Efficiency Through Cooperation

We are operating in a fragmented, highly dislocated market.??

Its effects can be felt throughout the supply chain down to the end consumer: congestion at the ports, increased wait times for drivers, rising costs for shippers and slower delivery times.?

This is the biggest issue facing the supply chain today, and one the industry needs to address.?

At J.B. Hunt, we know efficiency.??

I started at J.B. Hunt 30 years ago, met my wife here, raised our kids in Northwest Arkansas and consider this company family. This year, I became the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In my time with the company, I have seen the supply chain shift and change many times. Each time, J.B. Hunt has met the challenge with our core company foundations: people you trust, technology that empowers and capacity to deliver. These foundations drive everything we do at J.B. Hunt and help us build solutions that create value for our customers.??

Five years ago, we saw the impact that siloed supply chains had on our own company. We were meeting customer demands, but we saw an opportunity to create more value for them. We needed a way to see our total network, so we could identify inefficiencies and solve for them.?

Our solution was the industry-disrupting J.B. Hunt 360°? platform. J.B. Hunt 360 changed the way supply met demand by moving the marketplace online, directly connecting shippers with carriers for the first time. The platform uses data to connect shipments with the right capacity, at the right time. Customers that once only had access to a few carriers now had access to nearly one million company-owned and third-party trucks with the click of a button. With all available shipment options laid out in front of them, customers could find the shipment solution that worked best for their supply chain.???

That same principle can be applied to the greater supply chain. A network cannot be at its optimal efficiency while fragmented, but data can help connect the fragments. Empowering that level of visibility into the supply chain cannot be done by one group alone. Stakeholders at all ends of the supply chain must work together to foster better connectivity between networks. The new era of the supply chain is one of cooperation.??

The problems facing the supply chain are big, and they will require big ideas to fix them. Thinking big is in our DNA at J.B. Hunt. Our spirit of innovation comes from our founder, Johnnie Bryan Hunt. Every morning, Mr. Hunt would take a stroll through the J.B. Hunt office asking everyone, “Is it going to be a big day?” and “Is it big yet?”??

Finding the next big idea requires an open exchange between all stakeholders in the market. We need to forge new relationships with each other based on the mutual goal of bettering the supply chain. In my new role, these are the conversations I want to start and the relationships I hope to foster with our colleagues. We can achieve efficiency through cooperation.??

?Want to keep the conversation going? Reach out to me today or leave a comment here.?