Supply Chain World Volume 8, Issue 6

Chairman Andrew Schofield

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Managing Director Joe Woolsgrove Editor Libbie Hammond Assistant Editor Will Daynes Staff Writers Alex McDonald Danielle Champ Production Manager Fleur Daniels Art Editor David Howard Advertising Designer Rebecca Side Sales Director Alasdair Gamble Operations Director Philip Monument Operations Manager Natalie Griffiths Research Managers Jo-Ann Jeffery Ben Richell Kieran Shukri Basil Sharpe Editorial Researchers Adam Blanch Mark Cowles Tarjinder Kaur-D’Silva Jeff Goldenberg Mark Kafourous James Page Wendy Russell Richard Saunders Advertising Sales Johanna Bailey • Alex Hartley • Dave King • Theresa McDonald • Ibby Mundhir • Reid Lingle Sam Surrel • Mike Berger Web Sales web@schofieldpublishing.com Subscriptions i.kidd@schofieldpublishing.com

Passion and drive Hello and welcome to the June issue of Supply Chain World. It feels timely that we’re looking at software supply chain security in the wake of the SolarWinds breach in this issue, following the recent news that JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, has confirmed that it paid an $11 million ransom after ransomware operators breached its network and encrypted some of its North American and Australian IT systems. In our feature, Taylor Armerding, a Security Advocate at Synopsys Software Integrity Group, discusses the issue of cybersecurity and advises that solutions are out there. “If you want to maintain the health of your products and systems, you have to make sure everything you use from outside your organization is healthy too,” he states. Taylor recommends that ‘one of the first things a consumer organization should do is track what it’s using’ – do you need to start this process?

Our profiles section sees SCW talking to companies from a variety of sectors – from Coca Cola to auto wheels, tires and parts! This latter content appears in the feature on CanadaWheels, where founder and chief executive officer, Saleh Taebi explained to Supply Chain World that he wants the business to be the ‘Amazon for car parts in Canada and beyond’. It is a great story of a man with a vision and the passion and drive to make it reality. With big plans on the agenda for future expansion, the business looks to be headed into the US and even further afield soon. Get the full details on page 62.

Schofield Publishing Ltd Corporate Head Office Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. Tel: (312) 854-0123 Tel: 044 (0)1603 274130

Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.com

Finelight Media 207 E. Ohio Street, Suite 351, Chicago, IL 60611 T: (312) 854-0123

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© 2021 Schofield Publishing Ltd

Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, and correct at time of writing, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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CONTENTS

Features 4 Material handling

With so much data available to forklift truck fleet managers, how can they sort through the clutter and find the information that is truly useful?

Profiles

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6 Warehouses

Is there a case for warehouses to get smarter as well as larger? The opportunity is there for operators to take initial steps into Supply Chain 4.0

10 Staff

People and algorithms work best together, with the lights on, so for supply chains the best direction is to augment people power, rather than replacing it

14 Automation

The ability to automate operations and remove daily functional constraints is predictable, avoidable, and necessary. How AGV vendors have finally moved the constraint

16 Digitalization

CAPREIT

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With the introduction of digital identity technologies, it is possible to provide unique traceable identities for every product, enabling transparency from raw materials and beyond

18 Cyber security

Supply chain security measures can make an organization much more secure – this is becoming essential in the face of increased cyber risks. Taylor Amerding reports on the market

20 Lean

The pandemic has proved the importance of being able to react to changes in demand– and those following the lessons of lean thinking have found that this methodology has proven advantageous

22 Data

Stepping away from data lakes and harmonizing data with a smart data fabric – complemented by AI and machine learning (ML) along with new APIdriven development approaches

Harbor Wholesale

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24 Supply chains

The automotive aftermarket is moving from a reactive to a predictive model. Delivering these solutions requires industry specific experience and knowledge from technology providers

26 News

Some of the recent developments within the supply chain arena – new contracts, exciting announcements,research findings and interesting solutions

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ADB SAFEGATE

Son

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Imperial Distributors COVER STORY

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C0ca-Cola

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CanadaWheels

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Sonic Manufacturing Technologies

Northside Hospital

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Le Duff America

Red Wing Shoe Company scw-mag.com

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MATERIAL HANDLING

Unlock material handling efficiency with data How to break through mountains of data and connect the dots for real benefit. By Steven LaFevers

T

hink back to March 2020 and the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the most peculiar (and memorable) storylines was the great toilet paper shortage. Like bread and milk in preparation for a major weather event, toilet paper became the must-have item for consumers preparing to hunker down in quarantine.

From neighborhood bodegas to grocery stores to big-box retailers, toilet paper shelves were empty. And even when it came back in stock, retailers instituted strict rationing in an effort to prevent shoppers from hording and provide a more regular supply.

Behind the scenes, paper suppliers were scrambling to keep up and boost production – and the lift truck data supports this. We looked at a major paper product manufacturer’s

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lift truck fleet data and, sure enough, truck session hours rose sharply at the outset of the pandemic, indicative of the all-hands effort to address the surge. Now, what if the manufacturer knew this and acted quickly to supplement their fleet with rental trucks to cover the working time and maintain the optimal average working hours per truck?

Of course, lift truck data offers great benefit far beyond tracking the origins of a toilet paper shortage. When it comes to keeping downtime to a minimum, fleets structured efficiently and operators working at peak performance, access to the right data goes a long way. But with so much data available – related to individual operators, equipment use, individual components and more – how can fleet managers sort through the clutter?

A telemetry system sorts through

mountains of data to identify the most valuable information and – here’s the important part – provides actionable insights that take the guesswork out of your work.

User-friendly dashboards available online through the cloud make large data sets more manageable, even on mobile, allowing access to near real-time fleet metrics and notifications on the shop floor. Managers get notifications about things like lift truck impacts, maintenance alerts and concerns on pre-shift safety checklists for near immediate action and resolution.

It all adds up to meaningful efficiency gains in everything from labor management to fleet size and equipment procurement.

Each day, operators are required by OSHA to fill out a pre-shift safety checklist. Rather than using paper-based systems, they can use

Main image: Telemetry is a tool to improving overall fleet efficiency Above, left & right: Telemetry device that’s on lift trucks equipped with Hyster Tracker Left: Telemetry mobile app

the telemetry devices mounted to equipment, complete with onboard prompts and fast alerts to key stakeholders to photograph and document any issues through the portal, informing maintenance action. Managers can customize checklist frequency to suit individual needs, and pull checklist information for a specific day, truck or operator through portal reporting tools.

To access equipment and begin the OSHA checklist, personnel must swipe a unique access card. This enables facilities to restrict equipment access only to operators with proper training and certification, and track operational data like equipment impacts and idle time by the specific employee. This increased accountability can encourage better driver behaviors, help reduce equipment damage and preserve uptime.

More recently, some manufacturers have introduced auxiliary features to provide extended functionality. One example is an onboard camera system that automatically saves footage minutes before and after an impact. Not only do supervisors get a notification if an impact registers, they get a complete picture of the circumstances around lift truck impact events. Another added feature enables lead-acid battery monitoring, gathering data on maintenance habits, watering, equalization and charging to help avoid premature wear due to mismanagement.

Optimizing lift truck size and makeup is a lot like finding the elusive ‘Goldilocks’ setting.

Not too many pieces of equipment so that operations pay for lift trucks that lie dormant, but not too lean to the point any unplanned downtime grinds throughput to a halt.

Utilization data helps businesses understand how they use equipment, providing the datadriven basis for decisions on fleet size and lift truck product type.

Seasonal peaks or unexpected spikes in demand may require a larger fleet than other

times of year, which could lead operations to accumulate excess equipment. But using telemetry to gather and analyze utilization data can allow managers to decide on a smaller, year-round core fleet of trucks, then rely on rental agreements to handle spikes.

In fact, analyzing utilization data like lift truck session hours can illuminate when spikes are happening – like those due to unexpected toilet paper demand.

While leveraging utilization data may not have avoided the impact of the pandemic on store shelves, it could have alerted managers of the need to bring in rental trucks to help handle the surge. By supplementing the core lift truck fleet, the optimal average for working hours could be maintained, helping extend equipment life and avoid unexpected service issues.

Steven LaFevers is Vice President, Emerging Technology at Hyster Company.

Hyster Company offers 130 lift truck models configured for ICE and electric power, in 2,000 to 105,000-lb load capacities. Hyster also offers robotics and telematic solutions that deliver high productivity, low total cost of ownership, easy serviceability and advanced ergonomics, supported by one of the industry’s largest, experienced dealer networks. www.hyster.com

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WAREHOUSES

Get smarter Warehouses. Big and clever?

By Thomas Hainzel

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s vaccination programs take effect, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel begins to glimmer more brightly. For warehousing, it also casts light on imminent investment decisions to be made. Right now, industry impetus is behind bigger warehouses. But is there also a case for warehouses getting smarter, as well as larger?

Supply chain has been under the spotlight for more than a year. Too much or too little

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inventory, challenging staffing arrangements, an instantaneous boom in e-commerce, combined with an equally immediate shift to omni-channel have each contributed to supply chain stress.

Many industry experts are focusing on long-term predictions about how to face the future. In some quarters, it’s suggested that a reset of near-shore and offshore logistics can reduce localized over-dependency. Elsewhere, it’s proposed that just-in-time manufacturing,

and associated hyper-lean supply chain, has maybe got a bit too lean. But these strategic decisions are multi-year shifts that will take time to implement. In the nearer term, warehousing needs to find other ways to drive capacity and productivity.

Floorspace growth One identifiable trend is projected growth in warehouse space as part of the response to changes in purchasing patterns. Brands

such as Aldi, Asda and Lidl have all increased capacity and hired additional warehouse workforce. And with companies like Amazon Prime and Walmart now offering next-day delivery, this too drives the need for more warehousing physically closer to the end customer.

In Europe, according to a Savills research report based on Capital Economics forecast data, we could see an additional 11.6 million square meters of warehouse demand by the

end of 2022. And, based on a JLL Real Estate projection, predictions indicate that total warehouse stock in India will increase by more than 75 percent between 2019 and end of 2023. The same organization asserts that demand for industrial real estate in the US could reach an additional one billion square feet by 2025.

So, one near-term response is more space. Add in a growing number of retail-toindustrial conversions, and warehousing looks

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like it’s getting bigger. Much bigger. While such investments represent logistics growth, which is good, the question remains – what other measures can warehouse managers take to help resolve their near-term flexibility and capacity conundrums?

Technology enablers The answer may perhaps lie in logistics warehouses themselves. They provide a logical starting point for quick wins by introducing new approaches and reworking process workflows. For some warehouse operators, the future is already underway with early adopters applying robotics and automated processes to drive productivity, control cost and make the most of available space. For the new starter in automation, three essential technology enablers need to be considered.

First, location-wide, high-bandwidth connectivity. Warehouses can be now

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be outfitted relatively quickly and costeffectively with 4G or 5G private wireless networks that extend throughout the operation and can communicate with other warehouse locations. High performance wireless broadband connectivity is necessary to provide the platform for efficiency-driving solutions that run over the top.

There is one thing to note here. From user experience, we learn that Wi-Fi does not withstand the rigors of a smarter warehousing experience. Continuous coverage aside, there are fundamental differences in performance between Wi-Fi 5/6 and either 4G or 5G. In practice, 4G and 5G private wireless networking delivers lower round-trip latency and greater scalability than Wi-Fi, enabling warehouse automation projects to come into their own. This faster, more reliable, uninterrupted connectivity is essential to deploy massive Internet of Things (IoT) – with

IoT being the second technology enabler essential to warehouse transformation.

IoT and analytics Apply IoT, and all devices, machines and people in the warehouse can be connected.

This enables robots and other automated systems to move around, track and position assets as well as complete tasks such as packing, assembly, inventory and cleaning.

Other applications include wireless HD video feeds, autonomous guided vehicles, augmented and virtual reality.

The third technology enabler is analytics.

Data analytics-based systems help leverage IoT intelligence to monitor worker safety, predict adverse supply chain events, assess alternate workflows and proactively monitor system maintenance requirements.

Analytics also open the door to asset management systems that predict maintenance needs and automatically

“By moving towards greater automation, and use of robotics, it is estimated that warehouse operators can save up to 70 percent in overall operating costs while meeting customer service needs and achieving greater flexibility

shift flows to ensure optimum system performance with little or no disruption. At the same time, predictive systems can assess the potential impact of unprecedented supply chain events, and leverage digital twins to plan, test and propose measures that ensure continuity. Analytics also provide real-time transparency, making it possible to respond quickly to changing supply and demand conditions, providing flexibility and resilience without sacrificing cost optimization.

Supply Chain 4.0 The array of smarter solutions on offer with warehouse digitalization and automation is dazzling. But it makes business sense too.

By moving towards greater automation, and use of robotics, it is estimated that warehouse operators can save up to 70 percent in overall operating costs while meeting customer service needs and achieving greater flexibility.

The notion of Supply Chain 4.0 has been

discussed for years by logistics strategists and innovators, but mostly as a ‘someday’ project.

The issues raised by pandemic fallout have however, prioritized the need to accelerate Supply Chain 4.0 automation.

Of course, warehouse operators will continue to invest in larger facilities to meet short-term needs as supply chain enters a new fluctuating, consumer demand-led era.

But they also have the opportunity to take initial steps into Supply Chain 4.0. And in doing so, yes – warehouses can be big, but they also can be clever.

Thomas Hainzel, Head of EMEA Manufacturing & Logistics at Nokia Cloud & Network Services, leads the business development and segment sales for factory digitalization, smart manufacturing and supply chain logistics. He currently focuses on infrastructure, platform, application and service solutions in the domain of private wireless networks, 4G/5G technologies and Industrial IoT. As a trusted partner for critical networks, Nokia is committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. It creates value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs www.nokia.com/networks/industries/supply-chain-and-logistics/

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STAFF

Working together Why you need patterns AND people to power your supply chain AI. By Polly Michell-Guthrie

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he world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking warned that artificial intelligence could replace humans, and with AI adoption increasing and the idea of a ‘lights out’ autonomous supply chain looking possible, it’s

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high time to consider if this is really the best route forward.

AI, including its most used algorithms of machine learning (henceforth AI/ML for short), holds incredible promise for supply chains.

AI/ML and the broader field of data science,

which I sometimes call ‘fancy maths,’ comprise an amazing pattern-finding machine. But the power of these patterns for a supply chain has its limits. The best way to have an impact is not to turn off the lights and send the people home but to augment your planners with

AI/ML so each is at its highest and best use.

AI/ML adoption is on the increase, and the pandemic has accelerated this trend. Fiftytwo percent of executives say AI tools have boosted productivity, PwC AI Predictions, 2021, and global analyst Gartner predicts that

75 per cent of organizations will move from piloting to operationalizing AI by 2024. A recent IBM survey found its ranking has risen on the transformation agenda from fifth to second. The question is not if companies will adopt AI/ML but how they should do so.

In general, AI/ML algorithms are masters at finding patterns in large amounts of data, but the key word here is ‘large.’ Since the maths ‘learns’ by looking for patterns, it most commonly is ‘trained’ using copious amounts of historical data. Once it has learned the

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pattern from the training data, the algorithm uses that pattern to make predictions on an entirely new data set. These AI/ML algorithms themselves are often (although not always) combined with a set of processing rules to automate a response to the prediction. These machine insights and automation can tackle a scale far beyond the cognitive capacity of humans.

This pattern-finding ability can ‘sense’ demand from signals beyond traditional sales data, thus offering enhanced sources to improve forecast accuracy. It can predict what lead times will actually be based on history instead of human guesswork, saving a planner from tedious manual analysis of a complicated bill of materials. It can forecast and optimize trade promotions. These are

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but a few examples of applications that could aid supply chains. After all, striving to build a better plan is a perennial goal of supply chains, and increasing plan accuracy with algorithms is making an impact.

But while AI research has advanced by leaps and bounds these days, accuracy must be kept in equilibrium with agility. All perfect plans are upended by supply chain disruptions, and the times are growing more, not less volatile.

The ability to respond to these events quickly is an equally important muscle to build. We want the best insights we can build to increase accuracy in an agile supply chain run by humans. Because humans are still better than machines in some core areas, which is why the lights aren’t going out any time soon. I’ll highlight three capabilities where people

excel: context, collaboration, and conscience.

When AI/ML learns from historical patterns in large volumes of data, it can be confounded when confronted with volatile data and especially with unprecedented events. Supply chain disruptions, particularly those with the magnitude of the pandemic, make patternfinding a challenge, and algorithms are unable to understand what is happening. Humans uniquely possess the ability to derive meaning from context, so when disruptions disrupt the models, it is planners who are able to use business acumen and domain expertise to make the best decisions.

For example, during the pandemic, forecasting models powered by machine learning couldn’t sense demand no one could understand, so in the interim planners had

to use their domain expertise and context to made the best decisions possible. After a few weeks of sales, a team of data scientists at Kinaxis were able to apply other predictive modeling techniques not reliant on finding patterns in long-term sales history to find clusters in the most recent sales data, which they then used as a rougher forecast estimate.

The combination of humans understanding the context, making initial decisions, and then guiding algorithms for short-term approximations rendered better decisions.

Similarly, AI/ML can find patterns in data relationships, but algorithms do not understand relationships between people.

Supply chains may be a process for making and moving stuff but underlying the links in the chain are relationships between people.

The pandemic exposed the criticality of these relationships, as companies found collaboration was one of the most essential components to managing the disruptions their company experienced. This collaboration took many forms.

Colleagues and internal functions worked together in new ways, as everyone pitched in to mitigate the crisis. Companies worked closely with their suppliers, who faced their own challenges, to ensure survival of these smaller companies upon which their supply chain depended. And non-traditional partners emerged as companies collaborated with those outside their industry to manufacture products like personal protective equipment, sanitizer, and ventilators, or provide services like assistance with transporting products.

Finally, AI/ML is a bundle of algorithms but has no conscience. It is up to humans to guide and determine whether the fancy maths is used for good or for ill. There are ample examples at both ends of the spectrum. While the United States and China as individual countries have led research advances in AI, the European Union has argued that as a collective the continent is best positioned to lead in advocating for ‘human-centric’ AI that is trustworthy and in keeping with European values. Interest in protecting privacy is higher in EMEA, which led to European leadership in establishing General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so the same vision can inform AI/ML. One key element in building trust with AI/ ML is interpretability. While these models are usually famously black box in nature, there are tools that exist to shine light into the box and help the planner understand the factors that drove the prediction. One such approach is SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations), which can be used in all kinds of ways, such as showing the features that most impacted a ML-powered forecast in demand sensing.

As planners can test and see the factors impacting their forecast they are more likely to adopt AI/ML tools. In fact, GPDR includes a set of rights related to the explainability of AI. Another factor central to building trust in AI is expanding its access beyond the narrow cadre of data scientists. Fortunately, an emerging approach called automated

machine learning (or AutoML) is expanding access to these techniques to whole new categories of people without requiring rarefied expertise. By automating many of the steps involved in building a machine learning pipeline, a business user without training as a data scientist can build many usable models, especially for areas like common forecasting tasks. This development is so promising that McKinsey predicts demand for what they call AutoML practitioners to be double that of data scientists. When AutoML is paired with tools to ensure interpretability of models to mitigate their black box nature, the combination can ease adoption and offer tremendous business value to a far wider range of companies, including their supply chains.

Trust in the fancy maths is critical, but so is transparency in the data. People all along the entire supply chain, from the planners of materials, production, demand, inventory, etc. need to have visibility into the same data at the same time. It’s called a supply chain because the functions are linked, which means each impact the other. Cascading information down the chain means waiting for someone’s updates to be entered and creates latency that can lead to finger-pointing and erode trust.

The impact of agility and the insights rendered by both humans and machines are limited if transparency is lacking.

To prevent planners from being mired in tedium, AI/ML can use machine intelligence to automate mundane tasks and deliver insights that humans just can’t see. This opens up a world where planners can apply their capabilities of context, collaboration, and conscience to focus on exceptions and manage the complexity beyond the scope of machines.

By putting the power of the complex maths into the hands of far more humans by using AutoML, supply chains can far more effectively scale application of AI/ML. These people will adopt the AI/ML if it includes the tools to insure its interpretability.

Planners can know what’s happening sooner and act faster on that information if they have a foundation of agility and transparency. People and algorithms work best together, with the lights on, so for supply chains the best direction is to augment people power, rather than replacing it.

Polly Michell-Guthrie is VP Industry Outreach, Kinaxis. Everyday volatility and uncertainty demand quick action. Kinaxis® delivers the agility to make fast, confident decisions across integrated business planning and the digital supply chain. People can plan better, live better and change the world. Trusted by innovative brands, Kinaxis combines human intelligence with AI and concurrent planning to help companies plan for any future, monitor risks and opportunities and respond at the pace of change. Powered by an extensible, cloud-based platform, Kinaxis delivers industry-proven applications so everyone can know sooner, act faster and remove waste. www.kinaxis.com/en

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AUTOMATION

Moving on Predictable supply chain constraints can be removed with automation. By Thomas R. Cutler

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or the past several months, the notion of a Supply Chain constraint, was a freighter stuck in the Suez Canal and the ripple impacts of a traffic jam. While anomalistic, that situation pointed to a weak link in the preparedness of getting materials to manufacturing plants or distribution centers.

While not every scenario can be anticipated that could impact getting finished goods to customers, it is remarkable how many constraints are occurring daily and avoidable. Theory of Constraints (ToC) argues that the constraint can be selected and managed.

Indeed, in manufacturing plant floors, warehouses, distribution centers (DCs), and third-party logistics (3PLs), the constraint is the antiquated process of moving raw materials, pallets, finished goods out the door either to a secondary regional DC or to the end-user. Ill-suited

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fork trucks fail to meet the design specifications of large facilities nor the required structure of high-turn operations, whether in FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) or kitting in an automotive assembly plant.

The predictability of the constraint ToC is a business philosophy; living with constraints is a reality. John Hayes, (pictured left) Director of Sales for Balyo US (www.balyo.us) shared some of the most common constraints he has observed and how automation and new technology solutions removed these constraints.

According to Hayes: “When a warehouse or DC fails to automate the consequences are serious including reduction in capacity, increased costs, and human impact.”

In today’s pandemic or near post pandemic environment sourcing labor has become the overriding issue for all warehouses and DCs. This singular fact causes the above symptoms. The rapid increase in demand and the rapid decrease in labor has created the perfect storm.

Hayes emphasized: “When demand increases but there is a lack of labor, the result is expensive overtime…usually at one and half times the typical hourly rate. I have seen projects justified singularly on reduction of overtime. In this case, the automation system had an unseen benefit. It lowered the overall system utilization adding years to the life of the automation equipment.”

Reason warehouses and DCs have fallen behind Warehouses and DCs are behind technologically because of the general inability of vendors to provide a system that can solve enough problems to make the project financially viable. Recently that has changed.

Balyo Reach Truck Vendors now have reach trucks that offer horizontal transport (think from dock doors to the end of aisle) as well as the added step of placing the product into the existing standard racking. When the last step is added the ROI finally begins to make sense. Keeping in mind that the lack of labor is driving the interest in automation, it still MUST provide a reliable service at a cost that is justifiable.

While the next freighter stuck in the Suez or Panama Canal cannot be accurately predicted, the ability to automate operations and remove daily functional constraints is predictable, avoidable, and necessary.

AGV vendors have finally moved the constraint.

Overtime pay compounds the problems associated with cost as well as a very real human cost. Mobile equipment weighing upwards of 12,000 pounds cause driving fatigue and catastrophic lethal results.

Hayes shared: “One accident in a warehouse or DC that impacts the racking could very well damage and put one complete aisle out of use ending in catastrophic failure. These structural failures don’t just knockdown one rack but many racks. In this event, the concern becomes loss of life.”

Thomas R. Cutler is the President and CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Floridabased, TR Cutler, Inc., celebrating its 22nd year. Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium including more than 8000 journalists, editors, and economists writing about trends in manufacturing, industry, material handling, and process improvement. Cutler authors more than 1000 feature articles annually regarding the manufacturing sector. Nearly 5000 industry leaders follow Cutler on Twitter daily at @ThomasRCutler.

Contact Cutler at trcutler@trcutlerinc.com. https://www.trcutlerinc.com/

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DIGITALIZATION

The missing links Why supply chains are not yet fully digital. By Max Winograd resale by the sports giant. This is scaling up quickly and the firm predicts it will have ‘tens of millions of worn wear taken back’ from consumers and resold by 2025. Schemes such as this are not only about ‘doing the right thing’ but are also a business opportunity and can potentially provide new revenue streams.

The business opportunity with better supply chain visibility

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any a reader may be confused by the above statement.

Their organization will have full visibility of container, shipping and line-by-line pallet information. They will know who the supplier is and when goods are arriving at their warehouse. They will also know when these products will appear in store and what is selling. For many this is enough to run stable and reliable businesses, but increasingly it is not sufficient to flourish.

Pressure from regulators and consumers for full transparency Why? Increasingly pressure is being put on firms to provide full transparency of every facet of their supply chain. We have seen recently how fashion retailers have been scrutinized for their use of cotton. Electronics manufacturers are under ongoing pressure regarding their reliance on rare earth elements. There are many such examples which are putting organizations under increasing pressure from consumers and regulators to show exactly where their materials come from – right down to the farm or factory they are produced in.

It’s not just the source of materials either, at the other end of the life cycle, firms are increasingly taking responsibility for what happens to their products after they sold them to consumers.

Clothing retailer H&M for instance has offered a recycling service for its products since 2013 and adidas’ ‘Infinite Play’ program rewards customers for returning used products for subsequent

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Supply chains are critical, and this is why 83 percent of business leaders believe that supply chains and associated technologies can support their sustainability objectives, with 65 percent identifying sustainability as an even greater priority after Covid-19.

For consumers, 70 percent of them feel trust in a brand is more important than in the past and researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management even found that they may be willing to pay up to ten percent more for products from companies that provide greater supply chain transparency.

What needs to change so that organizations can capitalize on the opportunity? Currently supply chains are complicated and the different technologies they depend upon do not ‘talk’ to each other. It might be that RFID is used to track products from the factory through distribution and up until the point of purchase, while QR-codes and NFC tags are used to engage consumers and can be leveraged by store associates for quality assurance and expanded product information. These different digital triggers are typically managed by different systems, making visibility problematic.

The power of a unique ‘digital identity’ To connect each of these different digital triggers and to bring visibility from SKU level down to the individual item, what is needed is for every single one of the trillions of products sold annually to be assigned with a digital ID that is unique to that specific item.

For consumers, it will mean that they can check everything from product provenance to authenticity. For example, they could access details about care and content instructions for apparel items, obtain expiry and recall information for perishable products, and enjoy unique consumer experiences based on the specific context of each product interaction. It is empowering for consumers who increasingly want to make more informed choices about the products they enjoy. But equally businesses will benefit from the ability to ‘join up’ their supply chain as never before. Brands can accurately communicate how a product is made and can launch new business models like recommerce, peer-to-peer commerce, and direct-to-consumer.

The process to get there is evolutionary. Many firms are capturing a lot of the information already, it is a case of bringing it together under one platform so that all item-level events and product data can be connected in one end-to-end platform. It also means that technologies such as blockchain can be introduced so that each item can be independently verified as genuine. Indeed, major luxury brands including LVMH, Prada Group and Cartier, have recently launched a coalition based on blockchain to ‘address shared challenges of communicating authenticity, responsible sourcing and sustainability in a secure digital format.’

With the introduction of digital identity technologies, it becomes possible to provide unique traceable identities for every product, enabling transparency from raw materials to product and beyond. In doing so this offers consumers the highest standards of visibility, safety, education and authenticity possible, while giving businesses complete control over their supply chains. Only when every single item has been assigned a unique identifier in this way can we say that supply chains have become fully digital.

Max Winograd is VP of connected products at Avery Dennison and co-founder of atma.io, an Avery Dennison digital venture that is the world’s leading connected product cloud. It is a platform that unlocks the power of connected products by assigning unique digital IDs to everyday items, providing unparalleled endto-end transparency by tracking, storing and managing all the events associated with each individual product — from source to consumer and beyond to enable circularity. www.atma.io

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CYBER SECURITY

Risky business Addressing software supply chain security in the wake of the SolarWinds breach. By Taylor Armerding

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f there is a silver lining to the recent SolarWinds/Orion cyber-attack that impacted at least nine federal agencies and 100 private-sector firms in the US, it’s that it could serve as a wake-up call about digital supply chain risks, and the ways to mitigate them.

Experts have warned for years about such risks. Just as with a physical chain, a software supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. As such, if any entity in an organization’s supply chain - vendor, partner, contractor - isn’t secure, then the organization isn’t secure either.

There are numerous stark examples of that reality. One of the most notorious is the 2014 breach of mega-retailer Target’s point-of-sale systems, enabled because hackers penetrated one of the company’s vendors - an HVAC contractor - through a social engineering attack that delivered malware in an email.

The result? The compromise of 41 million credit card numbers along with 70 million addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information.

And yet, it didn’t change the world of software supply chain all that much. Perhaps most organizations thought that what happened to Target wouldn’t happen to them.

But it can and does.

SolarWinds, which provides system management tools for network and infrastructure monitoring, has said only 100 companies were actually compromised by the attack. But its Dec. 14 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission said that as many as 18,000 customers may have installed an update to its IT performance monitoring system called Orion that contained malicious code. More recently, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) reported that about a quarter of roughly 1,500 electric utilities sharing data with NERC said they had installed that malicious update.

SolarWinds is no outlier, however. It’s

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just the most famous recent example of the damage supply chain vulnerabilities can cause.

And while that damage can be catastrophic, organizations don’t have to feel helpless.

There are mitigations available to manage and reduce supply chain risks.

No, they won’t make you bulletproof, just as seatbelts, airbags, lane assist, and accidentavoidance technology doesn’t guarantee you could never get hurt in a car crash. But those measures do make driving much safer.

In much the same way, supply chain security measures can make an organization much more secure.

In most cases, organizations are both supply chain consumers and producers.

As in, they receive (consume) materials, products, and services from various third parties, and also produce products and services for other organizations or for the public. But the security emphasis is a bit different for each role.

The leaders of most consumer organizations of any size likely know that their supply chain is lengthy and complex. But they may not grasp just how complex. Indeed, it’s not just the security of an HVAC contractor or other vendor that’s important. It’s also the security of the dozens to hundreds or thousands of components an organization may import while building applications or anything else powered by software.

Cyber security researcher Alex Birsan, in a recent post on Medium titled ‘Dependency Confusion: How I Hacked Into Apple, Microsoft, and Dozens of Other Companies,’ gets deep into the details of the causes of malware-by-update, which is increasingly likely in a world where software is less built from scratch than assembled from thirdparty and/or open source components.

Those components create a trail of dependencies that can exponentially expand your supply chain.

As Birsan put it, “When downloading and

using a package from any of these sources, you are essentially trusting its publisher to run code on your machine. So, can this blind trust be exploited by malicious actors? Of course, it can.”

One of the first things a consumer organization should do is track what it’s using. Compile a Bill of Materials and get credible assurances from the producers of all those materials that they are also tracking what they are using and keeping it up to date.

As the 2021 Open Source Security & Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report notes, up to 90 percent of the code in any piece of software comes from a combination of open source and third parties. So, organizations should use an automated software composition analysis (SCA) solution, which can help find open source components, identify any known vulnerabilities in those components along with any potential licensing conflicts. A good SCA tool will do that much faster than any team of humans could.

Some potential good news at the federal level is that there may be some support

coming to help organizations harden their supply chain security. President Biden’s recent $1.9 trillion infrastructure plan includes $100 billion to improve the security of the nation’s power grid, some of which may be devoted to supply chain security.

But in the interim, it’s up to organizations.

Supply chain risks can be the equivalent of poison in your food - an existential threat, and unfortunately, software components are not regulated the way our food supply is. If you want to maintain the health of your

products and systems, you have to make sure everything you use from outside your organization is healthy too.

Taylor Armerding is a Security Advocate at Synopsys Software Integrity Group. Synopsys Software Integrity Group helps development teams build secure, high-quality software, minimizing risks while maximizing speed and productivity. Synopsys, a recognized leader in application security, provides static analysis, software composition analysis, and dynamic analysis solutions that enable teams to quickly find and fix vulnerabilities and defects in proprietary code, open source components, and application behaviour. With a combination of industry-leading tools, services, and expertise, only Synopsys helps organizations optimize security and quality in DevSecOps and throughout the software development life cycle. www.synopsys.come

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LEAN

A lean approach Larry D. Coté looks at the importance of lean and why it’s significant when dealing with the coronavirus pandemic

L

ean is a way of thinking (thanks to Jim Womack and Dan Jones) that establishes the basis of the overall vision and direction of all organizations, big and small – countries included. The thrust of the thinking is to provide ‘value’ to the customer/client. That means delivering your product or service, at the right time, for a reasonable price and with the highest quality, while building a system that can flex with changing demands from your customer(s).

The pandemic is one of the more extreme - and unprecedented - examples of the vital importance of being able to react to changes in demand, and to supply your clients with the product/service they require or need. The virus crisis is far from over, but I think we can assume that some countries have handled the challenge better than others. Once Covid-19 is beaten, it will be interesting to re-examine the countries who handled it well, and those that stumbled. It will be one of those most important ‘lessons learned’ experiences.

But we can take a snapshot or do a preliminary analysis, now, based on the

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knowledge and results to date. For this, I suggest we limit our thoughts to the current situation in the industrialized countries that we read about daily. Well aware, of course, that we are limited for the most part, to media reports for most of our information.

On the surface, it appears some countries understood the critical importance of having a supply chain that can could provide vaccines at the speed, cost and quality needed by their citizens, while other countries did not.

One of the elements of Lean is to have your suppliers close to the customer, in order to deliver on time and meet ever-changing demands. Many countries decided early on that the best way to accomplish this was to have production facilities of the products needed close to their customers within their own countries. Others decided to ignore their own capabilities and rather rely on remote foreign sources in the supply chain.

The countries with suppliers close to their customers seem to have found it much easier to react to demand in a timely fashion, as well as to control quality and keep a steady flow of products. This closer proximity allows

for more effective transportation planning and distribution, along the entire end-to-end process. Lean is all about process flow; with transportation and delivery being challenges, plus the complexity and reliance on foreign entities, adds to the challenge of control over deliveries and can plague the supply chain with disruptions. The final customer then “sees” other entities being serviced faster, and lose confidence in their own countries’ abilities at all levels.

The countries who chose to look outside their borders for supply have found themselves scrambling for product. The result has been generally reactive, rather than proactive. They have spent much of their time trying to find ways to overcome their inconsistent or lack of stable supply. The delay in establishing a strong relationship with local suppliers means they were likely unable to influence suppliers at the level required. This scenario can result in paying more for the product and increased wasteful activity, in order to get moved up on the supply priority list. Plus, with no guarantees of reliable supply and likely weak relationships, they may attempt to set up multiple contracts,

in order to hedge the probability of receiving supplies. This decision to go far and wide ends up being costlier and more time consuming, which of course severely limits their ability to provide the product and service to their clients when they need it.

Quality Another element of Lean is quality. It is much more difficult to monitor quality when you have several layers of authorization and inspection. Furthermore, complex layers of communication and bureaucracy gets exaggerated between the supplier and customer, which are disconnected by borders, culture and varying priorities.

Many countries have directly supported their local suppliers with financial assistance, along with resources for research and development of product. Other countries could only watch the development and had minimal, if any, control over the quality and production of the product. When foreign suppliers are successful in developing a vaccine, the outside country must then reanalyze and approve, all the testing data

from the supplier, which results in still more delays.

Lean and ability to jump start the economy Once the pandemic is over, it will be interesting to see which countries have the ability to return to normal and thrive post-pandemic.

Returning to normal, and building, is the ultimate desire of everyone. Some of the ability to bounce back and return to normal will be influenced by how quickly and smoothly, the needs of the citizens were handled and resolved. Bounce back considerations might include the amount of debt incurred, the length of time the country was shut down, which sectors were impacted and ultimately, the confidence people have in the leadership.

True success in any organization or business when faced with challenges, or a crisis in this case, relies heavily on leadership. Leadership must have their sights on those they serve and making decisions that enhance the value to their customers.

Time will tell, but countries who used the thinking and direction of lean, should be in a

much better position to recover faster, and be prepared for the next crisis or change. They would have focused – and continue to focus - on setting up and improving processes that will drive value to their citizens, their customer.

There likely will be some countries asking themselves - did we make the right decisions as the pandemic unfolded? Did we provide the product needed at the right cost, quality and in a timely manner from our supply chains?

If they are objective about their findings and they incorporate the necessary improvements to the end-to-end process, they will be better prepared for the next pandemic.

Larry D. Coté is President and Founder of Lean Advisors, Inc. Lean Advisors is a Lean Training and Consulting firm that provides experienced senior lean consultants to deliver unique programs to organizations across North America. Lean Advisors Training and Consulting workshops provide a wealth of knowledge and practical hands-on experience to its clients, which results in helping them to transform their organizations with lean thinking and process improvement. Lean Advisors are pioneers in the application of Lean beyond its manufacturing origins. www.leanadvisors.com

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DATA

Working in harmony Solving the manufacturing and supply chain industry’s data management issues with a smart data fabric. By Joe Lichtenberg

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ver the last year, manufacturing and supply chain organizations have been under increased pressure due to sudden changes in demand brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, for many, the lack of an overarching and accurate view of their business has left them unable to adequately respond to these disruptions, make informed business decisions, and plan for growth, highlighting a number of long-standing issues in their data management strategies.

While these organizations tend to have a wealth of data, their current processes

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and supporting technologies have not been designed to work in unison. This has left them with a variety of different systems that generate data and produce reports independently, resulting in decisions being made separately and efficiency being compromised. These silos are only being added to by a lack of technology and expertise that is needed to integrate data from a growing range of internal and external data sources.

Therefore, implementing technologies to link these silos in which data and processes sit, to obtain a single, accurate view across their

entire business must be a priority for supply chain and manufacturing organizations. It is only by addressing these data management issues that lie at the heart of their business that they will be able to gain the resilience, agility, and faster more accurate decisionmaking capabilities needed to futureproof their operations, and to successfully and intelligently respond to disruptions.

Stepping away from data lakes Historically, the data lake approach was seen as the solution to organizations’ data management problems, however, as demand

to combine both real-time data and batch data in a way that allows them to gain actionable insights.

Harmonizing data with a smart data fabric

for real-time insights have increased, data lakes with their mixture of taxonomies, metadata and structures, have proved murky.

In fact, they make it difficult for firms to integrate, normalize, and harmonize all their data so that they can gain a consistent and comprehensive overview and are able to use it. Extra complexity is added due to the growing availability of real-time data and the subsequent requirement to harmonize this alongside batch data.

Ultimately, data lakes have themselves proven to be, in effect, just another silo, and many organizations are now looking for a way

To fulfil their data integration needs, what organizations need now is new models of harmonization that bring together disconnected processes, applications, and data. This requires the use of advances in data management technology delivered by ‘smart’ data fabrics, complemented by AI and machine learning (ML), along with new API-driven development approaches. Smart data fabrics allow existing applications and data to remain in place, thereby enabling organizations to get the most from previous investments and extracting business value from data stored in lakes and external sources quickly and flexibly to power business initiatives. This includes everything from scenario planning to risk modelling.

The fabric intelligently connects and automates processes that cross existing system boundaries in a non-disruptive manner without having to ‘rip and replace’ existing or legacy systems. It interweaves disparate data, including real-time event data and data from supply chain partners, and allows for exposing, connecting, and orchestrating services and microservices. The result is a comprehensive and overarching perspective that enables frictionless interactions between functional areas and delivers greater flexibility and efficiency, and better insights led by AI. With businesses demanding more from the increasing levels of batch and real-time data they have available to them to gain increased efficiency and deliver value to customers; smart data fabrics are clearly the best route forward. This ability to leverage more data in the moment enables organizations to gain the vital capabilities they need to make better business decisions based on data, and in turn respond faster and better to crises while increasing revenue and reducing risk. It is also much cleaner architecturally, and simpler from an implementation, maintenance, and application development standpoint.

Embracing advanced analytics Advanced analytics technologies like AI and ML fuel a variety of use cases within the supply chain - one of the most significant of which is demand management. In this scenario, AI enables manufacturers to predict and model demand to manage situations proactively, rather than just reacting to them. While some organizations focus on aggregated demand forecasts based on historic data, those excelling in the field of AI have started to break down planning to a regional basis or to go down to individual customer requirements or products, using (near) real-time data.

By conducting more detailed and accurate forecasting processes, manufacturers make considerable improvements in performance and profitability.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes could also be transformed by AI and analytics bringing together stakeholders and data from across sales, production, procurement, and other departments. This cross-departmental infusion of data can make a big difference to manufacturers and help them make more informed decisions, including a quicker response to fluctuations in demand, setting up promotions when production surpluses are projected.

A path to increased supply chain resilience For manufacturing and supply chain organizations, the smart data fabric marks a turning point in data management. It provides higher performance as latency is reduced due to the elimination of connections between the different layers of the architecture, allowing organizations to incorporate transaction and event data into analyses and processes in nearreal-time.

With a smart data fabric at the heart of their infrastructure, businesses will be able to overcome the difficulties they have had previously with unifying different types of data from many sources. In turn, they will be able to gain the kind of intelligent insights that drive up the quality of critical decision-making and provide the firmest possible basis for future resilience and greater overall efficiency.

Joe Lichtenberg works in Product and Industry Marketing at InterSystems. Established in 1978, InterSystems provides innovative data solutions for organizations with critical information needs in the healthcare, finance, and logistics sectors and beyond. InterSystems’ cloud-first data platforms solve interoperability, speed, and scalability problems for organisations around the globe. InterSystems also develops and supports data management in hospitals through the world’s most proven electronic medical record, as well as unified care records for health systems and governments through a powerful suite of healthcare data integration solutions. www.intersystems.com

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SUPPLY CHAINS

Automotive aftermarket Moving from reactive to predictive and proactive. By David Cahn

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A

ccording to Grand View Research, the global automotive aftermarket size was valued at $390.10 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8 percent from 2021 to 2028. The market is majorly driven by the pursuit of automobile drivers to enhance their vehicle performance in terms of exhaust sound, speed, and appearance parameters along with many other aspects. Regulatory authorities, like the EPA, monitor the built-up standards and environmental impacts associated with automotive component functioning, such as the noise emission levels associated with the modern-day automotive resonators and mufflers in automotive exhaust systems.

emerging, characterized by a strong integration between the online and the offline worlds, differentiated customer experience, and lower cost-to-serve and working capital requirements. This optimization in customer service levels is due to proactive and predictive industry forecasting methods that help minimize backorders and drive bestin-class on-time delivery performance.

Companies that develop a strong omnichannel strategy and capabilities are best positioned for success, with a flexible supply chain that aligns with evolving consumer expectations, target marketing, and consistent pricing across channels. These companies are capturing lost sales, eliminating excess inventory, and adding points to the bottom line.

For every $1 in revenue generated from new cars, there is $5 in revenue generated from new light trucks and SUVs. For every $1 in revenue generated from used cars, there is $2.70 in revenue from used light trucks and SUVs.

Automotive aftermarket moving from reactive to predictive The automotive aftermarket is moving from a reactive to predictive and proactive model. While the automotive and aftermarket is historically recession resistant, supply chain disruptions and consumer behavior have significant impacts on supply and product demand in the automotive sector. These disruptions are driving more people online.

If consumers do not buy new cars, their old cars need more parts. The aftermarket and the car hobby are driven by passion.

AI and advanced sensors are being deployed for real-time demand and predictive planning for maintenance and aftermarket products by tracking usage and predictive maintenance against benchmarks. By using predictive failure analysis and vehicle monitoring, predicting part needs in real-time impacts when components will fail or need repairs to anticipate demand. This visibility into real-time demand behavior ensures that product availability matches customer demand thereby improving customer loyalty.

Distributors can order any parts needed on a just-in-time basis, reducing the need to carry inventory. Leveraging this trend, more smallscale service providers and shop owners are coming to agreement with large-scale fleet operators to procure additional contracts for repair and maintenance, anticipating the support needed for industry expansion.

© 2021 Blue Ridge

Automotive aftermarket requires industry specific knowledge Few technology providers in the automotive aftermarket possess deep understanding, knowledge, and experience in this sector. Only with this sector specific experience can solutions be recommended and implemented to build resilient supply chains. By monitoring the trends in the automotive aftermarket sector, technology can address situational awareness which allows for stabilization of erratic demand and volatility.

Competition from marketplaces and OEMs The growing number of proprietary systems in vehicles also transfers more power to original equipment manufacturers and the technology companies that work directly with them. OEMs are essentially forcing consumers to return to the manufacturer to maintain or repair cars.

Advancing technology is just one driver behind parts proliferation, along with the ever-increasing number of brands and models. The tremendous volume of aftermarket parts complicates inventory planning and management. It creates more products to track and some lack historical information that could be used to estimate future sales.

Predictive repair capabilities may enable aftermarket service companies and retailers to provide a more satisfying customer experience while saving on inventory costs. Businesses that can execute a strong omnichannel strategy using the internet to connect with customers and offer top-notch repair services stand to gain.

Omnichannel buying and fulfillment strategies During Covid, customers learned the buy online and pick up at store process. Changing customer expectations for convenience, speed, selection, and value, prompt players in the aftermarket supply chain to develop online-to-offline capabilities. A new retail aftermarket is

David Cahn heads up Product Marketing at Blue Ridge Global. Blue Ridge uniquely combines demand forecasting with pricing strategy, so that businesses can proactively understand the unpredictable and allocate the right inventory, right-priced across the entire mix, to accelerate top- and bottom-line results. He has been implementing, marketing, and product managing leading enterprise applications for over 30 years including ERP, SCM, TMS, and WMS solutions and lived the word of customer-facing solutions and customer experience for the past few years. David has held leadership positions at Phillips, KPMG, CA, AMR Research, Aptean, Infor, and Elemica. https://blueridgeglobal.com/

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News In Brief Welcome news U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley has welcomed the administration’s 100-day review issued under its Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains. “The U.S. Chamber commends the administration for a deliberative, evidence-based approach to supply chain review that draws input from across the business community and other stakeholders. The report correctly recognizes that there are no one-size-fits-all

New procurement platform

solutions, and our policy responses need to

A new, innovative open access procurement platform has been launched by Orbit and

be tailored to the different circumstances

Supply Change – a social procurement provider – to connect suppliers and buyers in the

facing diverse industries,” he said. “We also

construction industry to deliver commercial value and social impact.

welcome news that the administration

The new Social Supplier Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) allows buyers to source

has prioritized resilience, a key principle

goods and services from suppliers who can deliver a quality service and a positive

of risk management. Policies that support

impact, such as social enterprises, charities and sheltered workshops. Businesses in the

diversified sourcing from different countries

construction industry, whether part of their corporate social responsibility or in tendering

— especially our allies — will help avert

for public sector work, are often asked to demonstrate social value or to use a certain

future problems.

number of social enterprises, charities and sheltered workshops, and this platform will

“We look forward to continuing to engage

make that requirement easier.

with the administration as it executes these

Sam Scharf, Director of Communities and Sustainability at Orbit, commented: “We are

plans and continues its broader review over

now spending close to £2m per annum and are actively looking to increase the percentage

the months ahead.”

of spend with social enterprises. This new platform will allow us to do just this, but we also wanted to open up the opportunity for others to do the same.”

Driving transparency Stahl, an active proponent of responsible

Ambitious action

chemistry, has taken an important step

Nestlé has joined other business leaders across the food industry to support ambitious

toward enabling end-to-end supply chain

action by the European Union (EU) to increase supply chain transparency and traceability for

visibility by actively engaging with external

commodities that may be linked to deforestation.

partners on blockchain readiness and

technologies to improve supply chain traceability, as well as stronger cooperation with

Following an internal pilot of Finboot’s

producing countries to ensure that forests are protected and restored.

blockchain-based traceability system, Stahl

Nestlé’s decade-long experience in eliminating deforestation in its key supply chains has

is now launching a proof of concept with

shown that no single approach can do it all. As of December 2020, over 90 percent of the key

external suppliers. Specifically, KRAHN

commodities that Nestlé buys were assessed as deforestation-free through a combination of

Chemie has been integrated into the

tools, including supply chain mapping and disclosure, on-the-ground verification, and satellite

blockchain traceability environment. This

monitoring.

step enables the traceability of key raw

Knowing where commodities originate from helps identify and tackle deforestation where

materials throughout the supply chain, from

it occurs. It also helps to ensure that all actors step up, be accountable and actively protect

the point of origin to finished product. In

forests.

the next 12 to 24 months, Stahl will work collaboratively with more suppliers and partners to drive blockchain maturity, activate more nodes in the network, and deliver greater supply chain transparency.

John Fletcher, Chief Innovation Officer Stahl said: “The collaboration with KRAHN Chemie underlines our wider commitment to tackling the chemical industry’s lack of supply chain transparency.”

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All the signatories call on the EU to put in place measures to scale up the use of innovative

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Nestlé will continue to work with all stakeholders and share its leading experience in supply chain transparency, traceability, and implementing its forest positive strategy.

NEWS Expanded agreement

Next generation global tracking

DHL Supply Chain, the contract logistics leader within Deutsche Post

AT&T is connecting a smart printable and disposable shipping label that

DHL Group, has announced a framework agreement expanding its

will help businesses track the location and condition of products shipped

collaboration with Locus Robotics. Initial investments in assisted picking

worldwide and enable actionable decisions based on the massive amounts

robots have proven effective in commercially scaled operations, and

of data collected. The adhesive label developed by Sony Semiconductor

this multi-million-dollar agreement will enhance DHL’s wider Accelerated

Israel (Sony) is activated when attached to the parcel and tracks every

Digitalization Strategy. By 2022, the supply chain specialist plans to take

item shipped across the globe.

on up to 2,000 robots, then being by far the largest customer of Locus

The Smart Label connects to AT&T’s highly secure LTE-M cellular

Robotics worldwide. The assisted picking robots are mostly used in

network and sends data to the Smart Label cloud to enable decisions while

e-commerce or consumer warehouses to help with picking and inventory

packages are in transit. It can be easily integrated with existing enterprise

replenishment, thereby increasing efficiency and accelerating delivery

systems. Businesses gain full visibility into every item shipped during transit

processes.

and can act quickly on the data.

“It is particularly important for us to be able to consistently optimize our

The entire end-to-end process can be supported through the design

supply chains - assisted picking robots are very effective in this respect,”

and integration expertise of AT&T’s IoT Professional Services Organization

noted Markus Voss, Global CIO & COO DHL Supply Chain.

– from installation to deployment and project management.

Just about any business where efficiently tracking and monitoring location and condition of products is critical can use the solution, including manufacturing, raw materials, consumer products, cars and trucks, logistics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, retail, health care, food, and agriculture.

Quick reactions Shell Catalysts & Technologies, a provider of leading catalysts, technical services and licensed process technologies to refiners, gas treating facilities and chemical plants around the world, is implementing Aspen Technology, Inc.’s Aspen Schedule Explorer™ software in multiple plants throughout North America and Europe. The supply chain management solution will improve coordination, communication and visibility for operations and supply chain personnel, which will allow teams to adapt to changing conditions as needed. The comprehensive deployment follows the completion of a successful pilot program at Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ facility in Ghent, Belgium.

Aspen Schedule Explorer provides operations and supply chain personnel with a live, web-based view into the latest published production schedules from Aspen Plant Scheduler™, delivered through Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ private cloud. The solution combines advanced communication, visibility, and a schedule data historian to help improve productivity and supply chain and operations execution. Aspen Schedule Explorer’s common, collaborative hub strengthens cross-functional alignment between stakeholders, while an intuitive interface provides users with the visibility required in today’s complex and dynamic manufacturing environments.

“Sales and Operations Execution (S&OE) is the crucial process that enables manufacturers to quickly respond to the inevitable day-to-day opportunities and disruptions that occur in their supply chain and manufacturing sites. Clear communications, collaboration and real-time visibility enables supply chain and manufacturing operations teams to be agile and remain aligned throughout the day,” said David Arbeitel, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Aspen Technology. “This capability is especially important in today’s manufacturing environment, where workers are often remote but still need to react and adapt quickly to changing conditions.”

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CAPREIT

The best place to live,

work & invest

A

s one of Canada’s largest real estate investment trusts, CAPREIT currently owns or has interests in, and manages, approximately 67,600 residential apartment suites, townhomes and manufactured housing community sites well-located across

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Canada, in the Netherlands and Ireland.

The business is staffed by a professional, enthusiastic team with a unique, proactive management style. The business is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Kenney, who has over 28 years of experience in the multi-family sector and who is actively

involved in creating and implementing company policy, directing the property management team, and overseeing the marketing, procurement, development and acquisitions departments. Supporting Mark are a group of experienced and hard-working individuals, all of whom are dedicated to

The Madison, Nova Scotia

Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) prides itself on providing quality accommodations across Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands

ensuring their residents are provided with a safe, happy home, and who also work hard to provide investors with long-term, predictable returns and cash distributions.

One such member of staff is Tonia Kagiannis, Senior Director, Procurement & Ancillary. An experienced Director of

Procurement with a demonstrated history of working in the design industry, Tonia has been working at CAPREIT since 2018 and this makes her ideally placed to share some more details about this fascinating organization with our readers. She began by summarizing the reason CAPREIT has achieved its position

in the market – it is Canada’s largest publiclytraded provider of quality rental housing.

“At CAPREIT, we treat our residents with the utmost respect and strive to meet their needs well beyond their rental apartment,” she said. “The reason for our success is simple: the needs of our residents are central continued on page 32

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Our vision at Tectra Group is to be known among our customers as Canada’s most professional roof and building envelope contractor in today’s diverse construction industry.

Tectra customers feel confidence, relief and security knowing that Tectra goes to every extent to fulfill customer expectations

Find out what our clients have been experiencing for yourself by calling us at 416-748-0808 from anywhere nationwide for your consultation.

We are roofer-founded and led by a roofer with over 25 years of hands-on experience. Tectra’s expertise lies in all forms of flat roofing repair and replacement, sloped roofing and most importantly, raving customers

Tectra’s experience does not stop at roofs; it extends to all areas of the building envelope including wall and window systems such as curtain wall, panelized cladding, insulated metal cladding, precast, EIFS and conventional brick systems.

Top tier clientele such as CAPREIT understand that an integrated approach to building envelope design and construction results in the most durable product and a longer-performing asset. Tectra’s team of professionals bring the integration that your average roofer does not.

Who do you want on YOUR building’s roof?

Visit our website at: www.tectragroup.com

CAPREIT “ We truly believe in creating the best places to work and live. We run our procurement team this way to ensure we support our operations teams, our corporate office, and that we provide them with what they require to be the best in the industry and the best support for our residents continued from page 29

to our operation and influence everything we do. We not only work with our residents to provide a home, but we work to create a comfortable residential community in which to thrive.”

She continued with some further details

Tectra Group

about the extraordinary high levels of service that CAPREIT is determined to deliver. “Being in the residential industry, we consistently endeavor to provide high quality products and services, which range from contracts with our vendor partners to maintaining our buildings.

Tectra Group has been working steadily with CAPREIT since 2018 delivering on-budget and on-time roof replacements from coast to coast across Canada. It is our drive and passion for excellence that enables us to perform to the standards expected by CAPREIT and our commitment to quality that keeps those projects performing for decades to come.

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This covers areas such as cleaning services, garbage, pest control, in suite renovations, maintenance of our buildings and keeping them safe with a range of measures, such as security, cameras, elevators, fire and safety equipment/procedures and so on.

“We also ensure we are on top of any of the renovations that are required in buildings to maintain their quality and appearance. In doing this, we have met with our vendors to make sure that the products being used are moving towards a more sustainable option, and that includes such maintenance items as paints, water-based floor finishing, products used within the buildings and cleaning supplies.”

In fact, working with vendors to use eco-friendly products has been a focus for CAPREIT for a few years. “We even have a department that focuses on sustainability as a wider remit,” said Tonia. “For procurement, we have focused on the products being used as our first step. We also have put a sustainability program into our corporate and regional offices so we can capitalize on the many benefits that these initiatives offer. We

Willoughby Walk, British Columbia have made our offices eco-friendly in areas such as garbage, recycling, and food waste bins. We do not use water bottles anymore and have installed filtered water machines, and we also no longer use plastic cups, plates or straws.”

Positive contributions With Tonia having highlighted the importance of environmentally-friendly approaches to CAPREIT’s work, it is worth exploring this area more fully, as Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) is of extreme importance to the organization. CAPREIT recognizes that not only is ESG disclosure increasingly being associated with investor expectations and business performance, but also that investments extend beyond just buildings, and include the people it employs, the tenants it houses, the suppliers it engages, and the communities in which it operates.

With this in mind, CAPREIT can both generate a positive return for its investors, as well as make meaningful contributions to society and the environment.

Therefore, it views the integration of

an ESG strategy as a key competitive differentiator that helps the business proactively address risks, create new value-add opportunities, and ultimately deliver on its commitment to be the best place to work, live and invest (more on this

later). To maintain a focus on this area, the company formulated a comprehensive ESG strategy in 2019. “Building and delivering ESG competency means we have a common corporate definition and understanding of ESG and how responsibility and accountability

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CAPREIT

are trickled across varying decision-making processes and departments,” comment Mark Kenney, President and Chief Executive Officer and Elaine Todres, Chair Of HR&C Committee on the CAPREIT website.

The strategy includes five foundational building blocks that set the tone for effective integration going forward. The first of these involved formalizing a nation-wide ESG Policy supported at the corporate, department

and employee-level across CAPREIT. This is designed to embed consideration of ESG factors through all stages of the decision-making process to promote healthy workplaces, community benefits, and environmental stewardship. The policy has been approved by the ESG Steering Committee, executive leadership team, and Board of Trustees.

Sustainability practices The business also socialized the ESG strategy coast-to-coast and began building an ESG competency across the organization. Two ESG sub-committees were set up, in addition to its ESG Steering Committee, to support the integration of CAPREIT’s ESG strategy across the corporate and operational teams, and the company completed a Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) pre-assessment. Finally, it initialized a Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD)-aligned climate-related risks and opportunities assessment.

Such dedication has already been seeing results. As CAPREIT aligns its ESG strategy integration into an overall corporate program called ‘Elevation 2023’, it has highlighted three targets – be The Best Place to Work, The Best Place to Live and the Best Place to Invest. Recognizing the first category, in 2019 the company was voted PlatinumLevel Aon Best Employer in Canada for the seventh consecutive year. For the second initiative, it achieved 8/10 for its overall staff performance score on its resident satisfaction survey, and on the third criteria, it demonstrated the leadership and vision needed to ensure long-term value for

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Kings Club, Ontario

Multitech Contracting 2000 Inc.

Multitech Contracting 2000 Inc. have been providing reliable renovation and rehabilitation services since 1989.

We have performed general contracting services for CapReit over 15 years. We provide them with innovative ideas to better the appearance of their units in a quick and cost efficient manner. We do a full renovation unit, situated in a favorable area where we know their rent income will be maximized on a monthly basis. We provide a complete scope, illustrating an innovative renovation that will ensure a competitive advantage is gained over the numerous condominium buildings throughout Canada.

We always work with a budget that benefits CapReit and which results in the greatest return within a short period.

Our in-house manufacturing department aids us in staying on budget and finishing the renovation on a timely basis. Furthermore, any issues or concerns that may arise during the renovation are immediately addressed.

shareholders, as well as a focus on diversity, with 43 per cent of self-identified female representation on CAPREIT’s board.

With the focus on the Governance side of ESG firmly directed and managed, we turn attention once again to the Environmental stewardship aspect of the ESG strategy – this is something that has actually been part of CAPREIT’s DNA for over two decades. It has always delivered an ongoing commitment to sustainability by integrating environmentally responsible strategies and practices into varying aspect of its business, not just in the areas Tonia identified, but also in a wider sense – for example, when considering a merger or acquisition, it includes environmental and social factors as part of its due diligence and decision-making.

By managing its operational footprint, and implementing sustainability practices across its portfolio, CAPREIT has been able to reduce related adverse impacts on the environment in areas such as Energy, Water and Waste – in fact, it has invested over $47m in energy conservation measures, has saved eight per cent in energy over the last ten years and has achieved reduced GHG emissions of 8,500 tCO2e in the last decade.

The ‘Social’ part of ESG is also of the same importance to CAPREIT – people, partners and communities are part of the bedrock of its philosophy and the foundation of its business rests in the people it attracts, retains and supports. ‘Our people drive our solid growth’ Mark Kenney is quoted as saying in the business’ 2020 Annual Report. “People are what makes CAPREIT a successful company,” confirmed Tonia. “From our people that run the business on site all

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CAPREIT

the way to our corporate staff, I don’t believe CAPREIT would be as successful as we are without this focus on the team. CAPREIT truly treats all our employees as a family and listens to feedback from the staff. We are always trying to find ways to improve to

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make people (both staff and tenants) a top priority and happy to be living in a CAPREIT building or working at a CAPREIT location.”

People first A criterion that has been briefly referenced already as an essential building block of a successful team is diversity – in the company’s 2020 Annual Report, Saleema Kassam, Legal Counsel, acknowledged this with the quote: “Welcoming diversity and fostering inclusion is our commitment.”

The Report describes how the organization believes that creating a diverse and inclusive workforce helps it to better interact with and support the communities in which it lives and works, enabling it to deliver innovative approaches and solutions both within and outside the organization. ‘Our employee base includes an almost equal gender split between men and women, and since 2017 women have represented about half of our annual recruitment. We celebrate the more than 55 languages spoken at CAPREIT, a reflection of the diverse makeup of the Canadian population and our resident communities. Our workforce is also highly multi-generational, ensuring we represent the interests of all age groups. We are very proud to be working with social housing agencies and programs, leasing suites to them where we can and where most needed. Almost 2100 apartments in our portfolio have been leased by these agencies for people in need,’ the report continues.

This well-represented workforce is then supported by best-in-class learning and development opportunities that cultivate extraordinary talent. Moving out of its offices and into its communities, the company

Lum Pur Fleuve, Quebec

prides itself on engaging with residents and taking a holistic approach to resident care, as well as investing in its neighborhoods, to deliver initiatives to help enact social and environmental change and impact.

The company offers support through its

Begley Overhead Doors

Begley Overhead Doors have been the leader in overhead door supply and maintenance in the GTA for over 60 years. Our top-quality materials and workmanship ensure the longevity and smooth operations of any door that we install. Begley’s preventative maintenance program improves the reliability & security of your door and works to reduce: unnecessary service calls, major repairs, and unexpected capital expenses. Service provided by Begley is reliable, secure, and committed. Your overhead door problem is our problem - and we’re good at fixing problems. The best way to deal with overhead door issues is to prevent them.

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CAPREIT 3700 des Compagnons, Quebec

resident outreach program, WeCare, its annual customer satisfaction survey to measure performance, and finally, through its ombudsperson program, CAP CARES.

Supply chain management It is through working closely with people and developing relationships that the most successful interactions are achieved, and this can be particularly relevant to the Supply Chain Management segment. CAPREIT believes that by managing and improving the environmental, social and economic performance of its supply chain management, it can conserve resources, optimize processes, uncover product innovations and increase influence through the promotion of its corporate values. Two of its key supply chain achievements include formalizing ESG-related provisions into its contractual agreements and policies to ensure alignment with business integrity and responsible business practices; and utilizing an online screening platform to ensure its partners remain in compliance with regulatory and corporate requirements.

As Senior Director, Procurement & Ancillary, the supply chain arena is where Tonia’s expertise comes to the fore. She was able to share some insights into some of the methods in place that help CAPREIT increase supply chain efficiency. “I truly believe in forming relationships with our partners as

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key to our success,” she emphasized. “With our partners, we can bring the services and products we require to all our staff, tenants and other relevant parties. Being respectful and having honest and open communication is the key to strong relationships. This forms the foundation of a team and it has proved to mutually beneficial for us and our suppliers.”

Tonia then continued with some more details about the procurement side. “We have many programs and processes that we use to ensure we follow the correct procurement process,” she said. “We have teams that we work with that successfully assist us with reporting, such as our finance team, our reporting and analysis team, our marketing team and many more.

“We use SAP for our procurement process, and we are now working on bringing in Ariba programs too. Furthermore, we have partnered with Crawford Compliance, and of course, we have a comprehensive tendering process for all projects such as any renovations, structural, interior and/or exterior work.”

Having stressed the importance of

“ We will be looking to grow further as we always do and being successful in managing our buildings. CAPREIT has such a wide range of buildings, town homes and MHC land that we are constantly increasing, and we always focus on continuous improvements - making our buildings look better, be safer and a create places where people are proud to live and work communication, Tonia noted that the benefits of this approach had come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, when all businesses were tackling the issue of volatility in the supply chain and creating new ways to manage any difficulties or challenges that arose. “Communication is key,” she agreed.

“We have been working diligently to be in constant communication with our internal

staff and our external partners. Even with the shutdowns and potential Covid-19 cases, we have managed this period with limited hiccups.

“Our people, our brand and how we care for our residents and staff are all connected to what sets us apart from the competition,” she added. “We truly believe in creating the best places to work and live. We run our procurement team this way to ensure we

Pragma Tech

It has been our pleasure to be able to work with CAPREIT Canada wide for their waste and recycling concerns.

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CAPREIT Infiniti, Alberta

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support our operations teams, our corporate office, and that we provide them with what they require to be the best in the industry and the best support for our residents.”

The insights that Tonia has shared into CAPREIT and its operations make it clear that this is a business that prioritizes distinction in all areas. Upholding and maintaining this level of quality is not an easy task - however, if awards and accolades are a reflection of performance, then this is a business that is at the top of its game. CAPREIT is consistently recognized by its industry peers for its longstanding culture of excellence, innovation, service, and financial and operational performance. These awards echo CAPREIT’s continued commitment to deliver shareholder value and exemplify how it undertakes to be the best in the business.

Property portfolio One particular award is worth highlighting – in 2020 CAPREIT successfully achieved Silver BOMA BEST Certification at 460 Brant Street in Burlington, Ontario. BOMA BEST is Canada’s largest environmental

assessment and certification program for existing commercial buildings. The standards set forth in this program help CAPREIT and its tenants uphold their responsibilities in achieving the highest level of environmental performance and efficiency. BOMA BEST assesses ten key areas: Energy, Water, Air, Comfort, Health and Wellness, Custodial, Purchasing, Waste, Site and Stakeholder Engagement. As an industry recognized program, the certification provides owners and managers with the framework for assessing the environmental performance and management of a building and, in turn, make necessary improvements to lower costs and reduce carbon footprint.

This award-winning property at 460 Brant Street is included within the Commercial Property portfolio of CAPREIT, alongside various other buildings (these can be viewed on its website www.caprent.com/ commercial). With commercial buildings around Canada, CAPREIT is ideally placed for those looking for office space, retail space, or parking/storage to lease. To support both existing and potential clients, it also releases

a Commercial Newsletter, which shares the latest news, project announcements, events, and more from the CAPREIT Commercial division.

The Commercial team is proud to support its clients in their business endeavors, and this culture of care around its clients is also particularly prevalent in another division of the business - Student Living. CAPREIT acknowledges that moving away from home to a new school or college can be daunting for young people, and its staff are wellequipped to assist with all their needs - from the application process to learning about local resources near a new home and school.

CAPREIT’s goal is to make the transition from home to school as smooth as possible for student and parent alike. Its buildings are safe, secure and close to school, and it has on-site staff who are fully-equipped and ready to help students settle into their new apartment.

Once again, as with Commercial property, the CAPREIT website offers a convenient resource to find the right location for student property, and this also applies

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CAPREIT Yorkson Grove, British Columbia

to potential tenants that are looking for apartments to rent – a searchable database and a guide to the apartments and areas makes it simple for possible renters to find their ideal location. It also includes links to the properties in Ireland and the Netherlands that are managed by CAPREIT. The Land Lease option is also online offering a sound and affordable financial alternative to traditional home ownership, these manufactured home communities offer the benefits of owning a home with the convenience and amenities that come with being part of a community. Residents in CAPREIT Land Lease Communities own their home but lease the land on which the home is built, with one of the benefits being a much-reduced cost of ownership. Via an online map, the website makes it simple to find the ideal location, with pictures and details of each community highlighted.

Exploring the CAPREIT website gives a sense of perspective on the scale of the operation and the impressive number of properties that the business has in its portfolio. Adding to these numbers is an ongoing process and, as Tonia noted, the business has no intention of slowing down as it goes forward into 2021 and beyond. “We will be looking to grow further as we always do and being successful in managing our buildings. CAPREIT has such a wide range of buildings, town homes and MHC land that

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The Point, British Columbia we are constantly increasing, and we always focus on continuous improvements - making our buildings look better, be safer and a create places where people are proud to live and work,” she stated.

“We have to continue to be positive, work through these hard times and keep up the spirits of our staff, as this has not been a normal year for anyone,” she concluded. “I am proud to highlight that one of our true successes this year is how we have adapted to working from home and kept the business running. We have supported our buildings to ensure that we keep them clean, updated and that we were there when needed.”

CAPREIT www.caprent.com Services: Real estate operating company

Metro Compactor Service

Metro Compactor Service is Canada’s leading expert in waste and recycling equipment, committed to quality in its staff, service, and products. The company offers a full range of technology enabled waste equipment services and sales for the multi-unit residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional markets nationwide.

Wilkinson Chutes Canada pioneered Garbage & Linen chute system design and innovation in the 1920’s and has set the gold standard in the industry since. The company offers a full range of chute liners, doors, and waste sorter systems. The two companies have united their service departments to provide a one stop shop for residential property managers.

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Imperial Distributors

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The performance

leader

A recognized leader in non-foods, the sole focus of Imperial Distributors is to provide retailers with the value, innovation and differentiation needed to succeed in today’s marketplace

F

ounded in Worcester, MA, in 1939, Imperial Distributors (Imperial) was the brainchild of one Frank Sleeper, who came upon the inspiration for the company during his time selling assembled first aid kits door-to-door. Using a garage as his first makeshift warehouse, Frank’s role as a pioneer of grocery non-foods really began to take shape in the early 1940s when Imperial began to introduce patent medicines and beauty care products into grocery stores to sell on their respective racks.

Around the same time, the company – then trading as Imperial Drug Co. – opened its first proper warehouse, and within the next decade its trucks were delivering to its first supermarket customer, Grand View Market, on Stafford Street in Worcester, MA. Other supermarkets and discount store customers soon partnered with Imperial, leading to the need to build and open a new facility in Auburn, MA. This increase in capacity allowed the company to add general merchandise to its ever-broadening assortment of product offerings.

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Imperial Distributors In 1964, Frank’s son Michael Sleeper took his first steps into the family business, and by 1973 he had ascended to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), taking over the day-to-day running of Imperial. Under Michael, the company significantly increased its non-food offerings across a number of categories, and began to supply its first chain supermarket customers. Fast forward to the 2000s, and the dawn of the new millennium brought with it an electronic ordering system that would enhance accuracy and productivity. It also saw Imperial double its customer base to 2000 retail locations, with no fewer than 20,000 SKUs. More recently, the 2010’s saw the company adopt state-of-the-art voice-pick technology in order to further improve its levels of efficiency and customer service. In the meantime, Imperial would continue to expand its reach, providing support to more than 3500 retail stores and it ventured further into the Mid-West and South of the United States. Continuing to fulfil its enduring mission statement of being a ‘Performance Leader’, in 2017, Imperial celebrated its move into a brand new 300,000-square-foot distribution facility in its home city of Worcester, MA. Here the company utilizes voice-pick technology and zone routing for optimizing efficiency and capacity of retail-friendly totes, organized for easy and efficient pack-out at retail stores.

“Today, Imperial supplies approximately 27,000 SKUs of health, beauty and wellness, general merchandise, and seasonal products to supermarkets across 28 states, as well as college bookstores and online retailers across 48 states,” explains President and CEO Michael Sleeper. “Our dedicated team, category expertise and product knowledge, and depth of product assortment across health, beauty, wellness, general merchandise and seasonal helps to set the company apart from its competition.”

In addition to product distribution, retailers outsource assortment and promotional planning, planogram development and in-store service of non-food categories to Imperial. Imperial doesn’t commoditize, but rather customizes based on its customer’s needs. Imperial has experienced strong growth for over 80 years and has solid, long-standing relationships with both retail customers and suppliers.

“Imperial has a dedicated management and sales team that engage with customers and build retailer sales at every level,” Michael states. “As specialists in non-foods, our in-store sales and service representatives and merchandising experts build the trust of store directors and personnel, acting as an extension of the retailer team to grow sales at store level. Imperial’s Account Managers and Category Managers support customers’ buying teams to innovate and maximize opportunities through on-trend assortments, promotional planning, and category expertise. At the same time, on an

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executive level, the Imperial team partners with customers to develop and execute on strategy for growing retailers’ health, beauty, wellness, general merchandise and seasonal categories.”

Enhanced offering

outstanding contributions to society, especially over a long period of time.

Turning the topic of conversation to how the company – and indeed the wider supply chain world – has fared during the last 12 months or so,

Naomi quite rightly notes how disruptions in the supply chain – from manufacturing shortages to transportation delays – have had an impact on product availability, particularly in categories that experienced sharp, unexpected spikes in demand

A family-owned, operated and orientated business, team members of the organization frequently refer to what is affectionately known as the ‘Imperial family’. “Collaborative problem-solving in this environment and team member development are core ingredients to Imperial’s company culture,” Michael points out, before going on to also highlight some of the vital work that the company carries out in support of local communities.

“High engagement in the community is also a key component of Imperial’s culture,” he adds.

“For example, we have been supporting the United Way of Central Massachusetts for decades, and we run an annual golf tournament and corporate campaign to support the organization’s Community Impact fund. Imperial team members across all levels of the organization contribute to this campaign and participate in a variety of community volunteer opportunities throughout the year. Naomi Sleeper – our Vice President of Continuous Improvement and Strategic Initiatives – is currently Chair of the United Way Board, and serves on several other community boards, including the Reliant Foundation, the Worcester Education Collaborative (WEC) and the New England Food Foundation.”

For his part, Michael has also served on several Boards in the community, including Mass Food Association (MFA), Food Marketing Institute (FMI), Worcester Research Bureau and Assumption University, just to name a few. In 2015, Michael also received the Isaiah Thomas Award, granted to a central Massachusetts resident who has made

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Imperial Distributors

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discovery, category innovation and sales inspiration.”

As we look ahead to the second half of 2021, Imperial is looking forward to partnering with retail customers to support their growing omnichannel business across categories. This includes supporting operations and logistics, as well as product information and insights to maximize sales opportunities, and support their shoppers’ flexible purchasing experience.

“In regards to the future,” Naomi concludes, “Imperial will continue to support retail customers – whether they be predominantly bricks and mortar or digital businesses – in our rapidly changing

industry through a combination of products, merchandising, category expertise, and value-added services. Whatever the years ahead may bring with them, you can be assured that Imperial will remain committed to continuous growth, quality and innovation, which it will use to serve its business partners to the best of its ability.”

Imperial Distributors www.imperialdist.com Specialty: Distribution and merchandising of non-foods

during the Covid-19 pandemic. “In spite of such challenges,” she says, “Imperial’s Procurement and Category Management teams have remained incredibly focused on alternative product solutions for customers wherever necessary.”

In recent months, Imperial has also looked to further enhance its offering and ability to diversify in a rapid-changing environment by developing direct-to-consumer shipping capabilities in order to support retail customers’ B2C e-commerce business with an ‘endless aisle’ breadth of assortment to make available to shoppers. “This past year,” Naomi continues, “Imperial has also moved seasonal events online through virtual seasonal shows. We continue to develop B2B online purchase and engagement opportunities for customers to support product

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Coca-Cola

Refreshing the

supply chain

T

hough Coca-Cola is a household name across the globe, the scope and reach of the company’s supply chain is not common knowledge. Owing to the diverse nature of its modern product range - the firm is responsible for over 200 brands worldwide - Coca-Cola operates through various platforms and franchises, meaning support is required from a deep network of vendors and suppliers in order to keep the business efficient.

In total, this supply chain sits at an enormous $65

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billion, and as Group Director of Logistics and Product Supply Systems Keith Woods explains, the business and its partners are in it for the long haul.

“When we develop strategic partnerships,” Keith says, “the assumption is that they will last well into the future. Transparency is a key part of that. We share information that fits each organization and sets them up to be successful, such as buying patterns and quantities or updates on market changes.

Most importantly, when you have that type of long-term relationship, you can get investment on both sides and that drives value. It’s about collaborating to seek out a win-win equation for both parties.”

Collaboration has certainly played a vital role in sustaining Coca-Cola’s supply chain over the last 12 months, as the business and its partners tackled the greatest global challenge of the 21st century – Covid-19. After sharing losses and working together to find solutions to common

Supported by long-term suppliers and spurred on by strong leadership, Coca-Cola aims to reimagine its supply chain and reaffirm its legendary company culture in 2021

problems during the crisis, Coca-Cola and its supply chain now enjoy a closer relationship than ever.

“I think our supply chain responded really well to Covid,” Keith declares. “We really found out where we stood with some of our suppliers.

It has defined many of our relationships in a really positive way. Thanks to the support of our partners, Coca-Cola has come through the pandemic and we are now seeing growth in sales, so we are on a strong projection trajectory.”

Much of Coca-Cola’s recent growth has been organic, but Keith submits that the company’s commitment to brands like Fairlife - which Coca-Cola took full control of in 2020 - is really beginning to pay off. Growth for Fairlife’s ultrafiltered milk products reflects wider success felt across Coca-Cola’s ever-diversifying range.

“Hydration, coffee and tea products are performing really well, and some of our innovation products, such as flavored sparkling waters, are starting to gather pace too,” Keith

reveals. “One exciting new launch is Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, which is our take on the flavored alcoholic beverage category, and we have already seen a lot of sales there as well.

We are encouraged by activity across the board, so as always, we will continue to develop our portfolio.”

To support its growing portfolio, Coca-Cola is investing in the digitization of its supply chain as part of efforts to create more visibility and flexibility. For example, some new technology is

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Coca-Cola Tada Cognitive A spin-off from supply chain management consulting firm CGN Global, Tada is a cognitive digital platform that drives organizational success through enhanced visibility, agility and collaboration through purpose built apps.

Tada’s cognitive intelligence platform synthesizes a company’s business and operating models, and its outcome metrics to create a live, dynamic Digital Duplicate® of its entire ecosystem. This can then be navigated endto-end to drive digital transformation and operational change at a faster and more cost-effective rate than traditional Business Intelligence tools.

“What customers have found in recent times especially, is that despite having enterprise and legacy systems in place to handle various supply chain disruptions or shifts, companies are facing great difficulties in dealing with such challenges today,” explains CEO of CGN Global and Board Member of Tada, Harsh Koppula. “At Tada, we understand that the future doesn’t fit into the containers of the past and the transformative nature of our work has led to a rapid rise in interest from large companies in what our cognitive platform and products can deliver.”

Companies that Tada has supported include a host of multi-billion dollar, multi-national names, including Navistar, Caterpillar, Crown Industries, and Coca-Cola. “In the case of Coca-Cola, its challenge lay in the last mile and the optimization of shipping its products between its plants and its customers, via its various points of distribution,” Harsh says. “What we did was built a solution that Coca-Cola could place on top of its own existing operations and offer it complete visibility and governance, and the ability to better manage costs quickly and efficiently, which was extremely well received.”

Moving forward, Tada has identified opportunities in several areas, most notably in the form of supply chain control towers, block chain/track and trace, and sustainable supply chains. “Blockchain gives us the capability to create trusted networks offering multi-tier visibility and risk management, so that every party in the chain can feel confident that information is being shared with the correct people,” Harsh adds.

“Another thing that we are doing is investing heavily in the technology that underpins our platform itself. We are building into it things like increased work flow management, messaging alerts, and ramping up its predictive and prescriptive capabilities, because, at the end of the day, we are delivering the full orchestration of the entire supply chain,” Harsh concludes.

now employed to help the business proactively manage supply chain distribution and the monitoring of loads. Likewise, Coca-Cola is working closely with another technology partner to introduce touchless facilities,

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meaning drivers would not have to engage with a warehouse or plant physically, making for a safer, more efficient environment.

“We continue to enhance our transportation management system, which we have had for

years but haven’t yet leveraged to its full potential, so there is a lot more to come from that,” Keith adds. “On the planning side, we have recently incorporated a really powerful planning software that has given us some expanded capabilities. Going forward, we remain determined to redefine and further digitize the supply chain.”

Although technology will always be a critical part of Coca-Cola’s supply chain, Keith is adamant that it will never be more important than leadership and people. According to the Group Director, when it came to mitigating supply disruption and keeping operations flowing effectively during the Covid-19 pandemic, Coca-Cola’s well-led workforce was the company’s biggest asset.

“There were, of course, some inefficiencies due to the fact that we had to create a safe environment for our employees, but I think it was our response to that and our leadership through the crisis that allowed us to, for the most part, keep our operations running and

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

MY

K

Coca-Cola “There is a can-do, will-do attitude instilled across this company from the top that you just do not find in many other organizations.

That culture has sustained us for over 100 years now and it didn’t happen that way by chance

Tribe Transportation

Tribe Transportation is privileged to assist Coca-Cola in making, selling and delivering the world’s greatest brands and flavors each day.

Tribe Transportation is truly honored to partner with Coca-Cola and assist their customers throughout the United States. Thank you for the continued partnership!

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products going to customers,” Keith asserts.

Having made it through the worst of the pandemic, Coca-Cola is now free to focus on the future. From a logistics perspective, the first half of 2021 has seen the company pivot from a matrix organization to a network organization, meaning it can now better

drive synergies across its multi-billion-dollar supply chain.

“I am interested to see what we will be able to achieve when we really leverage our scale and make our supply chain a more competitive advantage,” Keith proclaims. “As we become a network organization, you will see the power

of that unleashed across our business, which is very exciting.

“In the longer term, I would like us to be viewed, from a supply chain standpoint, on a par with the Amazons of the world. Today, Coca-Cola is probably known as being more of a marketer, or a brand manager, because of our powerful brand, but I think as time goes by we will be thought of by some as a true supply chain company because of the competitive advantage we will enjoy throughout our supply chain.”

In less than 20 years from now, Coca-Cola will celebrate its 150th birthday.

The anniversary will, no doubt, drive home to the business, and its customers, just how far the company has come since 1886, when Dr John Pemberton served the world’s first Coke at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Since then, Coca-Cola has evolved into a total beverage company with more than 700,000 employees across company and bottling partners the world over. Working closely with grocery stores, restaurants, street vendors, convenience stores, movie theaters

and amusement parks, these local channels execute strategies developed in partnership with Coca-Cola headquarters and deliver products to consumers at a rate of 1.9 billion servings a day.

Working in concert with its complex and, in many ways, uniquely structured supply chain, Coca-Cola aims to continue acting upon its vision - to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, refreshing them in body and spirit, while performing in ways that create a more sustainable business and a better shared future for consumers and their communities. As the organization pushes on with this goal in mind, Keith expects Coca-Cola to continue living out the values that have set the business apart from its competitors for more than a century.

“One defining component of Coca-Cola that I keep returning to is leadership and culture,” Keith notes. “There is a can-do, willdo attitude instilled across this company from the top that you just do not find in many other organizations. That culture has sustained us for over 100 years now and it didn’t happen that way by chance.

“Another real differentiator is our flexibility and ability to pivot and change in response to consumer demand,” Keith adds. “We continue to do that - it was vital during the Covid pandemic - and we continue to let our consumers form our growth, innovation plans, and direction. It’s something we do very well, which is why we are still one of the best-loved, most-recognized brands in the world.

“Finally, a core part of the modern-day Coca-Cola organization is our ability to be a good steward of the brand in terms of responsible corporate citizenship. We’ve reduced sugar in our products, decreased our carbon footprint, and continue to source ingredients more sustainably and ethically. I think all those things sit well in our contemporary consumer market and we are rewarded by people buying our products.”

Coca-Cola www.coca-colacompany.com Products: Beverages including soft drinks, mineral water, juices, coffee and tea

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Harbor Wholesale

Evergreen

convenience

Distributing goods to more than 3000 convenience stores and restaurants across the western United States, Harbor Wholesale is proof that looking local and caring for communities can lead to a century of success

A

s the forests of the eastern United States became depleted during the early 1900s, loggers made the long journey across the country to the Pacific Northwest - a land of towering trees and abundant resources. one hundred miles west of Seattle, Grays Harbor County, Washington, was one such logging hotspot. The region was also home to Carl V Erickson, who, having founded West Coast Produce Co in 1923, enjoyed great

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success distributing butter, eggs, cheese and grocery products to the local lumberjacks.

In the years that followed, West Coast Produce Co was passed down through the Erickson family, evolving from a local foodstuffs firm into a key supplier for the convenience and restaurant industries throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, and Alaska. Today, in 2021, the business is known as Harbor Wholesale, but its mission remains the same as it was in 1923: to

deliver value to its customers and team members, with an emphasis on service, innovation, and market expertise.

“In just two years’ time, Harbor Wholesale will be 100 years old,” declares Dan Willows, the company’s Vice President of Procurement and Category Management. “Currently, the company is led by Justin Erickson – the fourth generation of the Erickson family to run the business – and we are located only 60 miles from our original

location in Grays Harbor. After investing in a host of technological advancements and new warehouse space, we broke the $100 million sales mark in 2000 and find ourselves approaching the $1 billion mark in 2021.”

Diversifying as part of its growth, Harbor not only distributes to more than 3000 independent convenience stores, but also a range of quickserve restaurants, including branches of Subway and Taco Time. Recently, Harbor added Carl’s Jr.

restaurants to its portfolio, taking food service activities to 12 per cent of the company’s overall business. The welcome addition of Carl’s Jr. capped a successful 18 months for Harbor that saw the company grow by 8.5 per cent, despite the obstacles presented by Covid-19.

“Early on in the pandemic, one of our competitors in the East realized they could no longer service many of their customers due to other commitments, so they came to us

looking for a partnership. We accepted and, overnight, we were supplying a huge number of new convenience stores, which just shows our willingness to adapt to enjoy more growth,” Dan says. “In a similar way, we got really good at helping our clients pivot to alternative items during the pandemic; so, when Tyson Foods and other vendors started to struggle with supply, we were able to source elsewhere and keep the supply chain flowing.

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Harbor Wholesale

“We also switched our live shows to virtual shows, which led to record sales because we reached customers we wouldn’t have reached previously,” Dan continues. “We learned a lot in the pandemic, and initiatives like virtual shows will continue to be used in the future. The most important takeaway though was our flexibility and willingness to adapt. It meant we grew throughout the pandemic and facilitated the boom year we are experiencing now.”

Operating from two modern distribution centers and three satellite locations up and down the West Coast, Harbor continuously updates its in-house technologies and processes to stay at the head of the market. For instance, in 2021, the company has introduced a new buying system

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that will improve forecasting of customer needs.

The firm is also in the process of developing the Harbor Hub, a mobile application that will offer clients unprecedented access to Harbor’s product range and latest promotions.

“Harbor Hub will allow clients to use their phone or iPad to view items and create orders,” Dan states.

“If customers are missing an item or looking for the best item in a category, they can find it through this software, on their phone. It’s a digital asset that is going to make us a lot better.”

Even as Harbor grows and evolves, the company is determined to maintain its family culture, building on the core values that have allowed it to rise to the top. Friendly, Resourceful, Genuine and Motivated, Harbor has always regarded the success of its

customers, and the welfare of its employees, as an ‘obsession’.

“I have been here for three years now and I can safely say that Harbor is the best place I have ever worked,” Dan asserts. “Empowerment is a key part of the culture, and so is the desire to see employees achieve. Everyone is treated like a fellow family member here, whilst being given the space to take ownership of their work.

“On the customer side of things, frequent, meaningful communication is a hallmark of what we do and why we have become so successful. We collaborate with our vendors and partners a lot, helping us both to fulfill our mutual goals. We figure out solutions together, in partnership, and I think that is really critical in today’s business world.”

Thanks to its closeness with vendor partners, Harbor continues to stay abreast of consumer trends, allowing the business to create programs that independent stores can easily execute.

Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the company has experienced growing calls for ‘grab and go’ products as consumers turn to pre-prepared food items, rather than those prepared in-store.

“The grab and go category really skyrocketed during the pandemic, for safety reasons more than anything,” Dan reports. “People wanted something they could trust, so we created our own grab and go solutions for stores, with sandwiches, cut fruit and vegetables that could just be picked up and taken away.

“Another trend is meat snacks, like jerky and pepperoni sticks, for which we had already developed solutions that customers could just plug in right away. In the case of both grab and go and meat products, we really tried to generate simple solutions that could be set up quickly and easily, meaning clients could capitalize on trends immediately.”

In the second half of 2021, as more outlets and restaurants restricted by Covid-19 resume operation, Harbor hopes to see a spike in food service activity to complement its ongoing convenience store trade. New restaurant concepts are also on the horizon.

“The first thing we need to do is bring back food service, as well as ready-to-drink coffee and self-serve elements that were a regular part of life before Covid,” Dan stresses. “We are getting closer to a time when things can return to normal in that sense and we are confident that they will snap back with some tremendous food service growth.

“Elsewhere, we are developing some great new restaurant concepts for in-stores,” Dan adds. “We’ve got Mein Street, our own Asian eats private brand. It is one of a number of quickserve restaurant concepts we are developing for simple client installation, with quality that will

keep consumers returning to a store time and time again.”

Always looking ahead, Harbor aims to expand geographically in the next five years. In April 2021,

As the predominant distributor in the Pacific Northwest for independent retailers, the company would also like to diversify into distribution for small grocery stores. “If there is a 3000 to

the company acquired Rich & Rhine Wholesale, providing Harbor with an opportunity to establish a Portland, Oregon hub to help service the more densely populated markets in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. Buoyed by the success of this purchase, the firm now intends to identify more new opportunities along the West Coast as part of efforts to fill in geographical gaps in its current provision.

5000 square foot grocery store on the coast, or anywhere in our region, we would love to be their sole supplier. That is a big part of what we want to do next,” Dan reveals. “We will also become a more hybrid distributor, whereby we have more quick-serve restaurants on our books and additional strategic partnerships that help us expand our mix.”

As of June 2021, Harbor holds around 12,000

items in its warehouse space, but as the firm’s product mix expands, cross-docking will make it possible for 16,000 items to be taken in from suppliers overnight, before being shipped out to the company’s growing client base. Ambitious and quick to adapt, Harbor’s state-of-the-art facilities, turnkey systems and regional expertise will, for years to come, continue to fuel unique and flexible supply chain solutions for national, regional and local multi-unit chain customers across the western United States.

“The approach we take at Harbor is unlike anything else out there,” Dan remarks. “During the height of the pandemic, our Vice President of Sales, Bryce Schneider, said, ‘Let’s not focus on selling products as much as helping our customers cope with the changes to their business. Let’s figure out how we can be their resource.’ It was a pretty clever and insightful strategy that resonated with our clients, but more than that, it illustrates the way we operate. Customer success is paramount to everything we do. The entire business is focused on understanding our clients and delivering what they need – both now and for decades to come.”

Harbor Wholesale www.harborwholesale.com Specialty: Distributor to convenience stores and food service outlets

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CanadaWheels

Wheels on

fire

Founded with the mission to revolutionize the automotive online shopping experience by innovating, educating and bringing transparency to the industry, CanadaWheels is now Canada’s fastest growing online retailers of auto wheels, tires and parts

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hen talking about his vision for the company, CanadaWheels founder and chief executive officer, Saleh Taebi explained to Supply Chain World that he wants the business to be the ‘Amazon for car parts in Canada and beyond’. “We want to be a onestop-shop,” he said.

It is worth immediately highlighting that CanadaWheels is a technology company – it doesn’t have its own warehouse or stock products, but instead is synced in real time to

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over 100 warehouses in Canada, meaning that everything shown on its website is in stock and the prices are updated in real time to the latest promotions. Saleh gave some more details on how CanadaWheels is changing the way Canadians buy wheels, tires and parts.

“Traditionally the rim, tire and auto part manufacturers would sell to distributors, then distributors would sell to wholesalers, then wholesalers would sell to retailers, and finally retailers would sell to the end consumers,” he begins. “When we came into the picture, we

disrupted the supply chain as we mainly go directly from manufacturers to customers.

The result is that customers see many more options at a better price, with faster delivery.

We were also the first to offer free shipping on rims and tires around nine years ago in Canada, at a time when offering free shipping on online transactions wasn’t a common practice. Wheels and tires are heavy products and offering free shipping to our Canadian clients since inception was one of our main differentiators,” he adds.

CanadaWheels, Chief Executive Officer, Saleh Taebi

“In 2020 alone, our website had two million visitors, creating ten million page views. Our website currently covers over 50 million unique vehicle fitments, along with an expanding inventory of over two million unique SKUs from more than 500 brand name manufacturers

In fact, the ‘many more options’ that Saleh referred to is a vast understatement – CanadaWheels offers over 200 brands of wheels and tires for example, where branded high street stores or garages stock maybe two or three! “We really have two types of competitors, the online competitors and then the offline competitors,” he added. “But really even most of the online competition still warehouse their own products and that means they still don’t offer all the available options and they aren’t syncing in real time.

We have automated as much as we can of the flow, including checking or verifying payment, sending clients tracking information and sending them a follow up review email,” continued Saleh. “We are continuously automating the processes.

“In terms of innovation, something that we built is called a ‘geolocation base cost reduction algorithm’. This is a model based on the geolocation of suppliers, their offerings and published business constraints, which automatically determines whether a

supplier can cost effectively ship a product to the customer. This can also take advantage of published shipping information to automatically choose the lowest cost supplier, and include the shipping cost to offer the best deal to the customer.”

For example, if a Michelin tire is ordered, the system will check with Michelin but also a few exclusive distributors in different regions that also carry the same Michelin product, and it will automatically work out the fastest and cheapest supplier to fulfil this particular

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CanadaWheels

order, assign it to a warehouse and take the transaction through to completion.

Further highly-sophisticated technology has been created by Saleh and his team.

CanadaWheels was the first in Canada to introduce a wheel visualization option, so customers could envisage the rims on their car before they bought them. “We are also in progress of building a revolutionary 360° wheel

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visualizer, where you can spin the car or play around with it, which will eventually replace our traditional one,” Saleh revealed. “The benefit of this visualizer is that it eliminates the need for manufacturers to install real products on real cars and spend a lot of money photographing them. Then there is also a SAAS opportunity, because manufacturers want to be listed on our visualizer.” A proprietary solution, CanadaWheels

has developed this in-house, gathering multiple data points to accrue the correct specifications for each car. “We don’t rely on manufacturers to tell us what fits what, this is our own exclusive piece,” he added.

The business model that CanadaWheels has developed clearly delivers multiple benefits to both itself and its customers, but as Saleh explained, it does rely on strong relationships with suppliers and manufacturers. “At the end of the day we are partners, so we want our suppliers to be profitable, we want to make sure our customer gets the best service and products, and at the same time ensure our manufacturers don’t take a hit. So, from day one we had an educational mission where we would write custom content about the manufacturers, we would create custom banners, and we would talk about their warranties.”

CanadaWheels has also spent a lot of time on educating clients on areas such as fitment, and that required working closely with manufacturers on finding the correct product for the client, in order to reduce returns or fitting issues once the order has been sent out.

“The quantity of manufacturers we work with doesn’t really matter, it is the quality that is important, and the relationships – at the end the goal is to create a win-win situation for everybody. The manufacturers see a benefit because their product gets into the hands of the customers much faster and we monitor ourselves on a monthly basis and we know that with pretty much everybody we work with in the rim, tire and other parts space, that we are the number one online seller.”

These close partnerships, in combination with CanadaWheels’ web-based business model, helped the business traverse the trials of 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic – nevertheless, as Saleh highlighted, these past 18 months have not been without their challenges.

“Being an online technology company we were prepared, everything was in place and when the pandemic happened, essentially we had to shut down our offices, and our employees had to work from home. The issue that arose from working from home was that it made hiring new staff hard for us, because training and onboarding new employees remotely is not optimal.”

While CanadaWheels was able to quickly adjust to the new situation, Saleh revealed that his manufacturing partners were not as well prepared, because the biggest portion of their revenue was coming from selling to dealers and shops, which had now closed or had few clients. Unfortunately, some had to lay off staff.

“At the same time, the online sector grew like

crazy and it’s kind of what kept them healthy,” he added. “There still was a stage where some manufacturers couldn’t ship out products fast enough or that we had to suspend returns for a month to control the spread of Covid.

During those challenging times, we constantly talked to our partners to make sure that they were capable of fulfilling our orders, and I do think that this continuous communication was really important, with our clients as well as our suppliers and manufacturers.

“Something that was a big success for us in 2020 was a new service we’d started offering in 2019,” he continued. “We had begun to offer our clients interest-free monthly instalment options. The goal was to increase our customer’s purchasing power and remove any financial barriers they faced when making a buying decision. When the pandemic happened, we saw a peak of people using this service. As an example, paying $600 for a set of tires at once might have been difficult, but it was easier to pay six $100 instalments over six months.”

One area that became very clear from speaking to Saleh is that dedication to innovation is at the heart of CanadaWheels, and that constant adaptations and improvements are being made, all with the aim of improving the customer experience.

The pandemic does not appear to have slowed down this process, and at time of writing, the business had three important projects underway. “We are expanding extremely fast in automotive parts, even though we already offer the most complete library of auto parts that exists in Canada,” Saleh divulged. “We are constantly talking to new manufacturers and adding new brands to our portfolio of products.

“Secondly, we are starting our journey with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered

product recommendation function. We have our customers’ car information, and we have so many other parts that fit their car, so we can use the data and suggest other items they might like. So, for example, if they are on the website looking at roof racks, we can tell them ‘by the way, there are compatible bike racks or ski racks that also fit your car.’ Another way we can use this is that once a client places an order, we can send them a customized email informing them of all the other parts that we have for their vehicle. It is similar to NetFlix or Amazon’s recommendation technologies that ‘Because you watched this, you might like this,’ or ‘frequently bought together’ suggestions.

“Last but not least, we are working hard to launch USAWheels.com. The USA is a much bigger market than Canada and is further ahead on eCommerce adoption. The idea is that if we launch many of these new markets successfully, they are going to complement each other. There are a lot of parts in Europe that don’t have exposure in North America or vice versa so the plan is to make those available to each other. We have already reserved hundreds of similar URLS, which is always ‘country name plus wheels’, and we can imagine Italy Wheels, France Wheels, Austria Wheels, Australia Wheels, Russia Wheels, Mexico Wheels, India Wheels and so on depending on where we want to go.

“In terms of the idea, if we launch many of these different market websites, it will be similar to amazon.com vs amazon.ca or amazon.fr - each one has its own set of products, but you can cross ship products from one market to another.” This will not only give access to millions more parts from around the world, but also allow people to benefit from currency exchange rate fluctuations.

The vision that Saleh has for CanadaWheels’ growth and development is truly inspiring. He

ended with some statistics that really sum up the success that the business is already seeing and go some way to show that the worldwide presence he hopes to achieve is well within the realms of possibility. “In 2020 alone, our website had two million visitors, creating ten million page views. Our website currently covers over 50 million unique vehicle fitments, along with an expanding inventory of over two million unique SKUs from more than 500 brand name manufacturers,” he concludes. “For rims and tires, if a company has a presence in Canada, then they are listed on CanadaWheels, and it totals over 200 brands. When it comes to automotive parts, right now we have around 300 brands, and that’s where we are continuing to focus and expand on.”

CanadaWheels www.canadawheels.ca Services: E-Commerce platform that simplifies the process of buying tires, wheels and automotive parts

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Northside Hospital

Recognize and

respond Northside Hospital is achieving supply chain resiliency by eliminating constraints

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Below: Northside Hospital, Cherokee

I

t seems that ‘new normals’ are the constant now rather than the exception. Disruptions brought on by events such as 9/11, the financial crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic have wreaked havoc globally on supply chains and changed the way goods and services are purchased and delivered. The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on supply chains across the board especially in healthcare. According to Carl Waller, Northside Hospital’s Vice President of Supply Chain Management, healthcare systems that were better able to weather the effects of the pandemic typically had supply chains that recovered quickly from the disruption caused by shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE).

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Northside Hospital “The Theory of Constraints (TOC) which was introduced in the mid1980s by Eli Goldratt, defines a constraint “as anything that limits a system from achieving higher performance versus its goal – a bottleneck” Achieving resiliency

Above: Carl Waller, Northside Hospital’s Vice President of Supply Chain Management

Resiliency is a frequently used term today that describes the ability to recover rapidly from difficulties. The consequences associated with a lengthy recovery can be devastating if the pace of disruption outstrips the rate of recovery.

Achieving resiliency largely depends on the ability to eliminate constraints in the supply chain.

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) which was introduced in the mid-1980s by Eli Goldratt, defines a constraint “as anything that limits a system from

achieving higher performance versus its goal – a bottleneck.” Once a constraint is eliminated, the next constraint is identified, eliminated, and so on.

Northside Hospital has incorporated some basic elements of TOC into its supply chain management philosophy and believes it has been a major factor in the organizations’ ability to achieve resiliency during periods of disruption. The first step in eliminating a constraint is identifying the constraint in the context of supply chain strategy, metrics, and risks. Understanding the impact of the constraint not just on supply chain, but the entire organization is an extremely important part of the identification process. Predicting future constraints based on the elimination of a current constraint is also a valuable planning exercise and allows the organization to foster a proactive approach to achieving and maintaining resiliency.

Northside segregates constraints into two categories, strategic and tactical. A strategic constraint is one that affects the broader organization, may require a longer timeframe to eliminate, and usually involves external stakeholders. Conversely, a tactical constraint is one that can be eliminated in a relatively short timeframe, requires fewer resources, and may or may not involve external stakeholders. Addressing tactical constraints may contribute to the elimination of a strategic constraint.

Eliminating constraints to flexibility and throughput Northside’s supply chain mission is to cost effectively source and deliver high quality goods and services necessary to provide innovative and unsurpassed patient care. Effectively sourcing and delivering high quality goods means that the supply chain must provide the right products at the right place at the right time to support patient care objectives. This requires enough flexibility in the system to ensure that supplies are readily available regardless of changes in demand, while simultaneously avoiding an over-investment in capital.

Constraint #1 – inventory space Over time, Northside’s rapid growth outpaced the capability to store sufficient inventory on-site to meet demand. The inability to house enough critical inventory increased the risk of stock outs and ultimately cancellation of surgical and diagnostic procedures. To eliminate this constraint, Northside and its primary distributor worked together to create an offsite virtual warehouse dedicated to Northside within the distribution center that serves Northside’s facilities. “We call it a warehouse within a warehouse,” said Carl.

Frequent deliveries are made from the distribution center to Northside’s hospitals on a just-in-time

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Northside Hospital System employs ASP Global’s direct sourcing model to improve patient experience Northside Hospital locations in Atlanta have been recognized as a recipient of the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award for extraordinary focus on quality for nine years (2013-2021). Northside has made a concerted effort to improve the patient experience continuously. As part of these efforts to improve quality, they believe that every interaction with patients, and the products they use, is a unique opportunity to bring additional value to its patient-centered care model. An example of this model is demonstrated by amenity kits and products given out to patients during their stay across various departments, including maternity.

Northside delivers more babies every year than any other community hospital in the United States. They find that quality products for newborns and their mothers are critically important to enhance their stay. ASP Global worked closely with Northside to design and directly source a long-sleeved baby shirt with built-in “mittens” integrated into the sleeves to prevent infants from scratching themselves. Northside and ASP Global then designed and developed customized maternity kits, kits for breast cancer patients, a patient comfort care kit, as well as other specialized amenity kits. The gesture has touched Northside’s patients, and they are highly impressed with the high quality of these kits.

ASP Global is proud to provide Northside Hospital with these customized amenity kits for every patient who walks through its doors to make each patient’s hospital stay as comfortable as possible. If you are a large hospital or health network ready to put direct sourcing to work to improve your patient experience or de-risk your supply chain, let ASP Global help you!

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Northside Hospital basis, thus eliminating the constraint caused by space limitations at each facility.

Constraint #2 - receiving

Left to right: Kevin Love - System Director - Procurement, Charley Walker - System Director - Distribution & Logistics, George Shelton - System Manager - Clinical Supply Chain, Carl Waller - System VP - Supply Chain Management

A constraint caused by an increase in the frequency of deliveries coupled with organizational growth occurred at the loading dock at Northside’s Atlanta campus. “We experienced bottlenecks at the loading dock due to the limited number of receiving bays relative to the volume of goods being received,” noted Carl. This was exacerbated by the fact that the route to the loading dock was the same as that used by employees to park. There was no space for dock expansion so the constraint would have to be addressed in another way. The

Lifelines for society…engines for growth The need for supply chain resilience was a matter of life and death during the pandemic. That’s not all. Increased reliance on digital channels over the past year raised customers’ expectations for personalized products and services to new heights. Meeting these expectations necessitates a whole new digital architecture and ways of working.

The pandemic elevated the critical role that supply chains play into sharp focus. Now, a whole range of factors is converging to drive a new normal for this vital function.

From fast-changing customer demands and a mounting emphasis on sustainability, to the role of new digital business models and the opportunities they bring, we’re seeing supply chains reinvented as engines for value creation.

Becoming growth enablers It’s no longer enough to be efficient. Today, supply chains also need to be growth enablers. How? By delivering hyper-personalized products, services and experiences. By being resilient and flexible. And by doing good for society, and for our planet.

We call this the customer-centric supply chain. Organizations with a customer-driven mindset use advanced digital technologies and rich data to identify and respond to individual customer needs. They segment customers and products in real time around these unique needs. They also mobilize a diverse ecosystem to meet them – all while optimizing costs and working sustainably.

An end-to-end approach to drive change While every customer-centric supply chain is unique, we’ve developed a robust approach that accelerates supply chain transformation – from strategy and segmentation, to product design, procurement, planning, manufacturing and fulfilment.

Combining human ingenuity and technology, we help create the new capabilities organizations need to engage their customers, achieve breakthrough visibility and responsiveness, flex to meet real-time demand, adopt automation and operate responsibly.

Delivering value with Critical Supply Connect One example of the value we provide is our collaboration with Avanade and Microsoft. Together we developed the interactive supply-chain solution – Critical Supply Connect.

The platform played a key role at the height of COVID-19 by cohesively connecting hospital systems with PPE suppliers. It has expanded since then to help other industries fulfill vital PPE items.

It’s a great example of a customer-centric supply chain. For more information, visit accenture.com/customer-centric-supply-chains This content is provided for general information purposes and is not intended to be used in place of consultation with our professional advisors.

This document refers to marks owned by third parties. All such third-party marks are the property of their respective owners. No sponsorship, endorsement or approval of this content by the owners of such marks is intended, expressed or implied.

Copyright © 2021. Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and its logo are registered trademarks of Accenture.

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Northside Hospital Below: Northside Hospital, Forsyth end solution was to install dock management software. Although not widely used in healthcare, the application optimizes inbound and outbound traffic resulting in improved dock productivity and door turnaround. Dock activity was analyzed and a schedule was developed for each vendor based on the criticality of supplies being delivered. Items such as surgical supplies and pharmaceuticals were delivered first, while non-essential delivery of supplies were sequenced throughout the remainder of the day. Deliveries during shift changes were also minimized. Utilizing the dock management software eliminated the delivery bottleneck thereby increasing throughput.

Constraint #3 – supply shortages Another constraint that inhibited flexibility was an occasional shortage of supplies caused by factors such as scarcity of raw materials, vendor consolidation, peaks in clinical activity, and weather events among others. To address the constraint, Northside worked with its suppliers, distributors and import partners to secure alternative channels that could fill potential supply gaps. These channels could be quickly activated when demand for supplies exceeded the ability

Owens & Minor and Northside Hospital Partnership results in enduring supply efficiencies Owens & Minor is proud to partner with Northside Hospital, a network of hospitals and medical facilities in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Northside and Owens & Minor further expanded their long-standing partnership last year. Since then, Northside has grown significantly in distributed volume through acquisition and organic growth. During this period of rapid expansion, Northside’s supply chain leadership has worked with Owens & Minor to ensure seamless inventory management, so Northside staff have what they need, when they need it, and can drive enterprise-wide efficiencies while providing the best possible patient care.

This innovative partnership has produced a modern approach to distribution. The Northside/Owens & Minor integrated service center is built on one simple principle: when you do better, we all do better. This unique model gives Northside visibility and control over its logistics efficiencies and the freedom to do business with vendors of its choice. This is just one of the many ways Owens & Minor underscores its Mission of Empowering Our Customers to Advance HealthcareTM. Northside continues to leverage Owens & Minor’s unique value chain by implementing multiple distribution and service offerings across the continuum of healthcare. In addition to employing proprietary services like PANDACSM, an on-site inventory program, and SurgiTrack®, a comprehensive clinical supply delivery service, the health system benefits from Owens & Minor’s Logical Unit of Measure (LUM) solutions to address resource and space constraints, minimize manual tasks, and quicken product delivery to the patient. Northside also uses Owens & Minor’s Customer Owned Inventory Management program to reduce complexity and waste and increase visibility. Together, the integrated processes seamlessly consolidate customer-owned inventory with traditionally distributed supplies in a single supply chain.

These newly realized efficiencies became especially important as the healthcare industry navigated the ongoing supply challenges of Covid-19. Through the pandemic, Northside and Owens & Minor worked together on proactive solutions to support business continuity in the face of ever-changing circumstances. As the pandemic response has evolved, Owens & Minor and Northside continue to collaborate to drive greater supply chain efficiencies.

Owens & Minor is consistently impressed with Northside’s progressive approach to supply chain management. With the inventory efficiency gains and process improvements achieved in a relatively short period of time, the partnership is poised to yield considerable savings in the years to come, supporting a resilient supply chain no matter the circumstance.

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Northside Hospital Below: Northside Hospital, Atlanta

Above: Northside Hospital, Duluth

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Below: Northside Hospital, Gwinnett

of primary manufacturers to supply product.

Additional warehouse space provided by the distributor as well as incremental storage gained through acquisition could accommodate buffer stock if needed. Eliminating this constraint paid huge dividends during the pandemic. Being able to leverage the alternative channels ensured an adequate supply of PPE.

Northside Hospital www.northside.com @NorthsideHosp Services: One of Georgia’s leading health care providers

Conclusion Removing these constraints described above required minimal investments in capital, but resulted in dramatic improvements to Northside’s supply chain. Eliminating the constraints could not have happened without the involvement of numerous stakeholders including clinical staff, executive management, suppliers and distributors.

In summary, TOC forces a focus on bottlenecks in the supply chain. If done correctly, the elimination of constraints will result in throughput and flexibility commensurate with demands placed on the system. Investing in non-constrained resources will yield very little benefit as output already equals or exceeds demand for those resources.

Constraints will change as the environment in which the supply chain operates changes. Being able to recognize and respond quickly to those changes is key to achieving and maintaining resiliency.

Northside Hospital is an integrated health care delivery system that serves the Atlanta region. It operates five acute-care hospitals with 1,558 licensed beds and more than 250 outpatient locations across the state of Georgia.

Northside is one of the most respected and fastest-growing health care organizations in the Southeast and is committed to balancing clinical excellence with compassionate care. The health system leads the U.S. in newborn deliveries and is among the state’s top providers of cancer care, sports medicine, cardiovascular and surgical services. It has been recognized by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals, as one of the top U.S. hospitals for outstanding performance in delivering a positive experience for patients during their hospital stay. Northside also has been ranked as one of the Best Places to Work among all top large employers in the United States by both Glassdoor.com and Comparably.com.

More than 24,000 employees and a network of 3,900 physicians serve approximately 4.6 million combined inpatient and outpatient visits a year across a wide variety of services, including cancer care, heart and vascular, maternity, pediatric and adult imaging, GI, surgery, spine care, urology, sleep disorder, and emergency medicine.

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ADB SAFEGATE

Weathering the

storm

Rather than be overwhelmed by the challenges of 2020, ADB SAFEGATE has used the past year to put itself in the best possible position to navigate a future that will be defined by having a more fluid and reactive supply chain

R

egular readers of Supply Chain World will likely be familiar with the name ADB SAFEGATE, having seen the business feature within its pages in recent years. For those uninitiated, a quick summary hardly does it justice, but ADB SAFEGATE is a leading provider of integrated solutions that boost efficiency, improve safety, raise environmental sustainability, and reduce the operational costs of airports and airlines

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worldwide. With more than 1200 employees helping it to serve more than 2500 airports in over 175 countries, in short, ADB SAFEGATE’s mission is to provide intelligent tools spanning the gate, airfield, tower and service, increasing overall airport performance, from approach to departure.

Catching up with Melanie James – ADB SAFEGATE’s Director of Supply Chain for the Americas – in April 2021, the first topic of

conversation is perhaps unsurprisingly how the business fared in 2020. “I think first and foremost, it is important to note that due to the nature of our work supporting airports around the world we were almost immediately classed as being an essential business. As such, we have worked throughout the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, with our manufacturing plants remaining operational – while of course following all of the necessary safety protocols

– and being supported by a team of people also working remotely.

“There were minimal disruptions at the beginning of the pandemic. We entered into that period with a strong, well-established supply chain for the Americas – made up of numerous great partners, which helped to shield us from much of the impact caused by the virus. As we progressed through the year, we ramped up our level of communication

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ADB SAFEGATE

Above: Melanie James – ADB SAFEGATE’s Director of Supply Chain

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with our supply chain partners in order to determine how the pandemic was affecting their business, as well as making more frequent reviews of our open blanket orders, contracts and KPIs. This meant that we were then able to make a series of quick pivots in the following months in order to react to a rapidly changing environment and levels of customer demand for specific items, such as electronics and semiconductors to name just two examples.”

It goes without saying, therefore, that ADB SAFEGATE would have learned a number of valuable lessons over the last 12 months, not least of all about the resilience of the supply chain itself and about how new, more dynamic ways of working are already shaping the future of supply chain management. “The most important fact to emerge from the last year was that we could be confident and reassured that we had a good foundation in place to withstand the various impacts of the pandemic,” Melanie continues. “What did occur, however, as the analogy goes, ‘as the water recedes, the rocks appear’, within the supply chain system exposing potential threats that perhaps would not have been visible under less challenging circumstances. This gave us the unique opportunity to delve into these issues in order to best mitigate them and optimize for any future disruptions that may occur.

“One of the solutions we have devised for this is the revamping of our RISK assessment process to include tier II and tier III partners within our supply chain. We are applying this approach from the top down, looking at it not only at a supply chain level, but also from a product/customer facing perspective, and applying full mapping to all of our supply chain partners, processes and KPIs. This very much speaks to our being a very ‘customer-first’ organization that has always been keen to identify ways that we can do things better.”

What the Covid-19 pandemic has also done is shake up what have long been traditional ways of operating across all supply chains. Where typically these function in a very sequential manner, where plans and forecasts are made for the months – and sometimes years – to come and then be executed, as Melanie rightly observes the new normal – as it were – is set to be a much more fluid environment.

“The days of serial planning within the supply chain, in my opinion, are not going to work nearly as well moving forward,” Melanie highlights. “With so many variables and layers of potential disruption present today, it is imperative that we maintain a supply chain that is fluid if we are to meet the challenges, while also serving our customers’ needs and demands. To that end, we have taken a

“With so many variables and layers of potential disruption present today, it is imperative that we maintain a supply chain that is fluid if we are to meet the challenges, while also serving our customers’ needs and demands

very pragmatic approach and adopted full contingency planning for various possible scenarios, which incorporate everything from how our key products and services are delivered, to how we best support our key customers and supply chain partners.”

Being the business that it is, ADB SAFEGATE’s efforts to achieve continuous

self-improvement did of course also predate the Spring of 2020. It was at the turn of last year in fact that it made the decision to change its freight strategy, partnering with a 3PL provider in a move that would turn out to be hugely beneficially when navigating the freight challenges that have remained prevalent since April 2020. “The switch to a full 3PL

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provider for freight has proven itself to be a great decision for the company,” Melanie enthuses. “In doing so, we now possess full tracking capabilities that we can provide to our customers at their request, so the customer satisfaction benefits are enormous.

Also, having a true partner working alongside us to deliver these benefits has proven to be invaluable when faced with some of the more unique freight-related challenges that we have encountered in the last 12 months.”

For ADB SAFEGATE, 2021 has been a case of “so-far so-good”, but as Melanie goes on to point out, the company is not satisfied with resting on this, and is pushing forward towards a number of goals and/or targets. “As with any business, we obviously have budgets, objectives and performance targets that we want to meet, and we are moving along nicely to achieving those, while also working hard to improve things like our base KPIs,” she says. “At the same time, we will move towards completing our supply chain mapping and disruption planning activities.

“What is also imperative is that we continue to reinforce our regular lines of communication with our partners and customers – for example through the updating of our supplier report cards which we send out quarterly – but also with our own internal departments and colleagues, most importantly those that are customer facing. In today’s rapidly changing world, it is so important

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that everyone understands one another’s pain points, so as to try and mitigate for any challenges that may arise. This is going to be super critical for supply chains to operate effectively, and it all boils down to simple communication making a huge difference.

“So, in summary, in the months ahead, ADB SAFEGATE will be focusing on RISK assessments and contingency planning, while also looking at various initiatives and identifying innovative ways of weathering the different challenges relating to costs or shortages

within the supply chain. We know that there are forecasted shortages or blips on the horizon in certain specialized sectors, such as the electronics market, but we are doing everything possible to be prepared for any outcome.”

As Melanie states at the conclusion of our conversation, the above factors mean that her job is not without its challenges, with everyday bringing new lessons to learn, but much more importantly, new opportunities are created to optimize performance and to initiate growth.

ADB SAFEGATE www.adbsafegate.com Specialty: Airfield lighting, gate and tower solutions for airports

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Sonic Manufacturing Technologies

Let’s get

digital

Big things are brewing at Sonic Manufacturing Technologies as the company announces the arrive of the digital supply chain

S

onic Manufacturing Technologies has pioneered the electronics industry with its innovative transformation into a fully digital supply chain, despite a tricky year for the technology sector.

Specializing in electronics manufacturing services (EMS), Sonic provides PCB layout, prototyping, new product introduction and production at scale; and has taken its core processes to new heights.

David Ginsberg, Vice President of Supply

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Chain for the company, updates us on the commitment to digital that the company has demonstrated since we last spoke with them in 2018, and how this leading-edge tech has accelerated Sonic to the forefront of Silicon Valley manufacturing. “2020 was particularly difficult, but we were fortunate to be classed as an essential service because we supply equipment to hospitals and medical labs. On top of that, the pandemic influenced a lot of work and opportunities that were headed

offshore to be built locally, so we took on new customers and new products, and will manufacture these products longer before customers might consider an extended global supply chain again,” he tells us.

Along with navigating the ever-changing Covid-19 landscape, Sonic has become the first company to introduce a fully digital supply chain in the electronics industry. According to David, its capabilities successfully automate the supply chain from start to finish: front-end data

“ What I’ve always wanted to convey to the industry is that the digital supply chain does not have to be a large and complex consultancy-oriented project. At its core, it is very intuitive and emulates how you’re already doing business

cleansing logic, accurate material requirements planning (MRP) processes, calculating and processing supply availability against demand requirements, all the way through to managing and validating shipping dates and invoices. “It’s now a complete digital cycle and handles as high as 75 per cent of the one million parts per week coming into the factory,” he informs.

This is a game-changer that increases efficiency, agility and responsiveness. “Digital is a bit counterintuitive. It is less about presenting

ever more data and analytics to people and more about presenting ever more of your mind’s capacity for decision making to the computer. Now with Digital, the planning and ordering process moves in seconds or minutes, rather than running it through a one or two-week procurement cycle. So, if 75 per cent of the parts are ordered within a minute or two after the MRP, then it’s really only the exceptions that move into purchasing,” David elaborates. It goes without saying that there

is simply no way for human beings to move at this speed. But since people manage the exceptions, and a smaller amount of work needs to be assigned to each person, each employee now has the time to apply their expertise, skills and knowledge to solving unique issues. “They’re now dedicating their talents to problem-solving, rather than simply calling up the supplier of record and placing repeat orders, which the computer does very well. Job satisfaction goes up, boredom from

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Orbweaver

Digitization has the power to propel your business forward. Unlocking the power of real-time integrations with your trading partners is key to deliver on the promise of business automation. Orbweaver has been leading this digital conversation with respect to supply chain integration since 2012. Based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the company is trusted by global manufacturers and distributors to move millions of pieces of data per second, information critical to the success and differentiation of these enterprises. The company maintains a diverse portfolio of products to assist you in all aspects of supply chain digitization. For more information, please visit www.Orbweaver.com.

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repetition goes down. Honestly speaking, having this much of the organization focused on exception management and problem solving has been transformational for us,” highlights David.

As the topic of Digital becomes more prevalent in industry, a pressing concern is the effect it will have on the necessity of human jobs. However, David notes that the way in which the digital supply chain is designed demands human action. This is because a level of trust has to be invested into relationships where computers are ‘hardwired’ into each other for data-sharing. “Any time you do integrations like this, there’s a degree of stickiness between both parties, which means that the company and personal relationships tend to be long-term; while for exceptions and problem-solving, knowing your partner is equally important,” David says.

In his opinion, it is vital to prove to suppliers that strengthening digital relationships is as financially in their interest as it is for the buyers. Sonic’s integrated partners, using application programming interfaces (APIs), have seen increasing proportions of Sonic’s business in their revenue, and they process

orders to invoice at ever lower costs. “Digi-Key was our first partner, and we now have about 12 live connections to most of the major US electronics distributors.”

Even within the company, the digital development is in no way sacrificing its people for the success of digital progress.

“Going digital has not cost anybody their job and that result is deliberate. Learning to work interactively with a digital supply chain is a whole new and valuable job skill,” David continues. Rather than replacing people, this process is about performing better organizationally to provide a higher level of customer service at a faster speed and a lower total cost. In his example, he says: “Think about a printed circuit board with 100 different components on it. If the APIs and stock suppliers we’re working with are capable of bringing in 92 parts on time, that means that I would have eight exceptions. Without getting those eight exceptions into the building, the product would just sit there, waiting for those last parts to arrive before it could be built and shipped. The faster you move the supply chain, the more exceptions there are to manage and therefore the need for more exception

managers, not less. There will never be a time when automation replaces 100 per cent of the parts coming into the building; so relationships matter.” This clearly shows that, contrary to popular belief, capable problem-solvers remain crucial to the digital supply chain.

Although digital has already achieved many benefits for Sonic in the electronics industry, Sonic is determined to continue to lead the industry in digital supply chain; and looking into the rest of a difficult 2021, its main goals are twofold. First, by rolling out more transactions with more suppliers, improved performance and revenue growth becomes part of the ongoing digital transformation. David would love to implement more transaction sets with his suppliers. “Being involved in these conversations and working with the right supplier teams to offer additional API capabilities fosters an environment where this will happen organically, and it also means that the evolution of digital capabilities will perpetually increase in sophistication,” he highlights. From here, Sonic can only go up.

Second, the past 12 months hit the electronics market brutally; prices are higher and parts are harder to come by, which means there are challenges in both their pursuit and the management of the business. “My headscratching for this allocated and constrained market is in how much leeway to give the computer on purchasing higher-priced parts, and how much of that should go to a human expert. If you give the computer too much authority to spend money, you’ll inevitably go out of business, but if you put too much work

on your staff’s plate, they can no longer work effectively on solving each individual problem,” David tells us. “The lower cost of digital can compensate somewhat for the higher cost of materials in this marketplace. Beyond speed, accuracy and volume, we can frequently buy constrained parts before our competitors, or even our own staff, know of their availability.”

As David explains digital transaction costs, whenever the computer completes a transaction, a buyer did not need to complete this exchange, while on the supplier’s end, an inside sales person did not manually process it, and the costs to both parties go down.

“Speed and accuracy go up as well because it’s a computer transaction that doesn’t make typos, forget a step or run out of time; making everything about the process improve,” he continues. “People therefore evolve from transacting the routine to solving the difficult.”

In a way, the company has managed to hack the digital supply chain with just two programmers, David and supply chain engineer Niyati Patel. They have achieved results that larger, more expensive IT teams have yet to achieve during the same period.

“We do all the SQL programming in house and work with Orbweaver for the API integration and transport.”

David is determined to share Digital Supply Chain with the industry for the success of other businesses. “What I’ve always wanted to convey to the industry is that the digital supply chain does not have to be a large and complex consultancy-oriented project. At its core, it is very intuitive and emulates how you’re already

doing business,” he emphasizes. He adds that the entire transaction choreography of the existing phone call or email exchange of a buyer with a supplier can easily be duplicated in APIs, meaning there is no need to invent new logic to automate the supply chain process. The customer requests supplier data, compares it to internal demand and schedule, then applies existing procurement rules for cost, quantity and delivery that are based on how an existing buyer or planner would decide.

The ‘passing’ data is sent to a digital purchase order for transmission; exceptions are routed to humans. “I hope to offer some classes or industry presentations later this year to coax people down this path.”

By paying attention to detail at the level of data quality and transactions, Sonic has achieved demand-driven manufacturing efficiencies and is championing the future of the digital supply chain revolution. “We’ve been able to build this with zero budgeting in just a few years and we are fully convinced that this is the right way for the industry to go because the results are immediate and substantial. Customer service goes up, costs go down; Agility and Responsiveness are achieved without ever having been a standalone metric or project team,” David concludes.

Sonic Manufacturing Technologies www.sonicmfg.com Specialty: Electronics manufacturing services provider (EMS)

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Le Duff America

Vive

Le Duff!

After a year spent navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, Le Duff America is looking forward to getting back on track with the launch of ten new restaurants in 2021

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I

t was late March 2020 when, for Le Duff America, everything changed overnight. The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak was swift, and the virus began to affect foodservice operators immediately.

“No amount of training or experience could have prepared us for the Covid-19 challenge,” explains Mike Cobern, Vice President of Purchasing at Le Duff. “For the foodservice industry, it felt like being in a car on the freeway and instead of slowing down to get to your stop,

the brakes are slammed down and you make a screeching halt instead.

“I think if we had seen this coming as an industry, there may have been even more panic.

The fierce nature of the outbreak meant that it suddenly forced us to change the way we did daily business. There was not a lot of time to overanalyse or overthink because we were all immediately scrambling to implement a plan for our staff, our shareholders and, most importantly, our guests.”

Mike Cobern, Vice President of Purchasing at Le Duff

“ In a larger sense, if we do what we do best - and we will - there will be plenty of opportunities out there for further growth in 2021

A foodservice veteran of over four decades, Le Duff operates a variety of US restaurant chains and sandwich bars, including La Madeleine and Brioche Dorée. Since its founding, the company has continued to grow, innovate and develop, building strong industry relationships and a

better years. I guess when you have been around as long as I have, you tend to think you’ve seen everything, but, as last year taught us, you haven’t.

“In short, we made it through a tough time,” he continues. “That’s not to say that we’re

distributor, and our produce network worked together to find solutions.”

Quick to adapt to the changing landscape of the food industry in 2020, Le Duff worked closely with suppliers to ensure that all parties could make it through the Covid-19 crisis

reputation for high-quality, French-inspired food outlets. This strong foundation has, to a large extent, played a key role in helping Le Duff overcome a difficult 12 months.

“Well,” Mike says, “we have certainly seen

completely satisfied with where we are today, but the fallout could have been much worse. We had virtually no food or service loss over the last 12 months, primarily because our operators, our vendor partners, our primary broadline

unscathed. Still, despite Le Duff’s efforts, the severity of the pandemic gave rise to a host of unforeseen supply issues with which the company had to contend.

“We had vendors experience interruptions

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and problems of their own that caused a ripple effect in the supply chain. Our protein suppliers were hit hard and some have decided to change how they do business and what they produce,” Mike states. “More than anything else, we had to adapt our business model overnight to accommodate more take-out style food. Packaging, in particular, was a huge issue for us and everyone else. When everyone needs more of one type of packaging, whether that’s plastic, Styrofoam, metal, or paper, only one thing can happen - the supply

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chain stretches, and that is not a good thing.”

In spite of the obstacles in its path, Le Duff remained true to its core values of honesty and integrity in 2020, and continued to operate fairly and collaboratively with its partners to find new solutions. The united front paid off.

“I always say that you should make hard demands of your vendor partners, but you should also be an active part of the solution,” Mike declares. “Compromises were always going to be necessary last year because no one has a

magic wand, but critically, we are committed to surrounding ourselves with the best suppliers.

If you do that, the impasses will take care of themselves, and that’s exactly what happened.”

In the same way that Le Duff aims to work only with the industry’s best suppliers, the company also places great emphasis on obtaining the latest equipment and, most importantly, attracting a deep pool of hard-working, highly-skilled people. For Mike, the company could not have achieved such positive results over the past year if it had not been for its long-standing and well-established quest for operational excellence.

“Part of my position here is to oversee our domestic production facility, Gourmet Cuisine Inc, which manufactures products not only for our cafes, but for our external customers as well,” Mike remarks. “The products we make are, of course, perishable, and we had a list of shelf-life concerns to deal with, including the start and stop aspect of the pandemic, finding ways to deplete our stock during a business slow down, and then predicting the kind of reaction we could expect when recovery finally began and how we could satisfy the increase in demand.

“Luckily for us, the team at our facility has excellent leadership and I would be remiss not to acknowledge our supply chain staff, who performed miracles working offsite at all hours to make things happen for our cafes. It’s so nice to see the people who report to you showing themselves as real stars of the business, defining our path forward. When I hear feedback, I always say that I cannot take all the credit myself because it belongs to our staff. I am incredibly fortunate to have this team on both sides of my area of responsibility.”

Le Duff’s ambitions for the future were made evident in 2020 when, while many of its competitors were scaling back their operations, the company opened two brand-new units. An essential step towards how the business hopes to serve food in the future, the two outlets encapsulate Le Duff’s modern vision for the sector.

“The first of our new stores is located in the Park District of downtown Dallas – an area that features grab ‘n’ go offerings where guests can enjoy a dine-in service or a take-out option that allows them to take food across the street to a park,” Mike reports. “The second opening is in the same vein, only larger, and in the suburb of Addison. That site has a brand-new feature where guests can actually see our breads being prepared and baked. It’s a great visual. We have got a great story to tell with how we make bread, so why not share that!”

Considered to be the first examples of Le Duff’s new 2.0 store model, the Dallas units will be joined by similar contemporary outlets in the

months ahead. Later in 2021 for instance, the company plans to launch ten new La Madeleine Express mini cafes across the US, as part of a partnership with Walmart.

“These prototypes will feature a smaller footprint than our standard cafes, working out somewhere between 980 and 2200 square feet depending on the location,” Mike reveals. “The outlets will offer a grab ‘n’ go menu, meaning you can take food out or relax and dine-in if you wish.

Of course, the menu will feature La Madeleine Express favorites like Chicken Caesar Salad and Tomato and Basil Soup. They will also include some new items specifically created for the Walmart locations, like pizza with a French twist.

“We’ve heard Walmart customers’ feedback loud and clear,” Mike adds. “Their demands have changed during the pandemic and we aim to adapt accordingly by including retail areas featuring our line of soups, dressings, and jams for guests to take home.”

Given the company’s plans for expansion and new store openings, Le Duff is expecting

an incredibly busy and highly successful year in 2021 – a welcome boost following the slump experienced by the foodservice market in 2020.

Beyond the introduction of its new La Madeleine Express concept, Mike believes that the focus for Le Duff is simple.

“First and foremost, we’ll continue to put the safety and needs of our guests first. We used some of the downtime in the pandemic to review our health and safety processes in the new normal. That will continue this year because you can never go overboard on food safety.

“In a larger sense, if we do what we do best and we will - there will be plenty of opportunities out there for further growth in 2021,” Mike says in summary. “Even with the pandemic hanging over us, there are lots of good things happening in this industry and we want to make the most of that.”

Le Duff America www.en.groupeleduff.com Services: Restaurant and cafe operator

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Red Wing Shoe Company

Business with

sole

Fuelled by strong values and a commitment to craftsmanship, Red Wing Shoe Company has been supplying workers with comfortable, durable footwear for more than 100 years

R

ed Wing Shoe Company has always had a clear, but simple purpose: to be a great organization that makes a difference in people’s lives. With this purpose in mind, the firm has forged a 116-year legacy that serves as proof that Red Wing is responsible for more than just great shoes.

Founded in Minnesota in 1905, Red Wing was launched by Charles Beckman to supply workers in industries like mining, farming and

logging with durable, comfortable footwear.

Quality and craftsmanship set the shoes and boots apart from the start, and after proving popular with everyone from soldiers to hunters to oil field workers, Red Wing opened its first branch office and warehouse in Dallas, Texas.

By the 1940s, Red Wing was well-known as an industry pioneer, having launched steel toe footwear, sweat-proof insoles, paratrooper boots for US military forces in the Second

World War, as well as recreational shoes made specifically for women. It was an image that the company embraced, using it to fuel a period of rapid growth that saw the business open its first retail store, a second factory, new office locations, and the USA’s first mobile shoe truck.

Today, in 2021, Red Wing is a truly international organization with more than 2100 employees and a recognizable presence in key global oil centers, such as Aberdeen,

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Red Wing Shoe Company Scotland. Distributing products in over 100 countries, the business benefits from two leather tanneries, two factories, eight warehouses, eight corporate offices, and 700 retail stores worldwide. Following recent technology upgrades, the firm now also makes use of state-of-the-art automation equipment, including auto-cutter and auto-stitcher machines.

Diversifying as it has grown, alongside Red Wing’s 990 footwear styles, the company has added 590 workwear lines and 390 accessory styles - the latter of which covers items such as work gloves and safety goggles. Retailed through a host of iconic brands, including Red Wing Shoes, Irish Setter, Vasque and WORX, each Red Wing variety is purpose-built and designed specifically for certain customers, whilst remaining a natural extension of the company’s purpose and a physical embodiment of the craftspeople behind each product.

Whether purchasing a Red Wing Heritage Chelsea boot, an Irish Setter hunting boot, a Vasque hiking shoe, or a WORX steel toe

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chukka, Red Wing customers can rest assured that their footwear has passed the company’s rigorous testing procedure, ensuring that all shoes meet or exceed industry standards in terms of materials, components and finished product. Famously stringent internal testing is followed by third-party assessments in line with global standards, before finally, Red Wing shoes are put to the test by more than 3200 wear testers across the US. The result is safe, high-performing, comfortable shoes and boots, every time.

Constantly innovating, Red Wing’s reputation for originality and invention continues to accompany the business in the modern day. At the beginning of the millennium, the firm launched SuperSole 2.0, a second-generation product line involving dual density construction, combining a soft, cushioned interior with a tough outer skin for all-day comfort and long-lasting durability.

Later, in 2016, Allison Sweasy Gettings, great-granddaughter of former company Superintendent JR Sweasy, released Red Wing Heritage for Women - footwear inspired by

the archives and crafted with timeless design.

Most recently, Red Wing teamed up with Taiwanese Instagram stars and Want Show Laundry owners Chang Wan-ji and Hsu Sho-er for a collection of 30 rare, one-off and previously unseen Red Wing boots.

Part of Red Wing’s Out of Fashion series, which spotlights individuals who embody the footwear company’s longstanding ethos, the initiative saw the new boots auctioned and the proceeds donated to the Want Show Laundry Redefine Project, a centralized reselling platform designed specifically for Taiwanese laundromats and a key part of helping the businesses clear unpaid bills caused by unclaimed tickets.

Red Wing’s willingness to give back, and the community spirit encapsulated by its involvement in the Want Show Laundry project, should come as no surprise to those who have followed the business for any length of time.

The firm’s Founder, Charles Beckman, was a frequent volunteer and board member in the city of Red Wing, Minnesota, and in 1955, The Red Wing Shoe Foundation was established.

Focusing on furthering education, promoting the arts and sciences, enhancing the natural environment and promoting opportunities for young people, the foundation has already transformed the lives of many people across the United States.

Encouraged by Charles Beckman’s example, Red Wing is still guided by its values today and prioritizes active community involvement in an attempt to improve quality of life for all. A regular donator of footwear to charity auctions and communities in crisis, Red Wing partnered with Our Hearts to Your Soles in 2019 to help distribute 3500 pairs of boots and shoes to homeless shelters in 25 US cities.

Assisted by many of its employees, as well as local volunteers, the company was able to screen, fit and hand deliver the footwear to thousands of homeless men and women.

Red Wing now participates in the initiative annually.

In 2020, Red Wing brand Vasque announced a keystone partnership with the Children & Nature Network - a national non-profit working to increase access to

“Every day our teams across the globe go to work with the goal of making a difference in people’s lives through every customer interaction, business initiative, and community support project.

Big or small, it is at our core to do the right thing. It was true when Charles Beckman founded the company and it is just as true today

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Red Wing Shoe Company nature for children, families and communities.

Vasque’s relationship with the network will help amplify the importance of nature for health and well-being, as well as, in a larger sense, support a global movement to increase equitable access to nature so that children, and the wild places people cherish, can thrive.

In the last five years, Red Wing has become a key player in the battle for the adoption of more sustainable practices in the shoe industry. In 2017, the firm committed to using solar energy as part of a 25-year contract for all Red Wing, Minnesota facilities. The agreement, which came under Xcel Energy’s Community Solar Garden Program, means around a quarter of all Red Wing’s electricity is now derived from sustainable sources.

The switch will save 66,218 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the environment – equivalent to eliminating 7.4 million consumed gallons of gasoline or 3000 trucks of landfill waste.

Sustainable, value-centric and driven by innovation - the company has even recently introduced safety footwear with a footbed made from algae biomass - Red Wing is ready

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for the future. “Every day,” President and CEO Mark Urdahl says on the company’s website, “our teams across the globe go to work with the goal of making a difference in people’s lives through every customer interaction, business initiative, and community support project. Big or small, it is at our core to do the right thing. It was true when Charles Beckman

founded the company and it is just as true today.

I am privileged to play a role in leading this company and being part of this work.”

Red Wing Shoe Company www.redwingshoes.com Specialty: Footwear company