Archive: Aug 2016

Prepping Your DC for Peak Season

Are you ready for the holidays? Today’s retailers and their logistics partners need to ask and answer that question well in advance of the holiday season. Mark Sibley, vice president of customer support for BEUMER Corporation, offers this advice to prepare your distribution center before holiday orders come rolling in. 1. Start early. Don’t start […]

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GOOD QUESTION | Has supply chain impatience gotten out of hand?

GOOD QUESTION | Has supply chain impatience gotten out of hand?

Absolutely. While it is nice that consumers can get more things faster and cheaper than ever before, it puts tremendous pressure on retailers to keep profits up. Retailers start moving up sales for each season: back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It’s getting so bad that I predict the Christmas 2018 season will be […]

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Keith Biondo

Working at People Speed

Elon Musk describes the manufacturing operation for the new Tesla as so complex that no humans will participate in building the car. "You really can’t have people in the production line," says Musk. "Otherwise, you’ll automatically drop to people speed." Drop to people speed? Will supply chain impatience—a term I coined to define an inexorable […]

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ML Peck

E-Learning Boosts Supply Chain Management Expertise

The rapid pace of business requires all of us to invest in our teams while quickly learning new skills and taking on new responsibilities. The supply management sector is becoming increasingly more strategic, requiring its professionals to develop new competencies while they are in the midst of busy careers. Procurement professionals must continually sharpen their […]

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Todd Ericksrud

Make Port Dray Street-turns Mainstream to Reduce Supply Chain Costs

Shipping containers used in the import and export process are the building blocks of global trade. These same containers are also one of the most underutilized assets in the supply chain. Empty container moves cost the industry over $10 billion (USD), annually. One highly inefficient part of the supply chain is container usage inland. In […]

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Chuck Hieronymi

Optimizing Freight Rail Supply Chain Visibility

Freight rail has become an integral part of many global supply chains, driving the need for complete visibility across modes and giving rise to a new suite of technologies. Shippers, third-party logistics service providers, and railcar owners and lessors who have the knowledge to make effective use of these technologies gain an advantage. For example, […]

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Steve Simmerman

Is Your Warehouse Ready for Black Friday? Start Preparing This Summer

The world of a distribution center manager is changing rapidly. Whether you’re in a B2C or B2B world, it’s no longer about just keeping up with orders, it’s about establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage to deliver both profitably and seamlessly in response to your customer’s demands. And those are getting tougher by the day. […]

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