More than 300 of the world’s 500 largest companies have a presence in Wuhan, with the city being one of China’s largest manufacturing centers. One of the many reasons that Wuhan is critical to the international supply chain is due to its role in shipping and transportation. As of today, Chinese authorities shut down transportation for more than a dozen cities, effectively putting nearly 60 million people under severe travel restrictions. MORE

Unlike SARS in 2003, the Covid-19 pandemic has spawned an unprecedented Global health pandemic. It even took authorities some time to recognise the vital importance of warehouse logistics, supply chain continuity, truck drivers and other transport operators. MORE

Reporting on this development, Jennifer Smith ( @jensmithWSJ ) and Sarah Nassauer ( @SarahNassauer ) write, “Looking to cut inventory while meeting e-commerce demands, the retailer wants more of the goods it orders delivered on time and in full. 2] She wrote: “There’s no doubt about it: manufacturers who fail to meet a retailer’s vendor standards can get into financial trouble. Retailer compliance initiatives can lead to efficiency,” HighBeam Research, 1 October 2003. [3] MORE

The Kiva Robotic Picking System: The idea for the orange AGV-like robots that bring inventory to order pickers was first conceived in 2003 by CEO Mick Mountz, and with the help of some MIT professors Kiva brought the technology to market less than two-years later. 10: Taylorism: In the late 1800s, the great Frederick Taylor takes the first scientific approach to manufacturing. Louis, with dramatic results in both lowering inventories while increasing in-stock at retail. MORE

Transport links that ran like clockwork suddenly melted away, most notably air freight, and products were stranded in overstretched ports. He also notes transportation can eb a key headache as often only small ports serve newer destinations “so you're going have to consolidate in another…. MORE

The inability to provide daily updated data on inventories of raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished products presents two major concerns: The decrease of the WCR for companies, the deployment of a dashboard tailored and user-friendly is essential in order to take charge of the management of a share of its WCR. Exhaust-data analyses (OTD, pallet volume, transport, suppliers, returns, etc.) MORE

Campbell Soup was the first company to adopt demand sensing in 2003. Data from E2open’s Forecasting Benchmark Study – encompassing more than $250 billion in sales from 14 multinational manufacturers – shows that demand sensing cuts weekly forecast at the item-location level by 37% compared to traditional demand planning systems. Terra is the industry leader in demand solutions, including demand sensing, inventory optimization and transportation forecasting. MORE