Inventory management comment and opinion

The warehousing space has been undergoing substantial technological development in recent years. This is the upshot of rising demand for distribution space, which has been partly amplified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. There are a few drivers of exploration:   Potential long-term financial savings A declining labour pool The need to increase efficiencies However, the adopt...

Brexit is now only weeks away, scheduled for 29th March, but constitutional and diplomatic outcomes remain uncertain.  A Brexit deal exists, agreed by UK and EU negotiators, but this was rejected – emphatically - in the House Of Commons when put to a vote on 15th January.  In fact, it seems unlikely that any vision of Brexit can currently win a majority in Parliament and so there is a dis...

IGD’s Chief Economist, James Walton, explores potential availability issues and stockholding in a post-Brexit world. The Final Countdown Brexit is scheduled for the end of March 2019 – now just four months away. Even with so little time left to run, businesses still have no certainty over Brexit outcomes, which may be anything from “anti-climax” to “severe disruption”. If the exit d...

In recent years, smart warehousing has been brought into the mainstream by ecommerce businesses like Amazon and Ocado. These facilities are a world away from the warehouses I am familiar with: think large buildings filled with lots of racking and forklift trucks. Not very inspiring! Smart warehouses bring together a variety of complementary technologies, all of which work in harmony to recei...

The trend for online retailers to establish a “real world” store network continues to gather pace in 2018. Alistair Balderson, IGD's Head of Supply Chain Insight, looks at some recent developments.   Last week the two major Chinese online retailers were in the news. Alibaba announced the expansion of their Hema supermarket chain with 30 new stores to be opened in Beijing during 2018. And JD...