Is there someone who has helped broaden your understanding of logistics or the supply chain? One way to recognize your mentor's influence on your professional life is to nominate him or her for CSCMP's Distinguished Service Award (DSA).
Winning the DSA can have a major impact on recipients' own careers. "I believe that the award has ... provided additional credibility for me among practicing managers and academics," says 1991 winner John Coyle, professor at Pennsylvania State University. "It has certainly expanded my circle of contacts and provided me increased opportunities in research and executive education. I feel that it has also been very beneficial for our program at Penn State in attracting students and research opportunities."
In addition to the professional benefits, award winners speak of the honor of receiving such a prestigious award. "To me, the most important value was to realize that the award was a vote of confidence from my peers. In the long run, nothing in life can be more satisfying," says 1977 winner Ken Ackerman, president of the consulting firm The Ackerman Company.
CSCMP is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Distinguished Service Award. The selection committee will evaluate candidates on the following criteria:
record of contribution and innovation
leadership skills
oral and/or written communications that have enhanced the understanding of the supply chain management profession
Nominators must submit a summary of the candidate's achievements and contributions to the profession and include specific examples. The nomination packet must also include two or three letters of recommendation by members of the supply chain management profession.
CSCMP will accept nominations until April 30, 2010. The winner will be recognized at the Annual Global Conference in San Diego, California, USA. For more information about the award and the nominating process, visit cscmp.org/education/awards/dsa.asp.
Build your own management system
The management philosophies of giants like Wal-Mart, Toyota, and Intel have served those companies well, and many other companies have emulated them. But each business is unique, and no management system is 100-percent transferable. That's why CSCMP's new Senior Executive Institute (SEI) does not focus on any one quality or process improvement program. Rather, SEI provides participants with the tools they need to design and build management systems that are consistent with their own companies' missions and are flexible enough to take them into the future.
Participants will learn how to strengthen what's important to their companies and minimize what's not; create a clear roadmap for decision making and change; and get the most out of their employees and colleagues. In short, they will learn how to be successful agents of change.
The Senior Executive Institute consists of five workshops, each lasting three or four days, that focus on the key elements of discipline, strategic thinking, planning, leverage, and integration for sustainability. The programs are spread out over a 16-month period and take place in a new location every time. During each workshop, participants will develop pilot projects that are based on the workshop's themes. Participants will implement the programs they develop when they return to their companies, and then report the results to their fellow students at the next event.
The first session, which focuses on discipline, takes place April 23?27, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The last workshop, on integration for sustainability, will be held June 17-21, 2011, in Seattle, Washington, USA. For more information on the program, please visit cscmp.org/executive or contact CSCMP Director of Education and Research Kathleen Hedland at khedland@cscmp.org or +1 630.645.3463.
Inspiring innovators
The real world has been pretty harsh lately, which might make you cast a weary, skeptical eye at the latest business management trends and theories. If you're looking instead for real-world supply chain innovations, you'll find plenty of inspiration in case studies from past Supply Chain Innovation Awards (SCIA) winners. These awards, given annually by CSCMP and SupplyChainBrain, recognize innovative programs, projects, and collaboration. Finalists present their case studies at the CSCMP Annual Global Conference, and the winner and runner-up are announced at the closing session.
A sampling of past success stories:
2004 Winner Hewlett-Packard Procurement used freight-cost management integration to reduce the company's operational spending from US $14 million to US $7.8 million.
2008 Winner Cisco Systems retooled its reverse-logistics operations, transforming it from a cost center to a source of profit. After a detailed analysis, the company found that 85 percent of the returned items had no problems, and many of them deserved a second or third life before being recycled.
2009 Winner Intel Corporation initiated an intense, customer-focused effort that required the company to commit to an order in just one day and deliver to promise, all while reducing inventory.
The company used a combination of dynamic vendor-managed inventory, lean philosophy, and an improved demand planning process.
Think your company has a project that can live up to these examples? Consider applying for the 2011 Supply Chain Innovation Award (judging is already underway for 2010).
Desperately seeking consultants? CSCMP can help
You really need some help modeling your distribution network in South America, or you need technical advice on new automation for your warehouse, but you don't know who to call. If that situation sounds familiar, don't worry—CSCMP's new online Resource Directory can help you narrow the search for the right consultant.
Developed by CSCMP's Research Strategies Committee, the database allows users to do complex searches by dozens of keywords and phrases as well as by geography, industry, and professional skills.
There is no charge for users of the database. Consultants can list their firms for US $250 a year. To check out the directory, visit cscmp.org/resources/resource-directory.asp.
Webinars explain financial best practices, RFID
Have tight budgets and big workloads put your professional education on hold? Then consider attending some of CSCMP's webinars, where you can get expert instruction without ever having to get up from your office chair.
Upcoming online seminars include:
"Aligning Supply Chain Operations to Achieve Financial Goals" (April 7, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Central Standard Time [CST]): Hosted by Stephen G. Timme, president of FinListics Solutions, this webinar will use case studies to explore how best practices and better utilization of supply chain technologies can lead to financial gains.
"RFID: A Retailer's Story" (May 19, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. CST): Co-sponsored by the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Association (VICS) and the University of Arkansas, this seminar will highlight the real-life benefits that retailers are gaining from radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. Executives from Macy's, Dillard's, and Bloomingdales will discuss how they are using RFID and how it has improved their supply chain performance.
Economic activity in the logistics industry expanded in August, though growth slowed slightly from July, according to the most recent Logistics Manager’s Index report (LMI), released this week.
The August LMI registered 56.4, down from July’s reading of 56.6 but consistent with readings over the past four months. The August reading represents nine straight months of growth across the logistics industry.
The LMI is a monthly gauge of economic activity across warehousing, transportation, and logistics markets. An LMI above 50 indicates expansion, and a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
Inventory levels saw a marked change in August, increasing more than six points compared to July and breaking a three-month streak of contraction. The LMI researchers said this suggests that after running inventories down, companies are now building them back up in anticipation of fourth-quarter demand. It also represents a return to more typical growth patterns following the accelerated demand for logistics services during the Covid-19 pandemic and the lows of the recent freight recession.
“This suggests a return to traditional patterns of seasonality that we have not seen since pre-COVID,” the researchers wrote in the monthly LMI report, published Tuesday, adding that the buildup is somewhat tempered by increases in warehousing capacity and transportation capacity.
The LMI report is based on a monthly survey of logistics managers from across the country. It tracks industry growth overall and across eight areas: inventory levels and costs; warehousing capacity, utilization, and prices; and transportation capacity, utilization, and prices. The report is released monthly by researchers from Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Nevada, Reno, in conjunction with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).
That hiring surge marks a significant jump in relation to the company’s nearly 17,000 current employees across North America, adding 21% more workers.
That increase is necessary because U.S. holiday sales in 2023 increased 3.9% year-over-year as consumer spending grew even amidst uncertain economic times and trends like inflation and consumer price sensitivity. Looking at the coming peak, a similar pattern is projected for this year, with shoppers forecasted to drive a 4.8% increase in holiday retail sales for 2024, Geodis said, citing data from Emarketer.
To attract the extra workforce, Geodis says it will offer competitive wages, peak premium pay incentives, peak and referral bonuses, an expedited payment option, and flexible schedules. And it’s using an AI-powered chatbot named Sophie to serve as a virtual recruiting assistant.
“We acknowledge the immense responsibility we have to our customers to deliver exceptional service every day, and this is especially true during peak season,” Anthony Jordan, GEODIS in Americas Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said in a release. “Because peak season is the most business-critical sales period of the year for many of our retail clients, expanding our workforce is vital to ensure we have a flexible, dynamic team that can handle anticipated surges in demand.”
With the economy slowing but still growing, and inflation down as the Federal Reserve prepares to lower interest rates, the United States appears to have dodged a recession, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).
“The U.S. economy is clearly not in a recession nor is it likely to head into a recession in the home stretch of 2024,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a release. “Instead, it appears that the economy is on the cusp of nailing a long-awaited soft landing with a simultaneous cooling of growth and inflation.”
Despite an “eventful August” with initial reports of rising unemployment and a slowdown in manufacturing, more recent data has “calmed fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy,” Kleinhenz said. “Concerns are now focused on the direction of the labor market and the possibility of a job market slowdown, but a recession is far less likely.”
That analysis is based on data in the NRF’s Monthly Economic Review, which said annualized gross domestic product growth for the second quarter has been revised upward to 3% from the original report of 2.8%. And consumer spending, the largest component of GDP, was revised up to 2.9% growth for the quarter from 2.3%.
Compared to its recent high point of 9.1% in July of 2022, inflation is nearly back to normal. Year-over-year growth in the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – was at 2.5% in July, unchanged from June and only half a percentage point above the Fed’s target of 2%.
The labor market “is not terribly weak” but “is showing signs of tottering,” Kleinhenz said. Only 114,000 jobs were added in July, lower than expected, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from 4.1% in June. Despite the increase, the unemployment rate is still within the normal range, Kleinhenz said.
“Now the guessing game begins on the magnitude and frequency of rate cuts and how far the federal funds rate will be reduced,” Kleinhenz said. “While lowering interest rates would be good news, it takes time for rate reductions to work their way through the various credit channels and the economy as a whole. Consequently, a reduction is not expected to provide an immediate uplift to the economy but would stabilize current conditions.”
Going forward, Kleinhenz said lower rates should benefit households under pressure from loans used to meet daily needs. Lower rates will also make it more affordable to borrow through mortgages, home improvement loans, car loans, and credit cards, encouraging spending and increasing demand for goods and services. Small businesses would also benefit, since lower intertest rates could lower their financing costs on existing loans or allow them to take out new loans to invest in equipment and plants or to hire more workers.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
“Unrelenting labor shortages and wage inflation, accompanied by increasing consumer demand, are driving rapid market adoption of autonomous technologies in manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics,” Seegrid CEO and President Joe Pajer said in a release. “This is particularly true in the area of palletized material flows; areas that are addressed by Seegrid’s autonomous tow tractors and lift trucks. This segment of the market is just now ‘coming into its own,’ and Seegrid is a clear leader.”
According to Pajer, Seegrid’s strength in the sector is due to several new technologies it has released in the past six months. They include: Sliding Scale Autonomy, which provides both flexibility and predictability in autonomous navigation and manipulation; Enhanced Pallet and Payload Detection, which enables reliable recognition and manipulation of a broad range of payloads; and the planned launch of its CR1 autonomous lift truck model later this year.
Seegrid’s CR1 unit offers a 15-foot lift height, 4,000-pound load capacity, and a top speed of 5 mph. In comparison, its existing autonomous lift truck model, the RS1, supports six-foot lift height, 3,500 pound capacity, and the same top speed.
The “series D” investment round was funded by existing lead investors Giant Eagle Incorporated and G2 Venture Partners, as well as smaller investments from other existing shareholders.