Image Enabling The Supply Chain

  Here is another interesting dynamic about  LoadProof . Apparently somebody in their organization is interested and somebody saw the value of the product – LoadProof provides.  We get to talk to them and they’re curious. They want to learn more, and in our conversation this comes up: “hey we already use Google Drive, and we store pictures in Google Drive and and it was great for us”. This was actually a very interesting story. An intern from Georgia Tech, pretty smart kid, but they don’t understand all the implications of using an enterprise system for a recognized supply chain environment. In an established supply chain network, you’re dealing with so many different partners such as vendors, customers, transportation service providers, lumpers, etc., Supply chain is a huge community.  When you spend some time in the industry you understand all these different players and how to work with them and how to maintain the data integrity and still do business maintaining ...

  In April, I had a very busy week at the  ProMat tradeshow  in Chicago.  The show, which originally billed itself as a materials handling equipment event, now has something for everyone involved in supply chain, manufacturing, and distribution.  It offered a whole world of ideas on what’s happening in our industry. It was an interesting mix of offerings. About a third of the show involved robotics including associated components, control systems, gear mechanisms, motor actuators, and software systems. I saw an arm of a robot with fingers exactly like human fingers, which reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s arm in Terminator 2. My real reason for being at the show was to meet with prospects and customers. I wanted to share some of the conversations I had at the event. It pointed to some important industry trends, particularly around something called experiential retail. It’s something that we’ve suspected in high-tech electronics for a. while now—and it’s goi...

  This best practice is about something called dimensioning of SKU’s in warehouse. Dimensioning of products is done by capturing the length width and height of the products. Boxes in which the products are being shipped are also dimensioned. These boxes are tracked as they are moved across with products capturing all the dimensions such as length, width, height, weight, volume and also the other attributes. The item master attributes of a product corresponds to the size of the products. Some expensive electronic goods does not come with serial number tracking, and some items will be conveyable and others will be non-conveyable. And also some of the items are easy to sort and some are difficult. All these aspects will be focused as part of the  dimensioning process , because that is the first time the product hits the dock door or product hits the DC. None would have seen the physical nature of the product. The vendor would have probably sent an ASN and you automatically create...

  1. Introduction  Recently, a Leading cleaning products manufacturer implemented LoadProof – the centralized enterprise photo documentation system. This document describes the benefits of effective photo documentation that helps in avoiding freight claims and chargebacks. This leading cleaning products manufacturer believed in using business to solve social and environmental problems, and as they develop, their mission is to magnify the benefit they bring to people and to the environment. They don't want to be driven by profit or shareholders; instead, they want to do business in a way that benefits the environment and people. They always consider people when making business decisions. That involves taking responsibility for their team's health and wellbeing, as well as the health and well-being of their community and the people who use their products. Not only do they believe they have responsibility to the larger good and the environment, but they also have a responsibility...

  It’s been said that hindsight is 20/20… and it’s certainly true that taking a moment to ponder the outcomes of the projects and activities of the year is useful. I’ve had wild successes, as well as some equally fantastic failures. As a project manager, I’ve always believe that if my team did not accomplish its goals, it pointed to a failure on my part.  Learning from both the ups and the downs is the first brick in building a firm foundation that will allow an organization to stand the test of time even as change accelerates everything around us. Technology is evolving quickly and the world is getting smaller. In the best organizations, the work environment is becoming inter generational and multicultural. Some people are even positing that robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will reform the workforce even more.  How can you build a great team even amidst change? How do you avoid failure as much as possible? How do you turn adversity into opportunity in those moment...

  If you are looking at little automation in your warehouse this is the best practice to lookout. If you are automating your warehouse in terms of conveyors or sorters or even robots it would make a lot of sense to mark your  SKUs  as conveyable or not conveyable, sortable or non-sortable and as the robots coming everywhere robotable or non-robotable. The last thing you want to do is make a small product or a big product ride the conveyor.  Technically all conveyors have certain requirements mentioned, such as the box size of certain length, width, and height.  The carton’s matching these requirements can only convey through the conveyor. The same requirements for sorting the products using sorter. It could be whatever type of sorter that you might have big sorter or small sorter and even robots. The only difference between robots and conveyors is the businesses. Before it used to change every five to seven years and now the changes happening even faster. Imagin...

  This next best practice that you can implement in your distribution center is something called vendor performance. So vendor performance is basically you as a retailer or a distributor or as an ecommerce order fulfiller you are buying your product from different vendors.  When the vendor ship to your DC, you can rate them on how well they are doing in terms of  compliance . Compliance requirements are mandatory in all of the big ecom warehouses. For example let’s take Walmart or Staples or Amazon, all these big distribution companies handle larger merchandise, which is being pushed through their supply chain. They need a lot of automation, material handling equipment, sorters, conveyors, and robots for moving these merchandise, which are products through their distribution center. They are all sent it to their stores and for fulfilling orders. When they have all this material handling equipment robots and everything, they can accept only certain box sizes, certain label...