All articles by Jonathan Ward
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FeatureWhy all eyes are on Israel for AI
In the race to perfect autonomous driving, Israel has proven to be a hotspot of technological innovation – driven, in part, by its military expertise and surveillance tools
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FeatureThe long way home
For inbound automotive supply chains, returnable packaging just makes sense. No carmaker wants to spend money on wood, paper and cardboard again and again, only to have to fork out straight away for costly waste disposal.
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FeatureNavigating uncharted waters
At 04.00 on June 26 last year, Jim Hagemann Snabe, chairman of AP Moller-Maersk, was woken by a phone call from his office. That’s when he learned that the global shipping giant had fallen victim to a cyber-attack. Over the next few hours, the true severity of the incident became ...
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FeatureRising inventory: Stock lots
In any retail business, inventory management is a delicate balancing act. Hold too little and frustrated customers will be forced to shop elsewhere; but piling stock on your shelves puts a strain on working capital and if what you bought isn’t what customers want, you have little choice but to ...
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FeatureContinental Automotive: Systems, staff and supply chain excellence
Continental can trace its roots in the transport sector back to 1871, with the founding of a rubber products factory in Hanover, Germany. Among the original products of the Continental Caoutchouc und Gutta Percha Compagnie were solid rubber tyres for carriages and bicycles. By 1892, the company had expanded into ...
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FeatureA supplier renaissance
At the tail end of the 20th century, the automotive supply sector was a tough business to be in. The world’s carmakers had long since decided that the sprawling, vertically integrated manufacturing models of the past should be abandoned. Major OEMs spun out their component divisions as separate entities, narrowing ...
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FeatureOnline vehicle sales: ACES high as dealers face a new game
Once upon a time, interaction between carmakers and their customers happened in one place: the dealership. Dealer showrooms were where customers learned about products, chose a car and parted with their cash. Once a customer took possession of the vehicle, he was likely to return to the dealer for service ...
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FeatureEV supply chains: Shifting currents
Mass-market electric vehicles are coming. Global plug-in sales grew 42% in 2016, reaching to 773,600 units.Today, electric vehicles account for only about 0.1% of the global vehicle stock and less than 1% of sales; volume growth in SUVs and trucks, while lower in percentage terms, has had a bigger impact ...
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FeatureAdvanced analytics: Boiling down the benefits of big data
In a data-rich world, could advanced analytical techniques be the key to higher performance in the automotive supply chain? In this story... Automatic recommendations A multiple approach to data Making analytics workPlace an order with a major online retailer and you will probably be offered a range of recommended purchases. ...
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FeatureBrexit and shipping: Playing a game of wait and sea
A country’s ports and the shipping lines that serve them are at the front line of fluctuations in international trade. So is the UK sector bracing itself for a Brexit-induced storm? The past two years have been busy ones for any company involved in the import or export of vehicles ...
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FeatureInventory inversed
Changes in technology, economics and attitudes are driving a resurgence of interest in vendor managed inventory programmes among automotive manufacturersProduction lines need availability, not inventory. Manufacturers’ primary concern is that each individual part is a good one and that it is ready by the line when the assembly robot or ...
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FeatureMore than a name to change...
What do automotive companies mean by ‘logistics’ and ‘supply chain’? Automotive Logistics looks at whether OEM and supplier organisations reflect the sector’s changing demands and technologyThe logic is clear: it doesn’t matter how efficient your factories and delivery networks are if they are churning out products nobody wants to buy. ...
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FeatureOnline marketplace: Control-alt-compete
Online marketplaces have transformed the way consumers find, choose and buy many products and services. Could they realistically do the same for automotive logistics?Disintermediation was one of the uglier words to emerge from the turn-of-the-century ‘dot com’ boom (and bust), but the idea was a compelling one: internet technologies would ...
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Trying to tie down demand
Forecasting matters for any organisation juggling costs and service levels, but in the finished vehicle sector, the stakes are higher than mostGenerally speaking, it is easier to be prepared if you know what’s coming. Reliable demand forecasts help participants throughout the supply chain to ensure they have the materials, equipment, ...
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FeatureCutting out the paper trail
Digital information is faster, more accurate and more useful, so why is there still so much paper in the automotive supply chain?Almost all companies now have some kind of digital infrastructure underpinning their processes, but can any automotive logistics operations be said to be truly paperless?Perhaps the most notable recent ...
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FeatureTo protect and serve
The conflicting demands of part protection, transport efficiency and line-side access often require innovative solutions from packaging designersCarmakers and their suppliers increasingly recognise the importance of getting inbound packaging right, to boost quality by eliminating transit damage, save costs by allowing more components to be squeezed into a truck, and ...
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FeatureShipping focus case study: A crow’s nest view of the supply chain
Complex, multimodal, multi-activity supply chains call for smart management systems. For WWL, that has meant a decade-long partnership with UK software specialist ProAct InternationalWallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is one of the world’s largest specialist ro-ro carriers, however the company’s infrastructure and activities go far beyond its 60-strong vessel fleet. Today, ...
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FeatureYards apart
Wastefully expensive lots of inventory, or a vital link in the finished vehicle logistics chain? Operators are investing in technology and process innovations to make storage yards work harder.For the industry that invented lean production and the concept of single-piece flow, the sight of thousands of valuable vehicles sitting stationary ...
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FeatureWhen supply is a close run thing
Carmakers are showing a renewed interest in local supply networks, but do the benefits of supplier proximity balance the costs for both sides, or is there a middle distance to be found for a win-win? The evolution of automotive manufacturing has mostly been a story of dis-integration. Today’s car factories ...
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FeatureOutsourcing's thin grey line
The boundary between outsourced supply chain and in-house manufacturing is moving all the time. Where should carmakers draw the line?Once, perhaps, it was easy to see where logistics management and labour stopped and where manufacturing started at assembly plants. Parts were taken from the trucks at the loading dock of ...