GOOD QUESTION | How should shippers adjust their

Demand Planning, Technology , Supply ChainKeep a daily pulse on supply and customer demand. Daily monitoring on COVID-19 restrictions in supplier and customer locations is essential to understanding when and where to ramp up or down capacity within your supply chain limits. It's also important to communicate up and downstream projected manufacturing or demand signals so that your supply base can ramp up appropriately to your latest sales inventory operations plan. Shift your shipments from using heavy brokerage models to asset-based carriers. Setting up contracts with asset-based carriers will lock in longer-term, lower rates and capacity that will help you through the end of the crisis and further.—Ashley Yentz Vice President, Supply Chain Solutions LeanCorHone the power of data and technology to ensure access to capacity. The increased uncertainty has made it difficult for shippers to identify a carrier to keep freight moving. When shippers have to defer to the spot market, costs are typically higher, time windows to find a truck are shorter, and there's a higher probability of service failure. Digital freight marketplaces streamline the process by leveraging AI to generate instantly bookable rates and quickly match a given shipment to the best carrier.—Jim Nicholson VP, Carrier Sales and Operations Loadsmart Evaluate contracts, with an eye on two issues: first, whether those contracts can and should be subject to force majeure, the doctrine that permits delay or cancellation in the event of certain identified occurrences beyond the control of the parties; and second, whether suppliers for critical components and logistics services can be diversified. In the long term, shippers need to reassess the risks in their supply chain. Disruptions are a fact of life in a global economy. But what the pandemic has shown is how fragile these supply chains can be.—Sarah RathkePartner Squire Patton BoggsDecentralize and regionalize supply chains. Bringing the supply chain closer to the customer will enable companies to mitigate risk and create more resilient systems. Increase consumer exposure to e-commerce and the digital world will stick. Recalibrating brands and service offerings will be key to successfully attracting and retaining customers. —Ivan Barrios CEO & President World Trade Center MiamiLeverage on-demand production. An increasing number of companies are turning to localized and on-demand manufacturing alternatives to offshoring. Manufacturing locally—or closer to the point of consumption—has been made more economically feasible and created more production agility with the proliferation of digital manufacturing. —Bernie Henderson Director of Strategic Sourcing ProtolabsSet up at least one backup for anything mission critical. Eliminate the single sourcing of any critical components. And look multiple tiers upstream in your supply chain, because having two parts suppliers that are both dependent on the same manufacturing location doesn't eliminate that single point of failure. In the e-commerce space, that applies to Amazon's fulfillment service, which introduced restrictions, causing many e-commerce stores to scramble to find new distribution channels. —Jake RheudeVP of MarketingRed Stag FulfillmentAdopt a continuous delivery experience (CDX) in order to more intelligently make decisions on moving goods from A to B and provide insight into real-time data about how your products are moving. A CDX platform provides a real-time and continuously updated view into shipment statuses.—Adam Compain CEO, ClearMetalCollaborate with internal and external business partners (warehousing, manufacturing, transportation, etc.) to ensure alignment on supporting changing business needs. True two-way partnerships are critical for positive outcomes. Effective forecasting and consistent communication from the shipper to these partners, as simple as they sound, can be the biggest keys to the overall supply chain's performance during a difficult period.—Jon Fish SVP, Strategic Partnerships Arrive LogisticsDiversify touch points along the supply chain. As we witness shutdown after shutdown, some shippers are being left with warehouses that are no longer in operation. By diversifying and expanding points throughout a 3PL's chain, everyone is better armed to handle disruptions. Additionally, we expect to see a needed shift in the industry to have a more prominent focus on predictive analytics.—David Caines COO, KencoCreate a dynamic process for prioritizing risk and assessing exposure. Businesses should increase their decision-making frequency to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. As the crisis begins to become more controlled and the outcomes more predictable, leaders need to understand the long-term implications of an altered manufacturing and distribution landscape.—Melvin Bosso Principal Myrtle Consulting GroupOptimize your labor configuration. If you mitigate your current demand plan, you can flatten out labor requirements and consumption. For example, it can be helpful to run two skeleton shifts in the place of one. This mitigates the risk of your entire workforce being out of commission. Manufacturing companies are going to try to retain their talent as much as possible, because it was so difficult to get them in the first place. —Sam Dawes Senior ManagerLeader, Consumer and Industrial Products PracticeWest MonroeStep By StepShippers shouldn't make rash decisions in the heat of the moment that could affect their businesses permanently. They should lay out a plan that allows them to adjust as the shipping environment continues to evolve.Immediately, a shipper should connect directly with their carrier representative and ask to lock in their current discount tier if their shipping volume is down. If volume is up, they should ask for a better discount that reflects the increase.After 30 days or so, shippers should look at their shipping data from the last month and watch for trends in what customers are buying and how they want it shipped. UPS and FedEx are no longer guaranteeing service times, so that must be taken into account when calculating total landed costs.The global slowdown over the next few months offers a chance to reimagine shipping operations and the customer experience. A shipper's distribution centers likely offer plenty of opportunities for efficiency and improvement. They could optimize packaging, conveyor systems, and where products are in the distribution network for faster shipping if carrier guarantees don't return.In six months, shipping and commerce could be closer to what we know as "normal," and if they are, shippers should compare this year's shipping data to last year's and consider how the changes they've made during the crisis will help them moving forward. In particular, they should consider the location of their distribution centers and how adding or relocating them might improve delivery times and preserve the customer experience.—Andrew Brueckner Head of Strategy VeriShip, LLCHave a great answer to a good question?Be sure to participate next month. We want to know:What's the best but seemingly most counterintuitive advice you've ever received about the supply chain?We'll publish some answers. Tell us at editorial@inboundlogistics.com or tweet us @ILMagazine #ILgoodquestion