in a BDO survey said they were working to increase production efficiency to guard against a future recession and 42% said they were monitoring the financial health of their suppliers. 

By Matt Leonard • Feb. 04, 2020