In the “Mitigating the Impact of the Coronavirus on Supply Chains with Machine Learning and Real-Time Visibility” blog post earlier this month, we shared how our data science team is busy feeding data into Blue Yonder’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven control tower to help visualize and predict current and future impacts of COVID-19. As the pandemic…
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During times of distress, nothing brings comfort like returning to basics and simplicity. As the impacts of the COVID-19 continue to evolve, consumers are faced with unprecedented disruptions to these basics while retailers are scrambling to understand impacts on their supply chain. The one constant, though, in all the chaos: retailers remain focused on servicing customers and keeping their employees working.
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Thursday, March 12, 2020 was my last day of normal. We had family friends in from California and we enjoyed several Spring Training games (Go A’s/Go Giants), big family meals with a lot of laughter by the firepit. Going to the store for household essential and food was a hassle but surely nothing to even…
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Softline retailers have been battling store closures and traffic declines in malls for several years. They have made moves to shift toward experiential retailers. They have deployed omni-channel capabilities like buy online pickup in store (BOPIS) and buy online return in store (BORIS) to drive traffic and deliver a seamless experience for customers. Ultimately, softline retailers were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel… until COVID-19 coronavirus arrived.
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From the outside, it does seem like things are beyond control. Food/grocery retailers are seeing unprecedented demand for many items, most notably paper, and sanitizing products, canned goods, and products with a longer shelf life. But what are we seeing? If we step back and look at it from the inside, i.e., the overall supply chain, things begin to make more sense. After all, are people using more toilet paper, or eating three times as much food than they normally do? It’s not about the shortage, it’s about how quickly retailers can stock shelves when masses of people clear them out far quicker than average.
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A recent McKinsey & Company “COVID-19: Briefing Note”1 highlighted end-to-end supply chain actions to consider in the response to COVID-19 (slide 24). It only served to underscore Blue Yonder’s mission in supporting our supply chain customers and helping them ensure that supplies and products get to the people who need them, on time.
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As with hand washing, what might be deemed standard needs to be reevaluated for quality in your forecasts. Even if you are not consistently managing your exceptions and tuning your forecasts right now, these critical set of steps will ensure the cleanliness and usefulness of your demand forecasts for the next week, month and year ahead.
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We sit amid a climate that is unimaginable and changing by the day with the COVID-19 outbreak. Here at Blue Yonder, like at many companies around the world, we have shifted the majority of the workforce to working from home as we look to protect associates and help stop the spread of the virus. As…
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Recently, while attempting to leave San Francisco International Airport, I found myself halted by the CAFEX coffee-making robot. Its glistening white arms moved with surprisingly organic fluidity, even attempting to gently swirl the cup’s contents. Instantly, I found myself in an internal social debate, “Is this the end of the cheery barista?” But my concern for my…
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In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, Mark Nordick, senior vice president, customer success at Blue Yonder, writes about the most impactful woman in his life and the lessons he’s learned and applied to his life and career. I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and spent the first 14 years of my life…
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