Category Supply Chain Advantage

Food prices are rising and consumers are paying a heavy price. CPI reached 7% in the UK in the year to March 2022 and 8% in the US. Pork prices are up 25% year on year.

• Energy prices have increased starkly too. Diesel and Gasoline have risen too making transport costs much higher.
• Problems at UK ports persist and there are still serious labour shortages including HGV drivers.
• Shanghai is still locked down with consequential impact on factory closures and ports at a standstill.
• P&O Ferries are still not working in the UK causing port congestion and delays and in addition there are still significant Brexit issues causing problems.
• World Bank Chief says it's time to diversify away from China.
• Minerals and metals are in short supply which has an impact on other products such as microchips.
• Avian flu gives rise to price increase in eggs (52%) and chicken meat.
• Canada invests $1.6 bn. In minerals to support EVB technology.
• Stagflation on the horizon?
• Catch up on the White House view of supply chains.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

The Supply Chain News Round Up for April 2nd reports on events around the world impacting supply chains.
P&O The UK CEO dismisses 800 employees on a Zoom call wiyhout notice. The UK Government has instigated criminal proceedings.

• Shanghai is in lockdown again with Covid.
• The OBR says Brexit will cause a loss of 4 per cent. 
• The Sustainable Apparel Coalition Higg Index gives polyester a green light. Experts are highly critical.
• UK productivity slow down causes identified by Cambridge University Bennet Institute.
• News of another Evergreen ship stranded in Baltimore.
• Scania's new electrified truck breaks new ground.
• Is it the end of more than thirty years of globalization?

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

Risk – When you deliver goods to a port to be loaded on a ship that is when risk begins. Transporting the goods that you have produced with all the cost that has gone into those goods is value that can be lost if you do not protect your assets. This is where insurance comes into play. Having the right contractual arrangements with customers and suppliers is central to having the right protections in place. In this episode Tony Hines discusses Cost Insurance Freight and Free On Board options. He emphasises that insurance is necessary to reduce risk.

Reputations take years to build. Organizations invest millions of dollars to build a brand but all of this can be destroyed in a moment. P&O has become such a company at risk in the United Kingdom by the CEO admitting he broke the law when he dismissed 800 employees in a Zoom call without notice.

Tony Hines also gives his 3 minute tip to build supply chain advantage by focusing on his 7V Framework.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

Service levels require careful planning. If supply chains are to be resilient businesses have to be responsive to customer demand and agile to supply goods and services when required. To provide excellent service means meeting customer demand and that requires inventory management.  Planning service levels to meet dynamic demand is key. Serving customers means businesses have to have inventory available. Holding inventory ties up working capital so the trick is to keep inventories low whilst still meeting demand. There is a trade-off between cost and availability and balance is necessary.  It is a dilema betweem just-in-time or just-in-case. The latter is costly. but the former can also be costly if you lose customers. Contemporary supply chain systems are dynamic. We no longer design systems and processes for long time periods. Systems are dynamic and so must design of the systems be responsive to change. In this episode Tony Hines discusses some key aspects of planning service that gives value to customers and is profitable for the network. 

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

In this episode Tony Hines introduces the topic of supply chain skills necessary to enter careers in supply chain management. In conversation  with two special guests Dr Regina Frei, Associate Professor at Southampton University Business School and Dr Eoin Plant-O'Toole, Associate Professor at Napier University, Edinburgh he asks them what they think are the skills needed to build a career in supply chains. Both guests have new courses that they have developed in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and they speak about the curricula they have developed to support new entrants and experienced managers too.

Dr Eoin Plant-O'Toole is also involved with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and transport (CILT) and he leads the Policy Committee in Ireland and he told us a little about that work and why it is important to network to build contacts to support your career development.

Oil prices steadied this week but consumer and business costs are still rising as a result of recent increases. Food inflation is giving cause for concern.
This week as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues many of the world's largest brands have pulled out of Russia closing plants, retail stores and pausing operations. Payment system providers such as Visa, Mastercard and Pay Pal have also withdrawn. Shipping volumes to Russia fell by 40 per cent in the first week of March. Many Russian flagged or owned ships have been turned away from UK ports in the past week. Some big freight companies such as Maersk are no longer sailing in or out of Russian ports.

Maersk is also developing green fuels to power its new ships. Sony and Honda have formed a joint company to produce electric vehicles. Container dwell times have led to increased criminal activities at seaports.

Link to report mentioned in podcast:
This report explores the use of EPR, which sees producers cover the costs of dealing with textiles at their end of life, as a mechanism through which to drive circularity in the textiles market. The report recommends the implementation of EPR alongside supporting measures that incentivise eco-design.

https://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/driving-a-circular-economy-for-textiles-through-epr/ 

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

In this special edition we take a look at the adoption of redistributive manufacturing(RDM) as a means of making health care supply chains more resilient. Tony Hines speaks with Professor Wendy Phillips who is professor of innovation at Bristol Business School, University of West England and a leading researcher in this field.

RDM has potential to engage local communities to become co-producers in providing products and services at the point of consumption and to customize them to meet the specific need of service users. Professor Phillips talks about her research giving many examples of the benefits that such a supply chain reconfiguration can bring and also discusses the wider potential application of RDM across different sectors.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine dominated news headlines this week.  We take a look at the implications for global supply chains.

We also take a look at California's 22 point plan to combat plastic waste along with a new tax on plastic packaging in the UK.

Public procurement may need to take a look at the wider geopolitical implications of procurement and not simply choose suppliers offering the best price.

Listen to the full round up here.

This is why you should listen to the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage. Evidenced based opinion delivered directly to you about everything happening in supply chains affecting business. Stay informed about supply chains by listening to Chain Reaction – subscribe today.

This is a short extract from a forthcoming episode on resilient supply chains in healthcare where Professor Wendy Phillips from Bristol Business School discusses redistributed manufacturing as a strategy to improve timeliness to meet patient needs better.

In this episode Tony Hines takes a look at the philosophy behind supply chains in our material world. We also look at the whole area of reverse supply chains with special guest Dr Regina Frei, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at Southampton University. We look at how some customers cost us more than others as well as how some suppliers are more costly to deal with than others and we have the usual news round up from round the globe.

The growth of internet retail has caused an increasing problem for the retail sector of processing returns to minimise cost and the impact on their bottom line. According to KPMG returns can reduce profits by 30 per cent.  The average cost of returns is 10 per cent. Manufacturers and retailers are said to spend $100 billion on returns. In the UK alone retail returns are about £7 billion.  A single return costs about £10  but remember this is an average figure. Some returns cost more. When it comes to returning products you are effectively reversing the supply chain process moving goods back from consumers to suppliers. There are many reasons why people need to return goods. It may be damage to products, wrong item delivered, not fit for purpose or simply that the customer changed their mind. It will depend on the returns policy how each business deals with returns. Dr Regina Frei is our special guest who will discuss this with us today. You can also read some of Gina's research by following the links here:

Product returns: a growing problem for business, society and environment in International Journal of Operations and Production Management:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJOPM-02-2020-0083

No such thing as free product returns in The Conversation:
https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-costs-of-online-shopping-for-customers-and-retailers-109694