Point of Sale: Efficiency across the supply chain

Making loan process easier on everyone

If you’ve ever been in the market for a home, you know the process can seem never-ending. Things might get a little quicker on the lender’s end, with a point-of-sale (POS) system made to speed things up — LenderLogix-designed LiteSpeed. HousingWire reports it’s a white-label system for small to midsize mortgage lenders made to make the loan application process more cost-effective, too.

“Many of the POS platforms on the market today function as a second loan origination system in disguise in terms of features, architecture and required upkeep, effectively putting them out of reach for the majority of the market,” said Patrick O’Brien, founder and CEO of LenderLogix. “… So we created LiteSpeed to deliver pragmatic POS functionality at a price point that makes sense for the average mortgage lender.”

By using animated iconography and dynamic messaging, the HousingWire article says LiteSpeed guides borrowers through auto-advancing application questions. Once an application is filled out, the loan originators give borrowers a needs list and link to upload their document. O’Brien maintains this process increases lead capture while carrying out a consistent identity through the teams.

Check out more on LenderLogix products here.

The trading post

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Expect more, pay less

Target is expanding operations with plans for six new sortation centers by 2026. Retail Info Systems reports that the retail giant is investing $100 million into these centers to grow the network to more than 15 facilities. Target’s expansion is part of a greater project that includes spending $5 billion on its upstream supply chain and distribution center automation to reduce store workload. 

This growth also follows Target’s “stores-as-hubs” strategy, where the company receives packages from local stores in markets with sortation centers and takes them to the center for local distribution by third-party carriers or another delivery route — whichever is cheapest.

“By removing the sorting and packing process from our store backrooms, we save valuable time and space for our store teams to fulfill additional orders and serve guests,” Target told Retail Info Systems. “And because our sortation center technology presorts and arranges packages for easy pickup, it reduces processing time for our delivery partners. As Target’s stores fulfill the bulk of online orders, our sortation centers have made this process even faster.”

According to the article, these sortation centers have increased the orders delivered the next day by over 150%. That number is expected to grow, as well as delivery volume, when the new sites are opened.

“In examining ways we could further increase our supply chain efficiencies, we’ve brought Target Last Mile Delivery — our lowest-cost delivery option — to all our sortation center facilities,” Target said. “Through Target Last Mile Delivery, we collaborate with our partners at Shipt, and drivers on the Shipt platform sign up to deliver batches of orders that have been sorted hyper-locally down to the neighborhood level.”

Target boasts sortation centers in six states, including Texas, Colorado and Georgia. The company recently opened some of the new sites in Chicago and Denver.

Gigs and gadgets

(Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

The AI era

Mark Zuckerberg announced a new large language model (LLM) that will be released through Meta, and all I can think about is that scene in the movie “The Emperor’s New Groove” when Yzma exclaims, “What? A llama?!” The model is called LLaMA, and CNBC reports it was created to help scientists and engineers research applications for AI, like answering questions and summarizing documents.

The world of AI is just beginning as big tech companies are all working to grow the technology. LLMs support the tech we’ve seen in headlines recently like ChatGPT and Bing AI.

“LLMs have shown a lot of promise in generating text, having conversations, summarizing written material and more complicated tasks, like solving math theorems or predicting protein structures,” Zuckerberg told CNBC.

This new LLM will be different from others, according to the CNBC article. It will come in different sizes, from smaller to larger forms that tend to cost more, though they allow for more advancement. Meta said it will also have a more public model available to the AI research community.

Check out the full article for examples of the system in action.

SONAR steals

(Source: FreightWaves SONAR)

This week we’re checking out the Outbound Tender Reject Index (OTRI) in Louisville, Kentucky. OTRI rates represent measurements of carriers’ willingness to accept the loads tendered to them by shippers under contract terms. OTRI is expressed as a percentage of loads rejected to total loads tendered.

Outbound tender rejection rates from Louisville surged 277 basis points week over week (w/w) from 6.31% on Feb. 16 to 9.08%

In spite of rising rejection rates, outbound tender volumes fell 3% during that same w/w period from 123.22 points Feb. 16 to 119.64. 

Rising overall rejections do not impact all lanes equally. The Louisville-to-Cincinnati lane saw the largest w/w rejection gain, rising 32.7% to 5.77%. Additionally, Louisville is an important automotive and air freight hub.

Is SONAR for you? Check it out with a demo!

Need to speak to the manager? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at sedwards@freightwaves.com.