Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Choice” series where we highlight recent posts published by our sponsors that provide supply chain insights and advice. This week’s post is from Manhattan Associates.
The explosion of e-commerce has impacted every part of the supply chain, from distribution centers to inventory and transportation. Manhattan’s podcast, Transportation Disruption, discussed these challenges with industry thought leaders and experts – you can listen to it here.
Fundamentally, supply chains were built on the logistics principles of scale, consolidation and centralization. For decades, they delivered great efficiencies. E-commerce, however, is the antithesis of those principles. Two-day, next-day and same-day delivery promises shifted transportation execution priorities. It ushered in a new set of objectives for speed, for flexibility and for delivery of smaller quantities of goods to exponentially more locations. As companies race to meet consumer expectations, the decision to offer all these different delivery and shipping methods has had a big impact on their bottom line. For example, in 2018 Amazon spent $27.7 billion on shipping. Many organizations contend with the increasing cost of meeting customer delivery expectations, but without Amazon’s deep pockets.
In short, satisfying new demands without evolving the supply chain is not sustainable. That’s why companies are taking steps to optimize their transportation networks, utilizing new technologies to meet customer expectations and leverage the advanced science of machine learning to reduce cost so as to compete more efficiently.
(For the rest of the article, click HERE)
