Trending Now

Building a Resilient Supply Chain with Advanced Predictive…

New Articles

Construction Boom Keeps Global Hardboard Exports Solid

hardboard exports
Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Construction Boom Keeps Global Hardboard Exports Solid

Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘World – Hardboard – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

Global hardboard exports increased by +1.1% y-o-y to 3.6M cubic meters last year. Germany heads the list of the largest hardboard exporters worldwide, supplying 45% of its export volume to the U.S., France and Poland. In 2020, Brazil, Thailand, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Belgium and Canada recorded the most prominent export growth. 

Hardboard Exports by Country

In 2020, the amount of hardboard exported worldwide grew by +1.1% to 3.6M cubic meters. In value terms, hardboard exports accounted for $2B (IndexBox estimates) last year.

Germany (959K cubic meters), distantly followed by France (426K cubic meters), Belgium (398K cubic meters), and Poland (394K cubic meters) were the largest exporters of hardboard, together comprising 60% of total exports. The following exporters – China (140K cubic meters), Brazil (138K cubic meters), Russia (108K cubic meters), Belarus (103K cubic meters), Canada (92K cubic meters), Thailand (74K cubic meters), Turkey (68K cubic meters), Spain (67K cubic meters) and Romania (64K cubic meters) – together made up 24% of total exports.

In 2020, Brazil, Thailand, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Belgium and Canada displayed the highest paces of growth. Last year, Brazil emerged as the fastest-growing exporter worldwide. Russia experienced a relatively flat trend pattern. By contrast, France, Poland, Belarus and China illustrated a downward trend over the same period.

In value terms, Germany ($815M) remains the largest hardboard supplier worldwide, comprising 40% of global exports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by Poland ($239M), with a 12% share of global exports. It was followed by France, with a 7% share.

In 2020, the average hardboard export price amounted to $561 per cubic meter, waning by -1.9% against the previous year. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Turkey, while the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Major Markets for Hardboard Supplied from Germany

The U.S. (224K cubic meters), France (114K cubic meters) and Poland (90K cubic meters) were the main destinations of hardboard exports from Germany, together accounting for 45% of total exports. In 2020, the highest increase in supplied volume was in the U.S., while shipments for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, the U.S. ($191M) remains the key foreign market for hardboard exports from Germany, comprising 23% of total exports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by France ($94M), with a 12% share of total exports. It was followed by Poland, with a 7.4% share.

Source: IndexBox Platform

cultural
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

Covid-19 and the Future of Cultural Changes

Leave a comment

Success in the post-COVID world can be more effective when executives manifest themselves as change agents who reshape, and in some cases, manipulate corporate culture to better apply knowledge and create competitive advantage.

Building on the three aspects of corporate culture (collaboration, trust, and learning), companies can attempt to continuously innovate and create new and valuable services or products by applying new ideas and knowledge. This article is set in place to inspire executives to create effective cultural changes in order to meet and exceed the challenges of not only today but also what we see as the onset of new advances in the future. The practices mentioned in this article can represent a complete answer to the need for cultural changes in today’s global market environment.

What Corporate Culture Is

Corporate culture is reflected in shared assumptions, symbols, beliefs, values, and norms that specify how employees understand problems and appropriately react to them. Executives today are focusing on company culture. They can build an effective corporate culture to improve customer satisfaction through acquiring additional knowledge from customers, developing better relationships with them, and providing a higher quality of service for them. Company performance is determined through various aspects, such as customer satisfaction. And executives can positively affect company performance through increased customer satisfaction. Company performance is what every executive is concerned about. Thus, there is a global need to cultivate a strong corporate culture to accomplish sustainable competitiveness in global markets. This strong corporate culture includes the three aspects of collaboration, trust, and learning.

How Corporate Culture Works

These three cultural aspects play a critical role in improving innovation and enhancing the effectiveness of organizational knowledge management. For example, collaboration provides a shared understanding of the current issues and problems among employees, which helps to generate new ideas within organizations. Trust towards their leader’s decisions is also a necessary precursor to create new knowledge and improve company performance through increased quality of products and services. Moreover, the amount of time spent learning is positively related to the amount of knowledge gained, shared, and implemented, aiming at breaking through performance gaps in corporations.

Executives are highly involved in cultural change initiatives and, in particular, by creating more effective workplaces, developing people, and shifting organizations toward the creation of new services and products. Knowledge, in itself, is a by-product of culture, and culture’s role in guiding and facilitating people’s actions is the key to executive decision-making. Through an effective company culture, executives can contribute to new products and services to meet dynamic market needs, through higher expectations and stimulation for new and strategic opportunities to meet the expectations of strategic goals and the needs of customers in the marketplace. Executives can build this such company culture to serve the customer needs and become more profitable.

By influencing behavior and providing valuable resources, executives can change the culture of an organization. This new focus helps the organization develop a unique culture that is hard for the competition to duplicate. Executives can act as change agents who provide a more humanistic and applicable approach to create a great company culture. For example, executives can facilitate collaboration by developing relationships in organizations. An executive can contribute to the cultural aspect of trust by considering both employee’s individual interests and the company’s essential needs. Executives can also identify the individual needs of employees and develop a learning culture to generate new knowledge and share it with others. The next section particularly presents a set of actions that can be taken by executives to build an effective corporate culture within corporations.

How to Do It Right

Building a True Collaboration Culture

To build a collaboration culture, executives need to improve the degree to which employees actively support and provide significant contributions to each other in their work. In doing this, executives can take the following actions:

-Develop a collaborative work climate in which employees are satisfied by the degree of collaboration between departments

-Develop a collaborative work climate in which employees are supportive.

-Employees are helpful.

-Develop a collaborative work climate in which there is a willingness to accept responsibility for failure.

Creating a No-Fail Trust Culture

To create a trust culture, executives need to maintain the volume of reciprocal faith in terms of behaviors and intentions. In doing this, executives can take the following actions:

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees are generally trustworthy.

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees have reciprocal faith in other members’ intentions and behaviors.

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees have reciprocal faith in others’ ability.

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees have reciprocal faith in others’ behaviors to work toward organizational goals.

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees have reciprocal faith in others’ decision towards organizational interests than individual interests.

-Build an atmosphere of trust and openness in which employees have relationships based on reciprocal faith.

Cultivating a Successful Learning Culture

To foster a learning culture, executives need to enhance the extent to which learning is motivated within the workplace. In doing this, executives can take the following actions:

-Develop a learning workplace in which various formal training programs are provided to improve the performance of duties.

-Develop a learning workplace in which opportunities are provided for informal individual development other than formal training such as work assignments and job rotation.

-Develop a learning workplace in which there is an encouragement to attend external seminars, symposia, etc.

-Develop a learning workplace in which various social mechanisms such as clubs and community gatherings are provided.

-Develop a learning workplace in which employees are satisfied by the contents of job training or self-development programs.

In Conclusion

Now that we have identified that company culture has risen to a phenomenon that is worth understanding, learning, and using in organizations around the world.  This introduces a new and dynamic perspective of organizational culture and suggests that corporate culture constitutes the foundation of a supportive workplace to improve knowledge management performance. I indicate that corporate culture is a major internal resource for knowledge management success. Without a grasp on these two tenets executives are bound to fail in the post-COVID world.

truckers
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Trucking

DESPITE MANY CHALLENGES, TRUCKERS ARE KEEPING THE SUPPLY CHAIN MOVING. HERE IS HOW.

Leave a comment

Of all the lessons learned from the pandemic, the critical role of supply chain workers remains among the most significant. Simply put, without the people keeping things moving, the supply chain suffers. Truckers are among supply chain workers who represent industry resilience, ensuring deliveries and shipments are fulfilled before, during and after COVID-19. 

However, protecting truck drivers has become less of a thought and more of a formality in the new normal. We looked to Avi Geller, CEO and founder of Maven Machines, to give us an idea of exactly how truck drivers are handling the new logistics climate and what companies can do to further protect, support and retain their workers. 

“The pandemic has had a substantial impact on the trucking industry, requiring fleets to accelerate digital transformation efforts like the widespread adoption of data and AI-based technologies,” Geller said. “Increased demand since 2020, coupled with an ongoing driver shortage, has forced fleets to reevaluate processes, plans and current levels of efficiency. Route optimization and planning technology can automatically provide managers with the best possible plans by considering variables such as traffic, road quality and weather. As route optimization tech becomes more advanced, driver preferences and proficiencies can also be taken into account as variables in machine learning algorithms.”

Geller goes on to explain that in 2021, the stakes are higher than ever before. Companies no longer have room for error when it comes to compliance and transport conditions. And with the surge of demand in pharmaceutical transportation for the COVID vaccine, the transportation sector is under even more pressure to quickly deliver vaccines at accurate temperatures while keeping employees safe. Utilizing technology solutions to keep up with demand and meet shipment requirements will be a significant game-changer for many. 

“Companies must ensure that their drivers adhere to compliance mandates and delivery timelines,” Geller observes. “For instance, COVID-19 vaccines require super cold storage temperatures. Drivers carrying vaccines must follow the appropriate shipping protocols and reach their destinations on time to prevent costly disruptions to the super cold supply chain. More than ever, drivers are relying on fleet management software to increase productivity and using route optimization and workflow technologies to their advantage.”

If retaining drivers was not already an issue, recruiting qualified drivers continues to be a pain point for the trucking industry. And with COVID-19 now in the mix, fleet managers are seeing more of their drivers leaving and a shortage of talent to quickly replace them.

“The trucking industry’s largest challenge today is the shortage of qualified drivers,” Geller says. “We cannot afford to lose drivers, but more are leaving the field than we are able to replace. We need to continue to find ways to revitalize the driver workforce and encourage people to join the profession. The pandemic has only highlighted our dependency on these employees, who are some of the economy’s most essential workers.”

Geller reiterates the importance of providing drivers with an experience that stands out from competing sectors, including providing accommodative tech solutions to minimize redundancies and maintain driver safety as a priority instead of an afterthought.  

“To stop the driver attrition and attract more drivers, fleets must prioritize the driver experience—and the right technology can help them do so,” he says. “Route optimization, ELD, and fleet workflow software foster a safer, more productive work environment by providing drivers with the fastest routes, automating the most tedious tasks, ensuring compliance, and presenting stop-based forms and step-by-step workflows that help them progress smoothly through their assigned trips and ETAs. By better positioning drivers for success, fleets can improve driver satisfaction and give drivers opportunities to be rewarded with pay increases and safety bonuses, which could lead to increased driver recruitment and retainment.

Streamlining operations and communications in the new normal is simply not an option for companies that want to last. The phases of adaptation are behind us.”

Those companies that are left standing in 2021 must continue to advocate for workers while providing a competitive edge for customers through the effective use of technology and automation. Geller’s company, Maven Machines, puts drivers first with their specialized and tailored solutions that optimize operations starting at dispatch all the way through.

“Maven Machines provides fleets with solutions that increase efficiency and elevate their drivers’ work experiences,” he says. “Our solutions for dispatch, route planning, workflow, ELD and fleet management software facilitate driver and trip management while also meeting each fleet’s unique set of operational needs. By eliminating outdated legacy solutions and processes, we are helping to increase fleet success, including driver performance.”

Among the applications tailored specifically for drivers are large, color-coded buttons, alerts, document imaging tools and other utilities that drivers can rely on for communications. Geller states that this technology provides a safe, reliable way for drivers to focus on driving and still manage communications expectations.

“A streamlined messaging system for drivers to communicate with managers, along with other smart features and intuitive user interfaces, keeps drivers safe, on task and satisfied. The driver experience is important, and we’re proud to support drivers with our software.”

For every company, the customer comes first (after the workers, of course). It is important to ensure your solutions portfolio is flexible, adding to the customer experience instead of further complicating it. Maven Machine’s adaptable solution provides solutions for different customer requirements.

“Different customers require different processes, so our flexible Maven Workflow solution takes that into account and provides drivers with the right workflow for their stops and trips,” Geller says. “It is a game-changer in terms of driver productivity. Our dispatch and route optimization software provide drivers with the fastest and safest routes so that they can make more on-time pickups and deliveries. With Maven ELD, drivers use a simple mobile HOS app that allows for faster log editing, helps them reduce HOS violations, and ensures FMCSA compliance.”

In conclusion, providing a safe, reliable, and pleasant experience for drivers and customers is not a new concept. Some would argue that it has always been a priority while others claim it took the pandemic to bring back the saying that when you take care of the workers, they take care of business. 

____________________________________________________________________

Avi Geller is the founder and CEO of Maven Machines. Since 2014, he has led Maven’s growth as an IoT platform that serves the transportation industry through real-time, mobile cloud enterprise software. Avi originally hails from Palo Alto, California, but he started Maven in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due to the city’s impressive innovation and technology resources. Prior to founding Maven, he held international positions with SAP and contributed to the growth of several successful software companies and startups. Avi has an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Northwestern University.

titanium
Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Titanium Prices to Keep Elevated on Production Shortages and Rising Demand from the Paint and Aerospace Industries

Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘World – Titanium Ores and Concentrates – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

In the first half of 2021, prices for titanium and its derivatives shot up in response to rising demand and a drop in titanium mining last year, as well as titanium shaving stocks reduction. The rebound in the chemical and aerospace industries is a key driver for the rising demand for the metal. The potential use of titanium derivatives in alternative energy is set to stimulate further market expansion. Robust demand expectations are to keep prices elevated in the immediate term.

Key Trends and Insights

In 2021, the recovering demand from the downstream industries led to an increase in titanium prices. According to data from Asian Metal, the price for Chinese titanium sponge rose from a low of $6.9 per kg in July 2020 to $10.5 per kg in June 2021.

The prices of titanium scrap jumped in 2021 due to a drop in global stocks of shavings, a byproduct of aircraft manufacturing. According to IndexBox estimates, the average import price for titanium scrap increased from $2.9 per kg in January 2021 to $4.1 in April 2021. During this period, the import price for titanium dioxide increased from $2.6 to $3.2 per kg, while the import price for titanium fluctuated within the range of $11.3 – $14.7 per kg. Strong expectations of further market growth are expected to drive prices further in the medium term, at least until any new positive data on titanium mining will arrive.

According to IndexBox estimates based on USGS data, the global production of titanium ores and concentrates in 2020 decreased by 1.2% y-o-y to 13M tonnes. The 2020 lockdowns led to a drop in demand for titanium concentrates from stagnating chemical, metallurgical and aerospace industries. The pandemic-related mine closures were also a factor behind the production drop.

The growth in demand for titanium from the paint and varnish industries remains the main market driver. Titanium dioxide is one of the most sought-after pigments and fillers in the paint, coating and plastics industries. The demand for paints and varnishes is growing markedly due to the construction boom and the recovery of the automotive industry. The rising trend in the construction of super-large container ships will be relevant in the medium term and should sharpen the need for paints with titanium dioxide.

The reopening of air travel and water transport will increase the need for the renewal of aircraft fleets and will lead to a further increase in demand for titanium as it is the main metal used in their construction. One of the world’s largest airliner manufacturers, Airbus, has announced plans to expand production, expecting the demand for airliners to recover to pre-crisis levels within the next two years. According to quarterly reports for 2021, Boeing and Airbus increased aircraft deliveries in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2020, which indicates a recovery in demand.

The commercialization of technology for manufacturing semiconductor photocatalysts based on titanium dioxide, which are used for hydrogen fuel production, water and air purification, etc, may act as a new stimulus for the titanium market to develop. Industrial filters based on titanium dioxide neutralize organic gas emissions by converting them into carbon dioxide and water. This process could become a cheaper alternative to the traditional after-burning of factory off-gases. Titanium dioxide can be used in manufacturing solar cells and batteries. This technology could compete commercially with traditional silicon batteries if the efficiency of titanium dioxide batteries can be raised by up to 30%.

Global Titanium Ore Production by Country

In 2020, after two years of growth, there was a decline in the production of titanium ores and concentrates, when its volume decreased by -1.2% to 13M tonnes. In value terms, titanium ore and concentrate production shrank slightly to $7.8B in 2020 estimated in export prices.

The countries with the highest volumes of titanium ore and concentrate production in 2020 were China (4.2M tonnes), Canada (2.1M tonnes) and Mozambique (1M tonnes), with a combined 56% share of global production. These countries were followed by South Africa, Australia, Ukraine, Norway, Senegal, Madagascar, Kenya, South Korea, India and Viet Nam, which together accounted for a further 40%. Moreover, titanium ore and concentrate production in China exceeded the figures recorded by the world’s second-largest producer, Canada, twofold.

From 2012 to 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of titanium ore and concentrate production, amongst the leading producing countries, was attained by Senegal, while titanium ore and concentrate production for the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Global Titanium Ore Exports by Country

In 2020, shipments abroad of titanium ores and concentrates decreased by -20.3% to 3.1M tonnes, falling for the third year in a row after two years of growth. In value terms, titanium ore and concentrate exports fell to $1.3B (IndexBox estimates) in 2020.

In 2020, South Africa (724K tonnes), Ukraine (539K tonnes), Senegal (509K tonnes), Kenya (400K tonnes), South Korea (275K tonnes) and India (255K tonnes) represented the key exporter of titanium ores and concentrates in the world, achieving 86% of total export. It was distantly followed by Australia (152K tonnes), committing a 4.8% share of total exports. The U.S. (58K tonnes) took a little share of total exports.

In value terms, South Africa ($486M) remains the largest titanium ore and concentrate supplier worldwide, comprising 38% of global exports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by Kenya ($157M), with a 12% share of global exports. It was followed by Ukraine, with a 11% share.

In 2020, the average titanium ore and concentrate export price amounted to $408 per tonne, rising by 19% against the previous year. From 2012 to 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Kenya, while the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Source: IndexBox Platform

manufacturing
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

Tips to Grow your Manufacturing Business with a Help of a Blog

Leave a comment

Nowadays, blogs are proving very useful in growing any business. And the same adage holds true for manufacturing businesses. In fact, if you own a manufacturing business, there are several tips that could prove handy to grow it with the help of a superb blog.

Why Manufacturing Businesses Need a Blog

There are a few reasons why manufacturing businesses need a blog. Firstly, a manufacturing business isn’t like a retail one. In retail businesses, you’ll be mainly selling stuff directly to a consumer. For a manufacturing business, you’ll be selling to both, the direct end-user of the product or even to an intermediary party.

In such cases, a blog can prove very useful to grow the business because an intermediate party might not promote your products as much as you would prefer. And furthermore, a good blog for a manufacturing business can also popularize your products in today’s highly competitive market.

A blog is a superb resource for branding your business and letting people online know that you’re offering excellent products that they would love to use, regardless of whether they are Business-to-Business (B2B) customers or Business-to-Consumer (B2C) buyers.

Tips to Grow Your Manufacturing Business with a Blog

Therefore, here are some excellent tips on how to grow your manufacturing business with a blog. You can adapt these tips to meet your own needs for marketing and promoting your business and products according to their nature and target clientele.

Provide Excellent Content

It goes without saying that content is the king of the blog. Therefore, to attract more visitors to your blog, it would require compelling content that people find interesting, engaging, and relevant to their needs. Content is also called the king of any blog.

This would also help you with the digital marketing processes necessary to promote your blog and get it on top of the Google search engine result page. The better the content, the higher your chances of attracting buyers that translate as customers.

Superb Digital Marketing

While we’re on the topic of digital marketing, here are some tips to consider. Hire a good digital marketer, either as a freelancer or full-time employee to do various digital marketing processes on your blog. That would be useful to rank your blog in the topmost searches of Google. And getting on the top always attracts more attention since nobody usually looks for websites or blogs that appear on the second or third page of Google search results.

Digital marketing processes include Search Engine Optimization- both on-page and off-page, social media marketing, and email marketing, among others. A good digital marketer will be able to offer these services that can help your manufacturing business to have a strong online presence and create a superb brand through a blog and your business website.

Spread Out Through Social Media

As part of efforts to promote your blog for the manufacturing business, also open Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. That way, you can disseminate information about any new posts on your blog very quickly to your followers. And one of the best things about social media posts about your blog is that it would attract people to share your posts if they’re interesting.

Social media also provides you with an opportunity to interact with potential buyers or others that are interested in your manufacturing business and its products. These people can be your prospective customers. If you handle their queries and suggestions or comments carefully, you could convert them as buyers for your products.

Provide Affiliate Links

You can also provide affiliate links to your own products through your manufacturing business blog. That’s because some 90 percent of buyers trust blogs more than company websites and ads. And they read blogs in the initial stages of buying anything before placing an order. Therefore, a superb blog about your manufacturing business can help swing the decision in your favor.

When you provide affiliate links even to your own business website, you’re actually asking potential leads to take action immediately. Very often, this translates as instant sales for your products and helps your manufacturing business to grow.

Create an Email Marketing List

Generally, every blog has a contact form. And you can capture the names, locations, and email IDs of persons that comment on your blog through this contact form or comments section. Now, why would a person part with their email IDs? The answer is simple. They’ll give their email IDs only when your content is attractive, useful, and relevant to their needs.

And you can create an email list and use it for email marketing. If you find that any person comments, or contacts you, through the blog, you could convert them as customers by making special offers or asking your marketing team to approach these potential leads to secure business for your organization.

Speak About Your Industry

As a blogger for your manufacturing business, you can also provide news and views about the latest happenings in your industry in general. That keeps readers and other stakeholders in such businesses interested in your blog. And that’s also one way of increasing your business blog following. Speaking about your industry through news and news analysis also helps establish yourself and your manufacturing business as a formidable brand in the broader industry.

One more thing that occurs when you speak about the industry is that consumers know that you’re serious about your business. And generally, such consumers can translate as loyal customers too, provided you handle them appropriately. There’s always news and views about the industry and you can simplify these and inform your followers and customers through the blog for self-branding.

In Conclusion

These six tips could help your manufacturing business to grow steadily. Nowadays, a blog is a vital resource for every organization serious about doing business and serving its customers. Some of the largest brands in the world also have their own blogs. And you can open one too for your manufacturing business.

manufacturing
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Software

What Manufacturing Looks Like With (and Without) ERP Software

Leave a comment

If someone took a photo of the health of your manufacturing business, would it look like a “before” or “after” photo?

You’ve seen these kinds of pictures in weight-loss advertisements. In the before photo, an obviously overweight person looks tired, flabby, and woefully out of shape. In the after photo, the person exudes the model of good health – lean, fit, and full of energy. In the manufacturing industry, companies without ERP generally look like the before photo. Those that use ERP to run the business typically look like the after photo.

How Does ERP Turn an Overweight, Inefficient Manufacturing Business into a Lean, Fit, and Supercharged Manufacturing Machine?

Simply put, ERP provides a complete solution for what ails your manufacturing business. Created to efficiently run the entire organization from quote to cash, it touches all critical aspects of the business, allowing you to manage everything from one central location.

The power of ERP lies in its ability to provide the data you need to make smart decisions for your business. When you know what’s happening in every corner of your shop, everything gets better. People and processes become more efficient and productive. Communication between departments improves. Costs and waste go down while sales, margins and product quality go up. You can promise due dates to customers with confidence. On-time delivery becomes a way of life.

At Global Shop Solutions, our motto is “ your ERP software helps you deliver a quality product on time every time.” Our goal is for Global Shop Solutions ERP software to become the most valuable asset at your business. This short video clip provides a brief introduction to how can ERP help you attain that goal.

Manufacturing Before ERP

Manufacturing without ERP generally looks like a mess. Some of the top signs of an unhealthy manufacturing business include:

DATA CAN’T BE TRUSTED.

Manufacturing companies without ERP generally use volumes of paper documents and spreadsheets to manage production. What software they do use consists of disparate programs that can’t communicate with each other. This creates a system rife with manual errors, and inaccurate, outdated information. When you can’t trust the data guesswork prevails, and often leads to low-quality decisions.

HIT OR MISS SCHEDULING.

With no true accounting of labor and machine capacity, rough estimations drive the scheduling process. Manual scheduling can take days to complete. Making changes to jobs in progress becomes a nightmare of complexity and uncertainty. All of which result in missed due dates and dissatisfied customers. It’s no wonder many manufacturers rank scheduling as the most stressful job in the business.

INACCURATE JOB COSTING.

Few manufacturing tasks are more important than precise job costing. Without ERP, few tasks are more difficult. Manual time
sheets often contain errors. Incorrect inventory counts make it
hard to identify true material costs. Lack of real-time data makes
job costing historical rather than current. Estimating and quoting
frequently miss the mark due to imprecise and unreliable data. Not a good recipe for knowing your true costs.

INCORRECT WORK ORDERS AND ROUTERS.

In a “before” ERP environment, work order and routing information often consists of tribal knowledge that resides in the heads of a few people. Jobs often start late because the work orders and routers don’t get to the shop floor on time. Large, complex work orders can take days or weeks to construct. Human error causes shop floor mistakes that lead to costly rework and missed due dates.

POOR INVENTORY MANAGEMENT.

Manual inventory management creates a drag on virtually every aspect of production. Parts and materials get lost or misplaced. Purchasing often buys too much or too little due to imprecise inventory data. Poorly designed number structures can result in duplicate inventory. Material shortages cause jobs to start late and lead to expedited shipping costs. Inventory carrying costs go up, on-time delivery goes down, and nobody is happy about it.

INEFFICIENT MATERIAL MOVEMENT.

Inaccurate inventory is a major cause of shop floor bottlenecks. Manually tracking material movements with handwritten bin cards makes getting the right parts to the right jobs even more difficult. Bin cards get lost. Material movers sometimes forget to record their transactions. Incorrect part numbers deliver the wrong part to the job. Inventory counts for a part or material may not get updated for days after a transaction.

FINANCIAL DISCONNECT.

When the finance function doesn’t reside in an ERP system, it must produce the financial reporting with a different system – a slow, cumbersome, and inefficient process. The lack of integration with production makes the data historical rather than real-time. The numbers become out of date as soon as the next transaction occurs. Manual data entry inevitably results in human error and can take days or weeks to close the books at the end of the month.

EXCESS PURCHASING COSTS.

When the purchasing function can’t communicate with inventory, buyers often don’t know when to order parts, how many, or how much to pay. Incorrect inventory counts can cause overbuying to avoid potential part stockouts. Researching vendors for the best price and delivery times can take hours. Purchasing inefficiencies cause material costs to go up while inventory accuracy goes down.

LOW PRODUCT QUALITY.

Without ERP, quality control is a historical rather than in-the-moment process. Incorrect part numbers on work orders or routers can result in production errors. Manual scrap counts tend to be
unreliable. Jobs often continue after engineers issue a stop order because some people don’t receive the notification. All of which leads to rework, increased job costs, and dissatisfied customers.

DOUBLE DATA ENTRY.

Without ERP, customer specs, drawings, engineering documents, bills of materials (BOMs) and other job data typically require double manual entry – once by the customer and once on your end. This time-consuming process invites human error that increases labor costs and leads to mistakes on the job. The inability to integrate with CAD/CAM, nesting, and other software programs increases the time and cost required to set up and complete jobs.

With a reliable ERP software, none of the above need to happen
in your business.

Manufacturing After ERP

What does the after ERP photo look like? Generally speaking, companies that implement or convert to an ERP system with a reputation for quality and service will experience many of the following improvements.

ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH.

Imagine being able to trust the data you collect. Not just some of it, but all of it – including production schedules and promised due dates. ERP makes it happen by tracking, organizing and providing quick access to information you can count on to be accurate and up to date. Manual spreadsheets, redundant processes, and stand-alone silos of information disappear as you discover what your business can achieve with data you can trust.

FULLY INTEGRATED SCHEDULING.

The toughest job in the plant becomes far less stressful with ERP. Instantly identify your true labor and resource capacities. Engage in “what-if” scenario planning to see how potential schedule changes will affect other jobs. Use finite and infinite scheduling to make long-term scheduling decisions. When you get the schedule right, shop floor personnel always know what to be working on now and what to work on next.

PRECISE JOB COSTING.

ERP gives you certainty in your job costing by providing detailed cost breakdowns for inventory, jobs sequences and cost of goods
sold. It tracks every cost that goes into a project – from labor and parts to setup times, tool and equipment usage, indirect labor,
outside work, and more – with remarkable precision. Estimate
and quoting become more accurate. Cost overruns are easy to spot. Comparing actual to estimate becomes a powerful tool for identifying problems and areas for improvement. When a job is finished you know the total cost down to the penny.

ACCURATE WORK ORDERS AND ROUTERS.

Work orders act as the architectural blueprint for each job; routers provide the road map to get there. ERP electronically sends these critical documents to the shop floor, ensuring the correct versions get there on time, every time. Large, complex routers and BOMs can be built in a few hours rather than days or weeks. Work orders and routers become trusted tools that speed the production process rather than causing bottlenecks.

DIGITAL INVENTORY MANAGEMENT.

Accurate inventory injects a new level of speed and efficiency into the entire production process. With a few clicks of a mouse you can see how much of a part or material you have on hand, where it is, how much is already allocated to jobs, and when ordered parts will arrive. In short, everything you need to know to accept a due date or get a job started on time. Cycle times become simple to track. Physical counts often take hours rather than days or weeks. Inventory stockouts become a thing of the past.

MOBILE MATERIAL MOVEMENT.

ERP transforms material movement by seamlessly aligning with mobile technology. Using handheld scanners and mobile devices, part movers can make material transactions from anywhere on the shop floor. Every transaction is instantly recorded in inventory, keeping the location and number of parts always up to date. Movers no longer waste hours looking for misplaced inventory, and the right materials get to the right jobs when operators need them.

PURCHASING AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.

ERP purchasing consolidates all work order and inventory data so you can make smart purchasing decisions. Purchases can be automated, giving buyers time to research vendors and negotiate better deals. Buyers can forecast future purchases based on customer history. The system even identifies when new purchasing actions are required due to job changes. ERP purchasing does all this and more – all from one screen.

REAL-TIME QUALITY.

ERP provides a robust array of tracking, statistical analysis, and reporting tools, including complete traceability of every part that moves through the shop floor. Live production data lets you measure quality by part, employee, machine, defect code and other criteria. The system automatically alerts you to non-conforming parts while jobs are in progress. Producing documentation for ISO and other quality certifications can be accomplished in minutes. When you hold employees accountable for their scrap, the cost of quality declines.

THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE INTERFACES.

Electronic Data Integration (EDI), nesting and other software interfaces allow your ERP system to seamlessly exchange information with third-party software programs. This eliminates the need for duplicate data entry on the receiving end and prevents double entry mistakes. CAD/CAM interfaces save hours of high-cost engineer time by directly importing CAD/CAM drawings and data in digital format. Nesting interfaces send designs directly to cutting machines to optimize material usage. Payroll interfaces automatically send hours, pay rates, and other data to your payroll vendor for rapid processing. The possibilities for how much time, money and effort integrations and interfaces can save you are endless.

Get Lean and Fit with ERP

Manufacturing is a complex process, no matter what products you make or what processes you use. ERP simplifies manufacturing by providing real-time data visibility at every step of the production process. Knowing what you need to know to eliminate waste, reduce costs, and get quality parts out the door on time every is only a few mouse clicks or keystrokes away, whenever you need it.

Wondering How Your Business Is Doing Overall?

Take the 10-minute Manufacturing Health Test to see how you compare against other manufacturers. Then call us at 1.800.364.5958 start turning your business photo from a before to an after.

____________________________________________________________________

Mike Melzer serves as VP of Service & Operations for Global Shop
Solutions and is a 20-year veteran of the company. As a graduate from The Colorado School of Mines, Melzer is an unparalleled leader helping the best manufacturers use their ERP software to make their shops leaner and more efficient.

To learn more about What Manufacturing Looks Like With (and Without) ERP Software, call 1.800.364.5958 or visit www.globalshopsolutions.com.

lactose
Archives, Global Trade Daily, Imports/Exports, News

The U.S. Lactose Export Prices Soar

Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘U.S. – Lactose And Lactose Syrup – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

The U.S. remains the leading supplier of lactose and lactose syrup with a 36%-share in global exports. While the volume of lactose shipments from the U.S. was almost unchanged from the previous year, exports in value terms jumped by 8% to $396, as the average exports price has significantly risen. Despite the trade tensions, China remains the key importer of lactose from the U.S., followed by New Zealand and Japan.

Exports from the U.S. by Country

The U.S. remains the largest exporter of lactose and lactose syrup worldwide, accounting for 36% of the global exports. In 2020, lactose exports from the U.S. fell modestly to 379K tonnes, standing approx. at the year before. In value terms, lactose exports expanded rapidly by +8.2% to $396M (IndexBox estimates) in 2020.

In 2020, the average lactose export price amounted to $1,045 per tonne, with an increase of +8.3% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices for the major export markets. In 2020, the country with the highest price was Canada ($1,314 per tonne), while the average price for exports to Viet Nam ($857 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was recorded for supplies to Viet Nam, while the prices for the other major destinations experienced more modest paces of growth.

China (69K tonnes), New Zealand (46K tonnes) and Japan (42K tonnes) were the main destinations of lactose exports from the U.S., together comprising 41% of total exports. Mexico, Indonesia, Viet Nam, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Canada and Brazil lagged somewhat behind, together accounting for a further 46%.

In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of shipments, amongst the main countries of destination, was attained by Thailand, while exports for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, China ($74M), New Zealand ($48M) and Japan ($41M) were the largest markets for lactose exported from the U.S. worldwide, together accounting for 41% of total exports. Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, India, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Thailand, Singapore, Canada and Brazil lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 44%.

Source: IndexBox Platform

shipping costs
Archives, Global Trade Daily, Ocean Ports

Why Do Global Shipping Costs Continue to Skyrocket?

Leave a comment

Global shipping costs are reaching rarely seen levels, putting strain on logistics teams and product purchasers alike. Here’s a closer look at some of the reasons for this phenomenon.

Worsening Container Delays Create Bidding Wars

Port backups were among the issues of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, they persist now, limiting the number of containers each port can efficiently accommodate. Relatedly, the shipping customers outpace the available space in each container. That problem makes prices rise so high that some entities lose out because they cannot afford to pay them.

Port Backups Cause Headaches

Some port backups are so severe that ships arrive unable to dock. That’s an ongoing situation at Washington State ports in Tacoma and Seattle. U.S. Coast Guard representatives helped redirect some vessels as they waited days or weeks to unload. Some ended up in unusual locations, such as off the Puget Sound. The offloading delays also cause a container shortage that affects new freight.

HMM, South Korea’s top national container carrier, recently reported severe vessel berthing congestion at most of its port calls, as well as related yard and gate issues. Other providers reported similar disruptions. However, the affected parties disagree about what’s to blame. The carriers often assert that ports are not sufficiently well-managed, which causes the delays. But port managers respond that carriers have not met their berthing window requirements.

Bids Can Reach the Tens of Thousands of Dollars

In any case, these slowdowns have made it exceptionally challenging to keep goods moving. Desperation makes some parties engage in bidding wars.

Philip Damas, head of the supply chain advisors practice at Drewry, a maritime research consultancy, explained, “Everyone is spending much longer on round trips. Containers are sitting on the water for much longer periods of time, containers are waiting at ports for much longer. Productivity in container shipping is deteriorating. Every failure is effectively creating ripple effects. It’s a vicious cycle.”

He continued by clarifying that freight indexes that track the changes in shipping costs usually gather the associated spot booking prices that get offered about a week before a ship departs. However, some ocean carriers offer available slots in shorter timeframes once the vessels are already at terminals. By then, there are plenty of customers eager to get goods on board at the last minute.

“Now everything is overbooked,” Damas said. “Shippers are desperate to book tomorrow. It’s more a bidding war than it is a traditional tariff, and this bidding war is accelerating. Some of these $23,000, $24,000 prices include the inland distribution cost, and that can easily add far more to the final cost.”

A combination of factors means many shippers decide there’s no choice but to pay those high prices. One longstanding issue is that carriers have cut capacity on major routes. Plus, the container shortage caused by backups escalates the problem. Shippers often realize they have to pay higher prices or leave the overseas markets.

Increased Demand From Customers Exacerbates the Issue

Company leaders usually appreciate when their products are in high demand, but the matter becomes more complicated when shipping costs are so high. In such cases, it’s necessary to either invest massive amounts of money to alleviate the shipping struggles or face lengthy delays that could upset customers.

For example, Amazon manages its own logistics system with extraordinary efficiency. However, that decision means building huge distribution centers as close as possible to the people who place orders. The company even began purchasing jets in early 2021 to exert more control over its air shipping options. However, most other brands don’t have such gigantic resources. Plus, the strategy may not pay off forever.

In the second quarter of 2020, Amazon showed a 68% increase in money spent on shipping. The e-commerce giant has yet to raise shipping costs for consumers, but other brands have already taken that approach. The rise in global shipping costs could even cause long-term stock shortages.

A Luggage Brand Goes to Great Lengths to Receive Goods

In one case, a global luggage company usually receives 11 container deliveries annually by August. That scheduling gets the goods to the merchant in time for the holidays. But, this year, it has only received three of the 11 so far, and not without significant expense.

The company normally pays $2,500 per 40-foot container. But representatives got an offer from an entity promising to get the container onto a ship in Thailand for $15,000. However, people at the company had to first get the goods to the vessel from Myanmar — a challenge in itself due to a trucking shortage affecting Asia. The brand eventually secured the necessary trucking assistance for $3,000.

In the end, the brand paid $18,000 to have its goods shipped. This example shows how much the global shipping crisis can quickly eat into profits. Another downside is that the container’s goods had a $30,000 value, so sending them cost more than half that amount.

The company reported that consumer demand was up, which is usually a positive thing. It’s probably in large part because of how people are starting to travel for pleasure more with the air travel industry beginning to recover and offer more routes.

Fewer Overall Affordable and Available Transport Options

A lack of choices to move goods also contributes to soaring global shipping costs. Some parties may get their products shipped by train and air when possible, but capacity limits exist there, too. The rush to get goods shipped causes a crunch that requires scrambling for any available slots offered via any kind of transit. Plus, air shipments are much costlier than those sent by sea, with some estimates saying that method is at least five times more expensive.

Severe weather can wreak havoc, too. In July 2021, a typhoon hit China and closed the country’s air, sea, and rail hubs. Earlier in the year, snowstorms forced some rail freight operators to temporarily cease running some routes. These challenges mean some customers decide they must cope with the tremendous shipping costs because there aren’t many other viable options.

Some brands are also trying to cope with delays within the supply chain by making up time at other points. One way to do that is with drones. Supermarket chain Tesco carried out a trial where some customers in Ireland received grocery orders only 200 seconds after the goods departed the store property.

In another instance, DHL partnered with a cargo drone company. The agreement involves using and managing several thousand drones to give customers same-day deliveries. Drone deliveries are not yet widespread options. However, they could become more popular, particularly as shipping professionals look for feasible ways to cut costs while keeping customers happy.

No Short-Term Price Easing

Analysts believe the global shipping costs will not return to more manageable levels during 2021. There are certainly not any quick fixes to the problem. Thus, the parties affected by it must decide on the most appropriate ways to deal with it, even if that means accepting astronomical prices or restructuring supply chains to avoid long-distance shipments as much as possible.

_____________________________________________________________

Emily Newton is an industrial journalist. As Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized, she regularly covers how technology is changing the industry.

warehousing
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Warehousing

The Future of Warehousing

Leave a comment

In September of 2018, Forbes Insights published a survey of 400 senior haulage executives. They reported that more than two-thirds of the respondents believed seismic changes had to occur within the logistics sector, otherwise its warehouses would risk not being able to facilitate the growing demand for freight delivery.

Three years and a global pandemic later, and demand for warehouses is higher than ever. So how has the industry endured this tumultuous period? The simple answer is greater investment in technology! Innovators within warehousing have continued to incorporate intuitive software into their models to cut costs, speed up delivery time and improve efficiency.

With this trend of incorporating technologies into the haulage sector only set to continue, the mind boggles at what warehouses could be capable of in the future. To that end let’s unravel the warehouse innovations set to be introduced in the coming years and what the biggest names are doing today to ensure they won’t be left behind.

Warehousing the Amazon way

We would be remiss not to mention Amazon in a discussion about the future of warehousing. After all, their network accounts for over 150 million square feet of warehouse space across the globe.

The company has, since its emergence in the ‘90s, being trailblazers for cutting-edge warehousing models. In the mid-2000s they popularized fulfillment centers whereby sellers could leverage the vast network of warehouses Amazon had to store, pack and ship their customer’s orders for the same standardized fee – no matter where an item was being sent.

Since then, many warehouses have attempted to adopt something similar to the Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) program and offer to not only store their client’s products but package and deliver them as well. However, none have been able to even rival the FBA. Namely because of one very appealing benefit that FBA offers sellers: Prime eligibility.

This legacy of advancement was further solidified by the recent announcement that Amazon was opening its first robotics fulfillment center in Alberta, Canada. The automated warehouse, slated to open in 2022, is the result of almost a decade-long investment.

In 2012, Amazon purchased robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million which gave them ownership of a new fleet of mobile robots which were capable of carrying shelves of products from worker to worker and intuitively navigate a warehouse according to barcodes on the floor. Like the FBA program, it’s expected that many warehouses will use Amazon as inspiration and invest in some form of robotics to aid with automation.

Automation for all

As Amazon recognized, automation is the silver bullet when it comes to boosting a warehouse’s operations. Having a workforce that never tires, runs 24/7, and provides a near-perfect output is invaluable. It’s likely that every stage of warehouse infrastructures will have some form of automation in the next few years if they haven’t already.

Drones are expected to have a significant role in the future of warehousing, specifically in aiding inventory control. MIT conducted research in 2017 where they programmed drones to fly above a warehouse floor to read RFID tags from more than ten meters away. The study was a success with the drones only having a 19cm margin of error.

There are currently some safety concerns delaying the immediate integration of drones in warehousing but the continual developments of the technology suggest that we’re not too far away from seeing them introduced.

Automated conveyors and sortation systems have been staples of warehouse infrastructures for decades, now experts are predicting that a third system will become part of every warehouse’s arsenal. The ARC advisory group’s warehouse automation and AS/RS research forecasts that the shuttle systems market is going to grow exponentially.

For context, a warehouse shuttle system is a mobile cart that transports items in pallet racking. It replaces the need for an operative to use a forklift to retrieve stock totes, trays, or cases in a storage buffer. The system, which is also being touted as an essential by various trade groups, provides warehouses with high throughput, scalability, and storage density.

Considering that repetitive tasks can be mechanized fairly easily, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited for what other types of automation could be introduced into warehouse infrastructures and the benefits that they will no doubt yield.

Big Data & AI

Big data and machine learning have revolutionized many industries since their proliferation in the early 2000s and it’s expected to do the same to warehousing.

Order and inventory accuracy, as well as fulfillment time, are all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that could be improved through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI can also evaluate more general drivers that may affect a warehouse’s overall performance including safety, facility damages, and employee productivity. Using this aggregated data AI is able to start automating tasks, collecting the necessary information, and making decisions on its own.

Some industry leaders have already made the transition and began using AI. For example, Alibaba recently fully automated its stocking and shipping warehouses in China by using robots controlled by a sophisticated machine learning algorithm.

Further down the line, many experts believe that more advanced metrics will come into play as well, such as predictive analytics which will give operators a helping hand when it comes to forecasting and drive smarter decision making in the warehouse’s overall operations. Predictive analytics will help with evaluating demand for warehouse space, planning inventory location, responding to supply chain issues, and reducing risks associated with more complex supplier networks.

It’s clear to see that the prospects for warehousing in the near future are bright with plenty of exciting technology currently in use and on the horizon. The industry’s willingness to constantly evolve is truly admirable, with interest in big data, automation, innovative models, and AI at an all-time high. We should all be very excited about the future of warehousing.

electronics
Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Consumer Electronics Market Revenue to Hit $1500 Bn by 2027

Leave a comment

Consumer electronics market size is estimated to exceed USD 1.5 trillion by 2027, according to a new report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Amid the tremendous shifts in the technological domain, consumer electronics companies across the globe are focusing on introducing new and attractive features to the widely used devices like smartphones, laptops, computers, cameras, televisions, speakers, etc. It has become more important than ever for the companies operating in the consumer electronics market to seek new ways to innovate their products to reach a large consumer base.

The industry has embraced disruptive technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning which in turn is impelling the application of consumer electronics. In addition to this, the proliferation of wireless technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi is further supporting product adoption, subsequently leading to industrial growth.

Following pivotal trends:

Innovative product launches by market players

Manufacturers active in the consumer electronics industry are mainly focusing on product innovations in order to gain a competitive edge which itself is paving way for enormous growth opportunities for the market. Quoting an instance, in 2021, Canon revealed its plans to roll out the XF505 video camera later in 2021. According to the company, this camera will be equipped with a variety of features including an integrated zoom lens with 15x zoom, one-inch image sensors, and intelligent battery system BP-A batteries.

The growing popularity of audio and video equipment

With the emergence of multimedia and incorporation of various smart technologies, audio and video equipment such as televisions, digital cameras, speakers, players, remote controls, headsets, etc., are gaining massive traction across the globe. Speaking of television, its technology landscape has enormously transformed in recent years with the advent of smart TVs. These TVs are generally equipped with a wide range of exciting features like browsing the web and social media, online streaming, smartphone connectivity, motion control, voice control, games, and applications. Growing consumer preference for such devices coupled with increased spending capacity is impelling their demand to a great extent.

Increasing demand for household appliances

Significant growth in the residential sector globally, in conjunction with increasing disposable incomes, has strongly influenced the demand for small household appliances such as microwave ovens and mixers. Other kitchen appliances such as dishwashers and smart coffee makers are also witnessing a mounting demand on account of changing lifestyles in urban areas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, exports of household and kitchen appliances in the U.S. increased to USD 603 million in May from USD 602.44 million in April 2021.

A strong presence of major technology companies in North America

The outlook of the consumer electronics industry in North America has been bolstered by the heightened demand for smart household appliances and mainly by the strong presence of major technology companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and General Electric. These companies are involved in rigorous R&D and are making hefty investments for the same. To illustrate, credible sources have reported that tech giant Apple Inc is working on a new product line that combines Apple TV set-top box and a HomePod speaker as well as a camera for video conferencing. This product is expected to be one of the most powerful smart home devices by the company.

Source: Global Market Insights, Inc