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From a Modest Beginning
Having covered logistics for more than four decades, Inbound Logistics has promoted and encouraged companies to adopt demand-driven logistics practices, and reported their progress driving the evolution of traffic management to supply chain management. The key development in that process was accepting a sea change in business management: Don’t plan and push your product at […]
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Professional Education: Time to Pay It Forward
The pandemic, for better and for worse, has shined a bright light on the supply chain and logistics functions.
Read MoreWarehouse Trends Resulting from the Pandemic
Warehouses have been evolving for years and this year has been no exception. While experts might have been able to predict some of the trends that would take place in 2020, what they couldn’t predict was just how fast those trends would accelerate and impact the industry as a result of COVID-19. From changes in […]
Read MoreAre We Ready to Deliver the COVID-19 Vaccine?
In March 2020, as the dynamics of a pandemic arrested American healthcare systems both in their capacity to deliver care and sustain supply availability, health systems around the world enacted their emergency preparedness protocols. Very quickly, medical, pharmaceutical and health organizations became aware of how effectively they had planned for these most extreme conditions. A […]
Read MoreWhat supply chain adjustment would you have made at the start of 2020 if you knew then what you know now?
Focus on agile processes for managing my supply chain with an emphasis on digitization, instrumentation, and end-to-end workflow. It is important to know not only which suppliers I am dependent on, but also to be able to quickly adapt to sudden change. —Sean Chou, CEO, Catalytic Advise shippers to rethink their inventories, create supply chain […]
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Blockchain Brings Value to Touchless Supply Chains
With supply chains forced to operate on thinner margins, digital transformation is leapfrogging business priorities. The time to act is now. But onboarding proven technology to confront COVID-19-related challenges can feel as daunting as the pandemic itself.
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Supply Chain 4.0 Needs Order-to-Cash 4.0
Industry 4.0 has been given a renewed sense of urgency following the pandemic. Industry 4.0 refers to the massive changes we see across every industry as a result of new technologies, such as smart sensors, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). By extension, we see a technological shake-up with supply chain 4.0 and cash management 4.0.
Read MoreEnergy Management: The Next Step in Supply Chain Optimization
When considering new ways to optimize their supply chain, many large enterprises—like UPS, Amazon, Walmart, and FedEx—first focus on technology enhancements. Hyperautomation, artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing, 5G, and virtual reality are the latest ways to fine-tune transportation, shipping, and logistics to meet customer demand and improve profitability.
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Think Big, Act Small
Business disruption is creating disproportionate opportunity for mid-size forwarders, logistics solutions providers, and 3PLs. The maxim “He who is closer to the customer wins” is in play here. Says who? A recent survey by Barclays/BOD on the state of logistics confidence levels finds that “larger companies have generally found things more difficult than smaller ones, […]
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Reshoring Starts with Mapping Suppliers
When the book How COVID-19 Changed Supply Chains is written, it will include chapters on reshoring—bringing manufacturing back to the United States—and nearshoring—bringing them closer to home. But there won’t be a chapter titled “How COVID-19 Ended China’s Manufacturing Dominance.”
Read MoreWhat’s the most unusual or unexpected transportation move or logistics project you’ve been involved in?
The most unusual thing I’ve transported is rhodium “dust.” Rhodium is a precious metal 7 times more expensive than gold. The rhodium was used in an industrial chemical process and dust generated from the process was collected and transported to a special recovery facility. It required an escort because each drum was valued at more than $1 million.
Read MoreFleet Electrification Offers Opportunity in Shipping, Logistics
Electrification is driving transportation to become more sustainable and innovative. For shipping and logistics managers, electric trucks (e-trucks) offer opportunities to advance supply chain efficiency, decrease operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, improve driver safety, adhere to carbon emission regulations, and potentially monetize energy by establishing predictable long-term costs and grid services. The market for e-trucks […]
Read MoreHow to Protect Your Supply Chain from Cyberattacks
Supply chains have been stretched to their limits by COVID-19 lockdowns, border closures, and sudden shifts in consumer demands. Now, they’re facing a growing threat from hackers. According to the FBI, cyberattacks have surged by 400% during the pandemic. One of the top targets: supply chains. In 2019, there were around 300 major hacks on […]
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Omnichannel and Supply Chain Work Together for Competitive Advantage
The days of going to a department store to shop for a TV, viewing the options, and making a purchase now seem quaint. The emergence of the internet, smartphones, social media, and other technologies has opened a world of new options for consumers and businesses to review, research, and buy online with ever-increasing delivery choices.
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Do You Like Raspberries?
Initial and erroneous reporting on a Wuhan wet market renewed a focus on food supply chain management, or FSCM. The virus episode reminds us that reputations of food value chain partners—vendors, transport providers, governments, buyers, and retailers—can and will be severely damaged by any food chain fail. Twenty-three million people get sick from unsafe food […]
Read MoreHow Cold Chains Can Be Optimized for the Delivery of a COVID-19 Vaccine
Cold chains need to be able to provide the right vaccines in the right condition and at the right time to be successful. Pharma companies can successfully distribute the COVID-19 vaccine if they can achieve true visibility and collaborate to creatively solve cold logistics issues.
Read MoreCreating a Smart Asset-Tracking Solution for Pallet Monitoring and Beyond
Corporations around the world are acknowledging the importance of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the need for a solution that has the ability to identify, locate and track assets. This year, Gartner predicts that over half of major new business processes will incorporate some element of the IoT, and the industry where increased internet-connected […]
Read MoreHow IoT Solves Global Supply Chain Challenges
Today’s supply chains are more complex than ever before, with goods changing hands multiple times between global suppliers and consumers before they reach their final destinations. Such a high scale of production can quickly present logistical challenges, like how to keep track of returnable industrial packaging (RIP), the loss of which can significantly harm a […]
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If you could switch jobs with someone for a day, who would it be?
A presidential debate moderator. What a thrill it would be to channel creativity with a journalistic flair to craft questions for some of the most powerful leaders in the world to discuss. What an adrenaline rush…until the candidates don’t observe the rules.
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Solving Distributor Liquidity Shortages
The pandemic is inflicting financial hardship on the supply chain—from manufacturers down to the end consumer—with particular pain for distributors, who are the critical intermediary agents responsible for delivering goods from producers to retailers and other businesses that sell to consumers.
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