Supply Chain Expert Articles

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Battling the E-comm Porch Pirates

These modern-day pirates look for boxes, hopefully filled with expensive electronics or other items, to steal from people’s porches.  E-tailers are doing their best to respond. Amazon has introduced the Amazon Photo on Delivery, in which a photo may be taken of an item sitting in the porch after it is delivered. The photo shows up if you track your order. UPS and the United States Post Office haven’t started doing this yet, but it will come.

Many people have attempted to solve this problem. One Atlanta entrepreneur has come up with a lock called BoxLock.  The idea is that the receiving customer puts the tracking number of the expected package into the lock and then the delivery person scans the box which then opens it so the shipment can be locked inside. A house master key allows you to open the box when you get home. It’s a good idea, but I think it still has some kinks to be worked out. First, the lock is battery powered so it needs to be charged and might run out of power. The other reality is that the porch pirate probably could steal the entire box (although it would make it less inviting). Perhaps the box should have a wall mount.

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The Power of Gamification in Warehouse Activities

One of my customers, a bulk picking department manager, asked an intriguing question the other day: How can I keep my employees motivated and working hard?

His organization had deployed our wearable devices a year or so ago, and I had called on him to check in and see how they were being used and how much savings they had achieved. He’d had much success, and we had helped this customer come a long way in helping people to work in a more connected manner. But he still had this one headache—keeping his workers engaged and focused.

I’ve come to realize that the biggest challenge we have is helping organizations navigate the change to using the wearable devices. That’s largely because people are outside of our control. We have found younger employees, the tech-savvy millennial’s, adapt easily to these kinds of changes, but the older generation is slower to adapt, wanting to hang on to old ways and old technology and practices.

I asked my customer to explain further. He told me that many employees were able to maintain enthusiasm and interest throughout the workday, easily meeting and exceeding 100% utilization and earning their incentives. Unfortunately, he also had another group that always started slow, peaked mid-day, and then go downhill, missing the mark equally consistently. The challenge then was to get this second group to start strong and continue—so that everyone could earn their incentives and ensure corporate success.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that my customer is not alone in his experience of having a disengaged and under-utilised workforce. On average, the study found:

29% of today’s workforce is engaged.

55% of today’s workforce is passively disengaged.

16% of today’s workforce is actively disengaged.

Actively disengaged workers cost of more than $300 billion annually.

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Top 3 Expert Tips to Convert Retail Store into An Omnichannel Facility | Smart Gladiator

Delivering an omnichannel experience to customers has become newest Holy Grail for retailers. At the same time, trying to use old tools and processes to meet these new service level demands creates nothing but headaches.

Omnichannel refers to the standard of offering a seamless brand experience to the consumer across all channels: retail store, Internet, and mobile device. The new standard takes “the customer is always right” to the next level, saying that consumers should be able to order products the way they want, have it delivered or pick it up as they want, and return it easily through their chosen means whether by mail it to the distribution center or taking it to the store.

The current generation of customers shops on a mobile device, and wants to be able to see a desirable item, place an order, and pick it up at a close-by location an hour later. And, of course, that same buyer wants to be able to walk back into the store or slap on a return label to ship unwanted products back to the distribution center.

In essence, that creates the need for retailers to embrace three core capabilities:

The Order Management System (OMS) needs to be able to see inventory levels of all distribution centers and stores real time and be able to download orders to that specific DC or store depending on inventory availability and geographic proximity.

Stores need to have accurate inventory as well as have the capability to fulfill those orders accurately. The key here is ensuring inventory availability, despite shifts created by customers who are shopping and returning items.

Stores need to have the capability to ship orders to a customer. Today, retail locations often need to function as a small secondary fulfillment center.

In thinking about omnichannel, retailers are focused on getting the order management systems developed, getting the orders downloaded to the store (all on the IT systems side of things). They also need to keep in mind the tools that stores need to fulfill an order effectively.

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7 Things the Retail Supply Chain Needs to Know from Amazon

It was nice a Sunday evening at Orlando Florida. Our company, Smart Gladiator, was one of the Start-Up Technology companies that was selected to represent the Georgia team in the Retail Industry Association (RILA) Retail Supply Chain Conference 2017.

The conference was full of educational sessions. Not just a source of subject matter experts discussing the major trends, the event was a great way to network and learn from other leaders and stalwarts of the Industry. The one that inspired me the most was a very down to earth, straight talk presentation by Crystal Hanlon, president of the Northern Division of The Home Depot. She emphasized, just getting work done is not enough. One needs also to showcase the work done, so everybody, especially the influencers that are going to impact how you grow, are aware of your accomplishments. You need to take time, strategize and have a regular action in place, to communicate and showcase your accomplishments in front of these executives, so you get what you deserve, Hanlon said. She talked about how she had set up quarterly networking and update events, to make sure initiatives had visibility with people in power.

The highlight of the event was a dinner with the top supply chain influencers of the Georgia community. I learned that the Port of Savannah is the second largest port in the country in terms of the volume it handles. The Georgia team has done such an incredible job that there are other ports that are modeling their operations based on the Savannah port.

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Foster a Culture of Innovation in the Supply Chain | Smart Gladiator

“Culture will eat strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, anytime.” This was the first sentence that the professor of marketing and strategy uttered during our first MBA class at Georgia Tech. He underlined his point with the story of how Kellogg’s tried to conquer the Indian market with its breakfast cereal.

The company was trying to sell corn flakes with cold milk as breakfast in the Indian market, a culture that eats a warm breakfast finished with a hot, thick, creamy, flavorful coffee (A quick digression here:  one of the most popular coffees in India is made from the freshest milk, gotten from “only grass” fed cows just minutes before). India already had popular and well-loved breakfast foods: the idli, a fermented and steamed rice cake with probiotic that makes digestion easier and is called “the most healthiest food ever” with double superlatives; and the dosa, a fermented rice crepe. The corn flake with cold milk did not take off as Kellogg’s expected because that product did not fit within the culture, especially among the South Indians.

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The Robots Have Arrived: You’re Fired!

That’s the fear, isn’t it? I think that this prediction is half right. The robots are coming, so brace yourself. Whether we like it or not, the robots are coming. However, I don’t think those robots are going to be taking over our jobs any time soon. We’re not looking at artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that have reached sophistication where robots can take over our world. I just don’t see that happening.In the United States, we’ve seen some of the benefits of these technologies and the attendant automation. We also have built a culture of people who want to work. I don’t foresee a future where we send almost all of the humans home, leaving a few CEOs, like those at Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Boeing, to run everything using an army of robots. We have created complex systems and infrastructures in place—and they depend on the current economic systems.

Perhaps someday, we’ll develop a basic income arrangement to make sure that people are funded to get what they need, but that’s an entirely different conversation.Instead of solving that issue, let’s look at how the advent of robotics will impact warehouse managers and supply chain executives.

There are things we need to know, and ways we can plan for the changes. Technology costs for many technologies, from semiconductor chips to computing power, have come down significantly. It’s possible to deploy robots affordable, if a few challenges can be addressed.IntegrationIntegration, although a pretty significant effort, can be done. Hire the right experts, and you can, by investing time and money, get to where you want to be. In the not too distant future, many vendors will have the inbuilt integration with various types of robots available.

Take a look at just about any technology trade show and you’ll see a market that is crowded with up and coming offerings.  If you want to take up that integration as one of the first guinea pigs, you can, but be ready to learn along with them and set aside some budget for learning as part of the project. Eventually, a handful of leaders will shake out and set the standards.

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Chinese Smart Phones Capture Android Market 

The smart phone market has historically been a huge battlefield and nothing about that is changing. In fact, if anything, it’s getting more competitive. It would be fair to say that this may be the year that the Chinese officially lead the smart phone market pack.

The market leaders have evolved rapidly. It can be argued that U.S. innovators conceived of the smart phone, while the Koreans (specifically Samsung) came up with leading Android-based devices. Now, the Chinese are making these devices even better. Of course, at the end of the day, if all goes right, the consumer is the real winner.

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Data Collection in the Cannabis Industry

Canada has declared Cannabis or Marijuana a legal medicine. United States is following suit, however here in the US, it is being done state by state, Colorado has done that for quite some time, many states are following, for the latest states please google as it is changing every time you read this article. So naturally there are a lot of Cannabis vendors that are going to set up shop and start selling them. One weird thing that I learnt was that let us say there is State1 that has declared Cannabis legal, then State5 has declared Cannabis legal, but State2 that is in between State1 and State5 has not declared Cannabis legal, if you are transporting Cannabis in a truck from State1 to State5, and if a cop happens to pull you over in State2, then you could be potentially arrested because as a trucker you are transporting an illegal substance, how interesting is that? I am sure there are Cannabis lobbyists working this through with the Federal and State Governments.

In my attempt to learn about this Cannabis or Marijuana, I am learning that Cannabis is similar to alcohol, however without the side effects of alcohol, when people consume alcohol, the first thing that happens is their judgement is impaired, that is why we are told do not drink and drive, because at the speed which we are going, if our brain does not make decisions fast, we would end up in an accident, which is what alcohol impairs us from doing, then some people turn bitter, then some people throw up, the people that turn bitter start becoming violent and show the violence towards the people around them, whereas Cannabis is not like that, it still slows down the brain, they take time to pick up things, if their brain effectiveness is 100% without Cannabis, then with Cannabis, their brain effectiveness is 90%, which without Cannabis they would pick up faster, other than that, it triggers a lot of hunger, and puts people to sleep. I have known people that said they ended up eating a lot of potato chips after taking in Cannabis to satiate that hunger. And then they sleep a lot, so essentially it is a lesser evil compared to taking in alcohol. Also previously Cannabis was categorized along the side of Heroin, but further research is suggesting that Cannabis should not have been categorized that way, it is not as harmful as Heroin, but it should really be categorized along with alcohol. More research is underway in order to complete such a study. Again I don’t know if I am allowed to drive after taking Cannabis, I wouldn’t be comfortable driving if I know my brain is functioning at a 10% less effectiveness, so be careful, do not drive after taking Cannabis.

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Winning the Retail Supply Chain | Smart Gladiator

It is very easy to look at the adversity, see only doom and gloom and give up quickly. However, real winners see the opportunities behind the challenge. It may be tempting to assume that e-commerce is the new reality, but I believe retail sales still have promise.

Let me share a story. Once, a gentleman had a beautiful bone china cup in which he would enjoy his tea, while reading his books. He relished the experience every day. It’s easy to imagine: most of us have relished a nice drink, something to read, and a few quiet moments.

One day, he accidentally dropped the china teacup and broke it. He didn’t have another cup and he was unable to find another that was as sleek and as beautiful as the one he had. He was disappointed thinking that he was never going to be able to have such a calm, relaxing experience again. Then he had an idea: he asked a master craftsman to try to fix it. The craftsman knew that he couldn’t make it look like new. He thought for a long time and finally had a clever idea. He made golden glue by adding gold powder to the adhesive and then glued the pieces together with the golden cement. The cup was even more beautiful than it was before—and unique as well. The master craftsman turned adversity into opportunity.

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How music can enhance the productivity of your warehouse employees | Smart Gladiator

Conventional wisdom dictates that a picture is worth a thousand words and stories are worth a thousand pictures. I believe that…and I use stories in my presentation regularly. Of course, picking the right story is critical to making the biggest impact. Sometimes, though, I have an audience that speaks a completely different language. How do you communicate to inspire then? I think the answer is music.

My daughter has been singing since she was five, starting by spitting out sentences in a rhythmic pattern and then moving on to making up songs. She starts singing as soon as she gets up in the morning, even when she’s brushing her teeth. We got her a toy guitar and enrolled her in music school where she is learning to play the piano and the guitar and even to write songs. Now, she even has her own YouTube channel. She has really taught me about the power of music.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of being drawn to certain songs without realizing why. Perhaps you listen to it again and again (that’s why they call these “sticky” songs ear-worms!). Songs, perhaps because of the rhythms of it or the singers voice, can make you feel good, and on a bad day, can make you feel better. If a singer or an artist can make something that gets into people’s head even without them realizing it, that is a very powerful influencing skill.

So, what does this have to do with supply chain? I know one amazing supply chain practitioner who brings a lot of passion to the job he does. He’s always looking for ways to make things better. He tried an experiment where he gave the pickers in his warehouse Internet access for their iPods.

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How Gamification Can Leverage Worker Engagement in Your Warehouse

One of my customers, a bulk picking department manager, asked an intriguing question the other day: How can I keep my employees motivated and working hard?

His organization had deployed our wearable devices a year or so ago, and I had called on him to check in and see how they were being used and how much savings they had achieved. He’d had much success, and we had helped this customer come a long way in helping people to work in a more connected manner. But he still had this one headache—keeping his workers engaged and focused.

I’ve come to realize that the biggest challenge we have is helping organizations navigate the change to using the wearable devices. That’s largely because people are outside of our control. We have found younger employees, the tech-savvy millennials, adapt easily to these kinds of changes, but the older generation is slower to adapt, wanting to hang on to old ways and old technology and practices.

I asked my customer to explain further. He told me that many employees were able to maintain enthusiasm and interest throughout the workday, easily meeting and exceeding 100% utilization and earning their incentives. Unfortunately, he also had another group that always started slow, peaked mid-day, and then go downhill, missing the mark equally consistently. The challenge then was to get this second group to start strong and continue—so that everyone could earn their incentives and ensure corporate success.

Click here to continue reading this article.

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Drones in Distribution: Counting Inventory

We can all imagine drones moving boxes in the distribution center. However, there are a couple of reasons that make it difficult to move boxes today. That being said, another scenario offers even a more compelling advantage: inventory control.

Of course, a few technological hurdles need to be overcome for this idea to be really feasible. Today, the payload for a drone is limited. To increase the payload, the drones need more motors and propellers, which increases the size of the drone significantly.

This size increase also its battery efficiency. After installing this many propellers and battery, the flight time on the drone might only be 15 to 20 minutes with a payload of maximum 10 to 15 pounds. In order to keep the drones operating, there have to be recharging stations where the drones have to be sent every 15 minutes. Again fast charging technology will help here, but that technology is not fully ready yet.

So this significantly reduces the feasibility of drone deployment, except in distribution centers that move small items. Electronic components might be one example. Also small electronics products, including smart watches or fitness trackers. Of course, all these in Ecommerce customer order fulfilment scenarios.

The second area where drones offer a lot more opportunity and better bang for the buck is for inventory counting. There are two approaches to leveraging drones for inventory count.

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Trust but Verify: Wisdom on 3PL Relations | Smart Gladiator

During arms-control summit meetings with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, President Reagan often used a favorite Russian “doveryai, no proveryai,” that is “trust, but verify.” Reagan had come to realize that the evil empire might be a negotiating partner. The path was rocky, but the two managed to reduce the nuclear arsenals that were both the threat and the stabilizing factor of the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev Source: The Reagan Vision “Doveryai, no proveryai,” became Reagan’s watchwords for the relationship with the Soviet leader. Trust, but verify.

Possibly the only Russian words Reagan had rehearsed. “You say that at every meeting,” Gorbachev noted laughingly at the White House arms treaty signing in 1987.“I like it,” Reagan replied. As an industry, it’s important that we take a similar stance with our partners, especially third-party logistics partners. One visible phenomenon that no one can deny is that technological evolution has accelerated, creating many innovators and entrepreneurs who create new products and services with relatively meager resources.

No longer is innovation only the bailiwick of only billion dollar companies with budgets of $20 million or higher. Now, with a solid understanding of the industry, even small entrepreneurs can come up with innovative products that we all use in our daily lives. This has resulted in numerous companies with unique products.  Often, these companies sometimes don’t have distribution infrastructure or logistics capability to distribute their products to retailers or end users.

That’s when third party logistics service providers become important. Often these 3PL service providers run into issues where their customers are asking for unique services, as well as better system of records. For example, if a shipment or product is damaged, then the 3PL would benefit if they could provide picture based documentation for every single shipment or load that is received or shipped from their facilities. Today’s legacy system, though, preclude quick integration of these capabilities, without outside help.

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Top Omni-Channel Logistics Challenges in Retail Supply Chain

Delivering an omnichannel experience to customers has become newest Holy Grail for retailers. At the same time, trying to use old tools and processes to meet these new service level demands creates nothing but headaches.

Omnichannel refers to the standard of offering a seamless brand experience to the consumer across all channels: retail store, Internet, and mobile device. The new standard takes “the customer is always right” to the next level, saying that consumers should be able to order products the way they want, have it delivered or pick it up as they want, and return it easily through their chosen means whether by mail it to the distribution center or taking it to the store.

The current generation of customers shops on a mobile device, and wants to be able to see a desirable item, place an order, and pick it up at a close-by location an hour later. And, of course, that same buyer wants to be able to walk back into the store or slap on a return label to ship unwanted products back to the distribution center.

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Tech Industry Needs to Call for Multicultural Leaders

It is time to call out the elephant in the room: in the technology space in the U.S., there is a serious lack of multicultural leadership. When I say leadership, I’m referring to the ability of techies (read programmers or developers) to inspire a multicultural organization, and to be the torchbearer who shines a light on the un-trodden path. Really, there are only a handful.

To get to the heart of the problem, it’s important to understand how an employees background can impact their ability to lead. Let’s take Indian workers: I can empathize with my Indian brethren (the folks from the Indian subcontinent, who we know populate every technology company). I understand the difficulties they faced since I took a similar path. For anyone raised in India who then came in search of more opportunity in the U.S., there are a handful of realities that will likely hold him or her back from leadership:

The Indian education system does not focus on producing leaders. From my experience, Indian education is all about teachers subduing the students and keeping them under control. In the Indian political system, a majority of the leaders are either uneducated or poorly educated. Seriously well educated people such as Man Mohan Singh (an Economist with a PhD, who was a lame duck Prime Minister in the Congress government for two terms) and even Abdul Kalam (a celebrated Scientist and an admired techie leader, a fascinating personality: a Muslim by birth, a vegetarian who reads Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, every morning) were great experts in their chosen disciplines. Both failed miserably as leaders within the Indian political, governmental and the so-called democratic system.

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IoT-Based in Supply Chain Management

You  cannot manage what you cannot measure — so if you want to manage  something you need to be able to measure it. The average distributor,  then, can improve productivity by 7% just by implementing a system that  measures labor and publishes a daily report on operator’s performance.  It’s all about the psychology of it.When  people know they are being measured, their attitude completely changes.  They become more proactive. When they don’t have work, they ask their  supervisors for something to do. They focus on their performance. They  want to demonstrate that they are good people who are doing their best  work. That’s just human nature.However,  today’s labor management systems (LMS) that implemented in conjunction  with the warehouse management system (WMS). What does this mean in  practical terms? Typically, the WMS is a top priority in the  distribution center (DC). In a practical way, the WMS is the brains of  the DC and, by creating smooth and optimized process, the DC manager can  maximize throughput and get the DC running at full speed.Click here to continue reading this article.

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Leverage Video to Engage & Teach New Technology

Every organization has a variety of systems aimed at streamlining processes and getting things done. Unfortunately, the plethora of technologies and software can confuse the average employee, especially if it’s a system skillset that only gets used sporadically. Video, however, can present key reminders and steps quickly to get workers the information they need to be productive.

My daughter and I often try cooking new recipes in our kitchen. We find that YouTube is the best place to start. We search for the kind of recipe we want, whether it’s Indian, fusion, vegetarian or spicy, and then take a few minutes to watch the steps. We can pause and rewind as we follow the steps or replay it as needed. It’s definitely easier, more accurate and more engaging than perusing a cookbook—and lets us get the best out of our chosen recipe.

Consider another example: reading a book. Getting through one volume can take anywhere from hours to days. Often, in the course of the book, we miss or forget key details.   Perhaps, we end up spending time referring back to earlier parts of the manuscript. Imagine that the same story was made as a movie. Movies offer the option of multiple viewings and underlines key details. Recently, for example, I watched a film version of Cleopatra. It is a very well made movie, and now I will never forget the history, the impact of Cleopatra on Rome, and the murder of Julius Cesar (one of the most powerful emperors of Rome).  This is the kind of movie that stamps information in the memory and keeps audiences tightly involved and glued to their seats.

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