According to logistics experts, “a perfect storm of supply-chain issues” is taking place right now in our industry – and more chaos could be on the horizon. Supply-chain bottlenecks are squeezing Canadian businesses large and small. Rising demand for packaging, catalogues and printed books during the pandemic has drastically reduced paper supplies across North America. Many ports are backed up and there’s red-hot demand for truckers. At the same time, customer expectations have gone in one direction only – up! Capacity constraints and a lack of available labour – from truck drivers to shop floor employees – have exacerbated the situation. Turning raw materials into finished goods and bringing them to consumers’ homes across the globe involves on a lot of inter-dependencies. Logistics has reached the point that the existing software data and tools to make that job a reality, are seriously strained. The fact is that challenged supply chains are now experiencing delays that are increasing by 425% year-over-year. Plus, costs are rising alongside these delays.
The DIA (Digital imaging Association) has brought together three industry experts from different sectors of the supply chain to discuss what’s happening – and recommend what steps printers need to take to ‘neutralize’ these challenges as much as possible. This timely webinar is titled: Supply Chain Chaos – What’s a Poor Printer to do? Speakers include: Spicers President Cory Turner; Stéphane Dagenais, Domtar’s Region Manager for Canada; and Warren McCaffrey, President of Trinet Global Logistics. Spicers is a major distributor of paper and specialty products for the printing industry, Domtar is a huge paper, pulp and packaging company, and Trinet Global Logistics is a leading provider of global freight-forwarding services. The Moderator will be Stephen Longmire, DIA Past President and General Sales Manager at print-finishing specialist Sydney Stone. The hour-long online event will take place on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) in Canada and the U.S. For more informationease visit the DIA website.