More than a year after completion, Bleckmann has celebrated the opening of the Netherlands’ first circular warehouse. Karl Lagerfeld is the first customer who has consciously chosen to move to this warehouse in the Dutch town of Almelo. What sets it apart is the fact that almost all building materials are fully documented and reusable. The construction method used in Almelo even serves as a guideline for a circular construction standard currently being developed by the European Commission. By Marcel te Lindert A ‘circular’ warehouse implies that all materials can be reused again. This is only ..read more

Progress in making supply chains more flexible and resilient is slow. Global research by IDC, commissioned by Kinaxis, reveals that the average response time to disruptions is five days. And that hinders progress on resilience and risk mitigation. However, there is optimism about the availability of supply chain orchestration tools for the future. Among global companies, less than a fifth (17%) can respond to disruptions within 24 hours, according to the survey participants. Underlining their great frustration, as many as two-thirds (67%) of supply chain leaders confess that they are “not very ..read more

In addition to all the disruptions in their supply chains, companies face more and more legislation on sustainability. It is not just government agencies that enforce these, but increasingly NGOs and other interest groups. During Supply Chain Media’s Webinar Wednesday, Jackson Wood from Descartes explained how companies can resist this by engaging in a cross-functional approach. “Maybe your supply chain is under the magnifying glass of an interest group you don’t know yet.” By Marcel te Lindert The term ‘VUCA’ was introduced by the US military 20 years ago, but has only reached a wider audienc ..read more

Digilo, Holocene and The Climate Choice are the three scale-ups that will compete in the final of the European Supply Chain Scale-up Contest 2024. They won their places thanks to their diverse applications of artificial intelligence (AI) at different points in the supply chain. During the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event on 22 May, it will become clear who will be the successor to last year’s winner: Dutch company RTI Blockchain (pictured). Entirely by coincidence, the three finalists this year are all from Germany. Each of them approaches the current challenges in the supply chain with fresh eyes ..read more

With an increased number of redundancies announced by larger companies in 2023, more jobs appear to be at risk this year. Last year, the number of redundancies announced due to bankruptcies was higher than usual, mainly by companies in industry and retail, according to ING Research. This year’s job market is likely to be under pressure, mainly due to reorganizations announced by manufacturing companies. At over 6,500 job losses, the figures are historically high for this sector. Early this year, several Dutch newspaper reports appeared about medium-sized companies announcing redundancies in th ..read more

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) may be a little too optimistic about the potential of generative AI (GenAI), and these misconceptions may have a negative impact on their talent strategies. This is according to analyst firm Gartner. This finding is notable because 64% of supply chains will implement GenAI this year. However, according to Gartner, it is not too late for CSCOs to make the necessary course corrections. For the study, Gartner analysed cross-functional data collected in November 2023 among 822 business executives involved in their company’s GenAI strategy. Of them, 112 were from ..read more

Instant grocery delivery company Getir has become the latest of its kind to pull out of the European market. The company is also ending operations in the United States. Getir will only remain active in its home country, Turkey. The instant delivery of groceries boomed during the pandemic. However, Getir’s current sales in Europe and the US account for only 7% of the company’s revenue: reason to pull the plug. In the Netherlands alone, 20 locations will close. Incidentally, Getir had been under pressure for some time. In August last year, the company laid off about 10% of its total workforce, t ..read more

Many companies struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing world, especially in these times of economic uncertainty and multiple geopolitical tensions. Agility and resilience are therefore essential – but not all business roles contribute to this, plus there is sometimes insufficient alignment between the various departments. The analogy of the human body provides an enlightening insight into what constitutes a healthy company. A healthy company is like a human body in peak condition. But how can you make a corporate ‘body’ this healthy? The answer lies in the individual body parts and their rel ..read more

Deploying rugged technology increases competitiveness within industrial companies by streamlining activities. This is according to new research from IDC in collaboration with Getac Technology Corporation. Benefits of such non-failure-sensitive technology include lower total cost of ownership (TCO), improved sustainability and automated processes. The report ‘Redefining Total Cost of Ownership: Rugged Technologies to Empower Industrial Operations’ draws on the insights of 990 IT decision-makers from Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, China and Asia. It shows, acco ..read more

The overflow car parks at European ports are currently awash with (mostly Chinese) electric cars. The cause: falling sales and a shortage of transporters. Across Europe, ports are struggling with a large influx of cars, which then sit there twice as long as normal – sometimes for up to 18 months. This is according to analysis by Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. It mainly concerns Chinese e-cars, from brands such as BYD, MG, Great Wall, SAIC, Geely and Xpeng, but also models of originally Western brands made in China, such as Tesla, Polestar, the Volvo EX30 and the BMW iX3. Th ..read more