Many companies have migrated to “just-in-time” inventory management to optimize their production lines, but it’s safe to say that the last few years have made that ultra-low inventory strategy much more challenging.
But moving back to an inventory-heavy “just-in-case” plan can be costly and cumbersome, especially when you have to rethink almost everything about your facility. So, what’s the solution?
In the market for a new forklift? Be prepared to wait. With order lead times stretching from six months to over a year (and beyond), companies waiting to replenish their fleet are challenged to make do with what they have until their shipment comes in.
“Before this, a lot of companies were used to being reactionary with their orders because the supply chain was so wide open and you could get your hands on the things that you needed within the relative time frame,” says Ryan Boyd, TFS Vice President, Racking and Automation. "With today's supply chain issues and lead times, companies need to be more proactive and think about the bigger picture sooner rather than later."
It’s officially Spring! As if the world didn’t have enough going on already, unexpected things continue to crop up, such as the first Amazon union and the Ever Given’s sister ship, which also got stuck, exemplifying the worst kind of sibling rivalry.
To help you keep up, we curate all the need-to-know material handling news every month—so read on!
We spoke with three TFS executives who were at MODEX to get their takes on the show. Here are the six top takeaways you need to know to get you beyond 2022. Everyone seemed to agree that automation had stronger representation than ever before, but even the more traditional technologies had morphed in new and interesting ways. In short, there’s a lot of exciting change going on.
Last time, we said that “2022 promises to remain a rollercoaster” and that turns out to have been an understatement. While we can’t possibly keep you up-to-date with the firehose of information that is the state of the world, the Supply Chain Roundup can curate the most valuable and innovative takes on supply chains, logistics, and material handling. If you'd like to sign up to receive it via email once a month, please subscribe (if you don’t already)!
If you work in material handling, you may feel like you’ve been staggering around a boxing ring the past few years. Every time you’ve found your feet, you’ve gotten knocked down again by the one-two punch of pandemic and supply chain shortages. Together, these crises accelerated issues that many industries were struggling with even when times were relatively good: labor shortages and the “Amazon effect.”
As 2022 promises to remain a rollercoaster, The Supply Chain Roundup will make it easy to stay on top of the news by curating the most valuable and innovative takes on supply chains, logistics, and material handling. If you'd like to sign up to receive it via email once a month, please subscribe!
If there's one piece of advice that sums up material handling in 2022 it's to "prepare for the unpredictable." Many of the trends that impacted supply chains and distribution center operations in 2021 remain in play; it’s likely that storing and moving goods will become even more complex in the months ahead.
There's a supply chain crisis, and no sector is immune. Material and parts shortages are hitting operations across the board, triggering price hikes and logistical hurdles that are increasingly harder to handle.
Happy 2022!
The Supply Chain Roundup hopes to start off your year right by curating the most valuable and innovative takes on supply chains, logistics, and material handling. If you'd like to sign up to get it monthly via email, please subscribe.