By the numbers: Behind the scenes at CSCMP's Annual Global Conference
By Teri Elloitt Jarvie, CSCMP Director of Meeting Services
For three and a half days each year, CSCMP's Annual Global Conference provides attendees from all over the world with opportunities to hear about current and emerging supply chain and logistics trends and issues, as well as new techniques, strategies, and best practices they can put to use right away. The conference also lets them share their experiences and perspectives with peers, meet up with former colleagues, and make new acquaintances.
Many of those attendees may not be aware that the Annual Global Conference is itself an incredible logistical project. The planning for this largescale educational event begins years in advance when CSCMP's Meeting Services Department reserves convention center space and hotels in the designated host city. But that's just the first step in the year-round preparations required to stage this premier global event. Here are some interesting facts to keep in mind while you attend this year's conference in Denver, Colorado, USA:
Over the course of the conference, attendees will quench their thirst with 1,400 gallons of coffee (equivalent to 28,000 cups) and 21,000 soft drinks, including sodas, bottled waters, and juices— about 875 cases, or six palletloads.
Meals and snacks will be served on 47,000 china plates and glasses. That's more than the number used to serve all the people on the Titanic. (Fortunately, our annual global conferences are held on land, far from drifting icebergs.)
Speaking of icebergs, four tons (8,000 pounds) of ice, or about 10 pallets' worth, will be needed to keep things cool.
Some 1,100 tablecloths will grace the tables at the conference. If they were laid end-to-end, they would stretch 8,250 feet, or nearly two miles.
Making sure all attendees can see and hear speakers in the general session hall will require 12,018 feet of video cable, 9,393 feet of lighting and electrical cable, and 9,136 feet of audio cable. That's a grand total of 30,546 feet of cable, equivalent to 75 home runs to center field at Wrigley Field, home of the world-famous Chicago Cubs baseball team!
The lighting and sound systems for the general session hall will also require 8,000 feet of gaffer, carpet, and electrical tape; 390 feet of aluminum lighting and video truss (steel bars used to suspend equipment); and 40 amplifiers that can generate up to 100,000 watts of audio power for the public address system.
All of the equipment required for the general sessions will arrive at the convention center in three 40-foot trailers. The hall is so big that the trailers will be driven right inside for unloading.
Nearly 50,000 square feet of carpet will help keep attendees comfortable as they walk the corridors and meeting spaces of the convention center. This amount of carpeting would cover an entire football field, or about half of an average distribution center.
More than 400 volunteers, students, and CSCMP staff members are needed to make the entire conference run smoothly ... and that doesn't include the staff at the conference hotels.
These are impressive numbers, yet it's not the quantity of goods and equipment necessary to make CSCMP's Annual Global Conference operate seamlessly that's most important—it's the quality of the event itself. Together, CSCMP staff members and the professionals they work with focus on every aspect of the conference experience to ensure that the environment for education and networking is the best that it can be, costs are controlled, and service is friendly and efficient.
We hope you agree, and we look forward to seeing you there!
New job-specific courses will sharpen your skills
Rising oil prices, transportation bottlenecks, new import and export regulations ... the list goes on. In today's challenging economic environment, you can't afford to be complacent. Now more than ever, it's imperative that you stay abreast of current trends and continually hone your professional skills.
One way CSCMP is responding to this need is by adding more than 200 new offerings to its cache of online courses. The courses are broken down into six major supply chain functions: inventory management, manufacturing, purchasing/procurement, supply chain planning, transportation, and warehousing. Within each of these areas, we have created 22 bundles of courses that apply to a specific job role or title. Each bundle contains between 9 and 18 courses that cover the core competencies and requirements needed to succeed in the job.
The following is a breakdown of the course bundles being offered under each function:
Inventory management: inventory manager, inventory planner, and inventory analyst
Manufacturing: operations manager, production supervisor, master scheduler, materials manager, and production scheduler and transportation planner
Purchasing and procurement: senior buyer, buyer, and business analyst
Transportation: transportation/traffic manager, transportation supervisor, transportation scheduler, and transportation planner
Warehousing: warehouse manager, warehouse supervisor, and warehouse clerk
"The new course bundles are a convenient, fast, and costeffective way for practitioners to receive supply chain training," says Burt Blanchard, CSCMP's manager of education and research. "Users never have to leave the office for professional education."
The courses are available any time of day, every day of the week, and cost $950 for CSCMP members and $1,095 for nonmembers. Participants have six months to complete all courses in a bundle and will receive a certificate upon completion.
More information and descriptions of the course objectives can be found at cscmp.org, under "CSCMP University" in the "Online Courses" tab on the homepage.
Tune in to CSCMP!
The next time you are traveling or taking a break from your daily tasks, consider downloading and listening to one of CSCMP's unique, members-only podcasts. These brief (3 to 10 minutes) audio messages from members of CSCMP's Board of Directors contain valuable industry insights on such topics as metrics, finance, and operational excellence.
Currently available are:
Seven Perfect-Order Supply Chain Metrics: Donald (Dee) Biggs, director of customer logistics for Welch Foods Inc., discusses the seven perfect-order metrics recommended by the grocery industry to analyze and create a successful supply chain. This podcast is great for supply chain professionals in retail, wholesale, and manufacturing. (2 MB, 5:45 minutes)
Professional Business Talk: Ed Huller, President of Alden Consulting Group, describes the pitfalls that logisticians typically face when talking with upper management. The podcast outlines how to use the language of finance to sell yourself and your ideas at your next big meeting. (2 MB, 3:58 minutes)
Keeping Your Employees Focused: Greg Chalkley, Director of Global Trade Compliance for Texas Instruments, talks about the importance of communicating openly and positively with your employees. Hear how such factors as changes in organizational structure can affect the focus of your employees. (1 MB, 3:35 minutes)
A Successful Supply Chain Begins with Clear SCM Process Guidelines: Abré Pienaar, CEO of iPlan Industrial Engineers, says that supply chain management (SCM) professionals must adopt a clear strategy for implementing process guidelines. To accomplish this, they need to create a balance between collaborative processes, focus on the people who manage the supply chain, and implement the right systems. (2 MB, 5:00 minutes)
Top 10 Tips of Supply Chain Operational Excellence: Susan Rider, President of Rider & Associates, advises listeners on how they can create a successful supply chain operation. In particular, she stresses the need for clear communication as well as a "barrier free" internal customer service department. (4 MB, 10:57 minutes)
Visit cscmp.org to hear these exclusive member podcasts.
Think globally at CSCMP's Annual Conference
CSCMP is striving to make its annual conference as global as your supply chain. This year's conference in Denver, Colorado, USA, highlights how increasingly important it is for today's supply chain professionals to take a global view of their operations. From the keynote address, to networking events, to educational sessions, the conference urges participants to step beyond their national boundaries and gain a better grasp of the challenges of competing in a global economy.
In the opening keynote address, Frances Fragos Townsend will speak about the role of global risk, crisis preparation, and leadership in today's business environment. Townsend, currently a commentator for CNN, was Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chair of the Homeland Security Council from May 2004 until January 2008.
Subsequent general sessions will pick up this theme of uncertainty and the global economy. Mahender Singh from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Supply Chain 2020 project will speak on "Curved Thinking in a Flat World: How to Capitalize on Future Uncertainty." His address will touch on rising global agriculture prices; the emergence of countries such as Vietnam and Thailand as sources of low-cost manufacturing; and the possibility of high energy costs, environmental concerns, and currency exchange rates breathing new life into U.S. manufacturing. Next, a roundtable of executives from DHL/Exel, ProLogis, Limited Logistics Services, and YRC Worldwide will share strategies for succeeding in a challenging global economy and for managing trade barriers and risks.
Attendees will have the chance to delve further into specific global issues in such session tracks as Critical Business Issues, Emerging Markets, Future Trends, Global Strategic Sourcing, International Trade Compliance, and Matching Supply and Need in Resource-Constrained Settings.
Finally, in the conference's Global Showcase, CSCMP members from around the world will staff booths with information about 26 countries. Attendees can learn more about the economic developments, infrastructures, supply chain and logistics operations, business opportunities, and other significant issues facing their colleagues and potential supply chain partners in many nations.
The new funding brings Amazon's total investment in Anthropic to $8 billion, while maintaining the e-commerce giant’s position as a minority investor, according to Anthropic. The partnership was launched in 2023, when Amazon invested its first $4 billion round in the firm.
Anthropic’s “Claude” family of AI assistant models is available on AWS’s Amazon Bedrock, which is a cloud-based managed service that lets companies build specialized generative AI applications by choosing from an array of foundation models (FMs) developed by AI providers like AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral AI, Stability AI, and Amazon itself.
According to Amazon, tens of thousands of customers, from startups to enterprises and government institutions, are currently running their generative AI workloads using Anthropic’s models in the AWS cloud. Those GenAI tools are powering tasks such as customer service chatbots, coding assistants, translation applications, drug discovery, engineering design, and complex business processes.
"The response from AWS customers who are developing generative AI applications powered by Anthropic in Amazon Bedrock has been remarkable," Matt Garman, AWS CEO, said in a release. "By continuing to deploy Anthropic models in Amazon Bedrock and collaborating with Anthropic on the development of our custom Trainium chips, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what customers can achieve with generative AI technologies. We’ve been impressed by Anthropic’s pace of innovation and commitment to responsible development of generative AI, and look forward to deepening our collaboration."
Specifically, the new global average robot density has reached a record 162 units per 10,000 employees in 2023, which is more than double the mark of 74 units measured seven years ago.
Broken into geographical regions, the European Union has a robot density of 219 units per 10,000 employees, an increase of 5.2%, with Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia in the global top ten. Next, North America’s robot density is 197 units per 10,000 employees – up 4.2%. And Asia has a robot density of 182 units per 10,000 persons employed in manufacturing - an increase of 7.6%. The economies of Korea, Singapore, mainland China and Japan are among the top ten most automated countries.
Broken into individual countries, the U.S. ranked in 10th place in 2023, with a robot density of 295 units. Higher up on the list, the top five are:
The Republic of Korea, with 1,012 robot units, showing a 5% increase on average each year since 2018 thanks to its strong electronics and automotive industries.
Singapore had 770 robot units, in part because it is a small country with a very low number of employees in the manufacturing industry, so it can reach a high robot density with a relatively small operational stock.
China took third place in 2023, surpassing Germany and Japan with a mark of 470 robot units as the nation has managed to double its robot density within four years.
Germany ranks fourth with 429 robot units for a 5% CAGR since 2018.
Japan is in fifth place with 419 robot units, showing growth of 7% on average each year from 2018 to 2023.
Progress in generative AI (GenAI) is poised to impact business procurement processes through advancements in three areas—agentic reasoning, multimodality, and AI agents—according to Gartner Inc.
Those functions will redefine how procurement operates and significantly impact the agendas of chief procurement officers (CPOs). And 72% of procurement leaders are already prioritizing the integration of GenAI into their strategies, thus highlighting the recognition of its potential to drive significant improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, Gartner found in a survey conducted in July, 2024, with 258 global respondents.
Gartner defined the new functions as follows:
Agentic reasoning in GenAI allows for advanced decision-making processes that mimic human-like cognition. This capability will enable procurement functions to leverage GenAI to analyze complex scenarios and make informed decisions with greater accuracy and speed.
Multimodality refers to the ability of GenAI to process and integrate multiple forms of data, such as text, images, and audio. This will make GenAI more intuitively consumable to users and enhance procurement's ability to gather and analyze diverse information sources, leading to more comprehensive insights and better-informed strategies.
AI agents are autonomous systems that can perform tasks and make decisions on behalf of human operators. In procurement, these agents will automate procurement tasks and activities, freeing up human resources to focus on strategic initiatives, complex problem-solving and edge cases.
As CPOs look to maximize the value of GenAI in procurement, the study recommended three starting points: double down on data governance, develop and incorporate privacy standards into contracts, and increase procurement thresholds.
“These advancements will usher procurement into an era where the distance between ideas, insights, and actions will shorten rapidly,” Ryan Polk, senior director analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Procurement leaders who build their foundation now through a focus on data quality, privacy and risk management have the potential to reap new levels of productivity and strategic value from the technology."
Businesses are cautiously optimistic as peak holiday shipping season draws near, with many anticipating year-over-year sales increases as they continue to battle challenging supply chain conditions.
That’s according to the DHL 2024 Peak Season Shipping Survey, released today by express shipping service provider DHL Express U.S. The company surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gauge their holiday business outlook compared to last year and found that a mix of optimism and “strategic caution” prevail ahead of this year’s peak.
Nearly half (48%) of the SMEs surveyed said they expect higher holiday sales compared to 2023, while 44% said they expect sales to remain on par with last year, and just 8% said they foresee a decline. Respondents said the main challenges to hitting those goals are supply chain problems (35%), inflation and fluctuating consumer demand (34%), staffing (16%), and inventory challenges (14%).
But respondents said they have strategies in place to tackle those issues. Many said they began preparing for holiday season earlier this year—with 45% saying they started planning in Q2 or earlier, up from 39% last year. Other strategies include expanding into international markets (35%) and leveraging holiday discounts (32%).
Sixty percent of respondents said they will prioritize personalized customer service as a way to enhance customer interactions and loyalty this year. Still others said they will invest in enhanced web and mobile experiences (23%) and eco-friendly practices (13%) to draw customers this holiday season.
The practice consists of 5,000 professionals from Accenture and from Avanade—the consulting firm’s joint venture with Microsoft. They will be supported by Microsoft product specialists who will work closely with the Accenture Center for Advanced AI. Together, that group will collaborate on AI and Copilot agent templates, extensions, plugins, and connectors to help organizations leverage their data and gen AI to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and drive growth, they said on Thursday.
Accenture and Avanade say they have already developed some AI tools for these applications. For example, a supplier discovery and risk agent can deliver real-time market insights, agile supply chain responses, and better vendor selection, which could result in up to 15% cost savings. And a procure-to-pay agent could improve efficiency by up to 40% and enhance vendor relations and satisfaction by addressing urgent payment requirements and avoiding disruptions of key services
Likewise, they have also built solutions for clients using Microsoft 365 Copilot technology. For example, they have created Copilots for a variety of industries and functions including finance, manufacturing, supply chain, retail, and consumer goods and healthcare.
Another part of the new practice will be educating clients how to use the technology, using an “Azure Generative AI Engineer Nanodegree program” to teach users how to design, build, and operationalize AI-driven applications on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. The online classes will teach learners how to use AI models to solve real-world problems through automation, data insights, and generative AI solutions, the firms said.
“We are pleased to deepen our collaboration with Accenture to help our mutual customers develop AI-first business processes responsibly and securely, while helping them drive market differentiation,” Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, said in a release. “By bringing together Copilots and human ambition, paired with the autonomous capabilities of an agent, we can accelerate AI transformation for organizations across industries and help them realize successful business outcomes through pragmatic innovation.”