Shipping Containers: What Do the Cans Tell Us?
What can we learn from the movements of shipping containers, or cans? Plenty. Here’s how they provide clues about future global trading patterns.
What Is Intermodal Transportation? History, Benefits, Examples
Intermodal transportation is not as mysterious or complicated as the name would have it sound. It means transporting one set of goods in a steel container using two or more modes of transportation, such as rail and truck.
Why IoT is Not the Answer
Global supply chain disruption is not caused by a lack of data—more than 10 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed worldwide add more data every second to already overflowing data stores, yet disruption persists. More IoT is not the answer. The real challenge is creating effective connections between numerous stakeholders performing a range of functions, across multiple enterprise platforms and in different jurisdictions.
What is the # 1 Port in the U.S. Right Now?
What’s the top port in the United States right now? If you said one of the West Coast ports, guess again. Inbound Logistics’ podcast with port leaders tells the exciting story.
Blanket Purchase Order: Definition, Benefits, and When to Use
A Blanket Purchase Order is a legally binding agreement between you, a buyer, and a supplier who has come to a long-term deal to deliver goods or services for a specified period. But what does that actually mean? What are the benefits of using this kind of agreement? And when is a good time to […]
What is FOB Destination? Meaning, Terms, Who Pays?
If you’re in the shipping industry, you need to be familiar with the shipping term FOB destination and all it implies. You should be able to answer the question of what does FOB mean in shipping and convey the fob price meaning. FOB is an acronym that means “free on board,” so FOB destination means […]
ScottsMiracle-Gro: Getting the Right (Logistics) Players in Place for Its Big Game
Winning means shelves are stocked full of ScottsMiracle-Gro products right when spring arrives. Here’s how ScottsMiracle-Gro improved delivery performance and logistics with a strategic partnership approach.
Materials Management: Definition, Process, Benefits
Materials management is an aspect of supply chain management and planning. The primary purpose of materials management is to ensure that manufacturers have all the raw materials they need to make goods. Materials management also focuses on ensuring that no components are wasted and optimizing inventory maintenance and management. While materials management requires understanding what […]
How You Can Respond to Lingering Port Congestion Problems
We’re not experiencing a traditional peak retail shipping season this year. If you’re a shipper and hoped the decreased volumes would transfer to the ports, hopes are fading that you’ll see relief there.
Good Question: What phrase would you create to describe a supply chain trend or development?
From the “productization of delivery” (think super delivery) to “dot plot mania,” readers get creative and coin terms describing the latest supply chain developments.
Home Construction News and Trends
Suppliers, manufacturers, and other vendors up and down the home construction supply chain can expect to feel the pinch, as demand for new housing units stagnates.
Acing the Back-to-School Season
These stats on school supplies reveal getting straight A’s in back-to-school supply chains is a yearly test.
LeaderSHIP Profile: “I Am Never Giving Up”
Despite the exhausting challenges of helping demanding customers with small but important supply chain problems, Katherina-Olivia Lacey puts on a brave face, holds it together, and constantly drives new solutions.
IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions
From a scalable automated pickup system to a new last mile solution, here are some notable supply chain services and solutions that recently hit the market.
NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights
From philanthropy initiatives to recent mergers and acquisitions, here’s what’s new and notable in the supply chain.
5 Ways to Step Up Your WMS Game
A play-by-play guide to choosing the warehouse management system that will help you win the supply chain.
“Make, Move, Sell” Companies Shift Business Models: Necessity Begets (Re)Invention
With the adage “necessity is the mother of all invention” as a guide, businesses are embracing change and cultivating innovation in response to continued supply chain turmoil.
Supply Chain Leaders Reconfigure Distribution Networks
Given everything that has transpired across the globe over the past two years, supply chain leaders are evaluating and executing changes to their supply chain/distribution networks as well as their sourcing and manufacturing strategies.
Last Mile Holiday Trends: Ho Ho Ho, Oh No?
Even though summer recently ended, it’s never too soon to think about the holiday shopping—and shipping—season in the retail and e-tail logistics world.
Global Cold Chain Outlook: Cold Is Hot
The global cold chain market is a bright spot in the perishables business landscape. It was valued at $253 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $437 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 8.1%, according to a SkyQuest Technology Consulting report.
Top 15 Ways to Maneuver in Today’s Trucking Market
Buying trucking services can feel like running an obstacle course — constantly negotiating rates or avoiding capacity hurdles. As 2023 approaches, it’s time for shippers to train for the next challenge.
Freight Bill Audit & Payment: Savings in the Bag
By streamlining supply chain processes, FBAP providers help enterprises gain insights from their freight data and collect bottom-line benefits.
Syfan Logistics Renders Transport Plan on Deadline to Haul Away Foul Mess
Taking on smelly poultry waste and an extremely tight deadline, Syfan Logistics provides a swift solution to a fowl challenge many refused—adding another feather to its cap.
WMS Guide 2022
This short list of leading WMS solutions can help your enterprise react agilely and quickly to meet today’s new customer demands.
Inflation Innovation Stagnation
Achieving demand-driven enterprise status would have been impossible without the innovative technology-driven processes brought to bear on how we source, ship, and fulfill product, all while meeting evolving customer needs and demands.
Ensuring a Sustainable Supply Chain
The Ukraine conflict, COVID-19, and rising inflation have drawn attention to the fragility of global supply chains. With all eyes on logistics, operations leaders have additional reason to examine supply chains from the ground up. Here’s how to start.
5 Ways to Prepare for Supply Chain Disruptions
If we’ve learned anything during the past two years, it has been about market disruptions—even to the point of the disruptions being disrupted. While accurate crystal balls are tough to come by, let’s explore five trends and how they may provide clues to solve for continued supply chain disruptions.
Prioritizing Meaningful and Safe Work
We must create a supply chain—link by link—with working conditions where everyone, from the warehouse employee to the end consumer, wins.
Building Industry-Focused Solutions
Based on the magnitude of challenges that industries face, we need something that incorporates innovation and takes us from just-in-time to just-in-case strategies. It’s time for supply chain reimagination.
2022 Top 100 Truckers
Find Trucking Solutions In today’s challenging and volatile business climate, it’s more important than ever to find carrier partners that best fuel your diverse and demanding needs. Inbound Logistics’ annual Top 100 Truckers list helps you find them. More than 200 trucking companies, including the best-paying truckers, submitted their credentials to be considered for the […]
Warehouse Management System (WMS) Implementation Best Practices
Best practice protocol necessitates that we continue to assess the effectiveness of the solution, as well as consider possible system enhancements, additions, and wish-list items.
Top 5 Mistakes in Transportation RFPs
Executing a smart request-for-proposal (RFP) strategy enables shippers to manage costs, increase service levels, and meet capacity needs. Here’s what to avoid: Shippers can mitigate risk and successfully manage capacity needs by avoiding the most common pitfalls. 1. Unclear Carrier Strategy Instead of sending every lane to bid or rolling every lane over to your […]
Be Prepared for the Complexities of Mexico Cross-Border Logistics
Customs and legal issues, as well as capacity trends, underline the need for a transportation and logistics partner with the knowledge and experience to make the cross-border transition seamless.
Debunking 7 Misconceptions about Logistics Performance Metrics
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are an essential part of sound supply chain management — at least that’s what 83% of your peers think.
Real-time Data Isn’t the Only Thing Supply Chains Are Missing
Before the polar vortex in Texas, the biggest logjams at the Port of LA, and the start of the Great Resignation, McKinsey found that major production disruptions were estimated to occur every 3.7 years. In the months since, it has become clear these incidents are far too common to be referred to as black swan […]
2022 Trucking Perspectives
Inbound Logistics’ exclusive yearly survey of motor carriers and shippers offers a close look at the state of the trucking industry in an era of inflation and supply chain volatility. In 2022, as shippers and their trucker partners have settled into what might or might not become the “new normal,” some are breathing a bit […]
Manufacturing Supply Chains: Solving Workforce Challenges with Output-Based Staffing
The COVID-19 labor shortage has made hiring and retaining top employees more important than ever as companies scramble to staff up. Employers are hustling to fill enough positions to return to full output, while employees can pick and choose between jobs competing to offer the best benefits and pay. Better wages and quality of life […]
Top 5 Supply Chain Disruptions
New data from Resilinc highlights the top drivers of supply chain disruptions for the first half of 2022. From January through June, Resilinc’s EventWatchAI platform alerted its customers to an astounding 7,929 potential supply chain disruptions (a 46% YoY increase) with the life sciences, healthcare, high-tech, and automotive industries being most impacted. The top five […]
Consumers Go on an Online Spending Spree
Despite current worries about an economic downturn, consumers are still shopping—especially online. And retail logistics companies keep shipping products. As a result, the global retail logistics market is forecast to jump from $231 billion USD in 2021 to $622 billion USD by 2030. That computes to a 12% compound annual growth rate over that time. […]
Warehouse Space: Can you find it?
Need warehouse space? It should be slightly easier to come by into 2023. A recent Prologis report focused on Q2 2022 activity and predictions for 2023 expects a small increase in vacancies. The reason: Demand will drop and supply chain movement will improve, which will get more products into the marketplace. Here are some key […]
Supply Chains Out of Sync
There are some harsh words for the logistics and supply chain sector in the 33rd Annual State of Logistics Report, revealed recently at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. U.S.-based supply chains are “out of sync,” caused by struggles to adjust to short-term changes, the report claims. The good news, though: the industry is […]
Chemical Logistics Market Grows
$317.17 billion That’s the estimated size of the chemical logistics market by 2026, according to The Business Research Company’s Chemical Logistics Global Market Report 2022. The figure represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% over the next 5 years. For 2022, the chemical logistics market size will grow to $271.73 billion, up 7.9% from […]
IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions
Products ORBIS introduced its Automated Reusable Optimized Solutions (AROS) product line designed for integration into automated systems to facilitate the transfer, storage, and organization of merchandise. Launching as part of the AROS line is the ML6545-325 (pictured), a handheld container which offers a large cubic density and can interface with high-speed systems. Dividers can be […]
Solving the Unique Challenges of Shipping Perishables
Cold chain shipping requires precision. The best temperature loggers collect and track shipment temperature and identify where and when temperature fluctuations occur. When it comes to cold chain shipping, the challenges associated with supply chain management are magnified because perishable products must be shipped in a carefully controlled environment—during both storage and shipment. According to […]
The Building Blocks of Omnichannel Fulfillment
How leading brands snap together their omnichannel mix to meet market needs and expectations while serving business goals. E-commerce growth, accelerated by the pandemic combined with organic changes in customer needs and expectations, has forced both business-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) brands to adjust their omnichannel mix. Consumers are driving much of the change, with 82% […]
Keeping Your Digital Supply Chain Secure
Organizations that are most protected from cyberattacks are ones that understand what threats exist in the first place. This means having a good understanding of their entire supply chain as well as the data they are responsible for and where it is stored. 1. Understand the biggest threats to the digital supply chain, what data […]
Democratizing Global E-Commerce?
Many small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) report friction due to inflation and COVID. One way to rise above those headwinds is to expand both consumer and business-to-business e-commerce sales. But many SMEs don’t have the spend or techno skills to form a winning strategy to compete with the e-commerce big players who dominate the market […]
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT | Materials Handling Solutions
Wildeck Delta VRC: The Delta Vertical Reciprocating Conveyor (VRC) from Wildeck moves materials from one elevation to another safely and reliably. It can transfer materials to a mezzanine, rack storage system with catwalks, or an upper floor level. Featuring a side-mount motor for easier maintenance, it has no overhead mechanicals, allowing for a lower ceiling […]
Sachi Thompson: Do The Hustle
Responsibilities: Lead Curvature’s global server, storage, and network hardware business, including running operations, sales, and executing the division’s corporate strategy. Experience: Executive vice president, global supply chain,Curvature; chief operating officer, Curvature (pre-merger with SMS); director of real estate and leasing,Ess-Tee Management; production director,Big Dogs Sportswear. Education: B.A., History, University of California—Santa Barbara In 2007, I joined Curvature […]
NOTED: The Supply Chain In Brief
Sealed Deals Brewing company Carlsberg Group selected Kinaxis’ RapidResponse platform to create a harmonized planning process and improve commercial agility. By using the platform, Carlsberg can glean process insights and improve supply chain decision-making for its portfolio of beer and other beverage brands. Tubby Todd, an e-commerce company providing body care products for babies, selected […]
How Strong Trading Relationships Help Win and Retain Customers
The most effective supply chains are built on a firm foundation of cooperation between suppliers and distributors. Strong trading relationships have a significant impact on just about every measure of performance: customer service, transportation and storage costs, risk, forecasting, lead times, and even product development. The best way to ensure that your supply chain is […]
VERTICAL FOCUS: Perishables
Grain Pain As with many other sectors, transportation disruptions have hit the perishables industry in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) released its mid-year status update on transportation systems in the United States—and, as you might expect, the numbers are troublesome. Total grain rail cars loaded and billed dipped slightly, from 381,000 cars in […]
Order Management System+Online Store=The Best Customer Experience
A majority of buyers say they will abandon a brand after just one negative experience. Retailers must look at the entire purchasing process—from browsing and checkout through delivery and returns—as every interaction is crucial to developing a lifelong customer. Here are some pre, during, and post-purchase solutions an order management system (OMS), working in tandem […]
Tips to Overcome Year-Round Labor Challenges
The logistics sector is expanding. The Logistics Managers’ Index, which is calculated using a diffusion index in which any reading above 50 indicates that logistics is expanding, came in at 65 in June 2021 and a record-high reading of 76.2 in March 2022. Continued growth is shifting how companies approach hiring. Continued growth as a […]
Good Question: What’s your best tip for retailers pivoting to direct-to-consumer (DTC) fulfillment?
Successful DTC fulfillment comes down to balancing customer acquisition cost, conversion rate, and average order value (AOV). AOV is critical—if it’s too low, shipping costs will eat up your margins. Keep AOV up by bundling products and using shipping partners who offer flexible fulfillment options that scale with you. –Aaron Galer SVP of Strategic Partners […]
White Glove Delivery Strategies and Techniques
When consumers were sent home to work, big and bulky e-commerce orders took off, along with white glove delivery expectations. The right combination of technology and strategy can help retailers meet them. Saying that e-commerce shipping has had an eventful two years would be an understatement. The pandemic accelerated the shift toward online retail by […]
Florida Rising
The Sunshine State is strategically positioned for increased trade, even as global supply chains undergo dramatic changes. Here’s how two of its ports are supporting Florida’s ambitions and making bold moves. What is it about Florida that makes the state an ideal spot to plant or expand a business? In terms of both logistics and […]
Powering Logistics Development
What energizes logistics development? From access to infrastructure and proximity to a population center, to tax, energy, and land incentives, here are the driving forces behind site selection decisions and major investments. Businesses considering where to expand or move their operations evaluate myriad factors. Among the top considerations, says Jeremy Sowders, economic development manager with […]
Pharma Supply Chains Get Technology Booster
Pharmaceutical and life sciences supply chains receive a healthy dose of innovation and automation solutions—boosting visibility, traceability, and productivity. Until recently, companies planning for resilience and business continuity tended to focus on relatively localized events, like a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast of North America and disrupting traffic and power, or an Icelandic volcano erupting, […]
Pallet Recovery Keeps the Circular Supply Chain Moving
CHEP is committed to a share and reuse model for pallets that contributes to a regenerative supply chain. The provider increased its focus on pallet recovery—a vital step to ensuring goods continue moving throughout the supply chain and ultimately meet consumer demands. At its core, CHEP, a global provider of share and reuse (or pooled) […]
Improving Healthcare Fulfillment with Traceability and Inventory Accuracy
Pharmaceutical and healthcare distributors can now pick, pack, and ship products accurately, efficiently, and in a timely manner with Locus Robotics’ solutions. How does Locus Robotics help the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry with traceability and serialization? As pharmaceutical and healthcare customers are picking or even putting away different medicines and medical supplies, they’re able to […]
The Effects of Inflation on The Supply Chain
The past few years have brought unprecedented circumstances that are culminating in some significant supply chain challenges. You can safeguard against many of the challenges by partnering with a 3PL. Most organizations face more supply chain challenges now than they did a year ago, research shows. Increases in costs incur higher fees for supplies and […]
The Last Mile: Big Builds
With these infrastructure and supply chain projects, the largest of their type in the world, it’s go big or go home.
Marmon Holdings Improves Performance with Managed Logistics Program
From developing processes to measure savings to creating a dashboard and reporting tools, Echo Global Logistics helped Marmon Holdings manage shipping in a more centralized way. The Challenge Marmon Holdings, Inc. traditionally operates in a decentralized manner, equipping the company’s 100+ businesses with the resources needed to be successful and the autonomy to make their […]
MagicLogic Provides Flexible Customized Cartonization Software for Augusta Sportswear
Augusta Sportswear—the company behind brands such as Holloway, High Five, and Russell Athletic—turned to MagicLogic for a load planning solution that packages orders dynamically and seamlessly. Augusta Sportswear’s story began in 1977 when the company was originally founded. It has since become a byword within the apparel industry for manufacturing high-quality sportswear. The company manufactures […]
Do You Use KPIs Effectively?
Most businesses today collect data to set and track key performance indicators, or KPIs. Logistics companies are no different. And with the industry in turmoil these days from the pandemic and global economic stressors, KPIs may be more important than ever. But do supply chain executives truly understand and fully utilize the KPI numbers they […]
Freight Is Fraught
The double-whammy of skyrocketing fuel prices and out-of-control inflation has put a hurt on the freight industry. So have flattening modal growth trajectories, seasonal factors, and softening demand. So says the new edition of the Cowen/AFS Freight Index, which provides predictive pricing tools for such sectors as less-than-truckload (LTL), truckload (TL), and parcel shipping (separately […]
What Is a Freight Embargo and Why Do Carriers Set Them?
Embargoes are common in less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping. LTL temporary service outages are particularly relevant in today’s carrier market, when demand for freight is at record highs and resources are still lean for many carriers. Q: What is an LTL freight embargo? A: A freight embargo is when a carrier stops accepting loads from shippers. LTL […]
Are Labor Shortages Straining Your E-Commerce Business? Strengthen Operations with an Automated Returns Management System
These days, returns have become a non-negotiable standard part of the e-commerce experience for B2C and B2B customers alike and are a key factor for vendors looking to maintain customer satisfaction and increase loyalty. While they can be costly and laborious, successful returns processes can showcase customer service, achieve long-term consumer loyalty, and provide invaluable […]
Project Logistics: The Basics of Anything But Basic
Moving big, bulky, unconventional freight around the globe precisely and effectively in the face of myriad challenges is not for the faint of heart. Here’s how project logistics experts get it done. It’s not every day in transportation and logistics that you are involved in a star-studded movie premiere with both Hollywood royalty and actual […]
Calling in the Troops
The ingenuity of America’s fighting forces has been the deciding factor in the greatest challenges the world has ever seen. Could history’s best-trained military men and women provide the answers to the supply chain workforce challenges we face today? Military leaders’ claim on logistics is pervasive throughout history. Everyone from Patton to Sun Tzu acknowledges […]
IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions
PRODUCTS The new BG Line Sorter from BEUMER increases the handling mix of materials handling operations by utilizing active slat-belt technology and offering the handling capabilities of a high-speed, cross-belt sorter. With the ability to be reconfigured, the BEUMER system offers scalability and uses low-friction components. Panasonic Connect North America unveiled the TOUGHBOOK 40, a […]
What’s the Word: the Language of Logistics
Load Balancing To load balance inventory means to distribute inventory across a network of warehouses with the main purpose of positioning inventory closer to the end customer prior to purchase. Retailers load balance inventory to reduce last-mile costs and ensure faster delivery. When leveraging a well-balanced network, it also allows for redundancy in their supply […]
2022 Inbound Logistics Perspectives: 3PL Market Research Report
Our 17th annual 3PL market research report takes a deep-dish dive into the dynamics of logistics partnerships in 2022. Rampant inflation, including high transportation costs. A tight labor market. Commodities shortages. Uncertainties tied to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. There seems to be no end to the obstacles ready to frustrate shippers as […]
5 Phases of Disruption Response
While supply chain problems appeared at first to be temporary ramifications of the pandemic, research now suggests that restoring previous supply chain functioning will take more than time. New solutions will have to be developed, and innovation in the tech space will have to be part of these solutions. In a recent presentation, Palash Barandwaj, […]
Maritime Challenges: Ports Sea It Through
Ports ease rough supply chain conditions with new services, technology, and other initiatives. Even as many books, music, and movies travel electronically, physical goods still need to move, well, physically. More than four-fifths of global merchandise trade by volume travels by sea at some point, according to The Container Port Performance Index 2021, a publication […]
AMRs Move Dock-to-Stock Metrics in the Right Direction
Manufacturers, 3PLs, distributors, and retailers are under pressure to get goods picked, packed, and shipped faster than ever. Here’s the thing, though: it will be difficult to get orders out the door on time if raw materials or pass-through inventory aren’t processed efficiently. That’s why any conversation about improving outbound processes—especially when exploring automation as […]
Full Steam Ahead, Don’t Let Ocean Costs Detain You
With rising ocean and detention costs, controls and analysis are more important than ever to protect profitability.
Loup Transloading Network: Creative Shipping Solutions Expand Market Reach
Learn how Loup creates seamless transportation solutions by combining the economics of long-haul rail service and the flexibility of over-the-road shipping to reimagine supply chain opportunities. The Challenge One of the leading roofing manufacturers in North America moves locally manufactured roofing shingles from a non-rail-served facility in the Inland Empire to Utah. This business moved […]
Shifting Gears to Drive Improvement
National Oak Distributors, an automotive paint, body, and equipment warehouse distributing company founded in 1995, reaches more than 95% of the country with next-day delivery. Because timeliness lies at the heart of its business model, supply chain visibility and accurate reporting are key. THE CUSTOMER National Oak Distributors is an automotive paint, body, and equipment […]
Scaling E-commerce Operations to Meet Social Media-Driven Sales Spikes
When digitally native, fashion-forward company Edikted experienced exponential growth after trending on TikTok, it turned to Ryder Ecommerce by Whiplash’s technology-forward solutions. THE CHALLENGE In today’s digital age, the influence of social media can expand a brand’s reach and boost sales in a matter of minutes. When an e-commerce brand goes viral, they’ll need to […]
Situational Awareness in 3PL Warehousing
Only with a WMS supporting the rapid onboarding of new customers can a 3PL expand its operations exponentially.
How Location Intelligence Improves Supply Chain Management
The effects of the pandemic have strained the global supply chain, resulting in manufacturing and shipping delays that impact nearly every business that receives goods or ships products. It’s clear that supply chain management now requires an increasingly digitized strategy. That’s why companies should use real-world data, like location intelligence, to enhance their supply chains. […]
NOTED: The Supply Chain In Brief
Sealed Deals CEVA Logistics signed a five-year, omnichannel logistics contract with Sephora in Brazil to provide logistics services for stores and e-commerce fulfillment. In addition, CEVA will provide climate-controlled infrastructure to meet Sephora”’s product requirements. Gummy candy brand HARIBO tapped ODW Logistics to help streamline distribution capabilities and scale operations. ODW now provides warehousing and […]
Steering the Future of Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles could reshape the trucking industry, presenting a solution to improve safety and can be a freight mobility multiplier to support supply chain efficiency and reliability. But a patchwork of state laws creates a hindrance to implementing emerging technology. Currently the United States has no federal guidelines for how autonomous trucking vehicles should operate. […]
Should You Build to Suit or Lease Your Next Distribution Center?
As shippers redesign their distribution center strategies to embrace e-commerce, automation, and other trends, the typical short-term response is to lease available space as soon as possible, often at a premium. A strategic assessment of business needs over the long term could take network planning in a different direction. Q: What factors should I consider […]
The Music Man
Phil Rich brings strategy, patience, fundamentals, focus, positive feedback, corrective direction, and celebration of achievements to everything he does—from playing guitar to flying planes. One way or another, Phil Rich was destined for a music career. His military service included nearly seven years as a guitarist and sound engineer in the Navy Band. Back in […]
Cut Carbon Emissions With Multi-Modal
The transportation industry is responsible for almost 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor in the country. It’s also one of the largest opportunities for improvement. While many worry that going green might be expensive, sustainability and cost savings go hand in hand for shippers. Moving freight with a mix […]
Overcoming Challenges and Increasing Supply Chain Efficiency with Rail Transloading
Rail transload facilities allow shippers to realize supply chain benefits from a combination of rail and truck. Here’s how to choose the right one.
10 Ways KPIs Combat Disruptions
It’s essential to measure performance to create a competitive advantage and prepare for unpredictable events. Therefore, I have put together my “10 commandments” of key performance indicators (KPIs) to mitigate supply chain disruptions. 1. Make Sure KPIs Align with Overall Business Goals. What are your specific goals? Are those goals limited by staff hours or […]
Using AI for Critical Returns Management
In 2021, U.S. returns rose to $761 billion annually, up 10.6% from the year before. And with that, retailers must consider AI-based automated returns solutions to manage the influx. Artificial intelligence (AI) can tackle every aspect of returns processing, from shipping to disposition decisions to recommerce. It can also handle parts of the customer journey […]
Building The Smart Supply Chain
With more objects embedded with sensors, and better communication, decision-making and automation capabilities, traditional supply chains are becoming more intelligent. The new “smart” supply chain presents huge opportunities for reducing costs and improving efficiency. Some refer to this concept as Supply Chain 4.0: the application of the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced robotics, and big […]
Technology for SMBs: No Small Matter
Supply chain technology isn’t just for large companies. It’s possible — and necessary — for businesses to invest in new innovations, no matter what their headcount. It was not long ago when supply chain operations were thought of as a backroom affair, running on paper charts and fax machines. But after nearly two years in […]
Getting Value from Class C Suppliers
Smart purchasing departments focus on their Class A suppliers— the ones they use the most. However, many businesses spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on their larger group of Class C suppliers. Digitizing your supplier relationship management can flip this trend so that purchasing departments instead focus attention where it should be: on […]
It’s Time to Embrace Supply Chain Chaos
As someone who has worked in supply chain and logistics management for more than one decade, I find a duality in watching all the attention cast on our corner of the economy over the past year. On one hand, it’s nice to see society at large recognize the giant global operation behind making and delivering […]
Competing in the Age of Instant Delivery
Much of the instant delivery attention is on startups spending heavily to acquire new customers, while grocery chains and big box retailers also compete for visibility in the space. The one thing they all have in common? Knowing that consumers desire convenience and want their online orders delivered within hours, if not minutes. Serious challenges, […]
GOOD QUESTION: Has the pandemic accelerated logistics outsourcing? Why or why not?
The use of third-party logistics has accelerated since the pandemic, with new opportunities in last-mile e-commerce and carrier collaboration. We have seen tracked orders between network shippers and logistics service providers (LSPs) grow 340% year-over-year. As markets continue to rebalance, shippers still seek flexibility, resilience, and sustainability from LSP collaboration and innovation. –Tony Harris SVP […]
Vertical Focus: Outdoor Retail
Kicking Up Sustainability VF Corp.—parent company of several outdoor gear brands including The North Face and Timberland—has upped its commitment to supply chain sustainability. David Quass, the company’s new senior director of sustainability for EMEA, has signaled a greater commitment to environmentally friendly concepts such as regenerative agriculture and using recycled materials. The North Face […]
Top 10 3PLs: Readers’ Choice Excellence Awards
These third-party logistics providers made the cut, earning your votes by dishing out top-notch customer service and helping you save dough. AND THE WINNERS ARE: 1. Echo Global Logistics 2. Hub Group 3. Kenco 4. SEKO Logistics 5. Sunset Transportation 6. Werner 7. DHL Supply Chain 8. […]
3PLs Show Off-the-Chart Growth
What accounts for the explosive growth of the 3PL sector this past year? The results of our 2022 3PL market surveys—through the Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards voting and Top 100 3PL Providers questionnaires—are striking: 84% of 3PL respondents showed significant growth in gross sales year over year, with 90% reporting profits are up. Nearly […]