Today is September 11.
As a kid who grew up in Brooklyn with a view of the Twin Towers from my bedroom window, I will never forget.
Where were you on September 11, 2001 when the planes hit the towers?
How I yearn, sometimes, to go back to my childhood bedroom, back to those hot summer days looking out the window, car horns and city sounds, the color of the sky at sunset and the glitter of office lights, thousands and thousands of them.
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In this week’s supply chain and logistics news:
- Walmart demands all suppliers comply with 98% on-time in-full shipment rule (TB&P)
- West Coast Freight Networks ‘Bursting at the Seams’ With Surging Imports (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- Walmart Now Piloting On-Demand Drone Delivery with Flytrex
- Amazon to establish autonomous delivery R&D center in UK (Parcel & Post Technology)
- Descartes Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Results
- Uber Freight expands enterprise shipper offering with Uber Freight Enterprise and Uber Freight Link
- Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning Release 180 Leverages AI and Machine Learning for Superior Demand Sensing
- FourKites Introduces Industry-First Multimodal Purchase Order Lifecycle Visibility
- UPS To Hire Over 100,000 For Holiday Season
- Brexit: EU ultimatum to UK over withdrawal deal changes (BBC)
The Challenges of Ramping Back Up: Walmart Tightens On-Time In-Full Requirements (OTIF)
Okay, no more using the pandemic as an excuse, you better start delivering what we order on-time and in-full or you’re going to pay.
That’s the basic message Walmart is sending its suppliers as it tightens its on-time in-full (OTIF) requirements. As Kim Souza reports in TB&P:
Walmart suppliers have been told that on-time and in-full (OTIF) shipments must be 98% complete effective Sept. 15. Suppliers not meeting the new guidance will be fined 3% of the cost of goods. The guidance gives suppliers, who now meet a 70% completion rate, little time to adjust.
Couple this news with “the crush of goods coming into West Coast seaports [that] is straining capacity at the gateways and on key inland distribution lanes, raising shipping prices for retailers and complicating efforts to replenish inventories following the supply chain upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic,” as Jennifer Smith reports in the Wall Street Journal. Here is more from the article:
Tight trucking capacity has added to the stress. Slack demand during widespread economic shutdowns drove some operators out of business. Others are having a hard time recruiting drivers who want to work in a pandemic. For-hire trucking fleets are operating 3% fewer trucks this summer than a year earlier, according to the American Trucking Associations.
Ramping down is often quicker and easier than ramping back up. A surge in imports, a decline in logistics capacity, and more demanding delivery requirements add up to a lot of challenges and headaches for supply chain and logistics professionals in the weeks ahead.
And with that, I’m out of time for today. Have a happy weekend!
Song of the Week: “You Are The Everything” by R.E.M.
