In the crowded retail marketplace, customer experience is key, and logistical capabilities are what set the winners apart from the less prepared. Companies that are not able to deliver goods at the right time and place will risk losing their customers to one of many competitors. Furthermore, failing to deliver against the lowest costs may mean setting back business goals.
The growing importance of customer experience represents a challenge for the industry, on top of the ever-present need to control costs. However, these are not the only concerns. Rapidly evolving technologies make the retail supply chain increasingly complex to manage. On top of that, sudden disruptions, as experienced with COVID-19, uncovered the vulnerability of global supply chains and the need for improved resilience and agility.
In light of this, we conducted a global survey with Reuters Events to assess how retailers and logistics service providers are currently planning their logistics operations, the difficulties they encounter and the challenges that they foresee in the near future. The report results show that many companies are indeed lacking visibility and efficiency in their logistics planning, with 57% of respondents still relying on spreadsheets or administrative systems. Though they are able to support basic planning measures, these legacy tools were never designed to plan complex logistics operations, let alone deal with the many rules, constraints and disruptions in today’s retail supply chain operations. Accuracy is rated as the second most important aspect of delivery, and yet many organizations notice a significant gap, namely between the plan and the execution of said plan.
Your organization’s success in today’s retail landscape relies on the ability to quickly adapt to change and find opportunities for cost savings while keeping service at a maximum. So, the question now becomes, “How can retail organizations and food distributors create the most efficient plans for their logistics operations and poise themselves for disruptive change?”
Listen to the recording of our webcast Optimized Logistics Planning: The Road to Cost Reduction and Delivery Accuracy, that we organized in partnership with Reuters Events. Here, the Logistics Director from Ahold Delhaize USA, the Senior Manager Supply Chain Transformation from EY and a DELMIA Senior Solutions Consultant, break down the challenges in today’s retail logistics world, how to overcome those challenges as well as the keys to planning for successful logistics operations. You will also:
- Learn how the right planning tool can minimize the gap between logistics planning and execution
- Explore how to build supply chain resilience and cut logistics-related costs
- Gain insights and strategies from senior industry experts in a live Q&A session
