The adoption of new technologies and ongoing innovation are hallmarks of the logistical sector. Supply chains have been under pressure for the past two years due to the rise of e-commerce and consumer demands for prompt and dependable deliveries. Tim Brown, managing director of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology, claims that there has been a greater emphasis placed on supply chains and logistics on a macro, micro, and ultra-micro level.
The transportation and logistics sector is reinventing its methods for everything from hiring truckers to making information more accessible in order to meet insatiable client demands. Here are four important logistics and transportation topics to keep an eye on in the upcoming year and beyond.
Work-Life Balance for Truckers
For many years, there has been a severe truck driver shortage in the US. But because of the epidemic, there was a surge in both shipments of commodities and early retirements, turning the shortfall into a crisis. The migration of many typical long-haul drivers into the gig economy has made the scarcity worse.
Companies are outsourcing more of their shipping operations as a result of these shortages and carrier capacity restrictions. As a result, demand for dedicated shipping services is rising. In these cases, a third-party logistics company (3PL) runs a private fleet on behalf of a business and takes care of these problems.
Same and Next Day Delivery is Required
To satisfy client requests for faster and more precise deliveries, businesses are putting a range of tactics into practice.
Companies must be very careful with their inventory carrying costs; thus they must ensure that their products are placed in the correct ZIP codes depending on their knowledge and expectations of consumer orders. The initial wave of forwarding deployment-using enterprises is performing even better than anticipated. Advance deployment can also result in higher efficiency that supports greener practices.
The Nuances of Nearshoring and Supplier Diversity
If everything goes as planned, just-in-time (JIT) delivery methods are an excellent way to manage inventory levels. Companies are taking into account not only the cost of delivery but also the cost of running out of goods as supply-chain disruption becomes a major danger.
Ice storms in the South and Texas had an impact on resin supplies, which significantly impacted a variety of items. Foam for pillows, for instance, couldn’t be produced by the furniture business.
Nearshoring and supplier diversity are receiving more attention as businesses try to lower risk and improve supply-chain reliability. Firms must navigate complex concerns like underemployment and local environmental laws that restrict the construction of production facilities.
American manufacturing capabilities aren’t the same as they were in the middle of the 20th century, and we lack individuals with specialized skills, like high-end machining when compared to other nations. The final assembly, which doesn’t need the same set of skills as certain other manufacturing activities, needs to be moved to the United States more as a starting point for nearshoring.
Transparent Supply Chain Offers Fresh Benefits
In the initial stages of the epidemic, it became clear that there was a need for improved supply chain visibility. The test of excellent customer service is if the manager could log into the company website, see the shipment would come at 3 p.m., and then really have the cargo arrive at 3 p.m.
Businesses are also embracing this increased transparency to be more flexible. Healthcare and consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses are now examining how they may utilize this information to guarantee that delivery vehicles can pick up additional freight on the way back — effectiveness that has previously been challenging to accomplish in those sectors.
