Brought!

In tough times, logistics managers react to demand and respond to adversity. Every day, your customers and CEOs raise new questions and challenges, which you meet through creativity, innovation, and a "bring-it" attitude. A logistician’s resilience is valuable when opportunities are ripe, but it’s invaluable when problems persist.

This indomitable bring-it attitude was pushed to the max in 2009 by a confluence of external pressures and increasing demands from your management and customers. In this issue, Inbound Logistics bears witness to your determined efforts to meet adversity head-on.

Our cover article, On The Road: A Supply Chain Travelogue, illustrates your mettle. Veering off the beaten path in search of new perspectives, Senior Editor Joe O’Reilly finds characters and character in locations where 10,000-foot trains, visions of an Aerotropolis, inside-the-box solutions, and good old customer service are the norm—even in abnormal times.


Merrill Douglas’ article, Containing Ocean Costs, reveals another example of adversity driving innovation. Offshore, some U.S. importers are consolidating product and pallets by store, not by SKU, for delivery to retailers. In so doing they are eliminating stateside deconsolidation and reaping the economies of fewer touches.

In Green Reverse Logistics Brings Many Happy Returns, Amy Roach Partridge demonstrates how manufacturers are getting downright practical to squeeze every ounce of value from their enterprises by recognizing that the flow goes both ways.

These examples, and others in the issue, document how people in our industry can, will, and do face any challenge that is thrown at them.

Perhaps covering these types of successes all year instilled that same bring-it attitude in the Inbound Logistics team. Putting together this 456-page magazine, and related multi-media offerings, is a monumental task. I want to sincerely thank Sonia Casiano, Michael Murphy, Mary Brennan, and Shawn Kelloway for their design/production/new media efforts; and Joseph O’Reilly and Catherine Harden for working their editorial magic. They all brought the bring-it attitude to creating this year’s Planner in the hopes that you get the most out of it.

And to make sure you do get the most out of IL all year, we’ve expanded the editorial staff with the addition of Perry A. Trunick, who brings 30-plus years of experience from other logistics and transportation publications that you may recognize. He’ll cover the industry through feature articles and his new monthly column, In Perspective.

As always, the anchor of this issue is the Logistics Planner Profiles, an in-depth review of leading transportation and logistics companies. These segment leaders know a thing or two about a bring-it attitude, as they have consistently responded to your demands for transportation and logistics excellence. With your resilience, and help from the leaders profiled in these pages, you will be ready to respond, no matter what 2010 throws at you.

Bring it? Brought!

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