As a supply chain leader, you understand the challenges of navigating through disruptions while managing risk and maximizing rewards. Today, it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve and explore the latest trends in the industry. This is where the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ conference comes in.

This event is a must-attend for Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) and other supply chain leaders who are looking to predict disruptions, and even use them to their benefit. The world has changed economically, socially, and politically, elevating the importance of supply chains. With the power to leverage their credibility, confidence, and commitment, supply chain leaders can profitably deliver in times of unprecedented stress and volatility.

Let’s take a closer look at what you can expect from this event:

Strategic Supply Chain Direction:

At the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ conference, you’ll gain insights, strategies, and frameworks that will help you think big and drive real impact within your organization. PartnerLinQ, one of the key sponsors of the symposium, will be available at booth number 139 to have one-on-one interactions with supply chain and technology leaders and business users. They’ll cover the whole nine yards of supply chain transformation themes, including but not limited to:

• Discussing strategic directions of supply chain to bring agility, optimize costs, and improve customer and partner experiences.
• Supply chain planning and visibility initiatives to build a more competitive enterprise in the dynamic economy.
• Developing and managing strategic sourcing planning.
• Strategies for bringing effectiveness and efficiencies in manufacturing, logistics, and distribution functions.

Invest in your Network:

The event isn’t just about gaining knowledge – it’s also about building relationships. Networking is an important part of any industry event, and the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ conference is no exception. By engaging with PartnerLinQ’s technology, EDI, and supply chain experts, you’ll find opportunities to share your ideas and experiences. We’ll build new relationships, broaden perspectives, and uncover ways to solve problems alongside other supply chain leaders.

PartnerLinQ will also be moderating a roundtable session, moderated by Deepak Das, SVP Digital Transformation at PartnerLinQ, on May 9 at 3pm EST in room Europe 6. Additionally, you’ll hear from PartnerLinQ’s SVP, Head of SaaS Products and Platforms, Ahmed Raza, on the topic “Collaborative Planning for Supply chain Resilience” on May 8 at 6:05 PM EST on Stage 1. In this session, you’ll discover how collaborative planning can benefit businesses in today’s competitive environment.

Meet PartnerLinQ Experts:

Another exciting opportunity at the event is the chance to schedule a one-on-one meeting with PartnerLinQ’s experts. This is your chance to discuss your supply chain priorities and challenges, prioritize what to accelerate, unlock resources for digital investments, make meaningful cultural changes, and so much more. No matter where you are on your digital business acceleration journey, PartnerLinQ is here to help you get to your destination faster – with confidence.

The Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ conference is a must-attend event for any supply chain leader looking to stay ahead of the curve and drive real impact within their organization. By attending, you’ll gain actionable insights that will help you mitigate risks, respond to disruption, pursue digital initiatives, and prioritize technology investments to achieve your business goals. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity – register today!

The retail industry has been rapidly evolving, driven by changes in consumer preferences, technological advancements, and intense competition. Customers now strongly influence product trends through their reviews and social media presence and often perform extensive online research before making a purchase. In 2023, total US retail sales will hit $4.7 trillion, of which online sales will top $1.1 trillion. 

As businesses adapt to the new realities of the digital age, supply chain management in retail (SCM) has emerged as a potential competitive edge. SCM refers to the end-to-end management of goods and services, from raw materials to final product delivery. Retailers can differentiate themselves from the competition by providing a reliable supply chain and supporting sustainability goals. To achieve this, they must invest in tailored processes and application portfolios that improve the customer experience. 

Making Supply Chain Management a Competitive Advantage

Supply chain disruptions are not new, but the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of global supply chains. Such disruptions can have significant financial implications for businesses. However, proactive companies can navigate these disruptions. For example, Nike used technology to track products moving through outsourced manufacturing operations during the early stages of the pandemic. By utilizing predictive-demand analytics, the company minimized the impact of disruptions. The result? Nike’s supply chain management strategy allowed the company to track “1 billion units at 99.9% readability” Nike was able to limit sales declines in the region to just 5 percent, while competitors experienced much more significant drops in sales.  

Agility & Resilience

Agility and resilience are crucial in today’s fast-moving and consumer-centric world. Traditional supply chains are no longer adequate. Supply chain management in retail needs to be much more dynamic, predictive, and responsive to changes in demand and the product and channel mix. Investing in SCM transformation can provide several benefits for retail, distribution and wholesale, and CPG businesses. It can boost revenue and customer service by synchronizing inventory availability with local cross-channel demand, increasing revenue and margin across channels. SCM transformation can also lead to shorter lead times, accelerate inventory turnover, generate one-time working capital savings that can fund the whole program, and reduce inventory carrying costs. 

Improved Carbon Footprint:

As customers become more environmentally conscious, retailers who demonstrate their commitment to sustainability can gain a competitive edge. By investing in the transformation of supply chain management in retail, companies can efficiently place their inventory in the network ahead of anticipated demand and closer to customers, reducing their carbon footprint. This approach not only contributes to environmental sustainability but also enhances customer satisfaction. The Science Based Targets Initiative reported that in 2020, 94 percent of the 239 companies that joined the initiative made commitments to reducing emissions from their customers and suppliers.

The Next Steps:

Supply chain management in retail has always been complex, but recent global events have highlighted the need for increased resilience, agility, and sustainability. However, simply adding these priorities to existing systems won’t cut it anymore. A complete shift in mindset is required to integrate them into supply chain design, organization, and operation. This shift in mindset starts with top-level changes and the incorporation of risk, agility, and sustainability performance indicators. By prioritizing these indicators, retailers can begin to understand the key drivers of their supply chain risk and take proactive steps to mitigate them.

It’s time to take action and make these priorities a reality. To stay ahead of the curve and learn more about these changing trends, take advantage of this on demand webcast. This is an opportunity to gain the latest insights and learn how to integrate resilience, agility, and sustainability into all aspects of supply chain design, organization, and operation.

In today’s rapidly changing retail landscape, the collaboration between retailers and their suppliers has become more critical than ever. This is particularly true for perishables, short product lifecycle merchandise, and a broader range of products. However, these same products also drive traffic, revenue, and margin for retailers, making it imperative for retailers to find a way to offer a wide choice to customers while managing the risks associated with these products.

The COVID crisis forced retailers and CPGs to limit the variety of products to manage supply chain disruptions. As the situation has improved, the race is now to provide customers with a broad selection of products.

This blog outlines everything you need to know about collaborative retail planning and why it’s important for your business growth.

But First, You Need to Know the Cost of Poor Collaboration

The cost of poor collaboration between retailers and their suppliers can be significantly high and manifest in various ways. One of the most significant risks associated with poor collaboration is markdowns or write-offs for perishable items; this can be costly. When retailers and suppliers fail to work together to manage inventory levels, they can end up with excess perishable items they cannot sell before their expiration date. This can result in markdowns, reduced margins, and a negative perception of the brand and product.

Out-of-stock situations can also result from poor collaboration, as retailers and suppliers need to communicate more effectively about inventory levels and demand forecasts. When a product is out of stock, customers may shop elsewhere, resulting in a loss of sales and reduced customer loyalty.

Another challenge associated with poor collaboration is a poor return on inventory investment, which can be especially challenging for retailers during the COVID crisis. Retailers need to track key supply chain metrics like Gross Margin Return on Inventory (GMROI) to understand how well their inventory investments perform. In response to supply chain disruptions, many retailers increased safety stock parameters to ensure that staples like rice and pasta were always available to customers. This has reduced inventory turnover, which can negatively impact the return on capital employed.

Finally, poor collaboration can result in failed promotions, where retailers and suppliers fail to coordinate effectively on promotional pricing, timing, and marketing. This can result in a lack of interest from customers and missed sales opportunities.

So, what is Collaborative Retail Planning?

By definition, “Collaborative retail planning” is a strategic approach that involves retailers and suppliers working together to optimize the entire supply chain. This approach requires significant communication, transparency, and trust between retailers and suppliers. This process allows retailers to make more informed decisions and plan for demand more accurately. It involves sharing critical data between retailers and suppliers, such as sales trends, inventory levels, and marketing strategies. By doing so, both parties can identify areas to improve the supply chain, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.

Collaborative retail planning has been a hot topic in the industry for years, with early conversations dating back to the early 2000s. However, until recently, planning systems have struggled to support meaningful collaboration between retailers and their partners. This has resulted in many legacy systems being unable to meet modern supply chain demands.

Fortunately, advances in supply chain solutions have made it possible for retailers and CPG companies to collaborate effectively and gain end-to-end supply chain visibility. The key to this collaboration is a data-sharing routine that provides real-time visibility into supply and demand signals, allowing both parties to mitigate the bullwhip effect and prevent unexpected changes.

L’Oréal is an excellent example of a company that uses collaborative innovation to its advantage. The annual “Cherry Pack” exhibition offers suppliers a preview of the consumer trends L’Oréal would be working on and asks them to develop packaging solutions in harmony with these trends. The trust-based forum created during the exhibition enabled suppliers to present ideas and products still in development, ultimately accelerating packaging innovation.

Why Should You Care About It?

Effective collaboration between retailers and supply chain partners offers numerous benefits, including the ability to align business objectives, anticipate and prevent potential problems, improve planning accuracy, increase operational efficiency, and reduce inventory throughout the supply chain. According to a McKinsey study, companies that collaborate effectively with their supply chain partners regularly outperform their industry peers, with 2x higher growth and 4.9% more in EBIT.

One of the primary benefits of collaborative retail planning is improved accuracy in demand forecasting. By involving all stakeholders in the planning process, companies can access a wider range of data and insights, leading to more accurate demand forecasting. This can help to reduce overstocking, minimize waste, and increase customer satisfaction. In addition, companies can identify trends and patterns that may not be visible when working in silos, leading to more informed decision-making. 

Another critical advantage of collaborative retail planning is a reduced risk of stockouts. Companies can ensure that products are delivered on time and in the right quantities by working closely with suppliers and logistics providers. This reduces the risk of stockouts, which can negatively impact customer satisfaction and the bottom line. By leveraging collaborative retail planning, companies can have better visibility and control of the entire supply chain ecosystem, from production to delivery, and proactively address any issues. 

Collaborative retail planning helps to increase efficiency by reducing the need for multiple, separate plans. This can increase efficiency, cost savings and improve supplier and retailer relations. When all stakeholders work together towards a common goal, they can identify areas to streamline operations and eliminate redundancies. This can lead to better communication, faster decision-making, and a more efficient supply chain.

Overall, collaborative retail planning is essential for any retailer looking to improve their supply chain. By working closely with their suppliers and partners, retailers can reduce costs, improve forecasting accuracy, and build stronger relationships. This approach can help retailers stay competitive, increase profits, and provide better customer value.

What’s Next?

Collaborating between retailers and their suppliers is essential for managing the risks associated with perishables, short product lifecycle merchandise, and a broad range of products. Retailers must work closely with their suppliers to manage inventory levels, communicate effectively about demand forecasts, and ordinate promotions to meet their customers’ needs and drive revenue and margin growth. By doing so, retailers can stay ahead of the competition and succeed in today’s dynamic retail environment.

PartnerLinQ is a robust supply chain transformation cloud-native platform that helps bring multi-enterprise collaboration with network visualization, intelligent planning and forecasting, and actionable insights. Join PartnerLinQ with Forrester on this upcoming webinar to explore more about collaborative retail planning and how it can help bring supply chain resilience. 

While the Great Disruption had a huge impact on health and daily lives, it also significantly influenced businesses. The largest business disruption in history left in its wake layers of adverse economic and supply chain conditions. Almost overnight, businesses the world over needed to ensure safety while simultaneously protecting their businesses and livelihoods, the latter of which remains under stress from residual disruption.

Businesses have been focusing on quick responses to mobility changes and handling crises, but now, supply chain leaders are shifting their attention to rebuilding for long-term success in the post-disruptive world. They are creating a solid foundation for recovery in the new normal.

Fissures in Manufacturing

The effects of supply chain disruptions have been keenly felt by everyone and by most accounts we are all players in a global supply chain whether directly involved in supply chain activities or not, and the impact of supply chain disruptions manifested in many different ways.

Manufacturing, for instance, is one of those industries, which faced maximum adversity from supply chain disruption . Even today, global manufacturers are facing increasing cost pressures due to shortages in the global workplace due to the initial pandemic outbreak, shutdowns, and reopening. At the same time, they are facing shortages of raw materials, ingredients, components, and packaging.

Excess demand as a result of the global supply chain disruption, continues to impact finished goods with some still hard to find, impacting costs further still. A recent study has revealed that the skills gap in US manufacturing will culminate in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030 and cost the country a staggering $1 trillion. Shortages in the workforce and increasing demand are signs that the disruption exposed a fundamental flaw in the production methodologies that dominated the past 100+ years— lean manufacturing, a process founded in the production of interchangeable parts.

When batch production techniques went “The Toyota Way,” lean manufacturing moved from concept to production and on to rival to batch production methods of years past. The lean approach was well suited to a rapidly growing global economy by doing away with excess inventories and decreasing warehousing expense.  It incentivized diversification and product innovation and boosted shareholder value.

Lean manufacturing rested on an assumption of a settled economy where irregular disruption is impossible, rules always fixed and the sun always shining. The technology evolution in the 90 years since the Japanese automaker decried batch production localized setbacks in lean supply chains kept lean technologies malleable.  The unforeseen supply chain disruption caused an unparalleled interruption of markets, factories, and products. The mandated lockdowns added shipping times and created shortages in labor in all areas of production and transportation. The pursuit of success through “lean” coupled with an unprecedented disruption acutely hurt manufacturing businesses worldwide.

Empty Tables to Empty Plates

There was some realization of hope as restaurants started reopening gradually following the ‘Great Disruption’. Relaxed restrictions meant some businesses were able to restart their takeout business or convert dining services during continuing lockdowns. Following the disruption there was a slight upturn in some geographies, unfortunately for most of us, some of our favorite spots will never return.

Long-standing supply chain pressures continue to affect the recovery phase, like many recoveries, supply chain pressures affect manufacturers, dealers, and consumers. A Reuters report found as many as nine restaurant firms and fast-food chains, including Wendy’s, Subway, and Chipotle  continue dealing with shortages of key ingredients from time to time. The ingredient shortage is indicative of the larger pressures inflicted by the disruption on global supply chains and particularly in transportation resulting in widespread product unavailability. In the absence of visibility and transparency across supply chains, industry insiders expected bottlenecks and shortages to last well into 2022, and they have.

Empty Stores to Empty Shelves

In retail, e-commerce has become a rising star with few retailers immune to stock shortages, supply channel breakdowns, and dramatic changes in consumer behavior, there has been an unprecedented scramble to shore up web store integration. A dichotomy has been observed among retailers, the first group brings in supplies from a wider supplier base, whereas the second group has more specific product requirements, such as department stores, and thus, find it more difficult to move sourcing of supply.  Initially coupled with varying degrees of lockdowns, the separation of the first and second type of e-commerce retail widened at first and became acute in fashion retailing where goods are contracted months ahead of time accounting for both changing styles and transportation.  

During this period Macy’s reported a 14.5% drop in inventory from Q2 2019 due to difficulty obtaining products. The cost of shipping goods quickly became much more expensive, leading to conversion to air freight for luxury goods. Dollar Tree, a US-based discount variety chain found difficulties with freight expenses and supply chain shortages with $185-200 million in freight costs anticipated for the 2021 season even announcing a departure from the pricing model that made their name synonymous with their business strategy. Mitigation of such a variety of factors in a complex web of supply chain activities even now has been difficult and particularly so when coupled with razor-thin margins and a complicated supply chain.

The Road Not Taken

What was once a routine, methodical industry has become chaotic; the supply chain disruption significantly affected transportation and logistics. Increased labor shortages and simultaneous increases in demand and fuel have driven transportation costs up significantly. Globalization has created a neatly demarcated system with production facilities on one side of the planet and consumers in developed markets on the other side. Transportation serves a key role particularly in western societies.

Shipping containers contribute to conundrum, with nearly 25 million in use worldwide, shippers and carriers have container availability and procurement written into their annual agreements, which have strict provisions for non-stop service and/or a minimum number of trips per week. Today, logistics managers negotiate for ship space in the spot market, where daily rates for containers are at the mercy of freight agents and carriers. Even within national borders, companies face hurdles in clearing houses and in dealing with excess demand.  Legacy solutions designed to overcome these obstacles have failed to deliver relief.

Staying Ahead of the Curve – The Value Proposition

PartnerLinQ Multi-Tennant Cloud Platform

A hybrid cloud architecture that ensures local systems can handle even the largest volumes of transactions per month

Simplified IT Infrastructure

PartnerLinQ integrates seamlessly with legacy systems and Multiple Cloud architectures.

Enhanced visibility to Address Pain Points

Real-time insights are key to deliver consistent value to consumer and partners at every touchpoint.

Integration at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ simplifies the partner on boarding process through its Common Processing Workflow; complemented by the Business Rule Manager, an entire migration process involving thousands of partners are regularly integrated in months and not years.

About PartnerLinQ

PartnerLinQ is a highly scalable GCP cloud-native multi-tenant multi-geography B2B API & EDI hyper-scalable high SaaS performance platform that integrates natively with partner ecosystem & e-commerce channels with native solution for meeting B2B API & EDI challenges.  Reimagine control, visibility, and transparency across your global supply chain and e-commerce. Unify channels, boost loyalty, gain complete visibility, and accelerate order fulfillment. Manage global supply chains, material planning, package sourcing, and omnichannel retail, drive growth powered by cutting-edge technologies and unlock valuable insights with Visionet products.

About Visionet

Visionet creates value-driven digital transformation tools like PartnerLinQ that digitize business imperatives and scale the highest summits.  Time-tested products for CPG & Retail, Apparel & Footwear, Banking & Financial Services, Insurance, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage, manufacturing & Distribution.  

Industry Application

PartnerLinQ creates value-driven digital transformation that digitize business imperatives and scale the highest summits with time-tested products for CPG & Retail, Apparel & Footwear, Banking & Financial Services, Insurance, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage, manufacturing & distribution.

Enterprise Connectivity at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ is the result of Visionet’s decades long industry expertise and technology leadership. Hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, PartnerLinQ is an innovative, process-centric, easy-to-use B2B API & EDI platform solution that enables API-led, cloud native integrations.  A simplified B2B communication engine that includes EDI, AS2, SFTP and real-time APIs, PartnerLinQ is a fully integrated platform and easily handles both standard and proprietary file-based formats including custom integrations. PartnerLinQ is well suited for retail, e-commerce, wholesale, transportation, 3PL, as well as distribution, digital and analog partner ecosystems helping your team achieve operational efficiency and gain real-time visibility.

Advanced Technology Leadership

The PartnerLinQ & Visionet teams share more than 34 years of experience in providing industry-focused technology, consulting, and development of innovative solutions that drive global supply chain transformation from the factory floor to the consumer’s doorstep. They share vision and a technology practice that includes leveraging the Google Cloud Platform to build, test, deploy, and manage large-scale enterprise solutions for its clients so when the leadership set out to build PartnerLinQ, it made perfect sense to build, test, deploy, and manage the PartnerLinQ integration platform from within the Google Cloud Platform.