ITO EN is a multinational beverage company that specializes in green tea and is the largest green tea distributor in Japan. Established in 1966, the company markets packaged and ready-to-drink tea products, focusing on the distribution and sales of its products.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
The global supply chains are becoming more volatile than ever. Customer expectations are shifting, triggering modern technology adoption for many enterprises. Difficulties in onboarding trading partners further add to the struggle. What are the possible types of EDI solutions to address the matter of exchanging EDI transactions holistically, and do these various types of EDI solutions include other things, such as different types of EDI Transactions?
An effective Electronic Data Interchange Solution simplifies the exchange of electronic documents among partners through system and app integrations and cultivates collaboration via EDI and non-EDI exchange. As a result, the solution packages and delivers visibility, control, and optimization. In simple terms, it’s a feature-packed solution that enables intelligent decision-making in real-time. While these EDI technology solutions are critical to driving tangible business outcomes, particularly in recent years, the decision process is complex at the same time. This is why parties investigating Electronic Data Interchange Solutions must have a relatively deep understanding of the different types of EDI solutions before investing.
The best way to develop a sound understanding is to start right from the beginning. EDI solution providers are organizations that offer EDI software and services to companies looking for data exchange services, in short, a solution to assist with the transportation, transformation, and integration of trade. EDI systems, from this perspective, help you seamlessly exchange business documents between your partners by leveraging an EDI solution which could be on-premises or cloud-based. Some are provided as managed, while others are self-service. The solution ensures completeness, data validity, and security.
Before we proceed, it is critical to understand the types of EDI solution providers in the market so that you can identify the best electronic data interchange system.
There are five types of EDI solution providers offering one or more types of EDI solutions. In addition to services, they also differ in terms of industries and the business size they cater to. Take a look at these to identify which type will work best for your enterprise.
An EDI broker typically provides a comprehensive set of EDI solutions. They offer value-added network (VAN) connections and, at the same time, help companies connect to particular trading partners or networks. EDI brokers typically do not have their own network; instead, they serve in the capacity of an outsourced EDI staff, typically focusing on one or several industries. They provide everything from data entry to data translation services, ensuring that your EDI documents are transformed from your core systems to that of your partners while adhering to customer requirements and guidelines for various standards.
An EDI broker ensures that any company and startup, in particular, can easily share EDI documents with their partners without investing a great deal or compromising security. EDI brokers most often assist when a trading partner lacks EDI software of their own, and a few EDI brokers even support non-EDI formats. EDI brokers are typically engaged with the market where revenue is at the lower end of the industry spectrum and are ideal for small companies and startups. Eventually, these users reach a point where the brokered solution can no longer serve their needs. If your business involves complex integrations hybrid EDI scenarios, EDI brokers may fit your business. If your business is already involved with a brokered type of EDI solution and you are not getting the needed services, you may have outgrown your present solution.
Fully Managed service providers offer end-to-end EDI software and/or services just beyond the scope of an EDI broker. They may offer software or cloud-based services and help you translate EDI messages in multiple formats and transform and transfer your data. Their services may be an overreach for some as they are also involved in partner mapping, ERP integration, error handling, and resolutions.
If you are looking to outsource your entire EDI function and invest your resources in other tasks, this might be a suitable choice for you. If you want to invest in EDI, EDI talent, and do some things yourself, while these service providers may help you achieve your goals, they can also inhibit your growth. While fully managed services work well for many SMEs (Small to medium enterprises), some of the drawbacks of a fully managed service include limited control and visibility. This can lead to unexpected costs and challenges to upgrading to a new ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, or TMS.
VAN providers have been around since the inception of EDI. VANs provide secure, outsourced networks that connect organizations with their trading partners across the globe. A value-added network (VAN) can help you securely send and share data with your partners and provide an outsourced network enabling seamless connections between global trading partners. Large enterprises can leverage this type of network to securely transmit documents from their EDI mailbox to a particular trading partner’s EDI mailbox through a service like a post office, but electronically. By enabling a secure network, they simplify communication between cloud-based EDI providers or internal networks using pre-connected connections with trading partners.
Some EDI VAN providers also offer supplemental services like data backup and recovery, document mapping, compliance, and performance tracking, and have grown largely through acquisition. If your partners are spread across the globe, and you lack needed network capabilities, a VAN service may be helpful to your business. However, VANs were initially developed for large companies and may be costly if your data exchange volume is high or may cause difficulties if your partner’s messaging format varies from yours. While VANs have long claimed to have a competitive advantage by way of their networks, the supply chain today is full of complexities, something that cannot possibly be resolved by way of a single network.
Breaking away from the traditional VAN providers are the AS2 Providers. EDI AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) providers allow for the secure transmission of various types of data, such as EDI and XML, over the internet using HTTP and TCP/IP. AS2 can also be used to transmit images and complete PDF documents, something a traditional VAN is unprepared to do. Among these variations today associated with conventional EDI, these AS2 services are widely used to ensure seamless integration with trading partners, allowing you to handle any file format.
AS2 providers are typically an addition to a VAN, managed service provider, or brokered EDI relationship. AS2 services require message disposition/delivery notifications that acknowledge the reception after the electronic message (document or data) transmits to the sender via AS2 protocol. One of the stated benefits of using AS2 over FTP is the message delivery notification or MDN. Although some may argue that the MDN replaces the Functional Acknowledgement (997), the message delivery notification (MDN) used in AS2 only indicates a message received. In contrast, the Functional Acknowledgement (997) also confirms the delivery of a document, any formatting errors, or data loss.
Enterprises can leverage MDNs using in-house IT resources or through a cloud-based vendor to determine if a partner is struggling to keep up with transaction volumes and adjust accordingly. If you are looking for an EDI solution that ensures an end-to-end process and helps you securely send unlimited data while being kind to your partners and easy on your pockets, AS2 has proven to be a worthwhile investment.
A complete EDI solution/provider is the type of EDI solution provider that develops, implements and maintains EDI software for your business and businesses like yours. This is the type of EDI solution capable of bringing to bear many or all of the solutions described above by catering to your core business and enabling seamless connectivity visibility, onboarding, and training. A type of EDI solution that provides an EDI platform, EDI solutions, connectivity and interoperability by delivering, for example, a VAN and an AS2 solution from within the core of the product or platform.
Enterprises employing such EDI tools can use their own EDI experts to manage day-to-day activities efficiently. Even activities such as error tracking, handling, and alerting can also be automated with a complete EDI solution. This EDI solution considers integration with one or more platforms or systems, once relegated to custom code as ‘out of the box’, in other words, included with the platform. This EDI solution provider also tends to keep their solutions up to date and improve upon them by regularly updating these platforms, their customers’ instances and keeping their users informed.
Complete EDI Solutions/Providers also include and deliver training to ensure that your EDI experts stay current with the latest technologies and can use them to deliver critical or time-sensitive transactions across your partners and networks efficiently and without errors. If you are looking for or are expecting to have or maintain complete control and visibility over your entire set of B2B, B2C messaging and/or your API/EDI practice, then a Complete EDI Solution/Provider might be a good fit for you.
PartnerLinQ is an innovative, cloud-native platform that delivers supply chain visibility and resilience by simplifying trading partner connectivity and interoperability. PartnerLinQ’s native app ecosystem adds business context to the traditional integration, minimizing disruption by increasing set-up velocity and improving implementation speed resulting in overall efficiency gains between 30 and 500%.
PartnerLinQ comes completely preconfigured and installed with capabilities for intelligent hyper-automation, multi-channel integration, and real-time analytics while allowing your team to take control if that’s what they want to do. It seamlessly connects multi-tier supply chain networks, channels, and marketplaces with your core ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, or TMS, delivering unified connectivity to a global client base. PartnerLinQ connects with more than 77 Commerce Platforms, Market Places, B2B Portals, Social Channels, enterprise-level systems and shipping solutions today, so you are ready for today and the future.
PartnerLinQ simplifies the partner onboarding process through its Common Processing Workflow. Complemented by the Business Rule Manager, an entire migration process involving more than 1,000 partners and customers can be completed in weeks rather than months or years.
The PartnerLinQ platform scales automatically from transactions number in the hundreds to more than 60 million transactions. It is available in PartnerLinQ’s Azure-based hybrid cloud architecture and in the Google Cloud Platform, managing more than 8,000,000 transactions per day – nearly twice any required capacity.
It integrates seamlessly with your core ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, TMS, or legacy systems, as well as Commerce Platforms, Market Places, B2B Portals, Social Channels, enterprise-level systems and shipping solutions to ensure that you are better positioned to drive even greater efficiencies with cooperative technologies, that provide real-time updates and actionable insights.
Real-time insights are critical for today’s supply chain executives, and PartnerLinQ delivers consistent customer value at every touchpoint. PartnerLinQ’s biggest success comes with its ability to turn falling service ratings into top scores with the biggest clients by providing greater visibility into the operations and the ability to consistently deliver on service-level commitments.
For more information, visit our website.
Raw materials are not only the building blocks of any product we consume but also the starting point. From consumer electronics to food products, manufacturers are involved in procuring, shipping, and storing massive volumes of raw material every day. This makes ensuring adequate supply and efficient management of raw materials critical for all companies involved in the production of goods. Moreover, raw materials are often an investment that affects cash flow as raw material costs have soared in recent months. Listed as an asset on a company’s balance sheet, soaring costs often mean increased value even during a decline in sales.
Over the last few decades, product companies have been expanding their sourcing networks for cost optimization, looking to strike the best deals in terms of material and logistics costs. This, in turn, has led to increasingly complex supply chains for raw materials filled with single producers of raw goods and strategic partnerships. However, following the disruptions brought about by COVID-19, manufacturers face increasing “cost pressures”, primarily due to shortages in the global workforce. At the same time, they are facing a scarcity of raw materials and, in particular, ingredients. This has led to increased complexities in the supply chains.
Such complexities can easily disturb the delicate balance between supply and demand if not effectively managed. Overstocks, understocks, and product quality and compliance issues can add even more complexities to transportation and warehousing and disrupt the production process. Many smaller producers lack adequate cash flows and reserve capacity to recover from these challenges despite higher company value.
Working with our clients, many of them are product companies, we have identified the following key issues impacting the supply chain of their raw materials:
A raw material supply chain incurs several layers of cost related to energy, transportation and communication, logistics, labor, and even the adoption of newer technologies. While controlling operating costs is often a continuous challenge, a company cost management model can often be short-term and functionally focused. Therefore, optimizing supply chain costs demands greater insight. Through insight, companies can develop analysis models that align with their business values, functional outcomes, and long-term business valuation.
Traceability and transparency are essential in minimizing raw material safety and compliance issues, and visibility is the first step in that process. Companies need the ability to trace materials from the point of manufacture through their entire journey to the point of delivery. Whether inbound or outbound transactions and product flow, it is no longer ‘safe’ to use an age-old “one up / one down” methodology for tracking trade goods. Additionally, consumers are becoming increasingly curious about where their ingredients come from. So, accurate and real-time information from every node across the network can help enhance your brand value and increase customer loyalty. On the other hand, a lack of visibility exposes a company to undue risk and expenses.
Fragmented information and a lack of communication leave parties in the supply network without visibility into each other’s actions, leading to inefficiency. A trade relationship lacking collaboration will surely escalate supply chain problems, particularly as markets and raw material networks expand.
Many challenges in supply chain management and raw material partner networks are traceable to outdated systems and processes that depend on traditional paper tracking, manual inspection, and black box integrations lacking adequate reporting systems. Although short linear supply chains can be optimized using spreadsheets or siloed software, modern material partner networks are more complex, involving complicated business relations. Such network complexities include packaging and process materials, which are better served by integrated supply chain solutions that avoid mass customization.
As the ‘Great Disruption’ continues, markets remain volatile. Fluctuating material prices and logistical disruptions due to lockdowns continue to affect the global supply of raw materials. Also, quarantine requirements continue to affect the manufacture of raw materials and finished goods. This raises the urgency for industry leaders to take a more innovative approach to raw material supply chain management. It comprises improvements in forecasting, flexibility, transparency, and increased visibility to capitalize on the new normal.
Industry leaders need to use such forecasts effectively to plan and minimize the impact of volatilities in day-to-day operations. Additionally, leverage a solution that drives down costs and provides a competitive edge via end-to-end supply chain visibility, gaining more stability.
Modern supply chain solutions can go a long way in formalizing and optimizing raw materials inventory and management.
A supply chain solution that seamlessly integrates with data management technologies makes a business more efficient and less vulnerable to uncertainty. Advanced data management helps you to optimize inventory control through the following key capabilities:
Maintains a consistent flow of information and insights across raw material partner networks, concerned departments, and business functions within the organization.
Removes the need to maintain multiple integrations, bringing historical data, open orders, and shipping and invoice data into one unified digital connectivity, integration platform, and transaction processing model.
Generate reporting based on real-time transaction processing to enable real-time and data-driven decision-making.
Combines data contained by the unified digital connectivity and integration platform and transaction processing model with improvements in visibility to reduce inventory spikes and shortages.
Delivers visibility to your team so they may allocate funds to functions like procurement, processing, and production in time to ensure the quality and timely delivery of your products.
Although supply chain leaders understand the need for streamlined processes related to raw material management, they have had to rely on historical data or educated guesses to forecast future raw material demand for too long. However, data-driven forecasting resulting from functional collaboration and a unified digital platform eliminates waste, improves efficiency, and ensures the on-time delivery of quality products while reducing overall inventory costs.
That’s not all. Organizations with such a data-driven, analytical approach to collaboration can stay more informed while keeping an eye on raw material inventory and gaining significant competitive and cost advantages.
PartnerLinQ is a hosted integration platform for EDI, B2B, and API integration; and is the flagship product of Visionet’s industry expertise and technology leadership. The PartnerLinQ team at Visionet has 25 years of experience providing industry-focused technology, consulting, and innovative solutions that drive global supply chain transformation from the factory to the end consumer.
PartnerLinQ is an innovative, process-centric, easy-to-use EDI solution that enables API-led, cloud-native integrations. It includes a simplified B2B communication engine that combines EDI, AS2, SFTP, and real-time APIs and easily handles proprietary file-based formats and custom integrations. With its overarching capabilities, PartnerLinQ is well suited for retail, e-commerce, wholesale, transportation, 3PL, distribution, and digital and analog partner ecosystems, helping your team achieve operational efficiency and gain real-time visibility.
Visionet, a Microsoft Gold Partner, leverages Microsoft Azure for the PartnerLinQ platform. The PartnerLinQ platform can process thousands of transactions simultaneously across a variety of transfer protocols. Moreover, it transforms X12, XML, Flat Files, CSV, IDocs, and custom formats and can integrate them into more than 74 ERP, WMS, and TMS systems.
Along with its job scheduling and batch job capabilities, PartnerLinQ’s ability to manage increased transaction volume means the entirety of the business workflow is much easier to manage than the black box integrations of yesteryear. Additionally, by optimizing its business rules engine, an extensive library, and ERP integration, PartnerLinQ enables easy partner onboarding, simplified configuration, and access to visual data mappings.
Many businesses struggle to take their data management and exchange processes to the next level. They may be using an outdated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution, or they may not be using EDI at all.
If your business needs better data management, you may want to consider finding an EDI service provider. Here is an introduction to EDI and 10 considerations when looking for EDI service providers in 2023.
In an increasingly digitized world, businesses must also change how they operate. Many companies are now turning to EDI to manage their workflows better.
According to statistics, the global EDI software market size is estimated to reach a whopping $4.04 billion by 2029, compared to $1.88 billion in 2022.
EDI is the electronic interchange of business information following a standard format. It’s generally used to streamline transactions between companies. This process was once done using paper documents that had to be mailed back and forth, however, EDI now enables businesses to exchange data electronically and quickly.
While EDI refers to the process of electronically exchanging business data in a pre-defined format between systems, non-EDI is the traditional way of exchanging information without any pre-defined format. This would include using paper documents or even emailing attachments back and forth. Non-EDI can be very timeconsuming and expensive due to mailing costs. Non-EDI formats can include: Fixed length flat files, Variable length flat files, Binary files, to name a few.
EDI can be powerful to the business supply chain, automating and speeding up processes that would traditionally be done manually or through ineffective processes. Various organizations, including retailers, manufacturers, and distributors, can use EDI software to automate processes and improve data accuracy. It can maximize efficiency, improve overall experience, minimize errors throughout the supply chain, and provide the following key benefits:
To ensure your business is ready for the new year, you’ll want an efficient and reliable EDI service provider. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind when selecting one:
A good place to start is to make sure the provider can integrate with all the software you’re using. Finding an EDI service provider that uses an Application Programming Interface (API) for integration is recommended to make it easier to connect with your existing systems.
Integrated solutions are important because they can automate processes and make it easier to manage data.
Your EDI provider should not be specific to any one industry. This is because your business might branch out into new markets and you don’t want to change providers. An agnostic provider will also be able to give you a more objective perspective on how best to use EDI in your business and cater to your unique needs.
There are three main deployment models for EDI: on-premise, cloud-based, and hybrid. On-premise means the EDI software is installed and managed on your company’s servers. Cloud-based solutions are hosted by the provider and accessed through the internet.
Hybrid deployments use a combination of both on-premise and cloud-based resources. The best option for you will depend on your company’s size and needs, budget, and IT infrastructure.
Time to implementation is important, as you don’t want your business to be disrupted for too long. A good provider can give you a timeline for implementation and stick to it. As EDI can be difficult to set up, it’s important to ensure your provider has a good track record with other clients.
You should ensure that the provider you choose has a good understanding of your industry and your company’s specific needs. This way, they can help you select the best EDI software for your business and ensure a smooth transition to using it.
For example, your provider should be familiar with HIPAA compliance if you’re in the healthcare industry. Or, if you’re in the retail industry, your provider should know about EDI for e-commerce.
You’ll also want to make sure that your provider has a good understanding of the technology you’re using. They should be able to support you and help you troubleshoot any issues you may have.
Additionally, they should be up-to-date on the latest EDI software and standards so that you can be confident your business is using the best possible solution.
EDI data is often sensitive, so it’s important to ensure that your provider has a secure platform. Also, 80% of all cyber breaches happen in the supply chain, and 72% of companies don’t have full visibility into their supply chains. The platform should comply with industry security standards like HIPAA and PCI DSS.
One of the most important things to consider when choosing an EDI service provider is whether or not their solution is user-friendly. After all, you don’t want your employees to waste time figuring out how to use the software.
A good EDI service provider will offer a solution that is easy to use and comes with training and support so your employees can be up and running quickly.
As your business grows, you’ll want an EDI solution that can scale with you. A good EDI provider will offer a scalable solution so that you can add on features and functionality as needed. This way, you won’t have to switch providers down the road when your business expands.
Finally, select an EDI service provider with a good reputation. You can check online reviews and talk to other businesses in your industry to see what they recommend. Additionally, you’ll want to ensure the provider offers good customer support if you have any problems using their software.
As you browse EDI service providers that can offer all of these things, you’ll want to keep PartnerLinQ in mind. We’re a leading provider of EDI solutions and have over 25 years of experience helping businesses with their data exchange needs. With PartnerLinQ, our digital platform for communication with EDI and non-EDI partners, you can take full control of your supply chain.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, request a demo today and learn more about PartnerLinQ and how it can help you transform your supply chain ecosystem.
The client has been at the pinnacle of fresh baking – fostering connections and community for over two centuries. Descended from the first food company founded in New England in 1790. They follow responsible sourcing guidelines and have a “never bleached” guarantee on all of their products. The employee-owned business works closely with farmers, millers, and suppliers in a continued commitment to sustain, preserve, and improve a business founded more than 230 years ago – a task made easy with the right partners.
On a warm morning in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at a symposium in 2005 the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made the following statement…
“While the techniques and instruments to absorb fluctuations have improved, there is uncertainty about how they will perform in a serious downturn.”
The speaker was Ragham Rajan and while he was widely ridiculed at the time, his speech would prove to be prophetic. The 2007-08 financial crisis to follow occurred because market changes and advancements were concentrating risk despite appearing to diversify risk.
The world is witnessing an unprecedented level of disruption beginning with COVID-19, followed by supply chain issues, and a growing disruption within the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the flight of workers from the hospitality industry in September, with a reported 863,000 leaving their positions, fully 6.6% of the hospitality workforce. Across the world we see acute shortages for commodities, including computer chips, furniture, and mobile devices among them. Fortunately, there are no nationwide shortages of food. Although in some cases we might have certain foods with low inventory, food production and manufacturing are widely dispersed in North America. Global Industrialization is suffering, and many manufacturers in the US are reporting a wait of more than 90 days to procure materials and assemble parts to make their products.
Beyond the supply chain shortages and bottlenecks there are multiple causes for disruption. The emerging cause can be attributed to a shortage of labor, especially truck drivers, which has stalled production operations across plants, distribution points, and delivery centers. Despite rising unemployment, the gap between labor and unfilled positions is increasing.
With global production chains divided into specialized links over many decades, different industries have become inextricably connected over a period of time. Supply shocks have spread across unlikely industries, such as automobiles and semiconductors, or food and fertilizer.
Perhaps an even more visible cause for disruption lies in oversea shipping. The port crisis in the US has received global attention over the last year due to the immense buildup of ships and the never-ending influx of cargo. What supply chain professionals initially viewed as temporary is now threatening to change global shipping infrastructures from the size of ships to business practices, which relied on speed rather than on efficiency, availability, or visibility. Container ships are now circling ports and remaining at sea for longer periods increasing costs. Sea containers cost more to ship, resulting in exorbitant prices, and the accumulation of goods at shipyards, rail yards and warehouses, a direct result of the aforementioned labor shortage, dominated by a shortage of truck drivers.
Attending a supply chain conference last week for the first time in more than 18 months, I had an opportunity to listen to several speakers. One by one each delivered his or her view of what happens next, after the great disruption.
One speaker stated simply, “Supply chain is sexy again” and that caught my attention, for starters, I would agree. Having been largely automated and then ignored, the supply chain is again making news and having work in the supply chain for many years, there is more than a passing interest from John Q. Public on Supply chain matters. The speaker went on to talk about a financial newspaper with wide distribution. The paper, the speaker continued, published a mere handful of supply chain articles each month while in recent months, that handful had exploded to several articles every day. The articles, looking more critically now, are well beyond a single new outlet and appear to have a wide array of supply chain perspectives. Reflections of the articles range in impact from the DOW to the NASDAQ and from Retail to CPG and from staples to emerging technologies and in the virtual world these articles are boundless, including this one, which brings us to the following observation.
The string of supply chain disruption following the pandemic has resulted in the biggest stress test for supply chain leaders the world over, retail executives in North America anticipate issues to last beyond 2022. What appeared at first to be temporary has now turned into a series of long-lasting setbacks, some perhaps resulting in a permanent state of disruption in some industries. Considering the nearly two years since the onset, when and how these disruptions will end remain a matter of conjecture. The answers are not to be found, not in anyone’s tea leaves, not yet.
In order to future-proof, supply chain leaders are facing factors of change that have not been previously considered or discussed, solutions from worker migration to flexible labor practices and the movement of sourcing to new sourcing centers in emerging markets or those which can be more closely controlled or deliver an environmentally neutral position. The solution is in resolving multiple issues in the supply chain as it did way back when plastic hangers seemingly changed to black overnight.
Renewing the approach to transparency and visibility across the supply chain is critical in light of the uncertain future in this period of the Great Disruption, now clearly extended, with no end in sight. Increased transparency can better prepare stakeholders to deal with changing regulatory, environmental or compliance requirements while solving supply chain dilemmas. Visibility, through better partner communication, is becoming increasingly important to supply chain leaders that I spoke with at the conference. The importance of end-to-end communication with suppliers and partners across the trading network from their perspective cannot be overstated. Through the right technology, organizations can ensure that the appropriate information is collected, stored, and disseminated, and when partners are onboarded quickly to meet these unexpected scenarios, the results are a positive impact on business and on other concerns.
The PartnerLinQ advantage is its hybrid cloud architecture and easy partner onboarding, PartnerLinQ delivers a smarter B2B/B2C Integration platform with automated End-to-End Workflows and includes business rules for omnichannel integration.
PartnerLinQ’s unique approach to supply chain can help your organization communicate with your partners rapidly, ensuring end-to-end digital connectivity across all functional areas and through a centralized visibility platform.
PartnerLinQ zeroes in on issues, tracks them, and provides detailed analysis of all of your partners, including all of their inbound and outbound transactions and can generate alerts for specific partner events, delivering the insight your users need to address supply chain issues immediately.
Scan2EDI converts your manual process into electronic transactions using robotic process automation, optical character recognition, document management software, business process outsourcing, and artificial intelligence. Scan2EDI offers application integration advantages including PartnerLinQ’s ERP Integration Framework.
Instant Ocean Visibility provides container status at your fingertips. Integrated, automated, and reliable, your port – your container, Instant Ocean Visibility removes human intervention from container tracking, eliminates endless web searches, eliminates phone calls & email and eliminates voice messages and call backs.
Take control of your supply chain in the present and forge a new one for the future with PartnerLinQ. Talk with our experts to learn more.
By Kevin Balentine, PartnerLinQ
The client is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated producers, marketers, and distributors of high-quality fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables (FFV). It has more than 90,000 acres under production and 20 ships and is a leading producer and distributor of prepared fruits and vegetables, juices, beverages, and snacks, whose products are available in more than 100 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
The global marketplace today can perhaps be described as volatile. Prices are on the rise, shortages are popping up unexpectedly and in unexpected places. Many major retail grocers are expecting center store sales to increases, an indication of things to come.
While supply chains have become more extensive and interconnected, they have also shown unprecedented instability in the face of disruption. In the wake of COVID-19, the fragile stability of lean supply chains found difficulty in recovering quickly in the face of disruption. What has emerged is a succession of supply side ripples across multiple industries. The ripples collide until at last they reach the end of the line and, similar to the domino effect, as one chain ends another begins in sequence. Many of the assumptions upon which the lean manufacturing model was created, were undone by market and environment variables that emerged during the onset of the COVID disruption.
Organizations are beginning to accept a pretense of recovery amid a truly formidable challenge of accelerated customer demand and labor shortages, and while research indicates that retail sales can grow by as much as 10.5% to 13.5% to generate more than USD 4.4 trillion in this year, there are concerns. Having undergone unprecedented and unwelcome change throughout the past year, suppliers require stability and flexibility to tackle the surging demand. Resisting instability forms the key priority for retail suppliers, which brings focus to resilience.
21% That’s the number of respondents in a recent Gartner survey who affirmed that they have a resilient network at present. Giving context to the figure, resilience implies elevated visibility, persistent velocity in moving product from source to destination while avoiding supply chain constraints. In this current moment of volatility in the market, it is imperative for retail suppliers and retail enterprises to increase their supply chain resilience.
Becoming more resilient is no longer a luxury for supply chain leaders. The long-standing tradition of lean manufacturing and its entrenched philosophy will be the challenge to overcome. Supply chains need to be efficient as well as resilient, and practices such as redundant supply chain operations, alternative factories, and ample safety stock need to be developed in parallel with productivity and performance improvements. Supply chains also need to maintain compliance substituting lesser performing partners for those more suited following the COVID disruption. The widespread disruptions affected supply chain monitoring and audit and while enforcement may have been relaxed, performance improvements can only be brought about by effective monitoring and accounting. In order to holistically build a resilient supply chain network, retail suppliers need specific data elements to be incorporated into their supply chain and a robust solution methodology which combines five important elements is key.
A surefire approach to building supply chain resilience in retail is ensuring anytime, anyone, anywhere communication, systems need to be ‘access anywhere’ supportive of SSO (Single Sign on) and active directory. Manual partner-to-partner communication requires a lot of paperwork and must be reduced in light of staffing shortages. Manual communication methodologies lead to errors and errors mean more human intervention. Automatic and secure document flows compatible with multiple enterprise level system and capable of a variety of data interchange formats and in real time delivers resilience.
A significant aspect of resilience is ironing out friction within the network. A resilient supply chain must be flexible and able to fix critical issues with the least amount of effort. ‘Fix-on-the-fly’ functionality reducing human interaction increases flexibility. An efficient business rule manager is key to incorporate such flexibility. Reusable business rules ensure seamless partner onboarding and transaction integration. Reusable sets of business rules allow for the conservation of scarce technical resources and ease of use. The addition of reusable rules to rule sets to overcome existing issues, and proactive alerting based on business rules means time to make a correction where and when necessary. Change, through a business rules engine can be automated and in real time. Audit functions mean changes can be rolled out, and rolled back if that become necessary.
Perhaps the greatest lesson that the past year has taught suppliers in retail has been the importance of adaptation. The transition to digital and the prominence of ecommerce platforms has been well documented in the retail industry. An omnichannel strategy covers all potential channels for distribution and sales. An omnichannel strategy makes sense amid market disruptions such as we’ve seen this past year and a half. An omnichannel strategy means demand can be met with convenience and speed. While a stand-alone omnichannel strategy as a solution is one way to meet demand, leveraging a common process workflow to bring transactions in or out of the enterprise the same way every time means an increased ability to create multiple trading relationships and do so quickly. By eliminating the need for additional support or maintenance, a common process workflow takes partner on boarding to a new level while increasing the utility of business rules reduces the dependencies on map and mapping activities. Combining centralized B2B communication with such a workflow results in a highly independent system in which transactions and business processes are handled automatically, accounting for connection changes, partner onboarding, acquisitions, mergers and complete enterprise migration without adding disruption.
With much of the COVID disruption behind, and planning and change ahead, compliance has never been more important for retail suppliers. A flexible and effective event notification processor to stay on top of supply chain events and issues in real time becomes a valuable tool. Such rules-based processing must be backed by comprehensive audits, reports, and analytics. Such tools must be visible across the internal supply chain operation. Transaction transportation, transformation and integration tools must include analytics to ensure consistent business operations, keeping disparate teams in touch with the latest goings-on in the supply chain domain.
Accepting resilience is just the first step. The path includes overcoming challenges like supply chain and labor shortages and success in resilience is achieved by combining five key elements:
A resilient path will quickly deliver an elevated level of performance, particularly important as the retail industry begins to leave the COVID disruption behind and starts to engage with the new normal.
Y. Hata & Co., Limited has been an essential part of Hawaii’s economy for more than 108 years. Yoichi Hata and his wife started the company as a “mom-and-pop” operation in 1913, selling products (wholesale) out of a family garage on the Big Island of Hawaii. But the visionary founder soon transformed the modest backyard operation into a prolific statewide network.