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Warehouses Turnarounds Round-Robin

We all have experience with bad warehouses – dock-to-stock times are consistently missed, stock accuracy is poor, productivity is low, and more. When a warehouse is “broken,” it can often be difficult to see clearly what actions need to be taken to fix it. With so many broken processes – processes that are typically interrelated – we may struggle to decide what to tackle first, and how to keep track of what success looks like along the way. In this discussion, we will hear from OEMs who have recently identified, began fixing, and fixed a broken warehouse, focusing on how they structured their approach, and what lessons they learned throughout the process. Beyond just general warehouse improvement tactics, this session will specifically focus on strategies for addressing warehouses that are critically broken and in need of a complete turnaround.

Unplanned Referrals & Backorders Roundtable

Unplanned referrals and backorders are a significant driver of cost in our networks today. In addition, dealers can cope with planned referrals as they often know approximately how long they’ll need to wait for a part. The inconsistency inherent in unplanned referrals creates dealer frustration. In this session, we will answer questions such as: Can OEMs differentiate between planned and unplanned referrals? If no, why not? We’ve tracked this data for years and have not seen substantial growth in the measurement capabilities of OEMs. What is the root cause of unplanned referrals in backorders? How is this measured? What tools, processes, or strategies are people using to mitigate or reduce unplanned referrals? Is there a tradeoff between fill and lost service that OEMs are willing to accept, which causes some minimum standard level of unplanned referrals that will always exist? In discussing all of these questions, attendees will better understand how each OEM handles unplanned referrals and backorders.

Coordinating Between Manufacturing & Aftersales Roundtable

One by one, OEMs are increasing the coordination between their manufacturing and aftersales supply chains. Coordination is becoming common enough that we’ve decided to make this topic one of the key themes for this year’s conference. This session is open to all OEMs, regardless of whether manufacturing and aftersales are integrated. We will cover a broad set of topics and especially hear case studies from companies that been successful at integration. What is the organization design and what are the key organizational challenges? What are some broad areas where OEMs have found it useful, and also challenging to make the leap? Examples include shared forecasting, inbound transportation, cross-docks, new model planning, allocating scarce but shared parts and shared supplier scorecards. This session will be attended by representatives from OEM manufacturing as well as aftersales, and seating priority will be given to OEMs who bring representatives from both sides of the business.

2:30 Pm - 4:00 Pm

All the Applications of Dims Data & How to Use It Roundtable

Managing Inventory through Part Retention & Reduction Roundtable

Second Line Parts Round-Robin

All the Applications of Dims Data & How to Use It Roundtable

Most NAPB OEMs collect dimensional data on the vast majority of part numbers. We know there is potential value to the data in reducing storage, transportation, and operational costs, but so far unlocking this value has proved to be very challenging. In this session, we will discuss how OEMs have overcome the major roadblocks in dimensional data, including storage, accuracy and updating challenges. We will also focus on how OEMs have managed to deploy dimensional data to resolve operational challenges and improve performance – both small tactical applications and broader initiatives that involve integration and management of multiple system and data sources.

Managing Inventory through Part Retention & Reduction Roundtable

We periodically update the industry on the state of part retention policies, and this session allows us to refresh our information. We will begin with an overview of OEM retention policies to ensure participants understand the similarities in the room. Understanding the expectations customers impose on each OEM is an important driver of retention policies, and we will cover this during the session as well. The group will also discuss how to manage retention versus storage space, productivity, or warehouse quality, and the business cases they develop to account for all of the tradeoffs required in effective inventory management. Because policy doesn’t always match reality, we’ll hear from OEMs who may have a clearly stated policy but struggle to follow it – and we’ll also get best practices from OEMs who can routinely follow their policies.

Second Line Parts Round-Robin

Most OEMs offer some type of “second line” parts – parts that may not be branded the same as the true genuine part, but often come backed by an OEM-like warranty and are sold through the dealer channel. As large dealer groups ramp up the offerings of their own brand of parts (often called dealer white box parts) we feel the time is right to analyze OEM second line parts offerings. This session will begin with a fairly detailed benchmark of the types of parts, the number of second line “brands,” and the types of customers that typically purchase these parts. The discussion in the room will center around the optimal types of parts to offer as second line, avoiding cannibalization of genuine parts, marketing second line parts, and measuring the impact on overall parts sales. Finally, we’ll talk about expanding the reach of the second line parts into new customer groups.

4:30 Pm - 6:00 Pm

Green Initiatives Round-Robin

Alternative Outbound Transportation Strategies Roundtable

E-Commerce: Customer Expectations Roundtable

Green Initiatives Round-Robin

Care of the environment often comes up as a subtopic in other sessions, but rarely do we give it the attention it deserves as its own session. Increasingly, OEMs have what they call “green initiatives” to reduce carbon emissions, water use, waste or to pursue other projects that mitigate environmental concerns. During this session, multiple OEMs will describe their green initiatives following a similar framework: We’ll hear an overview of the initiative, the “origin story” of how the initiative was created, the parties responsible for creating and implementing, and finally, the end environmental effect. OEMs will be able to take these stories home after the conference to assess their applicability to their network with an understanding of how their peers justified project implementation.

Alternative Outbound Transportation Strategies Roundtable

As the uptime focus grows in both the heavy equipment and automotive industries, OEMs are gradually exploring alternative transportation strategies to serve end customers even more quickly than before. Opening PDCs to will-call at all hours, running parts straight to a key customer, and quickly serving roadside assistance are all required to effectively meet the customer’s demands in today’s market. Even some warehouse processes such as sorting parts for the dealer, or staging deliveries in a different order, can help improve transportation. Historically, dealers have entirely handled the last-mile delivery process to the end customer, but this doesn’t always yield the best customer service. So, what role can the OEM play in the last mile? Setting standards? Incentivizing dealer results? Contracting and controlling delivery on behalf of the dealers? In this roundtable, OEMs will discuss what alternative strategies they are exploring to meet the ever-increasing delivery speed requirements of customers today. Senior leaders are also encouraged to attend this session, which will focus on far-reaching strategic ideas and decisions within the industry.

E-Commerce: Customer Expectations Roundtable

In previous years, we have covered outside digital competitors (Amazon, aftermarket, and others), as well as internal OEM e-commerce strategies. This year, we will turn our focus to our customers to answer the question – what do customers want and expect from an e-commerce offering, and how are OEMs meeting these needs? This session will follow the format of previous years with e-commerce topics, in which Carlisle will first provide a brief overview of the key findings from our research, followed by a detailed roundtable discussion among OEM representatives on what they are doing in this space today.

10:00 Am - 12:15 Pm

What's New in the Supply Chain Presentation

With 26 OEMs, encompassing over 250 warehouses, we have a comprehensive view of supply chain performance across the industry. While the data book provides all of the detailed comparisons, this presentation highlights the key trends and best-in-class performers, enabling attendees to quickly understand where they are strong and in what areas they have performance gaps.

Following each set of metrics comparisons, there will be stories explaining what’s behind the numbers and helping participants identify action items that they can implement to improve performance. Given the wide range of experiences, ideas, and approaches to running the business that this group represents, we can undoubtedly learn a lot from one another.

12:45 Pm - 2:15 Pm

Super Narrow Quality Initiatives Round-Robin

Supply Chain Stories Panel

Inbound Transportation Management Best Practices Roundtable

Changing Terms & Conditions Panel

Super Narrow Quality Initiatives Round-Robin

Last year we heard two very compelling stories of OEMs who looked at the details to surface major quality improvements. This session is for any OEM who looked at their data to find the root causes of quality misses. In the warehouse, this may be new employees – or old employees. It may be the small parts area – or the bulk area. It may even be one aisle, one bay, or even one combination of bins causing a disproportionate amount of errors. We will also consider outside-the-warehouse quality such as transportation damages if stories surface. Tier 1 suppliers often struggle with shipment quality into OEMs – whether it’s aftersales or manufacturing. Manufacturing representations can take these learnings back to suppliers who are underperforming.

Supply Chain Stories Panel

Every year, the supply chain presentation includes more than a dozen stories on what participating OEMs have done to move the needle. That’s usually the only time during the conference when these specific stories are discussed, except for the sidebar conversations that take place during coffee breaks.
In order to give everyone the benefit of learning more and having their questions answered, following the supply chain presentation, we will conduct a panel discussion of the stories with the most unique and industry-wide appeal, particularly for inventory and supply chain management professionals. At the time of publishing, we are working to have panelists discuss controlling inbound airfreight spending, managing supplier capacity for service parts, and reducing inventory and warehouse space requirements.

Inbound Transportation Management Best Practices Roundtable

This session will focus on skills OEMs have developed in managing their inbound transportation. We will focus primarily on best practices to achieve a high quality, consistent, visible level of service. The session will cover developments like service levels, adding track and trace, monitoring drivers, supplier chargebacks, use of sport market and returnable racks. We will cover cost-saving and increasing service level case studies in equal levels of detail. We plan to deal primarily with the day-to-day improvements that OEMs can more easily implement. Many of these tactical improvements can be easily shared with a company’s manufacturing transportation group as well.

Changing Terms & Conditions Panel

Few things have as big of a direct effect on our business as Dealer Terms & Conditions. A minor tweak in dealer performance terms can have a significant impact on both the dealer and the OEM’s bottom line. Given the severity of the consequences, OEMs have to be extremely cautious and thoughtful when making any changes to their Terms & Conditions. When is the right time to make changes? How do you prioritize changes to be made? How do you balance the give and take in performance terms changes? What areas are going to be most emotional for your dealers to accept? In this session, we will hear from OEMs who have recently made significant changes to their Terms & Conditions, learning how they answered all of these questions. By hearing from innovators in this space, session attendees will learn best practices and processes for tackling this tough topic.

2:40 Pm - 4:15 Pm

30 Warehouse Improvement Ideas in 90 Minutes Lighting Round

Yard Management Systems & Processes Roundtable

Attracting & Retaining Diverse Talent Panel

What’s Really Going on in the Dealer Parts Department Presentation & Discussion