The increasing competitive pressure, the improved technical possibilities due to digitization but also the need to make work easier for the employees both in logistics and at the point of sale as well as the partly limited availability of staff are the reasons why automation and robotics have been getting more attention in consumer goods retailing in recent years.

In summer 2017, the EHI Retail Institute carried out a survey on leading retail companies in German speaking countries to further explain the opportunities and challenges of the usage of robotics in retail - both in intralogistics and at the point of sale. The results are demonstrated in the EHI whitepaper (available in German language). Miebach Consulting supports this project within the "Robotics for Retail (R4R)" initative as a cooperation partner.

Meet us personally to find out more about robotic usage in retail at our booth in hall 3, number 3B09 at LogiMAT fair, taking place from 13.-15 March 2018. Looking forward meeting you there. 

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Thanks for your interest in a career with Miebach Consulting! This brochure will provide an introduction to our company and a brief overview of development options and professional opportunities as a supply chain engineer. When you work at Miebach, you will stay in touch and help develop the latest trends and make a difference with some of the leading companies across the globe. We look forward to meeting you.

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Supply chains must evolve and adapt to global competition and changing customer needs. Regular reviews of procurement, production, and distribution networks for efficiency are crucial, and offer opportunities to overcome challenges and ensure growth targets are achieved. Miebach Consulting aligns the supply chain with the main business goals using a holistic approach, examining the supply chain design, processes, and enablers. We deliver not only a business case for the transformation, but also a tactically better process and support for the change management.

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Miebach Consulting began over 40 years ago when Dr. Miebach saw the need for an unbiased firm to design distribution, warehousing and manufacturing sites, independent of suppliers of equipment or buildings. Since then, we have supported some of the first automated warehouses and robotic applications in the industry, constantly looking for innovative ways to improve operations. We support clients with the specification development, tendering, implementation, training and ramp up, and acting as their technical advocate all the way through to the successful go-live.

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Supply chains are complex systems that need continuous reevaluation as they face ongoing efficiency and responsiveness challenges. Miebach’s thought leadership covers these requirements and more, as they optimize on multiple operational levels such as decision-making, finance, profitability and customer service. All our solutions are tailored to our client’s specific needs. We focus on excellence across activities and workflows. By identifying key processes, designing compatible workflows and implementing best practices, we support our clients in developing accurately defined structures within their organization.

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As a holistic consultancy and engineering enterprise, Miebach sets the standard in the combination of strategic knowledge and implementation capabilities. Our experience in research,development and best practice makes us a natural partner for companies that need to respond dynamically to change and we ensure that all objectives can be achieved in the implementation of their projects.

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With the technology dependency rapidly increasing in business activities and the customers demanding close to immediate responses; having a technical disruption even for a short period of time, has only negative connotations.

The interconnection among the different technologies must be understood, documented, and monitored so that the information flows and the processes perform as expected. Who is responsible for this? A Data Governance Committee that understands not only the technology, but also the processes and the users.

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In today's globalized world of business, the ever-increasing requirements of customers regarding products and services has led to a new trend - nearshoring, which allows the companies to respond to customer needs with shorter delivery times and greater flexibility. Miebach Consulting has conducted an international study on this topic to determine how supply chains are affected by current and future shoring strategies, to evaluate the factors for shoring decisions and to show what shoring trends companies expect in the future.

One of the main conclusions of the study is that an increasing amount of companies (51 % of the participants) are producing in closer proximity to their markets instead of moving the production abroad. The study also shows that this percentage is going to increase even more, since 26 % of the participating companies believe that nearshoring is a trend that is going to have a very high or high relevance in a near future, above the offshoring and the onshoring or local production (22 % and 17 %, respectively). See figure 1.

Asked more in detail about which localization strategy they would choose and where they would like to implement it in the future, respondents pointed out that in Europe the preferred strategy will be nearshoring (69%), in America Onshoring will strengthen (43%), while offshoring is still a major trend in Asian countries (67%). See figure 2.

"Modern production processes ensure a stronger focus on customers and can be a competitive advantage given the right location strategy. This is where Near- and Onshoring become more important for companies. Especially the population within the major economic regions can benefit from job creation due to production in proximity to markets." - Bernd Müller-Dauppert, Member of the Management Board, Miebach Consulting GmbH.

The study participants expect an increase in supply chain complexity due to Near- and Onshoring trends. The process of choosing an optimal shoring strategy and subsequently selecting the ideal location therefore requires an integrated consideration of both supply chain and production networks.

In all, 127 companies from various sectors took part in the study. Around 1/3 of participants are from North and South America and 2/3 are from Europe.

The complete study brochure can be obtained for free from Miebach Consulting, Ralf Hoffmann (hoffmann@miebach.com).

A blog article dealing with the nearshoring trend from the perspective of logistics service providers you will find here. 

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The term 4th Party Logistics Service Providers - or 4PL for short - repeatedly comes up in public discussion. Already during the 90's many postulated the success of the concept but this was far away from reality. Comparing the publications, talks and other PR related activities at that time to the number of projects actually implemented it seems that the 4PL euphoria has been more marketing hype than an actual trend.

Long forgotten, the concept is now being revived - 4PL is back in the public debate. But what is this all about, why is this issue being taken up, which players are important and for which kind of industrial and retail customers could this approach be interesting? The following pages give answers to these questions.

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The strength of a businesses internal Supply Chain capability is a result of the need to adapt to ever changing market expectations. To cope with today’s exponential rate of change an increasing number of businesses are relying on external expertise to innovate and exploit supply chain opportunities. Miebach Consulting believes that collaboration is becoming an indispensable component of leading edge supply chains and the factors that need to be addressed to ensure success.

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The strategic development of a company is a challenge for many logistics services providers, and previous methods only lead to insufficient solutions. While during the 90s and 2000s the focus was to successfully establish new businesses, it has now changed to attracting new business opportunities. This change is challenging the whole industry.

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Miebach’s participation at the 2016 LLamasoft Summercon Conference included a session on Ideal Supply Chain Design presented by Nick Banich.  The response from the presentation was very positive, and in consequence we have collaborated with LLamasoft to create an E-Book on the topic to be made available to those who were not in attendance.

“The idea of the ’10 Pillars of Supply Chain Design’ was to share the very high-level strategy that we ourselves employ when beginning a project of this nature for a client,” explained Nick, Miebach partner in the US. “By sharing this information with other supply chain professionals, Miebach and LLamasoft can show the value of our respective roles within a design project for our clients.  Between our expertise and the comprehensive Supply Chain Guru software, network designs are able to achieve a greater positive impact for the client’s overall business plan.”

Miebach’s LLamasoft Center of Excellence supports both owners and non-owners of the software across the full spectrum of supply chain design and transformation. 

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Published in the Logistics Magazine f+h 01/2016

Case Study about Supply Chain Transformation (pdf see download area).

Link to the English version: https://keosk.3dz.com/apps/#/html5/mag/Hlo1K5ArYgLkC/page/18

Link to the Turkish version: https://keosk.3dz.com/apps/#/html5/mag/2OXmhhGD3rREt/page/22

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The heterogeneous Asian-Pacific area increasingly gains importance as a market, with China being the top-performer. The results of the current Miebach Study - Distribution to Asia-Pacific, with more than 126 participants, indicates that 20 % of the surveyed companies already earn more than 15 % of their total turnover in this area.

“All signs point to expansion in Asia-Pacific, although companies will have to adjust their delivery time and service level to European standards”, said Bernd Müller-Dauppert, member of the executive board of Miebach Consulting GmbH.

More than 75 % of participants expect an increase in delivery time requirements. As of right now, more than half of the exporting companies have to supply customers within 14 days; almost a quarter within three days. Two thirds of the participants additionally expect an increase in competition, which will result in an even higher service demand. To fulfill delivery time requirements, three quarters of companies pursue a supply chain strategy precisely for Asia-Pacific. Especially the strategic importance of agility and flexibility in the region is assessed highly, followed by the CPFR-concept (Continuous Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) as well as supply chain transparency. Further important topics for Asian-pacific companies are supply chain differentiation by customer demands as well as the use of current IT-systems.

A majority of companies (41 %) distribute their products in all five Asia- Pacific regions and almost a quarter within four regions. Exporting companies with local production have on average eleven  mainly self-owned warehouses in Asia-Pacific. Only a small number of companies consider developed countries like Australia/ New Zealand and Japan/ South-Korea as attractive production locations. That indicates that companies are following consumer markets: Higher saturated markets have higher customer demands – therefore, a customer proximity is required.

Background of the Study: 

Miebach Consulting conducted a survey in June and July 2015 about distribution to Asia-Pacific. An online survey was used as research method, which was sent to companies from different industries. The survey was analyzed completely anonymously.

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The article summarizes the key aspects of the Miebach Consulting study about integrated production  and logistics. The potentials of a closer connection between production and logistics considering the conflicting objectives between production, logistics and distribution are discussed in the article. 

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