Articles
Commentary
GM & Kroger: Transformers
The interconnection between advanced manufacturing, automation, and supply chain management had a boost in the past year. Part of that boost was due to the virus economy, but most was due to the genius and creativity of those seeking solutions to tough business challenges amplified by ever-evolving customer demands. Transformation. Just as the silo-crashing impact […]
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What’s your best importing or exporting advice?
In order to maximize efficiencies throughout the supply chain, logistics should be viewed from 30,000 feet above and decisions should be made by considering the entire process. Imports, exports, and all modes of transportation are reliant on the connecting nodes. It’s an ecosystem where sustainability is key.
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Meat Importer Carves Out Success
The meat supply chain starts at the farm gate and goes to the dinner table, making several sea, land, and air freight connections until it arrives at a local distributor, which serves either the retail or food service (restaurant) markets, but typically not both.
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Can Your Supply Chain Withstand the Unexpected?
Today’s supply chain is vast, expanding to every corner of the globe. With this expansion, the threat has increased significantly due to the larger attack surface. Add to that a global pandemic and the need to protect the supply chain has never been more important.
Read More3 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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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