Bill Catania of OneRail talks about inventory, visibility & shrinkage; empowering customers by normalizing data; & optimizing customer experience.

[07.07] An overview of OneRail, what they do, and how they help their customers.

“Don’t ever think of us like a parcel shipping solution! What we’re doing is delivering in localized markets – think about turning a store into a warehouse, turning a warehouse into a localized delivery zone.”

[07.52] The latest at OneRail, and some of the big challenges they’re focusing on right now.

“These days, you can’t hear an earnings call from a retailer without hearing about product shrinkage – and about 65% of that is theft.”

[08.38] Why inventory, visibility, and shrinkage – particularly related to theft – is a growing concern for retailers.

“It was easy when it was single-channel commerce. But now there’s so many different channels, so many different shipping options – customers have demands they didn’t have before. When product starts to move more, there’s more risk.”

[10.03] The recent survey, conducted by OneRail, dives deeper into the problem of inventory and shrinkage.

“Customers are counting on that product being at the store. But if it goes missing 500 miles ago, and the retailer doesn’t know it, there’s a mismatch in supply and demand. A lot of money goes into demand planning, and all that work goes out the window when items go missing.”

[13.53] How OneRail utilized their findings to develop OmniPoint Inventory Visibility, a brand-new solution for their customers; and how it tackles inventory and shrinkage challenges.

“When you look at what it takes to be competitive in 2024, you have to be operating from data.”

[17.17] The ideal client for OneRail’s OmniPoint Inventory Visibility solution.

[1946] The challenges with data; the importance of empowering customers with the right data; and how OneRail is adding an extra layer that helps systems to connect and normalize data, helping retailers to make the right decisions.

“An organization could be working with 50 to 100 couriers – all sending data in different ways, some of them aren’t even sending data! – and we’re normalizing that data layer, so they can make sense of it and decision on it.”

[22.25] The opportunity to be found in achieving improved inventory visibility and optimizing customer experience.

“Optimization is taking data and making iterative business decisions to reduce cost and improve experience.”

[25.15] Why OneRail is moving up the order stream with delivery management solutions, and how they’re helping customers to improve order decisioning and fulfillment logic.

“It’s so much more than visibility – it’s the ability to actually change an outcome.”

[28.02] A big announcement, and the future for OneRail

Ann Marie Jonkman of Blue Yonder talks about using tech to solve labor challenges; empowering teams & organizations to fulfill potential; & future supply chains.

[07.42] An introduction to Blue Yonder, what they do, and how they help their customers.

“We’re your technology partner… if you want new innovation, advice on reducing your labor cost, reducing your tech stack debt… we have the chops and vision to execute with you.”

[09.19] The ideal client for Blue Yonder.

“Our clients are looking for innovation and differentiation; in this volatile market, they’re looking to reduce costs… and they’re looking for a partner.”

[13.02] The current landscape of supply chain, and the biggest challenges faced by Blue Yonder customers.

“2024 has been a slow recovery. When you look at transportation, post-pandemic, there was a lot of excess capacity… Now volume is down, we have a lot of healthy competition, and shippers were smart – they locked in rates… So people are looking to increase utilization with what they have. So labor and cost, as opposed to scale for growth, is driving most of the portfolio.”

[15.43] Blue Yonder’s transportation management solution, and how it’s helping customers to overcome challenges, as well as transform their transportation operations.

[22.10] The evolution of warehousing, and how Blue Yonder’s range of warehouse management and execution solutions are helping customers to keep up with rapid change, pivot, and set themselves up for the future.

“I’ve seen the most change in this space. We see heavy automation, automation cost investment - but we see the labor cost driving automation.”

[28.46] Blue Yonder’s Edge technology solutions, how they integrate into customer organizations, and the incredible results they can help customers to achieve.

“Robotics has been around for a while, but what we’ve seen in the last 2-3 years is an explosion.”

[34.42] How Blue Yonder helps customers with labor management, helping them to find the balance between people and technology, and achieve employee engagement as well as peak operational performance.

[40.25] A case study exploring how Blue Yonder provided solutions to allow a key client to better understand and utilize analytics, helping them to make operational changes and achieve a 25-30% reduction in labor cost, worth millions of dollars.

[43.50] Why Blue Yonder is committed to helping customers fulfill their potential, and the impact that empowering people and organizations is having on the industry.

“We want to be your technology partner, we don’t want to just sell you a product. We look at your utilization, and help you during implementation… we want you to be successful.”

[47.32] The supply chains of the future, and the Blue Yonder innovations that are helping to drive the industry forward.

“That’s the next vision – it’s not just the products and solutions, it’s connecting them. And it’s not just visibility – it’s decisioning, its orchestration, where we’re all working collaboratively.”

Head over to Blue Yonder’s website now to find out more, and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Blue Yonder and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X (Twitter), or you can connect with Ann Marie on LinkedIn.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more amazing supply chain content, check out 377: How AI is Improving Supply Chain Sustainability, with Dyci Sfregola and Hope White or Nicole Glenn on the Power of Hope and Transforming the Logistics Industry.