This fireside chat recap is from Day 2 of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week. Day 2 focuses on retail, building and construction.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Heavy-goods logistics and delivery solutions for 2021
DETAILS: Heavy-goods supply chains are still reeling after a tumultuous 2020. Kevin Walker from Accentrics Home and Doug Ladden with Deliveright Logistics look at the challenges that remain for manufacturers, retailers and logistics firms and share some of their best practices for the new year.
SPEAKER and INTERVIEWER: Walker is the president of Accentrics Home and Ladden is the co-founder and CEO of Deliveright Logistics.
BIOS: As president of Accentrics Home, Walker leads the e-commerce initiatives of HMI Group, a division of Hooker Home Furnishings. He has more than 30 years in the home furnishings industry, with the last 11 years dedicated to e-commerce growth for the HMI brands.
Ladden’s Deliveright is a technology, logistics and final-mile delivery provider for the heavy-goods industries. Prior to Deliveright, he was a co-founder and senior partner of DLJ Investment Partners, which managed a series of middle-market mezzanine funds with $3.5 billion in assets under management.
KEY QUOTES FROM WALKER:
On current manufacturing capacity overseas: “We’ve seen an increase in cases of COVID in Vietnam, Malaysia. They’ve had hybrid shutdowns and overtime has been eliminated. So now you’re back to some capacity issues. So it just keeps rearing its ugly head. But we will survive, we will get through it.”
On the likelihood of production being moved back to the U.S.: “Moving from China to other Asian countries, my analogy is it’s like trying to take Texas and pour it into Rhode Island. It was a mass scramble for factories and capacities to take that on as well as the skill set that the China worker had that was not prevalent in those other countries.”
On best practices for 2021: “It’s going to be: Who is your partner? Make sure your SKUs are profitable. Make sure you can compete. It’s not just competing on price and driving the price to the bottom. It’s about content, it’s about service and it’s about delivery. Making sure the customer understands what they’re buying, make sure they get it on time and make sure they get a clean delivery. If you can do those three things, you’re well on your way to success.”
KEY QUOTE FROM LADDEN:
On the headaches associated with reverse logistics when there is a $1 trillion backlog of goods orders in the market: “It’s so hard to get the product that consumers actually want and to have it in stock and [to be] able to ship it. The last thing you want is to have to figure out how to get it back because there was a problem with the delivery or it wasn’t exactly what the customer wanted. Focus on getting it there right the first time. Focus on getting it there in the proper shape so that you minimize the return, the reverse logistics issue.”
