Supply Chain Best Practices

Eggs are a big hit at my house.  In fact, my wife has declared poached eggs to be her favorite food (while good, I can’t imagine passing up pizza for a poached egg, but that’s just me).  I assume that most families are similar to ours and eggs provide a quick, easy way to get some protein into any meal.  I think this is core to the reason why the current egg recall is hitting a sensitive spot for many Americans.

More than 500 million eggs have been recalled in recent weeks.  Nearly 2000 people report being sick from eggs thought to be carrying salmonella.  The eggs are traced back to a pair of Iowa farms with common ownership.  Like many food products the eggs were then marketed under multiple brand names and through various distribution networks. 

Some troubling information about this event is that despite the first signs of contaminated eggs occurring in May, the recall was not conducted until August.  The finger pointing between producers, government agencies, and consumers continues today.  Based on this recall, recent peanut recalls and growing concern by Americans over food safety, I would guess we will see more strict federal legislation governing food safety soon.  In fact, the timing would be perfect for the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to pass the senate in September.

While many industries fight additional regulation, many major food brand owners have advocated for this type of legislation.  A CNN Money article highlights some of the financial impact on brand owners when a recall occurs.
•    Kellogg’s took a $34 million hit in their 2008 earnings as a result of the peanut recall.
•    Overall peanut butter sales volume declined by 22% at the beginning of 2009

As with most legislation, the Food Safety Modernization Act is descriptive in terms of authority, but vague in terms of how companies would implement practices to support improved safety in the food supply chain.  Here are a few pieces from the current legislation and my thoughts on how technology can be used to help enforce the process.

“require that each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports an article of food permit inspection of his or her records if the Secretary believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death”

This bill pertains to the majority of the food value chain.  Food chain participants must be able to create and store records related to the products they handle.  Clearly, technology can assist with the capture and storage of this information.

“Requires each owner, operator, or agent in charge of a food facility to: (1) evaluate the hazards that could affect food; (2) identify and implement preventive controls; (3) monitor the performance of those controls; and (4) maintain records of such monitoring.”

Again, technology will play a critical role implementing preventative controls and monitoring the performance of the controls.  Supply chain technology can help support best practices such as stock rotation (first-in-first-out, first-expired-first-out), lot/batch tracking, product labeling, and quality inspections.

Additional Resources:
Fisher Nuts improves traceability in manufacturing and warehousing operations with HighJump warehouse management (WMS)
Three Components of Product Traceability in the Food and Beverage Supply Chain
Mom’s Foods Case Study

HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, announced Wisconsin Distributors and Erie Beer are now using HighJump RouteCenter to power their beer distribution operations. Privately held by common ownership and long-time HighJump Software customers, the Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesalers implemented the HighJump route accounting system (RAS) to manage their growing direct store delivery (DSD) operations. Erie Beer distributes three million cases per year and is based in Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Distributors distributes six million cases each year and is located in Wisconsin. HighJump RouteCenter manages the distributors’ selling, delivery, inventory and settlement processes.  Additionally, the RAS works in conjunction with the Anheuser-Busch Mobility solution to extend the solution to the store shelf.

Read the full press release.

Recently I read a blog post by Adrian Gonzales of ARC Advisory Group which included examples of how social media tools are being put to practical supply chain use in businesses such as Con-way, where Twitter feeds are helping match carriers with available freight. This combined with the fact that mobile internet use / wireless connectivity is growing faster than most people expected clearly demonstrates the practicality of two entirely different types of technology coming together to create an amazing hybrid supply chain solution. This leads me to wonder: is supply chain management ready to cross paths with social media?

On second thought, maybe we need to differentiate between operational supply chain management and supply chain management research and networking. Could it be that some supply chain management professionals are ready to acquiesce when it comes to testing and adopting some “bleeding edge” Twitter and mobile execution solutions if it leads to pragmatic business benefits, but that they aren’t ready to whole-heartedly make the jump into using Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter as trusted sources for evaluating new technology purchases? What about giving feedback and collaborating about the solutions they already have?

Cisco recently won a “Best Use of Facebook” award for their Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/Cisco). The page was originally created to aggregate all of Cisco’s social networks and content into one channel and create a unique experience for their fans, and now it’s grown to almost 80,000 members strong.

Seems my writing has led me to more questions than answers. What do all of you think? How to supply chain technology buyers like to collect peer group feedback on purchases and vendor experience? Are you ready for supply chain software vendors to jump in wholeheartedly with social media efforts beyond the popular blogs?
 

Computer Software Publisher and Distributor Uses HighJump 3PL Billing Management Software to Adapt Its Business Model

HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, announced Navarre Corporation is extending its service offering to include third-party logistics (3PL) services with the help of its HighJump solutions. Navarre is a distributor and publisher of computer software and home entertainment products. The company processes 2.2 million orders a year and manages 15,000 SKUs on a campus of three facilities with a combined 320,000 square feet in Minneapolis, Minn. and a 30,000 square foot facility in Toronto. After implementing the HighJump Warehouse Advantage WMS, Navarre has seen improvements in efficiency, worker productivity and inventory accuracy.

Read the full press release.
 

Walmart….I know it is almost universally recognized as a dirty word for the many challenges they create for their DSD suppliers.  However, today I would like to talk about the beneficial changes to operations that have resulted from their ASN initiative.

Let’s first look at how many “traditional” DSD vendors handled their order flow before ASN’s (I am going to state the implied assumption of pre-sold orders rather than peddle sales here, but really ASN is conceptually impossible without pre-sales).

1. Order is received by vendor “X” hours or days in advance of required delivery (the method of entry is for another discussion at a later date) into route accounting software.
2. Order goes through some level of processing to determine how it will be built.  Eg. Products are aggregated with common packages, or order is built specifically for customer (read my previous blog on whether to build by order or not).
3. Pallet(s) are built by the distribution warehouse staff with paper pick tickets / load sheets.  Possibly with, but more likely without checking of pallet content.
4. Driver shows up the following morning and verifies his load content and has to either manually pick additional product to replace short picks / miss-picks, or if they are lucky gets some help from the receiving staff.
5. Driver delivers goods to store where additional invoice/delivery adjustments may be required due to earlier verification issues.

This process obviously has some fairly inefficient steps here, but I think it is safe to say this was generally accepted, and even still is today with many small to medium sized distributors.

The Walmart ASN initiative continues to roll out across North America.  To be compliant DSD suppliers not only have to pick at a rate of near constant perfection, but they also have to submit this information well in advance of the driver showing up at the back door with product.  Meeting these requirements means manual picking processes have to go away and any pick discrepancies must be accounted for AND communicated in advance of delivery.   This means adding a step to update pick quantities and another step to update delivery handhelds have to above process.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (no offence to the rocket scientists), to figure out the changes required to complete these tasks cost $$.  But let’s look at how these operational changes provide benefit beyond being able to continue to supply Walmart with product.

1. Productivity Metrics:  by using either a handheld or mobile computer solution you should be able to track more data than just updated pick quantities.  Why not select a solution to track picking time to generate productivity numbers?  These metrics could be used for incentive picker compensation or alternative motivation plans.
2. Driver Check Out:  with loads already reflecting the changes to pick quantities driver checkout processes should take far less time, getting them out into the trade faster.
3. Delivery Time Reduction:  similar to point above, with accurate load/invoice information route drivers reduce time required to handle the administration side of mobile sales, and should be able to spend more time actually servicing stops.
4. Risk of Fraud:  unfortunately fraud happens…but with accurate order/invoice numbers the need for invoice adjustment will theoretically go to zero.  While I doubt the zero adjustment goal will be present 100% of time, far fewer invoice adjustments means those that happen need better explanation and can be investigated to confirm legitimacy.
5. Route Reconciliation:  here is yet another spot where accurate orders result in time savings.  The lack of invoice adjustments, and accurate inventory numbers save labor for route drivers and reconciliation clerks alike.
6. Inventory Accuracy:  actual pick quantities rather than relieving inventory based on expected numbers give your operation and sales teams real on hand data to know what needs to be ordered, and what is available to sell.

As you can see there are definite benefits to implementing a process solution where actual picked quantities are efficiently tracked.  To truly reap the benefits of this process though, operations should be applying this supply chain improvement not only to their Walmart ASN accounts but to all (or at least the majority) of their accounts!

Traditional perceived challenges to dealing with Walmart aside, I think this is one area where the supplier integration changes they have created in the DSD supply chain best practices are actually forcing operations to become more efficient!  I hope that you consider some of the points above and how they could help your direct store delivery operations as well.
 

HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, has appointed Gary Nemmers to Vice President of Sales and Amy Stelling-Kahler to Vice President of Worldwide Support.
 
“Gary and Amy are valuable additions to the HighJump executive management team and bring extensive experience to their roles,” said Russell Fleischer, CEO, HighJump Software. “Amy has served in many key positions at HighJump that make her uniquely suited for this newly created executive position, and Gary has extensive sales leadership experience in the supply chain software industry.”

Read the press release.

Today marks one year since our very first blog post here on Raising the Bar.  What a year it's been!  We've enjoyed bringing you commentary on all things supply chain, from direct store delivery software to warehouse management to logsitiscs and supply chain management.   

Let's take a look back at our top five most popular posts of the year.

1. Is Wal-Mart Sub-optimizing Its Extended Supply Chain?
2. Why Inventory is Not an Asset
3. Why Cap and Trade is Not the Answer
4. What Makes a Good Metric?
5. Where did my variance come from this time?

We'd like to thank you for your readership and comments. We had some great dialogue and ideas shared here by our readers.  Here's to another great year of blogging!

Greetings from 35,000 feet! I am on my way to the west coast for meetings with another prospective HighJump warehouse management system (WMS) customer. This visit will likely be consistent with several meetings recently with large companies who are looking to standardize their WMS platform and move away from homegrown systems. This sounds like a fairly straightforward proposition…until you get into the details.

In each of my meetings, the company has strong feelings that their current homegrown WMS system provides them a true source of competitive advantage. It is not that the system contains “industry best practices”; these homegrown systems enable distribution processes that are actually sources of differentiation from competition. The processes and the systems supporting them are years in the making and unique to each business. By definition, many of these competitive advantages will not be found in traditional commercial off the shelf software – they are proprietary, confidential, and not available to everyone in a given industry.

These companies are pursuing commercial software as a means to reduce IT complexity and reduce total cost of ownership – common objectives of a WMS standardization initiative. However, there is reluctance to proceed based on the sources of competitive differentiation these companies have with their homegrown systems. In the traditional enterprise software approach, these companies will be forced to purchase commercial software, pay exorbitant fees for customizing it to enable their competitive advantage processes, pay exorbitant fees to upgrade (or elect to stay on old technology), and risk that their technology vendor will think their practices are so great that they should be put in the next version of the “standard package” (thus making the competitive advantage available to everyone).

HighJump offers a unique approach.

HighJump’s Supply Chain Advantage suite is architected with an expectation that you will want to enable business processes that are sources of advantage on our technology stack. It is HighJump’s philosophy that 80% of supply chain practices are not sources of differentiation and should be covered by industry supply chain best practices enabled with standard product. However, we also expect that there are 20% of your supply chain processes that are potential sources of competitive advantage. For this 20%, we provide a flexible workflow architecture that allows end users to modify the workflows in the product to support their sources of competitive advantage.

This presents a “best of both worlds” value proposition for our customers. Customers moving off homegrown systems get the benefits of commercial software (new releases containing technology and functionality updates, a worldwide product support organization, and technology partner that will stand by them in the long term) with the flexibility to support their business processes that are sources of competitive advantage.

Related Resources:

HighJump Adaptability Datasheet
GM2 Video: 3PL achieves supply chain success using the HighJump Software warehouse management system (WMS) 

HighJump Upgrade Video

This week HighJump announced a product partnership with MercuryGate to provide extended capabilities in TMS. See the press release: HighJump Software Expands Transportation Management (TMS) Capabilities Through Partnership with MercuryGate.

 

I would like to provide some additional commentary on this partnership and what it means for HighJump customers and prospective customers.

 

HighJump acquired our TMS capability in 2006 when we acquired Pinnacle Distribution Concepts and its Freight Logic product (which we rebranded HighJump Transportation Advantage).  HighJump Transportation Advantage has strong capability for domestic shippers who primarily ship outbound and need optimization across truck load and LTL.  However, HighJump Transportation Advantage has functionality limitations for inbound management, international shipping, multi-mode optimization, and capabilities for some logistics services providers (multi-client consolidation and optimization, cost allocation methods).  We feel that this product partnership with MercuryGate provides a leading TMS with capabilities that are expected from transportation supply chain management users with complex requirements.

 

HighJump will continue to support HighJump Transportation Advantage and the 33 customers using the product.  In fact, we have significantly invested in data center capability and transitioned the SaaS datacenter from Tennessee to Minnesota.  This datacenter move allows us to provide on-going support to customers running HighJump Transportation Advantage.

 

Through this partnership, HighJump will provide a re-branded version of the MercuryGate eTMS and MOJO solutions as part of our Supply Chain Advantage Suite.  The offering is called HighJump Transportation Management.  Workflow integration across inbound, yard, and warehouse is done through the HighJump adaptability platform utilizing the web services available from MercuryGate using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) philosophies.  HighJump Transportation Management will be hosted in MercuryGate’s existing datacenter.  HighJump Supply Chain Advantage may be deployed on-premise or through our recently announced cloud deployment option.

 

For new customers we will offer HighJump Transportation Management.  We will also offer existing Transportation Advantage customers the option to migrate to HighJump Transportation Management through a migration program with preferred pricing.

 

Related Resources:

TMS press release

TMS web pages

Link to MercuryGate website

HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, announced today it is augmenting its existing capability in transportation management through a partnership with MercuryGate. The partnership will bolster HighJump Software’s current supply chain management software suite by adding new functionality for the management of international inbound and outbound transportation and robust transportation management functionality for third party logistics (3PL) providers.

To maximize the value from a transportation management system (TMS), shippers and 3PL’s are turning to systems that have capability for international and multi-mode shipments. The HighJump TMS can now coordinate and optimize complex multi-stop, multi-modal shipments, including ocean, air, rail, LTL, TL, and parcel. The solution also supports multi-currency and inter-geography shipments. Additionally, more companies are outsourcing their logistics to 3PL providers. The solution allows the 3PL to easily implement and on-board new clients and to leverage transportation across all of their clients reducing costs and maximizing profits. HighJump’s transportation solution continues to be deployed as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which connects shippers with an extensive network of carriers and allows them to begin processing shipments using the system in a matter of weeks. The overall solution is web service enabled and utilizes HighJump Software’s unique adaptable architecture which allows companies to use their supply chain processes as sources of competitive advantage.

Read the HighJump Transportation Management press release.
 

Why am I happy that people don’t consider last Monday night’s college basketball game the greatest final ever?  Luckily for me Gordon Hayward’s shot glanced off the rim and backboard allowing Duke to capture our fourth national title.  Hats off to a great Butler team and a phenomenal tournament.

 

Now onto the topic of inventory. If you ask most CFOs, they would point to the balance sheet and tell you the dollar amount of inventory on the books.  It seems like it should be an asset; it is something your company spent time and money to create.  Heck, we make a living selling millions of dollars of software and services so companies can better manage and track their inventory with warehouse inventory management systems. 

 

So why is inventory not an asset?  Why does Dell dictate their suppliers locate their warehouses literally across the street from their facilities?  Why has the concept of consigned inventory become popular in the retail world?  Why do many companies such as Amazon and Target not ever inventory the item but allow the manufacturer/distributor to drop ship directly to the end customer?  All of the above practices allow the company with power in the supply chain to delay or completely remove the necessity to take actual ownership of the physical product.  Inventory has become the proverbial hot potato.  No one wants to take ownership of the inventory and if they are forced to, they want to own it for as little time as possible.  If inventory is an asset, then why does no one want to own it?

 

In almost every industry, the day the brand new product comes off the manufacturing line is when it is most valuable.  Every week, day, minute afterwards the inventory is at risk of losing value:whether it is actual expiration dates/best before dates for food products, technology obsolescence as everyone is pushing for the next generation product, or the latest edition update to a college text book.  This is why FIFO (first in first out) is such a popular pick algorithm as it rids the business of the asset that is declining the fastest and keeps the product with the longest runway on the shelf.

 

Another reason inventory is not an asset is the working capital it ties up.  Every piece of inventory your company has in its possession is money that could potentially be used elsewhere in the business.  The company loses the “optionality” to find the best return those dollars could generate.  While it is quite possible putting that money into inventory of a hot product is absolutely the right decision, once the decision is made you cannot get that dollar back and put it into R&D or hiring a new person.  This makes it absolutely essential that your company watch closely your investment in inventory.

 

It is surprising that many companies have not reduced the amount of inventory they keep in their supply chains.  In a recent post by Dan Gilmore at Supply Chain Digest, he details by industry how many companies have not appreciably reduced their inventory since 2004.  In a day and age when investment of every dollar matters, maybe people need to take a closer look on how to optimize their inventory levels throughout their extended supply chain. Supply chain management software solutions can help. Au revoir, Go Duke!

Related Posts:
Where is Your Inventory? Even Today Some Companies Still Don’t Know

All of the Inventory I Want to Ship Is Sitting In My Yard!

When Metrics Turn Evil

 

What’s so difficult? If you’re a third-party logistics provider (3PL)/logistics services provider (LSP), all you need to do is provide efficient warehouse management, exceptional inventory visibility, seamless freight management and timely and accurate 3PL billing. Oh, and you need to do it all more cheaply – and just plain better – than your customers can do it themselves. Bit of a tall order, especially when you’re trying to post your own profit too! 

I imagine trying to stand out among other 3PLs is similar to any other more commoditized service. You’ve got to: (1) Find a way to attract new customers and (2) Keep the customers you already have so happy that they’ll gladly tell their peers about how fantastic your services are.

One of the advantages of being in the fast-growing logistics services space is that technology providers have their development teams working overtime to create tools to make things easier for you. With modern supply chain management software, you have the means to achieve those two huge tasks. Here are a few examples.  

·         Facilitated on-boarding new customers – the quicker you can do it, the sooner you can get paid, right?

·         Getting the billing right – new automated 3PL billing technology is making it simpler make sure you are getting paid for each service you provide, and that you can easily account for those charges. You can also preset billing rules at a very granular level – a detail which might help your sales team seal a few deals?

·         Tracking inventory attributes – it’s the nature of your business – every customer wants to track different attributes, even if the items are exactly the same as another customer. Now you can set up detailed – and different – rules for each customer.

·         Offering more value-added services – the best way to set your business apart from 3PLs that just provide shelf space. These value-added services can be anything from repackaging to relabeling, kitting and light manufacturing. Adaptable supply chain technology can support the adding of new services that your customers are waiting for.

Guess it’s just perspective…it’s a challenging, cost-conscious industry, but you’ve got access to the technology to let you go grab your share of new business.

Related resources
Special Report: Four Ways 3PLs Can Harness Technology to Attract Customers and Drive Profitability

I spent some time last week with a HighJump Software customer who is considering further expansion of HighJump WMS solutions in their distribution centers. The customer is undertaking a massive ERP program that will allow the ERP system to be the IT backbone of their worldwide operations. They are also evaluating WMS solutions from this ERP provider.

In a meeting with senior IT leaders of this organization, I explained that I was highly confident the outcome of their pending due diligence regarding total cost of ownership (TCO). I contend that a best of breed solution will result in lower long term costs for this IT organization. Here are a few things that make me confident in my position:

Best in Class Functionality

While ERP-based WMS solutions have advanced significantly, they are limited to the “classical” warehouse operations including receiving, put-away, inventory control, picking and loading. Supply chain best practices such a labor management, slotting management, advanced wave planning, and last mile delivery are not traditionally supported with ERP WMS solutions. This means that when supply chain operations teams demand these capabilities, IT organizations are forced to address them with expensive customizations or bolt-on solutions with multiple integration touch points.

 

Upgrades

A WMS solution typically has a 10 year lifespan. In this lifespan a WMS could be upgraded five times. ERP upgrades are generally more expensive to upgrade because of the interdependencies between modules and re-application of source code customizations. Additionally, corporate IT governance and change management processes often make it difficult to upgrade a single module. Therefore the business users may be forced to wait for new features because of dependencies on modules that have nothing to do with distribution and logistics. View this video to learn more about HighJump’s approach to simplified upgrades.

 

Adaptability Tools

If your organization views distribution as a source of competitive advantage, then ERP-based WMS could be problematic. By definition, a competitive advantage must be unique to the organization. Business processes available in commercial off-the-shelf software packages (like ERP) therefore cannot contain business processes that are sources of competitive advantage.

To really ensure you have the flexibility to maintain and create further sources of advantage in your distribution operations, your supply chain logistics software must have the ability to create processes that are unique to your business.

HighJump has a unique approach that allows customers to define unique workflows that does does not involve any source code modifications. I am not aware of any ERP based WMS solutions with a similar architecture.

Without this architecture it can be very expensive for IT organization to deliver these workflow changes.

I recently received a direct mail marketing piece from a HighJump Software competitor. The mailer included a press release announcing that this company had “enhanced direct store delivery integration” and a one page datasheet which described a direct store delivery value chain as manufacturing + regional warehouse + mobile resources + retail shelf.

 

HighJump Software is the North American market leader for direct store delivery software solutions. If our primary competitor in the warehouse management systems market had encroached on our market position I needed to know. Perhaps they had acquired a route accounting solutions provider or acquired a provider of mobility solutions for mobile selling and delivery at the retail location. I consulted a trusted industry analyst who confirmed my suspicions… this was marketing hype and this company’s approach to direct store delivery still had significant “holes.”

 

Anyone familiar with the value chain of direct store delivery companies knows there are some specific complexities that must be addressed in order to have “comprehensive coverage across the extended supply chain.” Here are some things companies should consider when search for direct store delivery software solutions:

 

Certified Route Accounting Systems

Route Account Systems are unique software systems to manage the complexities of route-based sales and delivery. They typically manage the entire order-to-cash cycle and are geared toward the world where sales, inventory, and business metrics are all tied to a “route.” Although traditional ERP systems can be used for route accounting systems, they typically require customization to deal with complex pricing/promotion, cash settlement, truck inventory, and supplier e-commerce integration. To further understand the complexities in the beverage value chain read It is Hard for Anheuser-Busch to be Procter and Gamble.

 

Mobile Sales and Delivery Applications

Success or failure in a direct store delivery business is determined at the store shelf. Direct store delivery companies have large workforces of mobile sales and delivery professionals who need to be equipped with mobility technology for them to effectively accomplish their objectives. HighJump Software provides a comprehensive suite of mobility products which support industry best practices for order capture, goal-based selling, delivery tracking and cash settlement. For more details on these solutions read about our latest mobility suite product release HighJump Software Enhances Mobility Solutions With New Release of Mobile Route Sales and Delivery Software Suite.

 

Load Optimization

Optimized loading of side bay beverage trucks can be complex. While there are numerous packages for creating optimized load plans of traditional van trailers or flatbed trailers, optimizing for side bay beverage trucks is another animal. Additionally, this business problem becomes even more complex when you have a “peddle” environment (driver selling off truck without pre-sold orders) and driver preferences must be taken into account at the load and pallet level.

 

I think the moral of the story is “don’t believe the hype.” Direct store delivery software solutions are specialized for the unique needs of this industry. Direct store delivery software solutions deal with complexities of supplier integration, cash settlement and truck inventory. A WMS, TMS and retail workforce solution will not meet the needs of most food and beverage distributors in their direct store delivery operations.

A trendy term bandied about for years by process analysts, project managers and business managers in general is ‘best practice’. You’ve all heard it, but I wonder if everyone knows what the term really means? I use it all the time and was recently challenged as to what I meant when I said it.  I offered my professional explanation, but afterwards wondered if my definition was correct.  So, remembering my childhood instruction on how to find out about something - I ‘looked it up’.

Wikipedia’s definition is: “A best practice is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward that is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance”.

I choose to quote Wikipedia’s definition because it provided validation for the point I’m about make. The operative phrase in Wikipedia’s definition is ‘believed to be’… the best. Ah ha! That indicates a best practice may or may not be the best, or worst.  Let me illustrate – Is it better to put peanut butter on both sides of the bread with the jelly on top of the pb or put all the peanut butter on one side of the bread and just jelly on the other when preparing a PB&J?  Which would be considered the “best practice” for this task?  Both methods achieve the desired outcome; neither requires significant extra effort, time, or materials and each is suitable to the maker’s personal preference and skill. In this case both methods can be considered a ‘best practice’.

So the next time you’re told that how you’re doing something in your warehouse isn’t ‘best practice’, don’t hesitate to challenge the teller! Clearly there are proven methodologies that are better than others, but the ‘best practice’ isn’t always applicable to every circumstance. A supply chain best practice is often suggested by the eye of the beholder who is not the doer!
 

 

 

I suspect, although it wouldn’t be admitted to in mixed company, that the presumption has oft been made that having any sort of route accounting software in place puts that direct store delivery business ahead of most. Quite a stretch, considering the increasing complexity of food and beverage distribution processes and requirements, and the extreme range of RASs out there (think old pick-up vs. shiny new SUV).

Now, that old pick-up was, in its day, the envy of many. It could even drive through some bumpy terrain. But now, although it [usually] starts, and can [almost] reach highway speeds, it’s not too reliable, and you need to visit salvage yards to find replacement parts. Not exactly the chariot you want your precious cargo riding in, and not exactly cost-effective. Not the most inspired metaphor, but not too far off?

So how do you know if you’ve got a route accounting system akin to that old pick-up? 
 

• Your processing times seem to be getting slower and slower. 
• You spend days trying to extract data for reports you need to run your business.
• It’s tough to get applications to work together and you’re spending a lot of time and money making integrations work.
• There’s only one person there who understands the necessary workarounds of your RAS – and he’s retiring next fall. 

No, we haven’t been shadowing you. The fact is: the symptoms you’re experiencing are quite common to DSD businesses running on dated technology. While your system may still work at a basic functional level (the pick-up still starts and runs, remember?), modern technology can provide new features, better access to company performance and smoother integration with other systems. 

You may even be interested in the “full maintenance plan” (to extend the vehicle metaphor painfully further) for a modern route accounting system – otherwise known as an on-demand, or hosted system. This option removes the maintenance headache completely by having your supply chain management software vendor host your system for you. There is no hardware to purchase or maintain and patches and upgrades are done automatically. 

This year may be the best yet for your direct store delivery business – do you have a swift, reliable and easy-to-maintain “vehicle” to get you there?
 

Congratulations to Overstock.com, a HighJump WMS warehouse management system customer, for once again placing second in the NRF Foundation and American Express'slist of the top ten retailers for customer service. The list is based on a survey of more than 8,000 American shoppers, conducted by BIGresearch. See the full list. 

HighJump System has helped Overstock.com provide award-winning customer service through an increased order fulfillment rate and near-perfect accuracy. The HighJump Supply Chain Advantage suite has supported Overstock.com’s growth from $40 million in revenue in 2001 to $834 million today. The company has also reduced warehouse labor costs by over 30 percent while achieving more than 99 percent inventory accuracy by location, despite a highly volatile SKU base.

Read HighJump's Overstock.com's success story (PDF) to learn more about the online retailer's great customer service and how the company utilizes HighJump's supply chain technology to implement supply chain management best practices.

As supply chains become more complex, more and more manufacturers are turning to supply chain management software solutions to gain real-time visibility into their operations.  Our very own Chris Goldsmith was quoted in an article "Supply Chain Visibility and Efficiency Gets a Boost" from World Trade Magazine.  Here's a sneak peek: 

Since launching our blog earlier this year, it’s been exciting to watch the number of visitors to the blog soar since its inception. As we close out 2009, it’s fitting to take a look back and see which posts were the most popular in terms of page views.

 

 

1. What Makes a Good Metric?

2. When Choosing Metrics, Start at the Top

3. Be Careful What You Ask For With ERP Based WMS Warehouse Management Systems

4. What Really is in a WMS to ERP interface?

5. When Metrics Turn Evil

6. My Friends Are Getting Old, Your WMS May Be Getting Old Too!

7. Is RFID Dead? Should it be?

8. Don’t Underestimate the Value of an Integrated Manufacturing and Warehouse Solution

9. Is SKU Reduction Good for Consumer Goods Supply Chains?

10. Another Logistics Service Provider Chooses HighJump

 

We’ve enjoyed providing insights on supply chain best practices and hearing your thoughts and opinions too. Here’s to more great conversation in 2010! 

HighJump Software just announced the dates for Innovation 2010, which will take place at the Fairmont Scottsdale in Arizona. Mark your calendars for HighJump's user conference, October 24-27.

 

HighJump Innovation gives our customers a chance to network with industry peers and gain valuable insights into how to better leverage their HighJump solutions to achieve ongoing success. Attendees expand their understanding of successful supply chain management best practices in today's demanding environment.

Visit the Innovation website for more information.