Supply Chain Visibility Test

Sorry that I have not been able to write anything for the past couple of months, but I have been busy with both personal and professional life.

I have been thinking about Supply Chain Visibility for the past couple of weeks. I read a note from somebody that stated that 50+% of the participants for an upcoming Logistics Conference wanted to know more about Supply Chain Visibility. For me this is something that I have had and been working with for the past couple of years.

My Supply Chain allows me to do label my cartons for final delivery while they are still in China, load up on to separate containers and zone skip them into Small Package carriers close to my stores. While doing this entire process I am able to know where each carton in along the way. The way I am able to do this is by getting constant EDI updates from my Business Partners and carriers.

My system allows me to look at a PO and drill down to view the actual cartons within that PO and then based upon the last EDI transmission, I know where my carton is within my Supply Chain and when it is anticipated on delivering to my final destination.

Based upon what I am doing I feel that I have Very Good Supply Chain visibility, but do I and how do I compare what I am doing with others? In order to answer that there needs to be a standardized "test" for determining Supply Chain Visibility. Below is such a test. I used the standard Snelling Eye Test (you know the one with the BIG E at the top and depending upon how far down you can read tells you how well you can see)to come up with my own Supply Chain Visibility Test.

20/200 You have no visibility into your Supply Chain, you only have a Purchase order management system telling you when your orders have a ship/cancel window.

20/100 You have very limited visibility into your Supply Chain, but it is some visibility. You are able to know when orders arrive at certain milestones and if it is short or complete but only at the PO level. Your visibility is based off of emails being sent to you from somebody on the other end.

20/50 You are have limited connectivity with your Business partners (factories, carriers etc). You might have a system in place at one of your Business partners that is sending data back to you, but you are still getting emails or going through their websites to get the balance of the data.

20/20 You have a system in place that pulls data from all Business partners into your system. You are able to get not only receipt information on your Purchase orders, but also know the details of the cartons (tracking numbers, destination and current location) in your Supply Chain. Everything is being done automatically and nothing is being done manually. All data is also captured and viewed in 1 system from womb to tomb.

20/10 This is the next level of visibility. You not only have all of the visibility above, but you are able to take that visibility and use it to your advantage to "divert" cartons as needed to other destinations while in your Supply Chain once it arrives at one of your Supply Chain milestones.

Take a look at this and let me know your thoughts and where you fall within the test.

I feel that I have a 20/20 Supply Chain Visibility.

Chinese New Year/ Steamship lines Old Tricks

Chinese New Year will soon be here and for us retailers comes the “thrill” of being able to move out 3 weeks of receipts in 1 week. US Retailers are starting to rebound from 1 ½ years of hard times. Orders at the factories are up and people are beginning to feel better about things. All is good in the world of retail until, our friends at the steamship lines reduce capacity during our time of rebound. As we all know this is “business as usual” for the steamship lines to lower capacity out of China in order to recoup some of the money that they lost in the prior year (I also feel this is a chance to start posturing for the annual rate negotiations). I will admit that this year seems tougher than in prior years, but is this all the steamship lines fault?

My opinion is that we are all masochistic, #1 for being in Retail, but also because all of this pain we feel we put onto ourselves. We push to get the steamship line rates to be as cheap as possible and in doing so, we agree to pay PSS charges and then take it again in the Spring with diminished capacity at our time of need. Why???? Instead of doing all of this, why are we not working with the steamship companies to avoid this pain and help them make their margins? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Steamship lines are going to win against us. They own the vessels and can increase or decrease capacity depending upon how they feel and if they do, what are we going to do about it?

Ocean transportation is the cheapest part of the Supply Chain and it seems to be the place we all spend the most time looking at. I think we blow this out of proportion because it is an EASY way to reduce cost. I agree it is easy, but if we worked a little harder we could save more in the long run by reducing our dependency on 3PL’s which can run us at least 100% more per carton than our ocean costs. Just think of the money you could save by reducing what your 3PL does for you.

FOB (First Online Blog)

Hello and welcome to a blog for Retail Supply Chain.

I have set up this blog to be only about the Retail Supply Chain and what we have to go through to move goods from factory to the store. I am looking for people who deal with any part of the Retail Supply Chain to be a part of this blog. You can work for a retailer, an overseas factory, a 3PL, a carrier or even be a wholesaler/supplier having to deliver to a retailer.

The main purpose of this blog is to discuss the things we all can do to change or factors that are forcing us to change the face of the Retail Supply Chain. These discussions can be about new concepts and innovations to the Retail Supply Chain or it can be about new legislation or procedures that are coming out.

I will also be posting articles and new products or offerings that I find from different sources, giving you my POV as to what it is going to do for Retail, along with soliciting yours.

Please give me your input on what I/we can do to make this blog better for all of us.

Thank you for reading.