Tag: supply chain sustainability

What Supply Chain Trends are Predicted for 2018 and the Years Beyond Part One

What Supply Chain Trends are Predicted for 2018 and the Years Beyond Part One
What Supply Chain Trends are Predicted for 2018 and the Years Beyond Part One

As the U.S. economy continues to improve, business owners and supply chain managers are now facing new challenges. Companies must contend with a shortage of logistics workers and truck drivers. Innovative and efficient warehouse equipment is crucial to maximize manpower and prevent workplace injuries that create even more interruptions to workflow. It is also important that managers understand and prepare for several key supply chain trends coming in 2018 and the years beyond.

Continued innovations in the omnichannel experience

Technology is advancing more rapidly these days than ever before. New improvements in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies reach consumers shortly after being developed and become rapidly integrated into their daily lives. The omnichannel approach to creating a cohesive customer experience is constantly evolving. Companies must keep up while managing revenue in different omnichannel paths.

Service chains take precedence over product chains

Consumers have a lot of options for products. Providing an excellent product is not enough. Companies have to make a personal connection with customers, and those customers have high expectations for post-sale service. People are more likely to share their bad experiences than they are to tell others about good customer service. Companies that consistently deliver top quality customer service will move ahead of those that provide spotty or mediocre service.

SCM will require professional credentials

That comes from SupplyChain247. There are already many universities that offer graduate degrees in supply chain management. Additionally, there are several professional associations. It is likely that professional credentials will soon be required for people working in supply chain management.

We are dedicated to providing material handling and warehouse equipment that saves time, maximizes manpower, and prevents injuries to your team. Contact DJ Products to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales engineers.

DoD Helps Contractors Steer Clear of Counterfeit Parts

Internet Website Search 3D Ball
Discerning Whats Real From Fake

When it comes to systems administered and operated by the DoD, integrity is crucial. A malfunction can cost lives, both civilian and military, as well as threaten our country’s security. The DoD recently issued a new rule aimed at preventing the acquisition of counterfeit equipment for DoD contractors.

Maintaining a Trusted Supply Chain

This past August, the Final Rule was announced as an amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. The rule mandates a “strong preference” for the use of electronic components obtained from original or authorized manufacturers and their resellers.

The Federal Register states that the Final Rule was created for the benefit of both the Government and its contractors. Ensuring the integrity of electronic parts greatly reduces the risk of system failure on aircraft, ships and other military equipment.

What Happens with Non-Authorized Sources?

The Final Rule also contains a contingency clause addressing situations where a contractor has no trusted source for specific electronic parts.

• The contractor must give written notice to the contracting officer regarding proposed use of items from non-trusted sources.

• Upon request, the contractor must offer detailed documentation for their inspection and testing process.

• Contractors must be able to either trace the parts back to the original manufacturer or assume responsibility for authentication.

• These conditions also apply to subcontractors who are unwilling to accept a flow-down of the clause.

Military Material Handling Solutions from DJ Products

Make it easier for your employees to move vehicles, machinery and other heavy-duty equipment for DoD contractors. Visit our website and chat with our sales engineers about our assortment of tugs and pushers for military and DoD applications.

Sustainability Takes “Green” to Next Level

Everyone is “going green” these days. Concern for the environment sparked “green” businesses, but skyrocketing fuel prices have ignited those efforts, pushing environmental practices ever more quickly toward sustainability.

What is sustainability? Sustainability takes environmentally-friendly practices to the next level. It improves upon the protection and husbandry of the world’s natural resources by utilizing processes that reclaim and reuse the products and byproducts of industry. Production comes full-circle: resources are used to create products which are then used and, at the end of their life cycle, recovered and reused to create new products.  The ultimate goal of sustainability is to complete the cycle without creating unusable byproducts or waste and without polluting the environment.

Supply Chain Sustainability and Green Sustainable Supply Chain are the coming watchwords in the material handling and logistics industries, said Patrick Penfield of Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in a 2007 article for On the MHove, a MHIA publication. Growing concern over environmental pollution and dwindling natural resources are driving the push for sustainability.  “Humankind has inherited a 3.8 billion per year store of natural capital. At present rates of use and degradation, there will be little left by the end of the next century,” authors of the book Natural Capitalism warned in 1999. Less than a decade later, scientists are concerned that the crisis point could be reached far sooner.

Despite the Bush administration’s failure to embrace global environmental efforts (and there are many valid arguments on both sides of that issue), European legislation restricting pollution and hazardous substances presage the future. Experts predict that the world will be unable to support its populace if the global community — including the U.S., China, Brazil, India and developing countries around the world — does not embrace environmental protection and work quickly to implement sustainable industry.

Next time: Supply Chain Sustainability

Managing Your Supply Chain During Unpredictable Events: Car and Vehicle Pushers

Managing Your Supply Line
Managing Your Supply Line

Any number of unpredictable events can put a kink in your supply chain and put your patience and problem solving skills to the test. While you can’t avoid warehouse problems, you can take concrete steps to make sure that you are equipped with the right tools to handle any challenge. DJ Products can provide you with the equipment (such as Car and Vehicle Pushers) and warehouse management tips to help you be prepared and avoid interruptions to your business.

One of the biggest challenges involved running a warehouse is making sure that it operates as smoothly as possible even during emergencies. While major companies use a variety of data to try and predict disasters and limit time to recovery, even the most accurate models can’t foresee what Mother Nature may unleash on your factory or other key components along the supply chain.

You can employ a more effective risk management strategy by making sure that you have the equipment to quickly move products and supplies during an emergency. From car and vehicle pushers to shopping cart retrievers, we specialize in offering a wide range of powerful and affordable tools that will allow you to quickly and easily move cars, carts and even airplanes. Not only do our products aid in the day to day operations of warehouse across a variety of industries, they also serve as vital tools during emergency situations.

While many warehouse management tips may focus on people centered skills, we believe that the most important tip is to equip your employees with the tools they need to do their best work. Providing pulling and pushing equipment will allow everyone to reach peak performance. 

Learning to Think Sustainably

Supply Chain Sustainability and Green Sustainable Supply Chain are the coming watchwords in the material handling and logistics industries (see our July 7 post). A green sustainable supply chain is the process of using environmentally friendly resources to create products that when used — and also when eventually discarded at the end of their life cycle — break down into components that either benefit the environment or can be recycled to create new products without harming the environment. 

“The whole idea of a sustainable supply chain is to reduce costs while helping the environment,” explained Patrick Penfield of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in a 2007 article for MHIA’s publication On the Mhove. To gauge the cost savings of a sustainable supply chain requires that businesses think in terms of the life cycle costs of a part, piece of equipment or process. It’s merely the next step in the evolution of cost analysis, argues Penfield. “In the past,” he says, “most companies were focused on reducing unit costs. Many companies later evolved into looking at total landed costs with the onset of global trade. Companies also started looking at the usage costs with a piece of equipment.” Figuring costs based on the total life cycle of a part, piece of equipment or process is simply taking an even broader view of cost analysis.

Approaching business and industry from the broad outlook of sustainability “could be a tremendous weapon for companies to reduce costs,” Penfield believes. “There are many facets of the supply chain that could be improved by looking at it from a sustainability standpoint.” Today, companies worldwide are reviewing design and production processes and redesigning those processes to use fewer resources and less energy. In one example, Interface Corporation, a leading maker of materials for commercial interiors, decreased the horsepower requirements of a pump system by 92% simply by using shorter, fatter pipes than originally called for. Their engineer’s redesigned system “cost less to build, involved no new technology and worked better in all respects,” Penfield points out.

Next time: Using sustainability to create a competitive edge

Using Sustainability to Create a Competitive Edge

Being eco-friendly is increasingly considered a social, political and economic advantage in U.S. business and industry — and, therefore, a competitive edge. Forward-thinking companies are using environmental initiatives and dedication to sustainability to create advantageous public opinion. Cutting edge, eco-friendly solutions gain customers. The extreme, sometimes almost rabid, level of dedicated customer loyalty, despite sometimes higher consumer costs, has been an unexpected benefit. An increasing number of ecologically-concerned Americans are willing to pay more for products and services that protect or sustain the environment. Interestingly, consumers view this as a way of partnering with industry to save the environment.

More industries are pursuing sustainability to reduce the life-cycle costs of parts, equipment and processes (see our July 9 post). “Anything not in a product is considered a cost; it’s a sign of poor quality,” say the authors of Green to Gold in explaining 3M’s Pollution Prevention Pays program. “As 3M execs see it, everything coming out of a plant is either product, by-product (which can be reused or sold), or waste. Why then should there be any waste?” As the authors point out, 3M views waste as unrecouped expenses and something to be avoided. The company’s goal is 100% sustainability.

Sustainability is not limited to the direct costs of business and industry. Savings can also be realized in indirect costs such as packing, transportation and other logistics considerations. Eco-friendly smart packages that reduce cardboard and filler save resources and money. Replacing gas-guzzling forklifts with energy-smart electric and motorized carts and tugs is another environmentally smart way to cut costs. Optimizing shipping loads and delivery strategies can result in significant cost savings given skyrocketing fuel prices.

Implementing a sustainable supply chain also eliminates or reduces the amount of money spent on disposal of harmful by-products, scrap and adherence to regulatory issues. In many instances, by-products previously disposed of as waste are now generating viable revenue sources for environmentally-conscious companies. Sustainability is already being used to competitive advantage by many companies who have found it a profitable way to grow market share in their industry.