Articles
Commentary
The Lights Are On But No One’s Home
We have a saying in the big city, “the lights are on but no one’s home.” By the time you read this, in California at least, everyone may be home but the lights may be off. Chalk another one up to federal and state energy policy pooh-bah’s polymorphic foul-ups. They hit the off switch. Few […]
Read MoreAutomatic Information: The Supply Chain Goes Live
As the pressure for speed and accuracy increases within the supply chain, companies constantly search for technology to deliver goods quickly and reliably. To meet that demand, an ever-increasing number of end user communication solutions—such as RF devices, subtle bar-code readers, cell phones, and personal digital assistants—have been developed and marketed in the past 10 […]
Read MoreStress-Free Shipping: The Reseller’s Way
Are you the owner of a small- to medium-sized business looking for ways to give your customers better service? Have you encountered stress in your business even as you’ve searched for something as seemingly simple as an overnight shipping service? In addition to the cost of transporting a package, perhaps you’ve had questions of dependability […]
Read MoreOnline vs. Offline Shopping: Retailers Must Respond
E- tailing has emerged as a significant retail force—consumers are shopping online. Now it’s up to traditional brick and mortar retailers to respond. With even more recent pressure on pure-play dot.com retailers, an integrated retail strategy seems to be in mode. Whether you adopt the creative label, or simply treat the Internet as a channel […]
Read MoreThis Land is Your Land: Real Estate Cuts Costs
As competition among 3PL firms continues to increase, finding new ways to reduce your operating costs and maximize supply chain efficiencies becomes increasingly important. A 1999 analysis of the logistics industry found that an estimated eight cents on each dollar spent on logistics can be allocated to the warehouse with the majority, or 59 cents, […]
Read MoreSharing Your Logistics Wealth
Hats off to the National Industrial Transportation League, which has joined with Transportation.com and Transportation for Tots to collect toys and cash for needy kids at its annual conference and at other transportation-related events. Transportation.com also teamed up with e-Toys.com this holiday season for a six-week online toy collection campaign. These folks know that logisticians—and […]
Read MoreDelivering B2B Supply Chain Flexibility
The stakes continue to rise in the online business-to-business world. Despite the still rapid entry of new dot.com players—1,000 new sites since the beginning of the year—Forrester Research predicts that within three years, less than 200 will remain. While there are many reasons for the falloff, the main reason is that many sites do not […]
Read MoreSupply Chain Revolution Is In Your Hands
Corporate leaders today recognize what logistics professionals have always known: supply chain performance can have a significant dollars-and-cents impact on an organization’s market share and profitability. The evidence is compelling. For example, best-in-class companies spend five to six percent less on supply chain management as a percentage of sales than median performers, according to The […]
Read MoreGetting On Board with Windows CE
Although on-board computers have been used in the transportation and logistics industry for more than a decade, most have been single-function proprietary devices that users could not customize. Now, multi-function, open-systems devices are available that operate all applications, are user programmable, and can be connected to corporate data networks with widely used protocols. Industries such […]
Read MoreSecuring America’s Future by Riding the ITS Wave
Ocean liner service is the backbone of international transportation for manufactured goods. General cargo ships, sailing on regular schedules along established trade lanes, annually move more than 1.2 billion metric tons of consumer, industrial, and military commodities ranging from fatigues and milling machines to perfume and designer jeans. In the past 10 years, the number […]
Read MoreHappy Holidays! Are You Ready?
Is all your product staged for this holiday season? Some companies were not ready for the shopping frenzy last year, and it wasn’t just the dot.com failure to execute and deliver in time. Low inventory levels and faster moving supply chains, given the growing practice of inbound logistics, offer high rewards but there are high […]
Read MoreLeveraging the Power of XML for Supply Chain Integration
Using the Internet to automate the supply chain process is a growing worldwide trend. While many players from diverse backgrounds have entered the field, that does not mean they all have the right stuff to make it in this market. These players—whether providers or users—have to keep in mind the need for new and robust […]
Read MoreUnderstand the Net, Don’t Get Caught In It
This past year has seen an unprecedented move toward consolidation of the supply chain and the Internet. It also has seen a major push toward integrated trading exchanges. These trends are keeping consultants such as Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR), The Gartner Group, Dataquest, and Aberdeen Group pretty busy. Here’s a look at what these analysts […]
Read MoreE-Commerce Changes Rules for Back-End Operations
Prior to 1999, every aspect of back-end support operations for the direct marketing industry was tailored to meet the typical cataloger’s needs. In the 1970s and 1980s, direct marketing was limited to the mailbox, and order processing and fulfillment operations were designed to meet the catalog or direct mail customer’s demands. The costs and requirements […]
Read MoreWarehouse Without Wires
Last month in this column, Publisher Keith Biondo gave voice to the challenge of adapting to Internet change as a growing tide of logistics dot.coms sweeps our industry. His head hurt from trying to keep up with this Internet thing—so much change, so many choices. Well, just as the pain was easing (we thought), they’ve […]
Read MoreSpecialty Products: Don’t Get Boxed In
Thinking outside the box is good advice to follow—both figuratively and literally—when it comes to shipping odd-sized, high-value products such as structural components, store fixtures, trade show exhibits, display cases, office furnishings, computers, and related merchandise. Indeed the box or crate, with its attendant cost and downtime delays of packing and handling, can critically limit […]
Read MoreBuying an ERP System in the Internet Age
The standard business model on which an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is based is inherently inward-looking. An ERP system, typically with client-server architecture and a Windows interface, works on the assumption that a fairly small number of company employees within a specific department will need to access an application. The advent of the Internet […]
Read MoreIs Your Supply Chain Achieving Customer Loyalty?
Business logistics executives face four major challenges: Achieving dramatic reductions in time-to-market. Creating value for shareholders. Marketing their supply chain as a competitive edge. Earning customer loyalty. Organizations must focus time, attention, and dollars on these areas. While many companies have plans to achieve challenges one through three, market leaders know that without true customer […]
Read MoreGlobal e-Logistics Comes of Age
The technologies available through the Internet, combined with ongoing advances in logistics software development, have given supply chain management an enormous boost—far greater than those who first promulgated the supply chain could have anticipated. The scale of solutions has increased while the volume of transactions has grown at a staggering rate. This is a time […]
Read MoreThe e-Enabling of Hub Group
The advantages of collaborative partnerships in the emerging world of e-business logistics are numerous. As portals, application service providers, and other services burst forth into this arena, it is important to understand that no enterprise is large enough to do it all alone. Hub Group Inc., Lombard, Ill., a non-asset-based transportation management company specializing in […]
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