DC Velocity - April 2018

newsworthy

22 DC VELOCITY APRIL 2018 www.dcvelocity.com Transplace, a provider of transportation management services and logistics technology solutions, has named Frank McGuigan chief executive officer. … Greg Masingill has taken over as executive vice president of Schneider Packaging. … Logistics service provider Alliance Shippers Inc. has appointed Jonathan Lefcourt president and chief executive officer, and Steven M.

Golich chief operating officer. … Twinlode
Corp., a supplier of high-density storage
systems, has hired Angelica Mitranca as
director of engineering. … CFI, a North
American full-truckload carrier, has pro-
moted Greg Orr to president, hired Michael
Hinz as senior vice president of sales and operations,
and named Angela Ridge vice president of
human resources. … The Jacksonville Port
Authority (Jaxport) has hired David Kalata
as director of national container accounts,
and Frederick P. Wong Jr. as chief operat-
ing officer. … Material handling automa-
tion and software solutions provider Swisslog Logistics
Automation Americas has introduced a new executive
leadership team. The new team members include

Markus Schmidt, president; John Dillion, vice president
of e-commerce/retail; T.J. Fanning, vice president of
consumer goods; Terry Krantz, vice president of pro-
duction logistics; and Richard Kooistra, vice president
for Latin America. … Supply chain management soft-
ware company Tecsys Inc. has hired mar-
keting veteran Laurie McGrath as its new
chief marketing officer. … Ben McGruder
has been named director of customer ser-
vice and inside sales for conveyor specialist

Dorner Mfg. Corp. … Transportation solu-
tions provider Smith Transport Inc. has selected Todd
Smith as its president. … RIM logistics Ltd., a provider
of global freight forwarding and third-party logistics
services, has appointed Jacques Retief senior vice
president of warehouse, distribution, and domes-
tic services. … Conveyco Technologies,
an integrator of automated systems for
fulfillment and distribution centers, has
announced the return of Ken Soper to the
company in the role of sales engineer. …

Ryan Rogers was named chief transformation officer at Covenant Transport Services, a company specializing in truckload and managed transportation services.

newsmakers
Kohl’s fights back—with its stores

Retailer Kohl’s Corp. aims to stay relevant with the assets that have gotten it to this point: its 1,100 stores.

“Kohl’s has chosen to fight back with our stores,” Sona Chawla, chief operating officer of the Menomonee, Wis.-based retailer, said at the keynote session of the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s (RILA)

2018 Retail Supply Chain Conference in
Phoenix. “We have a strong belief that
physical stores matter.”
Chawla outlined how Kohl’s intends to
maintain its store traffic even as online
sales continue to climb. A key to the strat-
egy is operational efficiency in the compa-
ny’s supply chain. “Efficiency will be the differentiator that
you will see in the retail industry,” she said.

New automated equipment in its e-commerce DC operations now allows Kohl’s to be two to three times more efficient than it was in the previous facilities, Chawla said. Kohl’s is leveraging its stores for direct-to-customer distribution as they now operate as mini-fulfillment centers to handle online orders.

The retailer’s stores currently perform 32 percent of
its online fulfillment, according to Chawla. On “Cyber
Monday,” the stores collectively did three times the ful-
fillment volume of the company’s traditional e-commerce
channels, she said.

A key factor for the strategy is that stores shorten the distance to customers, Chawla said. Delivery from stores is 25 percent faster than filling an e-commerce order from a distribution center, she said.

Kohl’s has increased its store traffic by encouraging in-store pickups, where customers order online but come into stores to retrieve their merchandise. Chawla says that 90 percent of online customers also shop in the retailer’s stores. Incentives, like the Kohl’s Cash loyalty program, also help keep customers coming back.

Another strategy has been to break down silos between its operational teams, Chawla said. Managers now work together to make adjustments and tradeoffs, rather than just ensuring their own areas are optimized at the potential expense of others, she said.