Articles
Commentary
Using Digitalization to Navigate Through Disruptions
Industry 4.0 is a revolution in manufacturing and holds promise for improving supply chain efficiency and flexibility. The convergence of technology disruptions—automation, analytics, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality—drives this revolution. Why is digitization important and what key technologies are fueling the shift? Intelligent supply chains. Intelligent technologies, such as automation, remote fleet management, and cargo […]
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5 Ways to Improve and Optimize Driver Retention
COVID tightened up the supply chain with shortages of medical supplies, computer chips, consumer products, and household goods. Not only has demand increased relative to supply, but employee and customer satisfaction continue to be on the decline.
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10 Best Supply Chain Companies of 2021
Gartner’s annual global Supply Chain Top 25 identifies today’s supply chain leaders and highlights their best practices.
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9 Steps to Safeguard Your Digital Supply Chain
Even as digital supply chains have become more critical, they’ve also become increasingly vulnerable to attack. Here’s how to lock up your information.
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12 Inbound Logistics Podcast Episodes for Illuminating Logistics Conversations
Get insightful takes from logistics leaders in these must-listen discussions, packed with practical tips and observations.
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Retail Inventory: Old Method, New Tricks
Toshifumi Suzuki led 7-Eleven Japan’s spectacular rise from small licensee to the highest-grossing retailer in Japan. At the heart of his strategy was a simple management framework called Tanpin Kanri. The idea is simple: Take an active, rather than reactive, approach to restocking shelves.
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18 Quick Tips For 2022
Looks like 2022 will be fraught with many of the same challenges as last year. But IL has your back. We collected 18 tips from our audience—the leaders in logistics—to help you navigate with certainty.
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Supply Chain Education: Cramming for Success
Business is crazy these days. That means graduates of supply chain programs need to understand resilience and risk management along with technology, analytics, operations, and strategy.
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Evaluate Risk Before Critical Decisions
Disruption across global supply chains has always been present, but the ongoing pandemic has magnified the risks supply chain leaders face, while simultaneously limiting response options in an already high-pressure environment.
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Bullwhip or Just Bull?
Are shipping lines pricing themselves out of business? Blame the bullwhip effect, a distribution channel phenomenon in which demand forecasts yield increasing swings in inventory. Let’s take that idea a bit further. Financial pressures on publicly traded companies drive short-term policies that please The Street analysts to satisfy investor expectations. Yielding to those pressures sometimes […]
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Supply Chain Finance: You Can Bank On It
Supply chain finance programs can successfully keep the cash flowing, enabling companies to cut debt and boost profitability.
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9 Innovative Ways to Manage and Meet Demand Surges
Retailers uncover new ways to respond to anticipated and unexpected order spikes so they don’t lose the sale.
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National Security Starts With Individual Manufacturers
Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies like pharmaceutical ingredients and materials used in key technologies during the earliest days of the pandemic prompted the Biden-Harris Administration in 2021 to outline steps strengthening critical supply chains. It’s a long-overdue move that to some transportation experts may not go far enough in protecting national security.
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Effective Ways to Find and Retain Talent
Even before the pandemic shined a light on how fragile our supply chain is, the industry has grappled with attracting and retaining talent to meet demand.
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Transparency Builds Trust
How transparency enhances and strengthens supply chain partnerships.
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Shippers Stock Up
As the pandemic continues to impact supply chains, retailers go shopping for third-party logistics providers to gain end-to-end control.
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Digital Transformation: The Experience is King
A survey among supply chain leaders reveals that two-thirds of staff struggle to find the information they need to do their job. Alarmingly, 73% waste up to eight hours each week just trying to find data—leading to delays (46%), errors (28%), and bad customer experience (24%).
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Expedited Shipping Can Save Money
As shipping delays and supply chain issues pile up across the country, more businesses struggle to ship and receive products on time. When companies fail to meet important deadlines, the results can be costly, leading to the loss of valuable customers and vendors.
Read MoreWhat is the biggest supply chain lesson you learned from the past two years?
The fragility or brittleness of a global marketplace so deeply dependent on just-in-time inventory. Any event, whether a pandemic, hurricane, or a container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, creates immediate disarray. In response, retailers have reverted to “just-in-case” practices, building up large safety stocks. It has become a choice between risking a stock-out or keeping costly excessive inventory. Where is the balance?
Read MoreWhat’s The Word? The Language of Logistics
Upstream vs. Downstream Some organizations divide the supply chain into two parts to simplify management: upstream and downstream. The upstream supply chain includes all activities related to the organization’s suppliers, which source raw material inputs to send to the manufacturer. The downstream supply chain refers to activities post-manufacturing, namely distributing the product to the final […]
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