Supply chain news

Authorised Economic Operator status back in focus An Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) is a trader in the EU that voluntarily meets a range of criteria, demonstrating that they are reliable in the context their customs related operations and supply chain security.   Working closely with relevant customs authorities, their shipments are treated as lower risk by […]

Packaging trends in eCommerce In an online world the customer experience is dictated by a series of interactions from pre-purchase, to the online store experience, through payment, fulfilment, order communications and the delivery and presentation of goods to the receiver.  The brand is reflected in all of these touchpoints.  A positive customer experience comes from […]

Pack station design for eCommerce As supply chain managers streamline the entire order flow, pack station design becomes a critical component of enabling quality, accuracy and speed.    A poor configuration is likely to be a process bottleneck that disrupts the outbound flow can lead to packing errors and ultimately late deliveries. A pack station that […]

Impact of order pick policies on warehouse efficiency Across all warehouse activities, order picking is one of the most labour intensive and costly.   Within this, industry estimates show that travel occupies 55% of the order picking time, while searching consumes up to 15%. The balance, 30%, relates largely to item extraction and other activities. Aside […]

Incoterms® 2020 Incoterms are a set of rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). They are designed to clearly communicate how tasks, costs, and risks, which are associated with the international transports of goods, are allocated between sellers and buyers. It is important to have clarity on where responsibility and risk transfers, before […]

Designing Supply Chains for Circular For generations, we have operated supply chains that extract materials from nature, in order to create products that shipped to customers.  What customers did with those products and what happened after use, was hardly a consideration for supply chain teams.  Customers just disposed of their products at end of life […]

Brexit – UK implementation of inbound checks on Products of Animal Origin (POAO) When the Brexit transition period ended on the 31st December 2020, the EU implemented full customs checks on imports from Great Britain, including requirements for health certificates and pre-notification on shipments of products of animal origin (POAO). The UK decided to take […]

Inventory optimisation – how much inventory should I hold? Inventory provides a necessary buffer in the supply chain to meet the expected demand for product, during the expected lead time to replenish. This is true at a raw material, component, and finished goods levels. The inventory held has a critical impact on customer service, warehouse […]

Managing through supply chain challenges As the performance of vaccine supply chains receives global political attention, many of us recognise the pressures to perform in mission-critical supply chain situations. The heroic efforts to develop and bring to market vaccines in less than a year can be forgotten if the final production and distribution plans fall […]

Early Insights from Health Systems Survey Since 2012, PerformanSC, in conjunction with Jamie Kowalski Consulting LLC, have published a series of reports on Health System supply chains, based on inputs from their supply chain leaders.    Due to the pandemic, we pushed the research phase of the 2020 report out to last November / December and […]