newsworthy
SHIPPING “BUMP” UNLIKELY
Despite the Tompkins data showing a planned reduction
in SKUs, the chairman of the Institute for Supply
Management’s influential monthly report on manufacturing said manufacturer and retailer inventory levels are
not lean enough to warrant a significant bump in peak
order and shipping season activity even if demand accelerates somewhat in the coming weeks.
Bradley J. Holcomb, who chairs the committee responsible for publishing the report, said in an interview with
DC VELOCITY that manufacturers have adopted a “
wait-and-see” attitude toward inventories as retailers remain
extremely cautious about consumer spending in the holiday season. That degree of caution is not likely to abate
any time soon, Holcomb said.
Manufacturers “don’t have strong expectations for
strong order activity” in the near future, Holcomb said.
Producers are forecasting continued economic weakness
for at least the next few months, he added.
Holcomb said manufacturers could misread end
demand and get “caught short” with low supplier inventories at the worst possible time. But he added that the
risks of such a scenario occurring are “very small.” ;
—Mark Solomon
accolades
YRC Worldwide Inc. has been named to the 2011
InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the
nation’s most innovative users of business technology.
… Clark Material Handling Co. has received the
Kentucky Governor’s Safety & Health Award for the
fifth year in a row. … Ryder System Inc. announced
the winners of its 2011 Top Technician Recognition
Program. The title of “2011 National Top Technician”
was awarded to Michael Caylor of Aberdeen, Md.
Second-place winner was Timothy Peters of Hickory,
N.C., and third-place winner was David Berdovich of
Harvey, Ill. … Inc. magazine ranked Red Arrow
Logistics number 2,340 on its fifth annual “Inc
500/5000,” a ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing
private companies. … Clark Material Handling Co. has
presented its Top Service Managers Award of the Year
to Eric Kroeger of Cal-Lift Inc.; Eric Smith, Mike Novak,
and John Fuller of J.H. Ryder Machinery Ltd.; Albert
Echemendia of W.E. Johnson Equipment Co.; Kent
Kelsey of Delta Materials Handling Inc.; Marty Beasley
of Lift Truck Sales & Service Inc.; and Alfredo Ibarra of
MYMMSA.
Manual processes still dominate
parcel landscape, study finds
Despite the proliferation of automated tools to
facilitate the flow of parcel shipping information,
many shippers continue to use costly manual
processes to accomplish basic tasks, according to
an annual survey by international trade IT
provider Kewill plc.
The survey of 820 respondents across a wide
range of industries found that 70 percent of shippers are still using some form of manual data
entry to complete transactions. About 21 percent
still use a fully manual process for that task, while
only 8 percent said they rely on a totally hands-free operation.
Of those who still enter data manually, 44 percent
said they were forced to because the needed information resides in an automated system that is not
accessible to the company’s shipping department.
Kewill said the 2011 survey results, which were
compiled in mid to late July, are similar to the 2010
findings. What’s different about 2011, according
to Kewill, is an improved economic environment
that has led more companies to look at increasing
headcount in their operations. About 29 percent
of respondents are adding staff, while 31 percent
are holding staff levels steady, the survey found. In
2010, nearly half of the respondents were cutting
staff levels, the report said.
As transactions and employee staffs increase, businesses will find their labor costs rising even though
solutions are available to complete tasks such as
data entry in an automated fashion, Kewill said.
“For all companies, simply increasing headcount
may only serve to reinforce a manual method of
doing business that is not optimized for efficiency,
cost containment, or accuracy and quality,” the
company said. Citing survey data showing that
nearly 40 percent of respondents spend one
minute or more entering shipment data, Kewill
said a company shipping 500 parcels per day
would need to hire a full-time employee just to
handle that daily task.
Kewill urged those companies whose shipping
departments don’t have access to automated data
to invest in tools that enable such access.
“Comparing the cost of improved automation to
the labor costs currently being incurred for data
entry would indicate a quick [less than six month]
return on investment, in pure cash terms,” Kewill
said. ;
