Articles
Commentary
Minimize Returns While Improving Sales
The popularity of free shipping has led to a growth of online sales. It has also created a problem: a large number of online returns. The shipping world defines the returns process as reverse logistics. Minimizing costs and even making a profit in reverse logistics is critical to an e-commerce company’s health. Here are some […]
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Fighting Counterfeit Products
As pharmaceutical and food supply chains become more global, the risk of fraud, substitution, and counterfeiting increases. Consumers are demanding more transparency and safety adherence as these issues arise. Consumers are also increasingly concerned about the source of their products and the conditions under which they are manufactured. In the pharma supply chain, patients are […]
Read MoreGood Question: What’s your best supply chain tip?
Industry professionals share their best supply chain tips.
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When Worlds Combine
Inbound Logistics continues to provide actionable content to help drive supply chain change.
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When Worlds Collide
In retail there are two worlds or approaches: online and traditional. It appears the online retailers have been winning in the market with all types of consumers, even in manufacturing and industrial products. But don’t count the traditional retail world out yet. Good supply chain management practices, along with blended approaches to serving the customer, […]
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Today’s Technology, Tomorrow’s Demand
The late actress Carrie Fisher said, “instant gratification takes too long.” Her prescience is spot-on. Consumers don’t just want convenient, personalized products and services—they want them immediately. Speed and flexibility are the most significant aspects of meeting this heightened sense of “must have it now.” Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are in a fierce race […]
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Six Ways to Develop Character in Leaders
One of my hardest days in the military came in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. I was leading a Special Operations Planning Team and we were using an event tracking system to predict where, what type, and when acts of violence would occur. We predicted a huge rise in attacks with little end […]
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Using Technology to Cut Freight Costs
The bad news: Tight capacity and higher freight rates are the new normal. The good news: There are ways to handle the impacts far better than your competition. Aside from securing reduced freight rates from your carriers, here’s how you can cut freight expense while improving service: Coordinate business intelligence Improve load planning Provide carriers […]
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Using FTZs to Treat Pharma Challenges
Every day, pharmaceutical manufacturers navigate complicated regulations while managing costs and reducing risk. Foreign trade zones (FTZs) can help, but only if manufacturers understand what they are, their potential benefits, and how to best use them. FTZs—areas in or next to U.S. ports of entry under the control of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) but […]
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Maximizing Global E-Commerce Profits
With 7 billion prospective customers out there, how can e-commerce companies not grow wealthy by expanding internationally? But, as with most things in business, international e-commerce is not as simple as it sounds. It takes work, planning, and investment, but the profit potential is very real. When branching out internationally, you’ll be able to get […]
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Riding Out the Rapids
It seems that we are moving from crisis to crisis—tariffs, a plummeting stock market, cyber-attacks, recalls—at an ever-increasing pace. While we can’t avoid these crises, we can minimize their impact with a lean, agile supply chain. While that’s easy to say, it’s hard to do. Some key components to focus on include: Supply chain visibility, […]
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The Cure for Meeting Pharma Requirements
Complying with global pharmaceutical serialization and traceability regulations without collaboration and system interoperability represents a significant challenge for pharmaceutical trading partners. Collaboration preempts disagreements among supply chain trading partners simply because complete, accurate data is important to both parties. Contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) are a crucial component of the pharma manufacturing ecosystem, and many pharmaceutical […]
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Driver Shortage or Lack of Innovation?
The trucking industry has faced a driver shortage for many years now. In a world where every industry seems to be evolving, the stagnant nature of trucking is hurting the employment pool. While trucking was a popular profession for two previous generations, millennials have drastically different career expectations. Almost all millennials were raised using technology […]
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Pushing Blockchain Past the Hype
Businesses across the supply chain are finally embracing blockchain as an asset capable of unlocking tremendous value, especially as supply chains grow more globalized and susceptible to compromise. Yet many companies still approach blockchain with apprehension. Misinformation and lack of clarity loom over businesses curious about blockchain. Supply chain companies are understandably wary of having […]
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Not So Fast: Rethinking Multi-Item Orders
In the name of speed and satisfaction, many retailers think they’re doing the right thing by delivering products to customers as quickly as possible, shipping partial orders, but that isn’t always the case. High on the list of shopper frustrations is placing a multi-item order online only to have it arrive in multiple shipments over […]
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Why Millennials Deserve Our Attention
By 2020, global millennial spending power will total $20 trillion plus. Not paying attention to the needs of this burgeoning demographic is business suicide. The sooner supply chains can adapt to millennial attitudes, the better placed they are to thrive in the future. Agile logistics buyers who can secure providers offering millennial-focused services will reap […]
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Keeping Truckers Safe on the Road
Keeping drivers safe is important for everyone on the road, especially with 115 million cars and trucks hitting U.S. streets every day. Not everyone who drives will get into an accident. However, the risk is much higher for truckers who drive every day for work. A range of factors can cause crashes. One of the […]
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A Lot to Learn
In the not-so-distant past, logistics and supply chain practitioners had just a few ways to boost their skillsets and keep current on the latest best practices. The options were mostly limited to on-the-job training, or required an unrealistic investment in time. Today, a world of resources is available to help even the busiest logistics professionals […]
Read MoreGood Question: What are your top supply chain predictions for 2019?
Uber Freight and other new platforms will power increasingly connected truckers and LTL providers into the gig economy. Steve Dowse SVP, Product Management Blume Global Supply chains will continue their evolution from the traditional lean standard strategy to more of a flexible and elastic supply chain to meet market and logistics fluctuations. These changes will […]
Read MoreGood Question: What was your first job in logistics and what did it teach you?
Summer seasonal order picker. It taught me an order is only as good as its accuracy; without it, all you would have is empty pallets. James Stone Client Sales Representative Echo Global Logistics Manually tracking and tracing previous-day LTL pickups. It taught me every missed pickup has three stories: why the carrier says it’s the […]
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