2016 Warehouse/DC Operations Survey: Ready to Confront Complexity

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the November 2016 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

November 2016

Is supply chain management strategic or tactical? Are the best supply chains collaborative? Should the goal be an integrated supply chain or an integrative supply chain? The answers are a mixed bag, according to this month’s contributors.

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As it has the last few years, our “Annual Warehouse and Distribution Center (DC) Operations Survey” points to growing order fulfillment complexity, larger labor forces, and other challenges associated with e-commerce. However, the 2016 survey reflects an industry that’s not only well aware of these challenges, but one that’s poised and ready to do something about them.

From tweaking operational processes, to tapping labor as a means of flexing capacity, to incrementally applying more technology, the survey clearly indicates that respondents are in the midst of addressing omni-channel challenges. For example, capital expenditure (CapEx) levels have kept pace with CapEx growth seen in recent surveys, and workforce numbers held steady or grew among some respondents.

According to Donald J. Derewecki, a senior consultant with St. Onge Company, and Norm Saenz, Jr., a managing director with St. Onge Company, a supply chain engineering consulting company and SCMR’s partner for this annual research, a majority of the data points to an industry engaged in confronting omni-channel complexities.

“As operations requirements become more complex, companies in general seem to be coping,” says Derewecki. “E-commerce has been affecting nearly everything. Even companies that don’t directly participate in e-commerce now experience Amazon-type expectations from customers about rapid ordering and fulfillment. So the bar is set pretty high on requirements, and in response, the majority of respondents seem to be focused on improving their processes and the information systems support for those processes.”

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