Company supply chains are increasingly being disrupted by their customers wants and needs to get goods faster and cheaper.
This trend is putting significant pressure on companies to be in control of their goods from start to finish; and because of that, technology is becoming increasingly more important in the supply chain process from robotics to blockchain to big data.
All this could have companies’ executives spinning their heads trying to figure out how to best navigate this fast-paced world of change.
It’s here where the Supply Change Expo will bring everything together experts, solutions and education for every business with a supply chain. For those who wish learn more about how they can streamline their movement of goods, reduce costs and deliver their products to customers more efficiently, Supply Change Expo is the event to attend in 2020.
“Every business has a supply chain and it is likely rapidly changing. In order to compete and meet customers’ expectations, the flow of goods and services must be streamlined. Supply Change Expo focuses on providing education and solutions throughout the supply chain – across all industries. Organizations face real disruption through increased international competition and changes in customer demands,” says Wes Scott, President and CEO of EventWorx Corporation, which is hosting the Expo.
“Ideally, we want to exhibit suppliers with cutting edge technologies like robotics, machine learning, autonomous and unmanned systems, asset tracking, hydrogen and battery powered vehicles. However, as this event focuses on the broader supply chain, we envision an event that also exhibits commercial real estate and land developers, warehousing, shippers, forklifts, racking, tracking, customs and more. With the broadness of this event, Supply Change Expo has the potential to be a very large event for Calgary in the years to come.
“Our concept of the event is multi-layered. In addition to providing education and solutions to existing businesses and personnel; a significant portion of what we want to accomplish is bringing focus to the growing number of manufacturing, logistics and distribution hubs around Alberta. Events like Supply Change Expo can greatly benefit regions by attracting prospective organizations to the area to see what a city can offer should they be in a position to expand to a new region.”
Supply Change Expo takes place Oct. 28-30 at Stampede Park.
According to Calgary Economic Development, Calgary is Western Canada’s distribution hub because it has the quickest and cheapest access to the greatest number of regional markets. Calgary offers modern and new infrastructure assets that include the Calgary International Airport, distribution centres near the airport and cargo transfer.
The trade flow in and out of Calgary by truck and rail is over $20 billion per year and about $5 billion in exports and imports are cleared through the airport every year.
As an inland port, Calgary is a transportation hub connecting to major cities across North America. Calgary is home to a number of commercial and logistics clusters with over 5,000 transportation and logistics businesses.
The region’s growing status as a distribution hub has also led to spectacular growth in areas just outside the city such as Rocky View County.
David Kalinchuk, Economic Development Manager for Rocky View County, says warehouse and distribution centres are clustering north and east of Calgary in Balzac and Conrich.
“The tremendous success that developers have realized attracts new companies, which then adds to the momentum of the cluster. The reasons for this include large serviced land packages with excellent proximity to Stoney Trail, less red tape and dramatically lower overall taxes in Rocky View County,” he says.
“I recently toured one of the major warehouses in Balzac with special attention paid to their $75-million investment in automation. It was very, very impressive in efficiency, scale and cost savings. Automation is a game-changer for the industry. Online shopping is the number one consumer trend that is driving the industry and new warehouse construction. Existing brick and mortar stores are increasing their role as fulfillment centres while pure-play online distributors like Amazon and Wayfair build new warehouses to meet consumer demand.
“Automation is a remarkable technology that will continue to grow within existing warehouses in Balzac and the Calgary region. This means tens of millions of dollars of new investment in state-of-the-art automation software and equipment.”
Supply Change Expo is a unique event that provides a hands-on, visual experience and showcases the system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources in the supply chain across all industries.
Over two days, the Expo will assemble industry experts, change leaders and technology providers from dozens of industries across North America. With an exposition, conference and networking events, Supply Change Expo is a comprehensive platform for business owners, managers and SCM professionals. It will also bring focus to the diversification in the Alberta economy.
Chris Saunders, Senior Vice-President with commercial real estate firm JLL, says the key for Calgary in driving the supply chain industry has been its location within Western Canada and its ability to reach a very large population base. The city and region also have a very educated workforce which provides access to labour for companies. As well, there is a critical mass in the region of companies in the industry already either directly servicing the supply chain management sector or their complementary services.
“It’s a well-established and growing sector for those reasons,” he says.
“I think a significant trend is that sector is helping drive a lot of the new job growth in the Greater Calgary area . . . Technology is becoming more prevalent in that industry in the software that manages the flow of goods in the facilities, the technology that is managing the interaction or the communication between stores and the people selling the goods or those that are receiving them from the warehouse. And automation of the retrieval systems and the picking of the product within the warehouse that technology is becoming significant as well.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a business reporter in Calgary.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.
