Supply Chain Career Hacks
Supply chain management professors and practitioners share advice and strategies for leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to boost your skill set and supercharge your career trajectory.
Stop Thief! Cargo Theft Terms and Tricks
From freight trains and trucks, from warehouses to parking lots to consumers’ porches, the conveyances and touchpoints of the supply chain present opportunities for thieves to pilfer and plunder cargo. Here’s what to watch out for:
IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions
Clustag’s MOT Station can drive inventory accuracy up to 99.92% and scan 400 tags per case at speeds of up to 1,000 cases per hour. The RFID-based solution for distribution centers and warehouses aggregates three pieces of data—RFID identification, case volume, and case weight—to improve the inventory management process.
Dump Trucks: Industry, Types, and Applications
Dump trucks are multifaceted vehicles, with wide-ranging applications across the construction, mining, and transportation sectors. Understanding the industry and the benefits and applications associated with the various types of dump trucks is key for maximum efficiency of use.
Courier vs Freight: Which is Best for Your Shipping Needs?
The choice between freight and courier shipping depends on the specifics of your shipment, including size, weight, urgency, and cost considerations. Here is a closer look at the two transportation types as well as their benefits and drawbacks.
Digital Twins Gaining Ground; Intermodal Projects Get Green Light; More Supply Chain News
What’s shaping the future of the global supply chain? Digital twins, disruption mitigation, intermodal investments, and AI, among others.
The Independent Contractors Rule Raises More Questions than Answers
Employee or independent contractor? The answer to that question under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) relies in great part on the Department of Labor rule on evaluating the relationship. That rule changes yet again on March 11, 2024.
Spotlight on Freight Audit & Payment: Interest is Up in Keeping Costs Down
Optimizing transportation spend is top of mind for shippers today—and the emphasis is likely to grow as companies seek ways to maximize budgets across every department. As a result, the need for freight audit and payment services is growing.
To Catch a Thief: 5 Ways to Boost Cargo Security
With cargo thefts surging, bolstered by sophisticated new tech-based methods, it has never been more important for shippers and their partners to emphasize security best practices.
Top Supply Chain Challenges for Dangerous Goods and Other HazMat Shipping Updates
Dangerous goods professionals share insights on infrastructure, investments, regulatory updates, sustainability concerns and other top supply chain challenges. PLUS: More news from the DG/Hazmat supply chain sector.
Tanker Trucks: Types, Capacity, and Safety
Tanker trucks play a crucial role in the transport industry, efficiently moving various liquids and gases, including fuel, chemicals, and water. These vehicles come in various sizes, from small to large capacities, ensuring the safe and effective delivery of essential substances across distances.
Interview with C.H. Robinson CEO: Staying Close to the Work
As a leader in today’s trying business environment, C.H. Robinson CEO Dave Bozeman embraces lean principles, gains insights from his people, and gets close to the work so he can make decisions based on actual data and firsthand experience.
What Tech Trends Should You Prioritize?
Logistics organizations remain under pressure to control costs while dealing with unprecedented labor challenges. Historically, few have prioritized technology investment to help address these sorts of issues.
Ports Update: New Strategies for a New Age
In the post-pandemic era, U.S. ports are steering new courses toward improving sustainability, collaboration, and infrastructure efforts.
What Is Pick Pack and Ship? Benefits, Challenges, and Tips
In today’s fast-paced world of e-commerce, businesses strive to streamline their operations to provide the best customer service while maintaining profitability. One significant aspect of this efficiency drive is a procedure known as ‘pick pack and ship.’ It is a crucial aspect of the supply chain and fulfillment process that can directly impact a company’s […]
Channel Strategy vs. Logistics Management: Why They Matter and Their Key Differences
Channel strategy vs logistics management––here is everything you need to know. Understanding the differences and correlations between channel strategy and logistics management is paramount in the vast realm of the shipping, logistics, and supply chain industry. These concepts dictate how products move from manufacturers to consumers and influence the efficiency and profitability of the businesses […]
10 Tips for Building Brand Reputation Through the Supply Chain
In today’s competitive world, maintaining a positive brand reputation is critical to success. Every interaction and touchpoint across your supply chain is an opportunity to build trust and deliver an exceptional experience to clients, vendors, and stakeholders.
Expedited Shipping vs Standard: What’s the Difference?
Understanding the differences is crucial for making informed decisions that align with your shipping needs. The right choice depends on factors like delivery urgency, budget constraints, and the nature of the items being shipped.
Received for Shipment: Definition, How It Works, and Importance
Understanding the concept of ‘Received for Shipment’ is important in the shipping industry. This notation indicates that the carrier has received the cargo at the port facility for loading onto a specific vessel or voyage.
What Is Warehousing? Definition, Types, and Key Features
With different types of warehouses, such as private, public, and bonded warehouses available, businesses have choices to select a suitable warehouse based on their needs. Important elements to consider include locations, the technology available, costs per SKU, or additional features.
Channel Strategy: Definition, Types, and Tips
Businesses can significantly optimize the customer journey for better retention, meet business objectives, and ensure a successful marketing campaign—all by optimizing various marketing channels.
Pharmaceutical Warehousing: Definition, Handling Standards, and Supply Chain Rules
Pharmaceutical warehouses are specialized storage facilities that safely store pharmaceutical products, including medications, vaccines, and other health-related items.
Jumbo Trailer Trucks: Definition, Features, and Role in the Automotive Industry
A jumbo trailer truck stands out in the automotive industry due to its distinctive design and capacity to handle a much larger load volume than regular trucks.
13 Top Benefits of Automating Your Supply Chain
From attracting talent to boosting visibility, here are the advantages you gain from automating some or all of your supply chain.
Fulfillment Automation: What’s Driving Adoption and How It’s Changing Operations
The key to applying new levels of automation in the fulfillment center is to take a holistic approach and start with the basics of redefining the full operational process.
Bringing Order to Chaos: DDC FPO Unleashes the Power of Unstructured Data
Powered by machine learning, the latest addition to DDC FPO’s technology suite swiftly cleanses and structures unstructured data into crucial insights.
How to Future-Proof Your Supply Chain from Freight Embargoes
With CarrierConnect XL and transit service alerts, shippers can make better decisions during a freight embargo to mitigate disruptions in less-than-truckload service.
Leveraging Predictive Analytics to Gain a Competitive Edge
Predictive analytics helps companies make better decisions. The key is to have good data. For example, enterprises can use data to predict how much demand there will be for their products or services, how much capacity they need, how to manage inventory, and how to avoid risks.
U.S. Site Selection: How to Know Where to Go
Finding the right location to grow your distribution or manufacturing network can be tricky. Here are 8 tried-and-true tips to get you to the right place.
White-Glove Delivery: Giving Your Shipments the Red-Carpet Treatment
When a shipment needs VIP treatment, retailers give white-glove delivery services a royal welcome.
Getting to Big: SMBs Embrace Tech and Partnerships
Logistics can sometimes be challenging for small businesses that frequently have limited resources and a laser focus on core competencies. But with the right technologies and partners, SMBs can develop—and execute—supply chain strategies on par with even the largest players.
From Sky to Doorstep: Drones Deliver the Middle and Last Mile
The United States is in the midst of an aerial revolution, as the soaring potential and advancements in drone technology help reimagine middle and last-mile deliveries.
How to Write a Great RFP
Is it time to negotiate new carrier contracts? Here are the keys to successfully optimizing the Request for Proposal (RFP) process—from building a relationship with carriers to adapting to conditions as they change.
Technology Brings A New Dawn for Drayage
It’s a new day for the drayage industry as it attracts investments in technology to transform a crucial, but long-overlooked, component of the supply chain.
Logistics Solutions: Robots Step Up
Taking on repetitive and potentially dangerous tasks in supply chain operations—from unloading containers to materials handling—robots are driving efficiencies in warehouses and distribution centers. And they’re getting smarter, thanks to AI.
NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights
↑ South Carolina Ports awarded $253,000 to 116 South Carolina nonprofits and community organizations as part of its Community Giving program for fiscal year 2024, marking the highest number of grants awarded since the program began in 2013. Awards were given in amounts of $7,500, $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000.
2024 Supply Chain Predictions
Pencil in these tips, insider insights, and fearless forecasts from supply chain leaders.
You’re Writing a Book About How to Manage Supply Chains in 2025. What’s the Longest Chapter?
Readers reveal the most voluminous chapters of their imaginary supply chain management manuscripts.
Bringing Automation to Food Production
John Deere and SpaceX have partnered to bring new automation advances to food production. Automation in the food supply chain is nothing new and there are many examples of how automation has driven efficiencies by saving time and keeping costs down. Most of the existing examples are found in the middle mile—the warehouse and DCs—moving […]
4 Things to Expect from Logistics Providers in 2024
The logistics industry, though not quite back to pre-pandemic norms, has successfully weathered much of the chaos into which the pandemic had thrown it. 2023 allowed many companies to take a breath and return to more realistic inventory levels. As consumer spending eased, companies were able to eliminate expensive stockpiles of goods, which enabled logistics […]
What’s the Word? The Language of Logistics
What’s an antifragile supply chain? Should we expect humanoid warehouse workers in 2024? We explore some new logistics terms as well as revisit familiar definitions.
The Supply Chain Benefits of AI-Powered Decision Making
Leaders from eight countries and a range of industries were asked about the challenges and opportunities of AI-powered decision making. Here are the top takeaways.
Backward Integration: Definition, Implementation Process, and Competitive Advantages
In a competitive business world where efficiency and dominance are paramount, backward integration emerges as a strategic linchpin for companies aiming to fortify their market position. This method involves businesses taking command of their supply chain, particularly by securing the production of raw materials. This strategic move elevates profit margins and solidifies a competitive edge […]
The Secrets Behind Today’s Leading Supply Chain Companies
In today’s globalized world, supply chains are the unseen arteries pumping lifeblood into every industry. But behind the seamless delivery of everything from your afternoon candy bar to the latest iPhone lies complex supply chain strategies that incorporate innovation, efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at four of the best supply chains operating today.
What Is a Fulfillment Center? Everything You Need to Know
In today’s fast-paced world of e-commerce, smooth and efficient order processing is a critical component for businesses to thrive. Fulfillment centers play an essential role in ensuring that online retailers deliver their products to customers promptly and accurately without putting too much burden on the business owners. But what exactly is a fulfillment center? How […]
2024 Winter Reading Guide
Feeling lost in logistics? Fear not! Inbound Logistics has curated a bookshelf of the best supply chain management books, from beginner-friendly guides to advanced strategy tomes. Dive into data-driven insights, uncover industry secrets, and learn to navigate today’s ever-evolving business environment.
Refrigerated Trucks: History, Benefits and Types
Refrigerated trucks, also called reefers, crucial for transporting perishable items under controlled temperatures, are the backbone of delivering fresh food and vital medications. Remarkably, these reefers transport 70% of the food we consume, with around 500,000 units actively maintaining the cold chain across the United States. In this blog, we will discuss the history, benefits, […]
Types of Freight Trains: Definition and Use of Modern Rail Cars
Freight trains have been the backbone of modern industries for centuries, ensuring the seamless movement of commodities from one place to another. As the transportation landscape evolved, so did the types of freight trains, with rail freight transport growing increasingly sophisticated to handle diverse cargo needs. If you’ve ever wondered about the intricacies of these […]
Communicating With Empathy
Supply chain management (SCM) has often been perceived through operational metrics, systems, and efficiencies. The unsung hero of this intricate web, however, is communication with empathy. This skill transcends merely conveying information and dives deep into understanding, validating, and addressing the emotions and needs of everyone involved.
Are You Prepared for New Regulations?
Those of us who hoped we’d quickly get back on track after the notoriously shaky supply chains of 2020 and 2021 have been left wanting. A confluence of factors has come together to create further disruption across global supply chains, with some poised to only get worse.
How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact the Supply Chain in 2024
From warehousing to risk assessment, here’s how generative artificial intelligence solutions could help address supply chain complexity and resiliency challenges in 2024 and beyond.
Powering Up a Better Supply Chain
Aggreko ensures business is always on by delivering energy anywhere it’s needed so that businesses can grow and communities can thrive. The power company found an ideal partner in RedStone Logistics.
OpenRoad’s Bold Brand Refresh Marks 20 Years of Logistics Excellence
Since 2004, OpenRoad has been empowering companies to achieve more. Here’s the history behind two decades of innovation and adaptability, and the strategy that shapes OpenRoad’s visionary brand refresh.
Custom Dashboard Provides Rail Data Insights and Boosts Efficiencies
RSI Logistics developed a custom dashboard tailored to meet its client’s needs with unmatched precision and accuracy, enabling them to make firm, data-driven decisions that ignited confidence.
Warehousing Process: Steps And Role In Fulfillment Efficacy
Warehousing is essential in today’s fast-paced supply chain, key to efficient order fulfillment and customer satisfaction. This article delves into the warehousing process, examining each step, from receiving goods to distribution, and how they collectively enhance supply chain efficiency. Discover these processes’ crucial roles in boosting your business’s fulfillment success. Primary Warehouse Process Steps: How […]
Are You Ready to Navigate 2024?
Let’s put last year’s pain and friction points out of our minds and stage for growth this year. We asked our readers what skills we should tune up and emphasize to drive value and maximize growth in 2024. Keep your cool. “Circumstances can turn on a dime and require not only quick, but also clear […]
Manufacturing CEOs Accelerating Investments in AI, Automation & Robotics
Manufacturing CEOs are making big plans for 2024, including accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, automation and robotics. Plus, other news shaping the global supply chain.
Top 5 Aerospace Supply Chain Disruptions & Other Aerospace News
What are the key disruptions threatening the aerospace industry?
Warehouse vs. Inventory: Their Roles And Differences
Understanding the crucial differences between warehouses and inventory is essential for operational excellence in supply chain logistics. This article explores the roles and connections between warehouse capacities and inventory management in enhancing overall supply chain efficiency. The Role Of A Warehouse A warehouse is a storage facility that efficiently stores and protects goods until they […]
Musco & AFS Logistics: Oiling the Wheels of Change
About five years ago, when Michael Lin joined Musco Family Olive Co. as senior director of supply chain, he “walked into a tight-running operation,” he says. At the same time, Lin sought to bring greater discipline and automation to many of the company’s logistics and supply chain processes. To work toward these goals, Lin enlisted the help of AFS Logistics, a third-party logistics provider.
Not So Sweet: Expensive Cocoa’s Lesson on Supply Chain Resilience
Chocolate’s largest manufacturers face spiraling costs for key ingredients like cocoa beans and cocoa butter. The trickle-down effect will hit many consumers in the wallet in the latest example of what can happen if a supply chain isn’t resilient enough.
IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions
Origify from Bosch lets manufacturers give sneakers and other high-value products a digital fingerprint as early as the production or packaging phase. The authentication solution photographs each product and converts the image into a binary and non-manipulable data record of a few kilobytes, which is stored in a cloud.
How to Achieve Foodservice Industry Sustainability Goals
Foodservice providers are reevaluating their operations with manufacturing and logistics playing a key role in driving sustainable change.
Sustain the Chain With Technology
Today, more than ever, it is important that we build sustainable supply chains that positively impact business, society, and the planet. To meet customer expectations and be truly sustainable, organizations must ensure responsible business practices internally and across the entire value chain.
Warehouse Solutions Hit the Mark
These warehouse innovations rack up efficiency gains and process improvements, bringing competitive advantages to supply chain operations, big and small.
8 Steps to Cracking the Traceability Code
As supply chain disruptions and competition increases at a global scale, supply chain visibility has become vital for business success. Lack of visibility along the supply chain not only poses a risk to the seamless flow of goods but also raises concerns about product quality and overall productivity. With only 13% of manufacturers having full visibility into their supply chain network, it’s important to manage this challenge.
The Future of Freight: What to Expect
The next few years will bring further disruptions to a freight model that the industry spent decades optimizing. In 2024 and beyond, new consumer demands, technological advancements, and broader changes like nearshoring will present new opportunities for logistics leaders from first to final mile.
Carbon Output Is Spiking Amid Red Sea Supply Chain Crisis. What Are You Going to Do About It?
Another sustainability crisis is brewing in the global supply chain. Ongoing attacks on container ships in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels have caused major shipping companies and oil/gas firms to suspend shipments through the Suez Canal, one of the most active shipping routes in the world. As a result, vessels are forced on […]
What Is 3PL? Meaning, Benefits, and Challenges
In today’s fast-paced business world, efficient supply chain management is critical to success. That’s where third-party logistics (3PL) comes into play. This blog post will explain what 3PL means, the benefits of partnering with a 3PL provider, and the potential challenges that may arise from outsourcing your logistics operations. What Is 3PL? Third-party logistics, or […]
Jessica Yurgaitis: In the Right Place at the Right Time
Jessica Yurgaitis is chief executive officer with Industrial Supply Company, which distributes maintenance, repair, operational, and production (MROP) supplies to the construction, manufacturing, mining, government, and industrial markets from eight locations
in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming.
Hybrid Fulfillment: Definition and Types
In the ever-changing world of logistics and order fulfillment, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to efficiently meet their customers’ needs. Well, here’s a game-changer for you: Hybrid Fulfillment. This approach allows you to combine and integrate different fulfillment methods, unleashing a world of possibilities for optimizing your fulfillment process. Defining Hybrid Fulfillment and Business […]
Inbound vs Outbound Logistics: Processes, Comparisons, and Optimization
Both inbound and outbound logistics play important roles in the processes, comparisons, and optimization of supply chain management that businesses must understand to achieve maximum efficiency. These two types of logistics are essential for the smooth functioning of an organization’s operations. This blog post will provide a thorough overview of inbound and outbound logistics, their […]
6 Types of Supply Chain: Their Roles Defined
Understanding the different types of supply chains and their unique functionalities is crucial for businesses to optimize operations, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.
10 Tips for Selecting a Warehouse Management System
Companies must understand some important considerations to ensure they select the best warehouse management system (WMS) for their needs today and the future. These 10 steps can help focus your decision.
Primed for Growth: 3PL Partnerships Help Shippers Roll With It
Despite persistent supply chain challenges and uncertainties, now is the time to prep your supply chain for future growth. 3PLs have the talent to take you there.
10 Ways to Empower the Logistics Workforce
From harnessing the latest innovations to nurturing a culture of continuous improvement, these 10 strategies can help your team excel in the ever-changing logistics landscape.
Dark Data Illuminates the Supply Chain
In the sprawling cosmos of logistics and transportation, there’s a vast, uncharted territory: dark data. This term refers to the untapped, unprocessed information that fleets, freight systems, and supply chains generate but never use. Think of it as the digital equivalent of dark matter in the universe—invisible, yet its potential gravity can pull industries into a new era of enlightenment.
Logistics Plus Warehousing Team Solves Client’s Off-Site Warehouse Inventory & System Issues
Logistics Plus finds a way to “yes” by springing into action and sending employees to help solve inventory and system issues at a client warehouse.
Reverse Logistics: Curing the Holiday Returns Hangover
Consumers tend to over-indulge during holiday shopping—and that means lots of returns once the buzz wears off. Instead of antacids and ice packs, retailers find the remedy in smart reverse logistics strategies and solutions.
Delivery Workers Are Your Biggest Asset
In the fast-paced world of logistics, where every minute counts and customer satisfaction is paramount, your workers are undeniably your biggest asset. As the frontline ambassadors of your brand, they navigate through the intricacies of mid- and last-mile deliveries and create lasting relationships that can impact your company’s business.
How Shippers Can Manage Risk During the Great Trucking Recession
As inflation slows consumer spending, trucking companies are living through the Great Trucking Recession that’s driving large and small carriers to exit the industry.
Freight Forwarders & Shippers: Forward Motion
With innovative solutions and technology, and productive collaborations, freight forwarders position complex global supply chains for success.
Gaining Visibility to Supply Chain Blind Spots
Keeping supply chain risks in your line of sight can protect your profits, people, and productivity.
5 Ways AI-Powered Logistics Maximize Eco Savings
Logistics providers increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to help operate sustainable and cost-effective supply chains.
How Moid Alwy Keeps the Wheels Turning
After nearly 20 years in supply chain roles at Target, Moid Alwy welcomed a new set of challenges in 2022, when he became executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at American Tire Distributors (ATD). “The areas that added complexity at Target have to do with the breadth of the assortment,” Alwy says. “We […]
No Place for Technophobes: Technologies Streamline Global Trade
They used to be just trendy buzzwords, but artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are now poised to have a transformative impact on global supply chain management. If you’ve been shying away from these technologies, it may be time to consider their potential.
5 Top Contract Management Strategies
The pandemic brought a surge in suppliers invoking force majeure clauses in their contracts. Force majeure removes liability for unforeseeable and unavoidable catastrophes that interrupt the expected course of events and prevent participants from fulfilling obligations. Buyers, as well as suppliers, understood that the extreme circumstances surrounding the pandemic warranted it.
Providing Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Support in the Southeast
MD Logistics brought its expertise as a third-party logistics provider within the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry to the southeastern United States.
You Should Be Asking What You Left on the Table!
You can’t assume medium and large companies have “best practices” because they are large, and they must have grown to that size because they are efficient and make great decisions.
Dynamic Freight Pricing Done Right
Modern shippers rely exceedingly on transportation management system (TMS) solutions for several reasons. Staying competitive while curtailing distribution cost tops the list. Supply chains are also more complex, and the need for TMS and efficient freight pricing solutions is being felt more than ever.
5 Ways to Mitigate SaaS App Risk
The popularity of SaaS apps has skyrocketed, with users having tens of thousands of options from both reputable companies and private developers. Many of these apps, however, contain vulnerabilities or suffer from complex misconfigurations, turning them into a potential Achilles heel for supply chain attacks.
Forward Integration: Strategies, Advantages, And Risks
Forward integration is a key strategy for businesses to strengthen their market position and control over their supply chain. This approach involves companies taking charge of distribution or supply activities further down the value chain. This article examines the various strategies, benefits, and risks of forward integration, offering insights for businesses to effectively implement this […]
Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a WMS for Your 3PL Business
Third-party logistics companies need much more than a typical WMS to handle inventory. They need a strong warehouse management system that is actually the brain of the warehouse.
ProTrans Provides a Sustainability Solution with Strategic Partnership
The strategic collaboration between ProTrans International and ClearFlame helped an automotive supplier reduce fossil fuel consumption, GHG emissions, and realize significant savings in fuel costs.
Holman Logistics Uses Artificial Intelligence to Increase Forklift Safety
Holman partners with OneTrack to bring AI solutions to the issue of forklift accidents.
Craving a Sweet 3PL Partnership
Thanks to its 3PL partnership with Evans Distribution Systems, Bon Bon Bon workers can fill orders more quickly than was possible previously. One reason is Evans’ technology, which offers a step-by-step guide for processing orders.
Fourth Party Logistics: Definition, Advantages, and Disadvantages
Unlike third-party logistics (3PL) providers, which focus on specific logistics tasks like warehousing, shipping, and order fulfillment, 4PL providers manage and optimize the entire supply chain.
The 6 Advantages of Warehousing
Warehousing plays a crucial role in modern business operations, offering numerous benefits and contributing significantly to the success of an organization. This article explores the six advantages of warehousing.