Our readers voted Cerasis, Women in Trucking, and Hollingsworth as the top 3 logistics and supply chain blogs of 2019.
You voted, and the results are in! Cerasis is your number one favorite blog of the year, with Women in Trucking and Hollingsworth coming in second and third.
We love hearing what blogs you enjoy reading and find valuable. There are lots of great industry options, so we know it’s not easy to narrow down your favorites. We had lots of great responses, but only Women in Trucking held its spot on our list of the top logistics and supply blogs from 2018 and 2017.
Aside from Women in Trucking, what did remain consistent from previous years is the quality of the content and the consistency of posting by the three winners. These key components have remained invaluable across all successful logistics and supply chain blogs.
Here are the top 3 logistics and supply chain blogs of 2019.
1. Cerasis
As a third-party logistics company, Cerasis works to decrease freight management inefficiencies and to provide maximum hard and soft cost savings for their customers in the process of shipping LTL (less than truckload) or truckload freight and small package freight. The blog focuses on transportation industry trends and logistics solutions with relatable topics and insightful content.
2. Ellen’s Blog for Women in Trucking
The Women in Trucking Association is a non-profit organization focused on encouraging the employment of women in the trucking industry, promoting their accomplishments, and minimizing obstacles. President and CEO Ellen Voie’s blog offers thought-provoking insight on topics from best practices to becoming a thought leader in a mostly male dominated industry. Her years of experience and passion for advancing women’s positions within the trucking industry make her blog invaluable to readers. For the third year in a row, this blog has been one of our readers top favorites due to the relatable topics and insightful content, such as family problems stemming from job-related realities and assimilating to trucking culture.
3. Hollingsworth
Utilizing best-in-class warehouse management technology, Hollingsworth offers complete, real-time visibility of the supply chain. The blog focuses on topics ranging from complex order fulfillment strategies to best practices for optimizing supply chain management. Industry tips, new technologies, and the latest strategies are just some of the topics covered in the articles.
Runner up: Argentus
Argentus, a leading supply chain recruiting firm, pulls collective expertise to good use to ensure clients are provided with the best talent available at all levels. Argentus’ blog is a go-to source for posts on talent, leadership and supply chain employment trends. Whether you’re looking for tips on hiring industry leaders, retaining your top talent, or promoting professional development, Argentus’ blog has you covered. It also regularly features guest bloggers from verticals throughout the supply chain.
Resumes are hard. Always have been, always will be. It’s hard to write and talk about yourself. It’s even harder to boil years – or even decades – of experience and accomplishments into a few short pages of text and visuals.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
You’re probably more focused on your job than keeping a resume updated, and if a few years pass in between the times when you need a resume, you often find that resume trends have changed, and it’s hard to know how to format it, what to include, and what to leave out. It’s easy to feel lost because, of course, resume writing is one of the toughest tasks of any professional.
Let’s revise that slightly: it’s easy enough to write any old resume, but it’s difficult to craft a document that actually boosts your credibility.
A recruitment firm like Argentus is something of a resume clearing house. We see them all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see resumes that have up-to-the-minute style, as well as resumes where we have to brush off the cobwebs as we double click on the attachment in our inbox. We’re frankly bored of the latter. That’s why we’re doing a new miniseries on the Argentus blog, called The Quest for a Better Resume. We’re going to dive into some key aspects of resume writing and give examples to help you craft a resume that wows hiring managers and, hopefully, us!
In the first installment of this series, we gave some tips for boosting your resume’s style, which is something that sadly doesn’t get enough attention in fields like Supply Chain and Procurement.
Today, we’re going to dive into the Content side of things and help answer: if you’re a professional in Procurement, Supply Chain, or any of their related fields, what exactly should go on a resume and what doesn’t belong there?
Read on to hear our advice!
Resume Content:
Supply Chain and Procurement professionals make their careers by extracting relevant insights from complex sets of data. So it makes sense that they’re often skilled at loading their resumes up with valuable content – even if their resumes lack visual panache. The resumes we see tend to be stronger from a content perspective than an optics perspective – but there are still common shortcomings in terms of what people choose to write on a resume.
So when it comes to content, what does a bad resume look like?
Obviously, the worst resume is one that doesn’t show that the candidate has any relevant experience, or one that misrepresents that experience. But let’s take it for a given that you’re a professional with a solid background, trying to communicate the breadth of skills and work experience that you’ve accumulated:
A bad resume tends to be overly stuffed with buzzwords. It tends to talk a lot without actually saying anything, full of words like “self-motivated,” “detail-oriented,” “team-player” – qualities that you shouldn’t have to put on a resume. These kinds of qualities are “table stakes” for getting an interview. They should be self-evident when the hiring manager speaks to you in person – on a resume, they come across as empty.
It might tend to contain irrelevant experience, or show a lack of focus. This flavor of resume tries to be all things to all people – the resume equivalent of the job seeker who applies to every job we have, without tailoring their resume to one particular niche. We get that often people do have a wide variety of experience – some professionals at the director or VP-level have touched on every aspect of the Supply Chain, from inventory management to procurement to distribution. But you should tailor your experience to the role for which you’re applying.
It talks about “duties fulfilled” instead of accomplishments. We’ve blogged a lot about how important it is to create an accomplishment-based resume. Bad resumes tend to read like job descriptions instead of describing what the person has delivered to their employers.
It has extra info that isn’t relevant. Trends are always changing in terms of what info your resume should (and shouldn’t) include, and it can be hard to keep up. But as of late 2017, headshots, marital status, personal info, and links to multiple social media profiles are distractions from what’s important.
With these common shortcomings in mind, what approach should Supply Chain and Procurement professionals take when trying to write a resume that impresses?
Show, don’t tell. This old writer’s adage is also the best rule of thumb both for avoiding buzzwords and packing your resume full of impressive accomplishments instead of squandering the precious few seconds that a hiring manager will dedicate to your resume. Don’t just say that you’ve “increased cost savings,” show the amount of money that you’ve saved, and how you did it. Speak in terms of numbers: how many people did you oversee? What size of budget were you responsible for? Don’t just say you have “exceptional communications skills,” show it by presenting a resume that’s concise.
Include the meat, not the fat. As recruiters in Procurement and Supply Chain, there are a few pieces of vital information we’re looking for when assessing a resume – beyond the accomplishments we mentioned above: if you’re in Supply Chain, what aspects have you touched on? (e.g. inventory management, logistics, warehousing, distribution, sourcing). What software do you have experience and skills with? (e.g. SAP, ARIBA). If you’re in Procurement, what categories have you purchased in? (e.g. raw materials, information technology, marketing, etc.) This is key information that sometimes gets lost within long bullet-pointed lists of “duties.”
Less can be more. Similar to how white space is important from a visual perspective, concision is key when it comes to content. Try to write your resume with more action verbs and fewer adjectives.
If you’re like us, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of the resume advice floating around the internet is distressingly general – shouldn’t it be obvious that resumes need to avoid typos, grammatical mistakes, and incorrect contact information? So hopefully these tips give a bit more detail about how to approach a resume’s content in a blue-sky way.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
it’s no secret that the world of Procurement is changing and fast. With automation, big data and burgeoning AI systems removing more and more of the profession’s “tactical” or “clerical” tasks, companies are calling on their Procurement teams to be more strategic, more nimble, and more innovative. They’re expecting their Procurement functions to deliver not just bottom-line cost-savings, but other sorts of value, adding to organizations’ overall competitiveness.
Procurement, you’ve come a long way, baby.
But a new survey of 200 C-Suite executives from a variety of industries and functions presents a rather dispiriting picture of the Procurement function today – or at least how it’s perceived. Held by Management Consulting firm Ayming, the survey explores a wide base of opinions from some of business’s top leaders – CEOs, CPOs, COOs, and CFOs – about the value Procurement has to add, and where it’s going to be in 2020. The survey, titled Procurement 2020, has lots of interesting insights, showing where Procurement is knocking it out of the park – and where it’s striking out.
The biggest headline takeaway? 83% of executives surveyed say that their Procurement function is not entirely strategic – meaning they don’t think it’s crucial to business leadership, and that it isn’t a key input when making high-level strategic decisions.
It’s a rough verdict, one showing that as much progress as the field is making, a lot of that development – the chance to be a true partner to business at the highest level – is still unfulfilled potential. Some of the other data is relatively damning as well: only 28% of executives surveyed viewed Procurement as a core aspect of their strategy. Morethan half (51%) of the executives do not consider their Procurement operating models to be effective as they stand today.
Interestingly, this last number breaks down differently across industries:
Retail executives had the highest confidence in their Procurement function, with 43% of retailers considering their Procurement operations to be highly effective – and 18% considering them to be somewhat effective. Retail also had strong marks in terms of its strategic value from Procurement, with 79% of executives saying that its Procurement operations were “mostly or entirely strategically focused.”
27% of Manufacturing companies viewed their Procurement operations as highly effective – with 24% considering them to be somewhat effective. The Manufacturing industry also led the way in terms of strategic value, with 91% of Manufacturing executives saying that their Procurement operations were highly strategic.
21% of Technology companies, as well as only 21% of Healthcare companies, viewed their Procurement operations as highly effective.
Dispiritingly, only 15% of Financial Services companies considered their Procurement operations to be highly effective.
The numbers represent a large base of dissatisfaction with how companies are prioritizing, training and supporting their Procurement departments. 44% of CEOs, as well as 44% of CFOs, consider their Procurement functions either very or somewhat effective. 52% of COOs gave a “very or somewhat effective verdict,” compared to (perhaps unsurprisingly) 56% of CPOs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, very large companies – most able to leverage a shared service model and consolidated spend – were most likely to report that they received a very high amount of value from Procurement: 36%.
Despite the survey saying that Procurement still has a long way to go, the broad base of executives surveyed often indicated a deep interest in helping the function get there. 48% of companies surveyed have either reorganized their Procurement function in the past 5 years, or are in the middle of reorganizing it, with a full 20% planning to reorganize Procurement in the next 24 months.
There are some other interesting and divergent opinions when it comes to how companies are seeking to increase their Procurement function’s effectiveness:
68% of executives surveyed believed that if Procurement gets involved earlier in new product creation, as well as long-term strategy, it’ll be able to add more value.
82% of CEOs believe that employee training and upskilling is a key way to improve Procurement effectiveness. In contrast, a 38% of CEOs believe that Procurement-specific technology is the answer.
A large percentage of CPOs (90%) believe that upgrading technology is key to improving Procurement strategy (compared to 76% of CEOs), but across different industries there’s some disagreement about the best way to drive further value from Procurement: In the Financial Services, Transportation, Retail and Technology sectors, executives saw people and skills development as the biggest opportunity to add more value through Procurement, whereas Manufacturing executives saw reorganization as the best opportunity.
We tend to think that surveys like this are an opportunity for the field rather than an indictment. And despite some of the more negative responses, we happen to know tons of Procurement departments who are excelling and creating true strategic value for their stakeholders. But if these surveys are anything to go on, there’s much more to be done. We encourage you to dig into Ayming’s survey, as there’s a lot more data we only briefly covered here.
How will self-driving, autonomous stores impact the retail industry and the supply chain?
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Here’s another dispatch from the far-flung realms of emerging technology that will transform the Supply Chain – how products are brought to market, and how customers acquire those products.
We’ve written before about the upheaval Amazon has wrought on the Retail industry – whether it’s the company’s move into brick and mortar retail, its acquisition of Whole Foods Market seeking to improve its Last Mile Delivery, or its proposed use of drones to deliver products. We’ve also written about some emerging technologies – like augmented reality – that are blending the world of eCommerce shopping and a more traditional brick and mortar experience.
Suffice it to say, the retail industry is going through some major convulsions. With dozens of major U.S. retailers shutting down, and tons of new startups entering the eCommerce market, the landscape looks different than it did even five years ago. Companies are looking to the bleeding edge of technology to revolutionize the last leg of the Supply Chain, imagining the best ways to deliver products to consumers in 2020, 2030, and beyond.
Now, an idea that’s been explored in theory is seeing testing in Shanghai, a city known for its leadership in the mobile payments space, as well as its Blade Runner-style futurism.
Self-driving, autonomous stores
Analysts have touted autonomous drones and self-driving trucks as disruptive technologies to Logistics and Retail. Now, a great recent article in Fast Company profiles a startup called Moby which is testing a model of autonomousstores that drive around, seeking customers based on traffic data. Customers can “order” a store to drive to them, similar to how we order Ubers today. They then enter the store using an app and pay for goods with mobile payments. When the store is out of products, it drives back to the warehouse, or connects with another store that has excess supplies of, say, milk, to restock. Like a food truck, but one that also sells toothpaste, and replacement phone chargers, and apparel – using only robots.
Check out the video:
Pretty cool, no?
Produced in partnership between Swedish-based startup Wheelys and China’s Hefei University, the Moby Stores are electric, solar powered, and allow customers to order products for their next visit based on voice activation. Wheelys’ background is in making mobile coffee carts for entrepreneurs, and it’s extending that manufacturing experience towards these new prototypes, hoping (perhaps optimistically) to eventually build the stores for $30,000. It’s planning to start commercial production of the stores by 2018.
It’s a wild idea, to be sure – with significant manufacturing and regulatory hurdles still to clear – but pie-in-the-sky technologies have transformed retail before.
There are a few cool implications for this model from a Supply Chain angle, beyond the obvious convenience of having a store that comes to consumers:
It potentially changes the approach to last mile logistics, possibly eliminating the human component in delivery – similar to drones, but with product selection.
These stores combine the convenience of eCommerce with the tactile experience that’s still brick and mortar’s strength in areas like apparel.
They will allow retailers to compete in the brick and mortar space without paying for rent / real estate, which is a huge barrier to entry and carrying cost making brick and mortar uncompetitive. Of course there are maintenance costs to consider, as well.
By allowing customers to “order” a mobile store to a nearby location similar to how one would order an Uber, this model can allow a very fast form of same-day delivery, something that’s been a “holy grail” for companies like Amazon.
We know that startups don’t always translate into industry-redefining enterprises, but even if Moby itself isn’t the future of Retail, it’s very possible that wandering stores will be a big part of the autonomous era.
Argentus’ infographic sheds light on the differences between these often-confused functions.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Both Logistics and the wider Supply Chain are vital to how companies run today, but the two are still so often confused. We put together an infographic outlining some of the key differences and points of overlap between them. While it may be an obvious distinction to many pros across the field, there’s still a lot of ambiguity – sometimes within companies, as well – about what constitutes Logistics, and what constitutes Supply Chain Management. As a recruitment firm with over a decade of experience specialized in this area, we figure we’d weigh in!
In short, Logistics is a part of Supply Chain Management that deals with the physical movement of goods for just in time delivery. Supply Chain, as a field, grew out of Logistics in the 80s to encompass a wider strategic consideration of everything that’s involved in bringing a product to market.
Check out the infographic below, where we dive into the topic in more detail! We’ve stepped up our game, if we do say so ourselves.
Logistics vs. Supply Chain Management
We hope you found the infographic informative! Weigh in down in the comments if there’s anything we missed, or more you have to add about the differences between these functions.
![What’s the Difference Between Supply Chain Management and Logistics [Infographic]](https://www.fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Supply-Chain-Managementvs.Logistics.jpg)
