We asked ISCPO 2017 speakers and attendees to share the most pressing shifts and trends that are affecting supply chain security today. The future truly is NOW when it comes to protecting, securing, and managing goods as they flow through the supply chain.
Aligning a supply chain security framework with customers’ buying behavior
“The continued growth of online commerce and consumers who are time-starved drive the ever-changing face of supply chain. More and more home or workplace deliveries open up opportunities for the retail and service industries. But with these opportunities comes risk. Fraud, theft, worker injury, increasing reliance on 3rd party partners just to name a few. If the loss prevention community does not keep step with the changes, organizations will lose billions in profits. The key will be the industry coming together realizing that brick and mortar has changed and will continue to change. Partnering with an organization like the ISCPO can only help in calibration, education, and change.” – Byron Smith, Corporate Asset Protection Manager, 7-Eleven Inc
“The ability for consumers to order something immediately and expect to have it on their doorstep within 24 hours without even visiting a retail location is a huge shift, affecting every facet of our industry.”- Glenn Master, Director Loss Prevention, Environmental Health & Safety, Newgistics
Balancing Prevention vs Response Activation
“Whether businesses ship their own deliverables or outsource their transportation, the expectation is that there are appropriate security measures in place to protect the freight. This involves a considerable investment in time and resources to provide this level of assurance back to the business. Failing to front load these costs today within the business may lead to losses and reactive spending 2,3 or 4x that tomorrow. The most successful prevention programs provide a multi-faced approach including well-contrived transport security requirements, a robust audit program, and an investigatory process. Implementing an effective prevention strategy is not easy and in many cases tend to evolve over years of trial and error.” – Wes Bank, Director of Loss Prevention, DHL eCommerce
Having the Right Talent
“The gap between brick-and-mortar professionals and supply-chain asset protection experts has grown exponentially, and the ability to hire talent is strained. It quickly became evident that successful supply-chain talent was defined as logisticians with an expertise in asset protection versus asset protection experts learning logistics, let alone supply chain. The net became much wider, the systems became more advanced, and the skill sets needed to be shored up quickly. Today, there are a handful of domestic and global SMEs that understand where to find the golden nuggets and how to expose the vulnerabilities. You can see the evolution of security to loss prevention to retail asset protection to supply-chain asset protection to eventually its final evolution—supply-chain risk management. It’s likely that omni-channel will eventually be absorbed into the supply-chain risk management umbrella.” – Maurizio Scrofani, President & Chief Innovation Officer, MPS Solutions
“We are no longer simply LP professionals dealing with shrink. Supply chain security is an integral piece of our organization’s risk management strategy that requires investment in the tools, data, and people that not only enable companies to keep up with their customers’ expectations but also to manage risk throughout the whole supply chain loop.” – Glenn Master, Director Loss Prevention, Newgistics
Innovating and Keeping Up with New Technologies
“The implementation of new technologies in the logistics industry has become a differentiating element and in Deutsche Post DHL Group we remain at the forefront with the introduction of different technological devices, including drones. We develop solutions that optimize the resources of the customers and see a great potential in technology as a tool to make supply chain operations more efficient and secure.” – Jeronimo Sosa, Sr. Director/Regional Security Head, DHL Supply Chain
“One trend, facial recognition, highlights the potential issues happening in a store for the asset protection team. But a better way would be to look at the feature recognition software available to solve the same problem but in a much more efficient way. In retail the trends ebb and flow with the asset protection team being in the ascendancy at one stage before the sales team take over. This is often triggered by trends within the company or the industry as a whole. If the latest trading figures shown an unacceptable level of shrink then the focus moves away from sales lightly and there is often a tightening of procedures. The scarce resources of a retailer are at times redeployed into asset protection spend to combat this risk. That is until the next inventory review cycle show an asset protection positive impact of the business that appears to be under.” – Maurizio Scrofani, President & Chief Innovation Officer, MPS Solutions