From its partnerships to its employees, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated remains focused on consistently meeting customer and consumer needs for another 115 years and beyond.
By Bianca Herron
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated has been committed to the consumers, customers and communities it serves for more than a century. Today, Coke Consolidated is the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the United States and makes, sells and distributes Coca-Cola, Monster and Dr. Pepper products.
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Coca-Cola Consolidated carries more than 300 brands and flavors across 14 states and the District of Columbia to more than 65 million people. Additionally, the 115-year-old company has 13 manufacturing facilities and 80 distribution and sales centers.
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United States Postal Service introduces new technology to merge physical mail delivery with the digital age.
By Kat Zeman
Susan Brownell is good at juggling. As vice president of supply management for the United States Postal Service (USPS), Brownell helps the company juggle roughly 149 billion pieces of mail and parcels per year.
She is responsible for all of USPS’s supply chain management activities and manages its supplier relationships with more than $13 billion in expenditures under contract and $6 billion worth of inventory.
Brownell also wears many hats. Aside from supplier relationships and inventory management, she suits up for strategic planning, policy modernization, process improvement, strategic sourcing and technology enhancements.
As USPS continues to experience a decline in mail volume due to online transactions, Brownell and her team are working to help the organization merge its physical mail delivery system with the digital age. “We’ve really been focused on helping the organization achieve this mission to marry the physical with the digital,” Brownell says.
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The endurance of print books has Penguin Random House investing in its physical supply chain.
By Tim O’Connor
The first e-readers hit the market in 1998 and the first Amazon Kindles arrived nine years later, signaling the leading online bookseller’s belief in the future of digital books. It seemed like the days of print editions and book spines were numbered. Soon, giant book warehouses stuffed with Dr. Seuss reprints and Dan Brown releases would be replaced by server rooms and distribution would be as simple as ones and zeros traveling over a Wi-Fi network.
But it didn’t happen. Ten years after its predicted demise the print market is as robust and resilient as ever. E-books sales actually fell 5 percent in the first half of the year compared to 2016, according to the Association of American Publishers, accounting for only 17.1 percent of the total trade book market. Print is still very much in vogue and massive warehouses still play a crucial role in getting books in readers’ hands.
Publishers such as Penguin Random House always believed digital would be more of a complement to print reading, rather than a complete replacement. While others rapidly moved to favor e-publishing, Penguin Random House took a more balanced approach and continued to invest in its physical supply chain. It wasn’t a print or digital proposition; it was print and digital. “We deliver about 460 million books a year to customers and 20 percent of that is digitally,” Senior Vice President of Fulfillment Annette Danek-Akey explains. “We just had to learn to be good at managing both.”
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Vexos’ newly created intelligent supply chain has already saved the electronics manufacturer millions of dollars.
By Jim Harris
Vexos is dedicated to providing complex electronic technologies. “I’m very proud of our people and their commitment to customer service,” says Stephanie Martin, senior vice president of global supply chain for the New York City-based company. “Everyone aims to delight our customers with our performance. We are committed to exceeding expectations.”
The company is a full turnkey electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider to the medical, industrial, semiconductor, automotive, consumer, safety and security and internet of things (IoT) markets. The company provides printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies and custom material solutions. It also provides full systems integration and comprehensive testing services with enhanced engineering and supply chain management solutions. These services span product life cycles all the way from development and introduction through growth, maturity, post-production services and end-of-life phases.
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R2 Logistics develops a new transportation system that focuses on a shipper’s perspective.
By Kat Zeman
A global provider of transportation services and logistics solutions, R2 Logistics is driving forward with a new game-changing technology.
The third-party logistics company has developed a transportation management system (TMS) that compiles all transportation data, spend data, cost history and carrier performance.
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Mercedes-Benz USA has the people and facility infrastructure in place to support its growth.
By Tim O’Connor
When Rory Hepner and her team visit the carriers that transport trucks across the country for Mercedes-Benz, they often hand out small gifts such as hats and T-shirts or they may host a cookout for drivers. Those are small gestures, but ones that show the company’s appreciation for its carriers and acknowledge their contributions toward making Mercedes-Benz one of the world’s leading premium automakers.
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PartsSource offers hospitals a single source for their parts and services needs to reduce supply chain costs and increase asset uptime.
By Jim Harris
Healthcare providers look to PartsSource as a single source for biomedical and diagnostic imaging on-demand products. “We are often described as being part Amazon, part group purchasing organization [GPO] and part enterprise resource planning system,” President and CEO Dr. Phil Settimi says.
The Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered company delivers the industry’s only online, fully integrated medical products and parts procurement e-commerce marketplace for hospitals, clinical sites and health systems across the country. “Some hospitals have to work with hundreds of vendors to keep their hospital equipment running,” adds Kate Shafer, director of marketing and communications. “PartsSource is able to manage all those vendors on their behalf. The customer knows they can use the same ordering process for everything they need and PartsSource acts as part of their supply chain.”
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Lindt & Sprüngli USA aims to tap further into the chocolate market
with innovative technologies and a quality, premium product.
By Bianca Herron
Lindt & Sprüngli is an international manufacturer, distributor and retailer of premium chocolate. Since its founding in Switzerland 170 years ago, the company has been driven by its passion, dedication and innovative spirit to create the ultimate chocolate.
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