Increasingly we are seeing distributors being pinched between spiraling shipping costs and rising customer expectations. Orders are getting smaller and customers are demanding faster and faster delivery methods, all without expecting to pay anything extra to cover the additional costs of the shipping. I thought it might be interesting to reach out to a market-leading regional distributor and discuss what they are doing to figure out this “last mile” transportation problem.
I interviewed Rory Mueller, Logistics Manager at Werner Electric Supply to see how they took this increasingly complex problem and turned it into a market advantage and a key differentiator for doing business with them.
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Tags: accurate forecasts,
Amazon,
carrying costs,
competitive advantage,
complex distribution,
courier,
delivery,
delivery management,
delivery methods,
distribution,
distributors,
electrical supplies,
electrical supply,
FedEx,
inventory,
last mile,
local delivery,
logistics,
logistics program,
shipping,
shipping costs,
transportation,
transportation management,
UPS,
vehicles,
Werner Electric Supply
There has been a lot of focus on optimizing the supply chain for order fulfillment. The on-going efforts to perfect the ‘order to cash’ process have yielded great rewards. But what about returns? Automation has reduced the number of returns due to errors however the world must move from a linear to a more circular economy and this will impact the entire supply chain.
The notion of a circular economy is really quite wonderful. Imagine an industry that produces no waste or pollution, and where products are designed for safe and non-intrusive disposal. Imagine an industry where 100% of unconsumed or partly consumed products are returned for re-use.
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Tags: Association of Battery Recyclers,
batteries,
change in us healthcare supply chain,
circular economy,
distribution,
environment,
order fulfillment,
re-use,
recycle,
returns,
supply chain innovation
The traditional role of wholesalers is quite simple; they buy significant quantities of products from different manufacturers, store them in warehouses and resell them to customers, whether retail, industrial, commercial, institutional or contractors. Their role is to have the right product when it is needed, at the lowest price. Pretty simple.
That was all good in the past, but now things are changing — and changing fast! In the last 5-10 years, companies like Amazon, Alibaba and eBay have completely changed the dynamic of the shopping experience. Consumers now expect to find what they need easily, at the right price, with high quality, delivered to them where they need it, how they need it and when they need it. And, although consumers can be quite loyal (for example, always starting their search on Amazon.com), they will quickly go somewhere else when they don’t find what they need. How do I know? I do it all the time!
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Tags: adapt,
Analytics,
commercial,
contractors,
customers,
demand planning,
distribution,
distributors,
flexibility,
industrial,
institutional,
manufacturers,
partnerships,
retail,
supply chain execution,
tms,
value-added services,
wholesale,
wholesaler,
wms
In the movie Big, Tom Hanks plays a child trapped in the body of a 30-year-old who challenges the status quo at a toy manufacturer. To the audience it all makes sense as the movie progresses – think like a kid when selling stuff to kids. How revolutionary! Yet the audience also relates to the adults who pretend to know what kids like.
For me, the big thinking in this movie is demonstrated by the creativity of a child whose mind is unencumbered by preconceptions.
Dr. David Schwartz, the author of a book entitled The Magic of Big Thinking, attempts to define big thinking. He explains that visualization adds value to everything and that thinking big means training oneself to see not just what is, but what can be. Author Malcolm Gladwell writes, “A visionary is a person that takes a white piece of paper and re-imagines the world”. The Internet is full of success stories of such visionaries.
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Tags: distribution,
Dr. David Schwartz,
healthcare,
iTopia,
Malcolm Gladwell,
packing,
patent,
patient care,
picking,
re-imagining,
reimagining,
shipping,
The Magic of Big Thinking,
thinking big,
trademark,
visualization,
visuals,
voice,
voice-activated,
warehouse
