MVT Archives | Page 12 of 12

Delivering the sustainable future, today

Jun 21, 2023 | Environment, Metro, MVT, Technology

Alongside customers in key verticals, including food, drink, cars and commercial vehicles, Metro is committed to the highest environmental standards, by maintaining carbon neutrality, investing in alternative fuels and supporting our customers with technology-enabled sustainable supply chains.

The global food system will face significant pressures over the medium term as demand for resources and the effects of climate change intensify, which is why the sector is fully committed to cutting CO2 emissions, embedding environmental standards in transport and increasing sustainable supply chains.

Despite the challenges that 2022 brought, including supply chain issues, labour shortages and threats to energy security, our food and drink customers remain focused on sustainable, resilient, and responsible supply chains, with an ambition to reach Net Zero by 2040 – a decade earlier than government targets.

The automotive sector continues to improve its sustainability, reducing energy use, sourcing more responsibly and increasing recycling. Indeed, total energy use has declined, by -6.1% on last year, and water use per vehicle fell -6.3%. Waste to landfill also hit a record low, of 0.6%, with 17 leading companies reporting zero waste.

Supply chains need to become more sustainable but you can’t change what you can’t see and experts at Automotive Logistics’ supply chain events agreed that better tools and partnerships are needed to identify emissions in complex supply chains, as a means to start reducing them, because what you can’t measure, you can’t work on.

Hot on the heals of our industry investment in Sustainable Air Fuel (SAF) and the Sustainable Flight Challenge, Metro has invested in solar panels at our UKHQ to move beyond our net zero achievement, toward Climate Positive and joined the Midlands Net Zero Hub, to share the region's vision to decarbonise and support key priorities for the Midlands.

With Metro’s MVT Eco module, all the CO2 measuring and emission analysis tools our customers need can be found in one single place. Eco calculations conform to EN 16258, to provide data and reporting that complies with the most demanding frameworks and methodologies.

Our ‘on demand calculator’ module means that shippers can predict CO2 impact, by any mode and location, based on IATA or UNLOC codes and use those insights to create efficient, low-carbon supply chain solutions.

Using our latest generation MVT Eco module, we develop intelligent supply chain solutions, based on accurate and representative data, that are respectful of the environment.

Low-carbon multi-modal solutions that blend air, road, sea, inland waterways and rail, together with NGV and electric vehicles.

The MVT ECO module is available free-of-charge to customers on their MVT dashboard. To request a demo or discuss your requirements, please EMAIL Simon George.

Supercharging supply chains for growth

Jun 21, 2023 | MVT, Supply Chain

The pandemic laid bare the critical importance of supply chains and executives tasked with managing them are much more significant figures in their businesses, as continuing success is highly dependent on improving supply chains.

For too many businesses the gap between supply chain planning, and the execution of that plan continues to grow, because the environment has already changed.

The pandemic, Brexit and Ukraine are the most recent examples of external factors having profound impacts on supply chains without warning.

At the same time, customer expectations are evolving, with increasing demands, including rapid delivery times and a growing number that want more focus on sustainability, so they can reduce the environmental impact of their supply chain.

Supply chain resilience is essential for organisations to overcome the black swan events which are becoming more frequent and severe, and while over 54% of respondents to a CapGemini survey acknowledged that their supply chains have altered significantly in the past two years, only 27% are implementing end- to-end supply-chain transformation.

Businesses that want to thrive against the backdrop of a complex supply chain environment must pivot towards technology that provides end-to-end visibility, with purchase order management and transparency of inventory throughout the supply chain.

Synchronising inventory across all transport modes and locations, with accurate real-time dashboards and reports, provides executives with the data they need to assess and react to supply chain challenges.

Many supply chains have become too long and difficult to manage in an increasingly disrupted world and where once concentration was on scale and lowest transport cost, this generation of supply chains is characterised by resilience, sustainability and a broader definition of value.

To improve the quality and speed of decision making Metro’s MVT platform provides supply chain visibility and control, with the additional benefit of providing transparency to consumers, that products are on schedule and sourced with sustainably assured.

Metro’s supply chain audit embraces every event, process and participant, to uncover opportunities in five specific areas: Efficiency | Existing/new markets | Cost savings | Enhancing quality | Agility.

The audit is designed to add efficiencies, cut costs, increase profit and free up cashflow, by simplifying the end-to-end process. From raising the initial PO, through production, shipment, delivery and receipt to stock, we map the product flows, events and milestones, so that the customer can intercede on an order, at any time through the supply chain process, to SKU level.

Metro’s cloud-based supply chain management platform, MVT, helps our customers remove supply chain risk in challenging economic conditions, by managing their supply chain effectively, while tightening their control over inventory and suppliers.

MVT helps companies adapt vendor and production strategy, by expanding procurement control and evolving their supply chain to match the future, with PO management, visibility and communication tools that manage and integrate new suppliers into the supply chain.

EMAIL Simon George, Technical Solutions Director, to learn more or arrange a demo.

European division continues expansion

Jun 21, 2023 | Customs, EU, MVT, Technology

Five months ago European Director, Richard Gibbs, outlined his vision for Metro’s road freight and short sea services, in developing the business’ capability across the EU. Today, he updates us on his progress and next priorities.

“Since the start of the year we have been working very closely with our continental partners and carriers to add new ‘lanes’ to our transport network, extending the scope of our regular services, alongside our daily EU-wide FTL and LTL services.”

“At the same time we’ve been increasing our operational capacity, by growing the European team and adding new freight centres and groupage hubs in Leicester (Desford) and Manchester.”

“Service design has a been a primary point of focus, but so too has customs compliance solutions and advanced technology, to deliver visibility, control and supporting services.”

“The development of the CuDoS customs platform by our technical services team and the digitising of customs compliance has been a ‘game-changer’ for our customers and particularly those trading with Europe.”

“Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning CuDos optimises data capture and customs declaration processes, with an SLA of 98% on turnaround times of under two hours and record turnaround speeds under 8 mins.”

“Since Brexit, the UK is considered as a third country and transactions with the EU are no longer intra-community, but considered as imports and exports, which means that VAT and duties need to be paid in the country of import, creating a trade barrier for many exporters.”

“Some EU importers are comfortable arranging import clearances and our standard T form services accommodate these movements, across single and multiple borders. However, some EU importers do not want to arrange import clearances, which is why we have created a range of options that allow UK exporters to complete transactions with their EU customers simply and seamlessly and even as if it were a domestic transaction.”

“The options are varied and can be adapted to suit specific transactions and customer relationships. They are listed below, but really require further explanation, which we will provide in a future post - or you can EMAIL me now.”

The Delivered Duty Paid or ‘DDP’ Incoterm means the exporter takes responsibility for the transport of the goods and customs formalities in the UK and EU, by becoming the ‘Importer of record” in France (or another member state) taking the burden away from your customer.

- Regime 42 is for DDP transiting France for another EU destination.

- Regime 40 is for DDP shipments where the exporter has a French VAT number enabling clearance in France for free circulation in the EU.

- DDP Light is where the consignee authorises their VAT number to be used as the importer of record but any duty is paid by the exporter.

To learn more about our expanded European capability, including our CuDoS and EU/DDP solutions EMAIL Richard Gibbs.

Automotive trends – We are in lockstep

Jun 21, 2023 | Automotive, MVT, Supply Chain, Technology

In a sign of the growing strategic significance of supply chain management for carmakers, two major manufacturers have appointed chief supply chain officers (CSCO) this month. Their appointments come after the industry has battled disruption to production and supply chains, shortages in semiconductors, and supply and logistics cost and capacity challenges.

The Ford and Renault appointments come as automotive manufacturers increasingly put top priority on efficiency, capacity, quality and digitalisation across their supply chains, with UK car sales recovering from their slump in the pandemic and Ford reclaiming the best-seller title.

Keeping up with demand
New car registrations rose by 16.7% in May, the 10th consecutive month of growth as supply continues to improve. Large fleet registrations continued to drive the growth, up by 36.9%, which has been attributed to greater availability following challenging supply issues in 2022.

British car manufacturing continues its resurgence, with output growing 9.9% in the latest monthly figures and exports up 14.7%, with 80% of UK-made cars being exported

UK car production is up 13.1%, driven by uplift in exports, with the EU the largest market, followed by the US, China and Australia.

The global volume challenges of RoRo PCC and PTCT services are well-document in the trade press and are likely to remain a serious challenge for several years.

Metro is supporting exports by shipping cars in containers, with significantly lower port to port freight costs, to avoid the long wait for delayed RoRo services, which have seen freight rates spiral due to congestion and shortage of space.

Standard 40’ containers can accommodate two large cars, properly secured and, with a rack, four small vehicles can be loaded which, with container rates falling to new lows, offers massive efficiency gains and costs that are in line with historic RoRo levels.

Digitalisation
David Leich, executive director of global supply chain at General Motors said last year that those working in supply chain faced up to 200 unique global supply chain disruptions a week impacting the delivery of inbound parts and the delivery of finished vehicles, while only 6% of them have full visibility of those supply chains.

To monitor its supply chain for potential risks that could delay or halt shipments JLR is planning to use a combination of Artificial Intelligence, predictive analytics and machine learning in combination with “human intuition”, to help avoid industrial disruption that could affect production and increase costs.

The introduction of the technology, by JLR and other manufacturers, is part of a wider move to digitally enable supply chains, with end-to-end visibility and security.

Metro is increasing use of predictive and AI technology, to collate real-time carrier updates, to maintain accurate vessel ETA’s, data for purchase order management, route optimisation and supply chain visibility.

We are developing our telematics capability, to offer shippers a much more effective alternative to the data aggregators, who are quite simply compiling data from open APIs and screen scraping historic data. We favour the ‘smart container’ technology that a number of carriers are developing, and are actively involved with UN CEFACT in creating industry standards for sharing this data.

In addition to creating visibility along the supply chain, Metro’s technical solutions team have worked hard to ensure the quality of data and provide a suite of reporting tools that make it easier to interpret and implement actions in a meaningful way.

Lithium Batteries
Growing demand from consumers and government incentives are driving demand for EVs globally and with more EV models coming out from more brands over the next two or three years, the added growth in battery demand means that manufacturers and supply chain infrastructure will struggle to satisfy demand.

Bloomberg Intelligence, told Automotive Logistics that while the semiconductor supply constraints are now beginning to ease, battery supply to meet demand will be the next problem, with potential bottlenecks from 2025 for the supply of lithium batteries into electric vehicle (EV) production.

Metro’s automotive teams handle the movement of thousands of EV’s and battery components every month, by all modes of transport including - when appropriate - the use of refrigerated equipment, to maintain ambient temperature levels, for additional safety precautions.

We started developing our Lithium battery logistics platform over six years ago and since then we have invested in the resource to serve this vertical, including training to cover all modes.

Our Li-ion transportation expertise is increasingly recognised as market-leading, with our automotive team’s manager invited to address the International EV battery conference.

If you would like to learn more about our automotive logistics capability, or to discuss any of the issues raised here handling, please EMAIL Ian Tubbs, Automotive Manager at our Birmingham HQ.