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CLM: The Rules are Changing
The rules are changing? I wish somebody would tell that to the longshoreman’s union. I was recently in the center of the dock lockout imbroglio in San Francisco, having made the trip to attend the Council of Logistics Management’s 2002 conference. Business as usual for dockworkers apparently means a 70+ percent increase over three years, […]
Read MoreCF Bankruptcy: Labor Day
Consolidated Freightways files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Labor Day. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Can part of the reason for the demise of this once great carrier be laid at organized labor’s door? I remember meeting with two highly-placed CF executives six years ago. They were making the rounds, explaining to the press […]
Read MoreFood Retail: It’s a Jungle Out There
I was watching The Discovery Channel with my son the other day and saw a program about a group of cheetah hunting a lone springbok. Menaced from the front, sides, and rear the antelope leapt high in the air, and dodged from side to side to escape the jaws and claws of its larger, faster […]
Read More3PL Growth: Strange But True
In any field, find the strangest thing and explore it,” said renowned physicist John Wheeler. “You can learn a lot about your world if you take that approach.” Well, perhaps the strangest thing in our world of transportation is the advent of the 3PL. Many say buying transportation is just about buying a commodity—”I don’t […]
Read MoreInbound Logistics: Playing the Name Game
“You are so much more than just inbound.” “Inbound Logistics…is this a magazine about importing?” “Why do you cover only inbound transportation?” So why do we call the magazine Inbound Logistics? Over the years, I have been asked this question, and at a logistics trade show in Chicago last month, I was asked it repeatedly. […]
Read MoreMaterial Handling Automation: Money for Nothing, Clicks for Free
Necessity is the mother of invention but in a down economy it may be the mother of companies giving things away to make the sale. Sales of large-ticket capital expenditures are down, including warehouse automation and materials handling systems. At the NA2002 Material Handling Industry (MHI) conference, held in Detroit last month, exhibitor after exhibitor […]
Read MoreLogistics IT: Opening the Flood Gates
Eight years ago, Barbara Barnhill, transportation supervisor for Elizabeth Arden, excitedly shared her story with Inbound Logistics. She had started a revolutionary program that was racking up annual million-dollar savings by taking control of her inbound transportation. She did it using the latest technology—a fax machine. Today, fax machines have given way to web and […]
Read MoreEconomic Recovery: Grains of Sand
It is as if grains of sand had been sprinkled in the mechanism of the American economy in the aftermath of Sept. 11, a skilled writer in Business Week wrote recently. But sand eventually grinds machinery to a halt, so perhaps that was a little overstated. While the costs of 9/11 are great, there is […]
Read MoreLogistics Education: Homegrown Distance Learning
Today’s business logistics professionals need to continually upgrade and improve their supply chain skillsets. Besides the expected benefit of administering logistics responsibilities more effectively, the effect on your paycheck’s bottom line will be dramatic. Yet who among us has the luxury to stop work and take off for the nearest college campus, whatever the personal […]
Read MoreProducing the January Issue: Making Planners
While the publisher is thinking about making waves, I am busy editing and producing this Logistics Planner issue. It’s what I look forward to most each year. I guess I love pain, because I am writing this—the last page to go to the printer—in the office late Sunday afternoon. But it’s worth the effort. My […]
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