The Friday Five: Happy International Women's Day

International Women's Day 2019: Stamping out the stigma for women in supply chain and logistics [Supply Chain Digital]

Happy International Women’s Day! The current landscape for women in logistics is looking up. Today, 40% of graduates in logistics are female, while two decades ago it looked very bleak. This is a great sign that there is a strong movement towards a balanced workforce. Furthermore, companies are really beginning to focus on increasing the number of women in their organizations, with 60% saying they have targeted initiatives to recruit, develop and retain female employees. Read on to learn more about how it’s changed and how it’s more important than ever that we showcase the great possible careers in the space.
‍

Walmart Toughens Delivery Demands for Suppliers [Wall Street Journal]

Walmart, the mega-retailer is boosting the rate of on-time deliveries it wants suppliers to reach and it's changing the way it penalizes shippers who fall outside its guidelines. Wall Street Journal details how Walmart is refining a program it launched in 2017 as it fine-tunes its supply chain for online grocery pickup and delivery services that pull from store inventory to fulfill orders. Suppliers that fill part of a truck with their goods must hit a 70% on-time threshold, a significant jump from the previous target of 50%. Under the new rules, suppliers face a fine of 3% of the cost of the goods sold for each case that fails to meet Walmart’s “on time, in full” requirements. Read on to learn more about what this new program entails.
‍

Retailers take aim at packaging waste [Supply Chain Dive]

Sustainability has become a hot topic that companies are finally addressing. Astonishingly, the amount of packaging waste generated annually in the U.S. has increased by 185% between 1960 and 2015, from 27 million tons to almost 78 million tons! Fortunately, the 10 largest U.S. retailers by revenue all either mention efforts to reduce packaging waste in annual sustainability reports or on their corporate websites. Walmart even wants to make the packaging for its private brand 100% recyclable by 2025, which will be a great catalyst for other companies to follow suit. Why has packaging waste increased so dramatically and what will you do to stop this?
‍

More than half of hospital leaders see supply chain improvement as path to higher margins [Supply Chain Dive]

Even though we are in 2019, where everything has become digital, somehow the healthcare supply chain hasn’t caught up. Somehow half of the hospitals are managing their supply chain data manually. Despite understanding the big ROI that can come from supply chain analytics, too many health systems aren't efficiently or effectively making use of their operational insights, a new study shows. Hospital leaders are going to need to use every tool in their toolbox to succeed, and they will need to turn the supply chain into a strategic business lever – not only to save money, but to improve clinician satisfaction, patient outcomes, and the care patients receive. Read on to learn what hospitals are currently doing.
‍‍

Chinese exports fall amid US tariffs, weak global demand [Associated Press]

The trade slump has added to pressure on Chinese leaders to make peace with Washington in their tariff fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Washington and Beijing say negotiations are making progress after Trump postponed another planned tariff hike March 1. Jim Park from Associated Press reports that China’s global exports sank 4.6 percent to $353.2 billion for the two-month period. A truce with Trump would help exports, but tensions on technology and China’s industrial policy are unlikely to subside any time soon. When do you think they will reach an agreement, and what would that entail?

‍

‍

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to check out last week’s news and stay tuned for our next Friday Five roundup.