10 Ways to Leverage Intermodal

Intermodal, the movement of containers and trailers, has been a boon to the supply chain for decades. It embraces standardization—standard container sizes and rail schedules, and standard trucking from ports and terminals to customers—which has reduced transport costs and mistakes, and improved freight service across the globe.

Supply Chains Need Long-Term Resilience

Before COVID-19 struck, supply chains were praised for their just-in-time capabilities. Now entirely new levels of supply chain resilience are needed, according to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) 2020 State of Logistics Report. In 2019, the U.S. economy achieved 2.3% growth, and the logistics sector grew to $1.65 trillion in expenditures. Productivity […]

Cycling at Full Speed

What’s the most significant way COVID-19 has changed the supply chain?

The pandemic has increased uncertainty to a level never seen before in supply chains. Demand patterns are all over the place, supply lines are disrupted, lead times are uncertain, and nobody is quite sure when and how things will change going forward. Supply chain planning? More like supply chain prognosticating!

5 Lessons Learned During the Crisis

As a major player in the freight forwarding industry, and having been through the SARS epidemic in China, I have learned and implemented some key lessons that are vital not only in navigating a pandemic, but doing so efficiently.

Let’s Not Forget

Virus Times has reminded us that we have the capacity to quickly adopt "new" technologies, adapt to new working conditions, and remain highly productive. Certainly the "new" technologies for collaborative work are not really new. They are new just to a large swath of workers who had no reason to Zoom under pre-COVID-19 working conditions. […]

Improving Visibility: And Sew It Goes

Family-owned Tacony Corporation offers sewing and home and commercial floor care products in more than 100 countries. Because of the number of products it sells and the geographic span of its operations, supply chain visibility and efficiency are key. At the same time, providing timely, accurate deliveries has become ever more critical, given rising customer expectations.

3 M’s to Cut Supply Chain Costs

As the global supply chain settles into the COVID-19 technology-driven and customer-centric decade, there’s no time to pause and reflect on what has happened. Now is a time for action. Pick up the pace and ensure your processes are leaner and faster, and you are equipped to meet your customers’ expectations.

Reshaping Retail

New strategies such as BOPIS, BOPAC, microfulfillment, and drive-throughs could transform retail logistics forever.

Return-to-School Period Will Test Retailers and 3PLs

Retailers and their logistics partners are having to find ways to navigate through uncertainty in a way that they can take advantage of whatever demand there is while keeping costs down, all at a time when the pandemic is already placing significant strain on their operations and sales. In many ways, the return-to-school shopping period […]

16 Transportation Metrics that Matter

Here are the metrics shippers monitor to make sure the right freight gets to the right place at the right time.

Shaking Up Subscription Services

During the lockdown, some subscription services unboxed a demand surge while others were forced to close the flaps. Here’s how successful services deliver the goods.