What's your OTD? Our customers average 95.5%.
The impact that cost of goods sold (COGS) has on a company’s bottom line cannot be understated. Yet, for all of the attention that businesses dedicate to traditional COGS elements such as manufacturing, materials, and labor costs, one key area is constantly overlooked when it comes to COGS planning, strategy, and execution -- transportation.
Have you ever experienced a diagonal or horizontal crack in your home’s foundation? If so, you know leaving these cracks unattended will lead to bigger problems and costly repairs. If a shipper's freight procurement process is static and stymied by lack of capacity, then the shipper has cracks in its foundation too. Unfortunately, if left unattended, the shipper runs the risk of:
The freight market continues to carve out new records, and last week is no exception. Tender rejections remained above 25%, which is no surprise because it’s been there for months. And reefer is even higher at 50% rejection. All that said, the big surprise is that DAT reported contract rates ($2.76 per mile) higher than spot ($2.62 per mile).
AI (artificial intelligence) is one of the hottest topics in technology circles today. And although AI may be generating a ton of headlines in verticals such as retail, healthcare, and consumer tech, it is also playing a huge role in reshaping transportation and logistics.
If you’re a food, beverage, cosmetics or pharma manufacturer, and require temperature controls, chances are you’re struggling to move freight. Reefer tender rejection continues to hover around 50%, up from 10% this same time last year. Think about this for a moment… 50% rejection means one out of every two tendered reefer loads are passed on. To complicate matters, produce season is right around the corner so chances are the situation will get worse before it gets better.
Successful manufacturers are always on the hunt for ways to optimize supply chain processes to mitigate risk and limit the slowdown of goods produced and moved. But one critical supply chain process has flown under the radar for decades, and is simply not equipped to handle today’s extreme market volatility.
January 2020 continued to ring in historic numbers for freight volumes and tender rejections. Volume was recorded at 40% greater year-over-year, and average tender rejection remained above 20%. To provide context, January rejects were 3X higher than 2020, and 4X higher than 2019. “Carriers are waiting to see if something better comes up, slowing down the process and increasing the cost,” said Mike Edwards, Sleek Technologies VP Sales. “Some shippers are struggling to move goods because contracted carriers are only accepting 50%-60%”.
Originally posted on FreightWaves
Newly released U.S. Coast Guard video offers visceral proof of just how extreme the congestion has become at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The new view from above reveals a vast armada of container ships scattered at anchor across California’s San Pedro Bay.
Originally posted on SupplyChain247
Which supply chain challenges will preoccupy companies in 2021? Many are reflected in MIT CTL's research agenda for the new year, so we asked our senior researchers to describe what they would like to achieve in 2021.