Articles
Commentary
Specialty 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 […]
Read MoreStaying Up to Speed with Non-Stop Demand
The demand side of the supply chain continues to undergo major changes in strategies and technologies. The scale of consumer demand—and the need for both accurate forecasting and a fast response to demand—acts as the driving force. Fast response time is king of the market. While the Internet has been given a lot of credit […]
Read MoreReal Estate Companies Deliver Distribution Solutions
In today’s economy, companies are experiencing an increased amount of pressure to deliver their products to market more rapidly and cost-efficiently. Customers have little tolerance for lengthy delays in the fulfillment cycle, and they reject the exorbitant costs often required to deliver the products to market more efficiently. To avoid these pitfalls, companies have begun […]
Read MoreAnd Millennium Realities
It might be fun to take a trip in that logistics time machine the publisher talks about on the previous page, but prudence dictates we take a look at our logistics realities. A dichotomy exists in our market between those who get it and those who don’t, those who lead in logistics best practices and […]
Read MoreMillennium Musings…
Standing in the doorway of the 20th century, 19th century scientists and engineers couldn’t imagine they lacked a true understanding of their reality. They knew there would be inventions, new developments, but they believed they had a clear picture of their world and its physical limits. “The basic fundamental principles governing the behavior of our […]
Read MoreCapturing a ‘Supply Chain Moment’
A “Kodak moment” can be the moment that grandma sees the new baby or Aunt Helen gives the proud graduate a check. What is a “supply chain moment”? The supply chain deals with a very complex set of technologies and issues. Technologies are stacked over the supply chain like planes over O’Hare on Thanksgiving. Any […]
Read MoreReaching the Pinnacle of SCM Success
Leading supply chain software developers are taking a more creative and inventive view of intelligent practice in applying their solutions. The idea of one company doing it all is usually dismissed; many SCM providers are now carving out niches of specialization. But one company is taking a different approach—many companies under one parent offering an […]
Read MorePositioning the Supply Chain in a Volatile Market
The supply chain and its attendant technology is a warp-speed moving target that responds to enterprise strategy changes, the intelligent moves and vagaries of the Big Six accounting firms, the latest acronyms of the supply chain consulting community, and the shifting forces of the marketplace. The need for faster response time alone has ushered in […]
Read MoreRichter’s Model for Success
The merging of global sourcing and transportation with industry-specific manufacturing creates a golden opportunity for software providers. The apparel and fashion business in particular is prime territory. Staking its claim to this territory is Richter Systems Inc., based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1968, Richter focuses its software applications on the apparel industry. “The apparel […]
Read MoreQUALCOMM: Managing Information in Motion
While many technologies have been brought to bear on the supply chain, none have exceeded the importance of the advances in communication. It is all right and good to get products resourced, manufactured and distributed, but if the level of communication to accomplish these tasks is not of the highest order, business is not being […]
Read MoreTaking a Community Network Approach to the Supply Chain
The increasing growth of e-commerce is not just augmenting normal business practice; it is changing how people do business and what kind of business they do. The necessities of global sourcing, global selling, global manufacturing, global logistics and global distribution have placed managing a successful business in a whole new context. RockPort Trade Systems, Gloucester, […]
Read MoreMcHugh’s Road Leads to Integrated Logistics System
There are as many roads to supply chain management as roads to Rome. One road is to concentrate on integrating the various levels of logistics execution—such as warehouse management, distribution management, labor management and transportation management—which allow the product to move from its point of origin to its consumption as fast as possible, at the […]
Read MoreA Supply Chain Alliance for Progress
No single LIT vendor can meet every need of every user within the supply chain. But there’s strength in numbers. Paragon Management Systems, EDS/A.T. Kearney, Sun Microsystems, and Selectica have formed an interesting alliance offering a complete supply chain solution. Each company brings something vital to the table. Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif., provides the […]
Read MoreCrossdocking: The Supply Chain Core
Crossdocking has become a key technology in handling products and packages properly within the supply chain. For crossdocking to come of age, certain technologies had to be firmly in place, including portable and fixed bar-code equipment, data collection terminals, software applications, a dedicated database, a network or a combination of network and radio frequency devices. […]
Read MoreThe Summit Group: Logistics Pros
Functions that used to operate in silos, such as warehousing and transportation, must now answer to the greater demands of the supply chain. In turn, the supply chain must answer to its primary driver—the customer. Providing satisfaction to the customer has become the means by which an enterprise achieves its own business goals. Providing exceptional […]
Read MoreOptum Inc: SCM Execution Solution
We used to talk about warehousing as a place; now we talk about it as a process. New supply chain strategies and technologies are capturing this process. The architecture of logistics information systems is changing as different software applications take possession. For example, MRP II’s replacement, ERP, functionally provides a suite of applications that handles […]
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