Good Question: What are your top supply chain predictions for 2019?


Uber Freight and other new platforms will power increasingly connected truckers and LTL providers into the gig economy.

Steve Dowse
SVP, Product Management
Blume Global


Supply chains will continue their evolution from the traditional lean standard strategy to more of a flexible and elastic supply chain to meet market and logistics fluctuations. These changes will allow supply chain managers to incorporate flexible solutions for their customers, especially in the e-commerce environment.

Mick McGrory
Vice President, Strategic Accounts
Sunset Transportation


As political uncertainty increases, we will see the resurgence of tariff engineering, along with increasing supply chain complexity. The trucker shortage will get worse, and companies will search for alternative transportation methods. Lower oil costs will help keep costs down.

Steven J. Bowen
Chairman & CEO
Maine Pointe




Businesses that have not already done so will adapt a portion of their supply chain to support the e-commerce market. Innovative tools are being developed now to merge and reduce the challenges of e-commerce coupled with traditional freight forwarding.

Cedric Akion
Senior Vice President of Sales, International Freight Forwarding
Ascent Global Logistics


Tariffs remain, a truck driver shortage remains, and higher interest rates push global inventories down.

Jeremy Rogers, MBA, CSCP
Manager, Supply Chain Operations
Wheeler Bros.


The venture capital and private equity dollars flowing into supply chain execution and transportation integration and visibility software companies will dry up. The truckload market is going to correct by mid-year, pick back up for peak, but rates will be down about 10 percent from where they are today. There will still be no scalable in-practice use cases for blockchain—pilots and proof-of-concepts will continue—but no clear disruptor ready for the broader market.

Geoff Milsom
Senior Director
enVista


The cold storage supply chain will face headwinds driven by capacity constraints, growing consumer demand for fresh foods, and the need for greater inventory control.

Carl Fowler
SVP, Business Development
Americold


Cost optimization and not enough drivers.

Grzegorz Pietruszka
Production & Supply Planning Senior Specialist
Electrolux


Increased development of technology platforms meant to add transparency and generate value. Boom of LTL industry in attempt to dominate last-mile logistics. Disruptions to suppliers from tariffs and instability. Increased development of distribution networks to suppwort a broader array of smaller vendors. Shippers will change rate structures to offer greater discounts for longer delivery lead times and incorporate flexibility into the system.

Aaron Freed
Instructor
Army Logistics University


Next year will see the supply chain become much smarter and more efficient by embracing the freight data visibility era.

Jesper Bennike
CEO
GateHouse Logistics


Have a great answer to a good question?

Be sure to participate next month. We want to know:

What’s your best supply chain tip?

We’ll publish some answers.

Tell us at [email protected] or tweet us @ILMagazine #ILgoodquestion

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *