Pratt & Whitney drives improvements by working closely with its suppliers.
By Alan Dorich
It can be hard to find the right balance between being environmentally beneficial and keeping costs down, but Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has found it. The Hartford, Conn.-based company has helped its aerospace clients find it, too. “Pratt & Whitney continues to go beyond with its latest engines, demonstrating the tremendous benefits of its geared turbofan technology,” Senior Director of Supplier Performance Darren Bicknell says.
The company, a division of United Technologies, has established itself as a leader in designing, manufacturing and servicing aircraft engines and auxiliary power units. P&W started operations more than 90 years ago and made its mark with the WASP engine.
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Rexel pushes its supply chain forward as it works toward 24-hour order delivery.
By Tim O’Connor
Large projects such as data centers can carry a significant environmental impact. As awareness around carbon footprints has grown in recent years, sustainability has gone from a buzzword to a requirement. Contractors and building owners measure their success not only by staying on schedule and budget, but also by their ability to achieve LEED certification.
For many projects, reducing the environmental impact begins with cutting energy use – and few things move the needle on the energy meter as much as a building’s lighting system. As an electrical distributor that offers lighting products, Rexel is well qualified to help clients find sustainable solutions such as motion controls that automatically turn off lights after periods of no activity in a room.
“All our businesses in the United States have people who are focused on energy efficiency,” Vice President of Transportation and Supply Chain Processes Jim Brady says. “We are seeing an increase in what our customers require.”
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Columbus Craft Meats improves customer satisfaction by increasing transparency and collaboration in the supply chain.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers
Columbus Craft Meats is celebrating its 100th anniversary of providing authentic, premium Italian salami and deli meats in addition to finding a permanent home with Hormel Foods Corp. “We were founded by Italian immigrants who moved to San Francisco and began by producing salami in their apartment,” Vice President of Supply Chain Cassandra Todd says. “From there, the business grew and continued to be a family-owned business until the early 2000s when it was sold to a private equity company.”
Hormel Foods’ acquisition of Columbus from Chicago-based Arbor Investments was announced in October. “What the acquisition means for Columbus is that we are now in a permanent home with a long-term owner,” Todd says. “Hormel is a great partner and cultural fit and we are excited to have been brought into the business.”
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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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