Supply Chain

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing market, upskilling, re-skilling, and retention have become critical factors in workforce development and talent management. As we see constant technological advancements and automation redefine industries and job roles, the need for organizations and employees to adapt and flourish has become more important than ever. Our Supply Chain Peer Group meeting on April 18th discussed this topic in-depth, where participants heard field experts share their thoughts on priorities and approaches to this upcoming necessity.

There is a lot of uncertainty lately for Logistics professionals when it comes to forecasting the cost of moving freight and how to best optimize your network. During the November 3rd UWEBC Logistics and Distribution Peer Group meeting, business professionals gathered to learn from UWEBC member company Schneider, what industry analysts are seeing in the transportation industry as we head into 2023 and share insights and trends with other UWEBC members.

Our July 14th IT and Supply Chain peer group meeting discussed the prevalent topic of Supply Chain Analytics. More specifically, the group learned how to aggregate and use data analytics. Participants heard from highly qualified speakers on how to use analytics in a beneficial way to help optimize supply chain performance.

Our May 17th Logistics and Distribution Peer Group meeting discussed priorities and different approaches to help leaders upskill their teams, which can be used in supply chain management as well as other areas across the company. Skills have become “the new talent currency” across all industries. Now more than ever, organizations of all sizes are seeing a need to improve and refine the skills of their workforce in order to keep up with the rapid pace of change.

Our January 20th Supply Chain Management Peer Group meeting addressed various ways for balancing cost vs flow and the tradeoffs to consider during this period of change and recovery. Cost, time, and quality are all important to consider, especially because strength in one may require a compromise in another. A company must make key tradeoffs to balance the three in a way that’s optimal for meeting the company’s needs.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic’s beginning in 2020, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of remote work. In the August 19th Customer Service Peer Group web meeting, we discussed both the benefits and challenges of remote customer care, as well as what the future holds for remote work in this field.

Learning how to communicate the strategic value of your trade compliance group with executives at your organization is a unique and complicated task to undertake. In the July 13th Trade Compliance Special Interest Group Web Meeting, we discussed ways to ease this task using leadership sponsors, clear communication, and quantifiable metrics, all to emphasize the importance of trade compliance.