Articles
Commentary
3 Vital Steps Toward Contactless Supply Chains
Members of the supply chain are the unsung heroes of 2020. The chain kept goods moving throughout the country, even as the pandemic reached a fever-pitch. Each member adapted to new pressures and demands. Working to accommodate new requirements the best they could. However, just like other industries discovered this year, the supply chain unearthed […]
Read More
Omnichannel Delivers, But at What Cost?
Amazon, the most successful e-commerce company of all, gained a competitive advantage through its two-day free delivery for Prime customers. Many other pure e-tailers and brick-and-mortar retailers moving to omnichannel retail—where customers engage with companies in a variety of ways, including in a physical store, or via websites and mobile apps—have followed suit to some degree.
Read MoreOvercoming the Returns Challenge
The world of e-commerce shows no sign of slowing down. As parcel volumes soar and businesses strive to meet customer delivery expectations, returns services can, and have been, easily overlooked. Considering that in some sectors, such as fashion, returns can be as high as 45% and in the United States, customers are 3x more likely […]
Read More
The President’s 2021 Trade Policy
The Biden Administration’s new trade policy report is filled with laudable goals such as beating COVID-19, American family relief, and the Build Back Better initiative. But should these goals be the basis of U.S. trade policy or negotiating position with other countries? Do our economic competitors enter into trade negotiations with the United States with […]
Read MoreSilencing Self-Doubt and Building the Next Generation of Women Leaders
This year’s International Women’s Day got me thinking about the challenges I have faced throughout my finance and logistics career. While routinely being the only female in meetings has never intimidated me, I have experienced moments when an idea or question I’ve posed was overlooked, only to be raised by a male colleague and then […]
Read More
5 Steps to Process Improvement
I was involved in logistics and transportation for more than 25 years and spent the last 16 of those years with a large apparel corporation’s private fleet. During that time, I cannot remember a single year when the private fleet did not have to defend its existence. Each year the argument seemed to escalate until the cost reductions started.
Read More
FTL vs. LTL: What’s the Difference?
Understanding these seven key differences between shipping full truckload (FTL) and less than truckload (LTL) allows shippers to achieve the best possible results and support planning.
Read More
4 Strategies for Effective Cross-Border Logistics
With a wave of overseas supplier disruptions due to COVID-19 and resulting supply shortages that bottlenecked operations across the supply chain, many companies are considering nearshoring to Canada and Mexico to minimize risk and potential disruptions.
Read More
If you were writing a book on the supply chain in 2020, what would you call it?
The Shift from Efficient to Effective. 2020 was a gut punch to any supply chain organization that pursued operational efficiency without keeping a pulse on the risk factors that threaten disruption. Effective supply chains designed out risk by addressing safety, security, and reliability vulnerabilities. —John Reichert, Senior Director, Supply Chain Execution Solutions, Tecsys The Wake-Up […]
Read More
It’s Time to Upgrade Your Tech Capability
Many manufacturers and business-to-business (B2B) companies are built around large volumes, making them traditionally slower to adopt e-commerce; yet, it’s becoming imperative to do so. Customer expectations are evolving, and the pandemic highlights the need for more supply chain flexibility and visibility.
Read More