Articles

Commentary

Millennium 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 […]

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Capturing 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 […]

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Reaching 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 […]

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Positioning 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 […]

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Richter’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 […]

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QUALCOMM: 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 […]

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Taking 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, […]

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McHugh’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 […]

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A 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 […]

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Crossdocking: 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. […]

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The 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 […]

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Optum 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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Maria Gray

Can Competitors Unite On Your Behalf?

In 1997, DSC Communications Corporation, a $1.6-billion telecom equipment maker based in Plano, Texas, decided to get radical. In an attempt to streamline the number of freight forwarders not only swarming its docks, but swamping the progressive company with paperwork, DSC turned to outsourcing. Putting its domestic, international, and van line segments out for bid, […]

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Got Milk?

What did you have for breakfast this morning? A bowl of Wheaties at your kitchen table? No? You stopped at McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin, or you upscaled your way to Starbucks for coffee and a croissant, didn’t you? I know, I know. Who has time to sit down for breakfast anymore? If you actually […]

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Turning Traditional Software Upside Down

The supply chain’s fast lane is getting faster. Camelot IS-2, Cambridge, Mass., (www.camelot-is2.com) offers a product called skyva that is aimed at optimizing the supply chain process.” skyva enables the integration of best-of-breed applications and provides flexible, scalable, and dynamic enterprise software solutions,” says Dr. Guenther Moeckesch, Camelot chairman and CEO. skyva is generated directly […]

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Logistics Success: Take it to the Bank

Global economics plus smart financing equals huge opportunities. But overseas trade presents many logistics risks that can cause lending institutions to hesitate in financing all the working capital needs of their clients. The success of a transaction depends on a well-oiled logistics process, with the job finished only when the goods satisfactorily reach the customer’s […]

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Logistics for the Common Man

Since I started editing Inbound Logistics in 1984, IL’s mission has been to help companies of all types and all sizes adopt new logistics ideas; specifically to take a pull approach to logistics. As I plan our editorial coverage for next year, I’m hearing more and more from readers at small and mid-size companies who […]

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ERO Enhances Supply Chain Software

As Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) expands out into the supply chain, its reach, and many of its functions, takes on a different set of characteristics. These characteristics include increased access to information, greater efficiency among various enterprise functions, and a better handle on easier implementing, better planning, and optimal producing. PeopleSoft, Pleasanton, Calif., refers to […]

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Creating and Managing Intermodal Partnerships

Much has been written about creating “partnerships” in business today. Increasingly, the word implies more than just establishing a close cooperation between two parties and maintaining an acceptable level of service. “Partnership” has become synonymous with forging a true vendor-customer alliance to achieve predetermined objectives and proactively identifying ways to provide the best service at […]

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