No more cages in Wal-Mart egg supply chain
This week saw the announcement of a new supply chain commitment by retail giant Wal-Mart. The company revealed its plans for a cage-free egg supply chain by 2025 for all 5,000 of its retail locations in the U.S., including its Sam’s Club warehouse chain. Wal-Mart has been offering cage-free eggs in select stores since 2001, but this all-in commitment is now more in line with other large firms such as McDonalds (cage free by 2025) and Burger King (cage free by 2017). It is a move that will likely increase pressure on other firms to transition to cage-free operating practices in the egg industry.
Wal-Mart plans to put more pressure on its suppliers to adhere to the “five principles” of animal welfare which help protect animals from discomfort and mental distress and ensure they are not starved. To put the magnitude of this commitment into perspective, according to a recent estimate from the trade group United Egg Producers, only 6% of hens are currently raised cage-free in the United States. Based on the purchasing power of Wal-Mart and the previously named fast-food giants, these recent commitments are set to have a major impact on the welfare of animals across many supply chains.
Read more on Wal-Mart’s recent commitment here.
Supply Chain fraud – a consistent problem
For three years in a row, supply chain fraud, waste or abuse have plagued 30% of respondents participating in an annual Deloitte survey. Two industries in particular are consistently facing increased fraud along their supply chains: life sciences and healthcare. Despite these negative findings, only 29.3% of survey respondents are using analytics or risk mitigation tools to fight against these threats. The majority of those surveyed believe their employees would report on any observed suspicious activity. However, certain employee groups, for example, project managers, invoice approvers, and procurement professionals represent the greatest fraud risk according to the responding organizations.
Click here to read more about the survey results.
Supply Chain managers’ growing acceptance of robots
MHI and Deloitte recently released results from a survey that asked 900 supply chain professionals to reveal their top strategic priorities for global supply chain operations. According to the report, 51% of respondents identified robotics and automation as the main source of competitive advantage or disruption in their supply networks. When compared to last year, these areas of focus increased by 12%, pointing to an increasing importance for their role in operations. Despite recognizing the importance of automation and robotics, only 35% of respondents said they already adopted these practices in their supply chains. However, this number is expected to increase to 74% within the next ten years.
With continued pressure on firms to work faster at lower costs, the topics of automation and other emerging technologies will continue to steal the supply chain spotlight. In fact, the majority of the 900 supply chain professionals stated they plan on investing at least $1 million on some form of emerging technology within the next two years.
Read more on these insightful survey results here.
Have a nice weekend!
