Supply chain news

Re-emergence of Resilience On March 11th, 2011 – just 10 years ago – a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck just 231 miles northeast of Tokyo. The resulting tsunami triggered a sequence of events causing significant loss of life, damage to a nuclear reactor in Fukushima, and months of disruption to the automotive and other industries that […]

eCommerce – beyond the clickGetting your supply chain to deliver on your customer promises When customers click the buy button on your ecommerce store, the process of delivering on your customer promise begins.   Far from being the end of the process, what happens next may make or break that new relationship. Nothing says I want […]

Do we need to talk about returns? Following on from peak retail season, is peak returns season.   With the added shift to online purchases during 2020, it is likely that we will see eCommerce returns volumes reach new levels this month. UPS predicted that it would receive 1.75M returns parcels per day in the first […]

A new customs and trade reality for the UK and Europe On 31st December, 2020,  Great Britain left the European Customs Union.  For the first time since 1993, shipments between Great Britain and the EU require customs paperwork.  Certain products require health certificates, and are also subject to additional inspections and checks. Three weeks into […]

Assessing third party outsourcing partnerships Much of the frustration with outsource partnerships stems from poor alignment on objectives, and capabilities from the outset.  A successful outsource partnership can enable revenue, cost, sustainability, and other supply chain objectives, but it takes a mutual commitment and effort to succeed. Here are our top 7 tips as you […]

Positive impacts of supply chain In 2006, AMR research issued a publication under the title – Supply Chain Saves the World. They recognised the position of influence that supply chain professionals have on areas that influence key social issues. If we want to eliminate plastics, migrate to a circular economy, eliminate waste, accelerate healthcare improvements, […]

5 key supply chain takeaways from 2020 In our final instalment of Supply Chain Enabled™ for 2020, we have gone a little reflective on the state of our supply chains.    When we started Supply Chain Enabled™ we wanted to capture the things that companies, and professionals, could achieve through supply chain.  In that spirit, we wanted […]

Warehouse design – capacity, layout, throughput and efficiency For many companies, calendar Q4 represents the peak season focus on physical inventory and warehouse activity.  The challenges in 2020 are exacerbated, not only by changes in business profiles, which is associated with increased eCommerce volumes, but also the need to ensure social distancing within operations. While […]

Brexit update – 40 days to end of the transition period Although the UK left the EU in January 2020, the real impact of that change to supply chains will occur on 1st January 2021.  From this day,  customs controls will be placed on the movement of goods between Great Britain and the EU. Today, a […]

Special report on Supply Chain, by the Irish Times, includes “how are companies managing supply chains through Covid?” Report discusses challenges in the supply chain, from the manufacture, to assembly and in maintaining inventory availability to meet the customers’ needs. Contingency planning and mitigation strategies are key.  Report includes quotes from CEO, Lorcan Sheehan and […]