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GOOD QUESTION | What disruptive innovation will have the greatest impact on the supply chain?

GOOD QUESTION | What disruptive innovation will have the greatest impact on the supply chain?

Supply chain advancement is a methodology that extracts hidden profit by connecting the supply chain to other core processes of a business: strategy, product life-cycle management, and sales and marketing. Companies that advance their supply chains to this next level of decision-making will be better positioned to adapt to changing customer needs. Robert Martichenko CEO, […]

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Chris Cotter

Accidents Happen: Is Your Transportation Partner Prepared?

When a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is brought against a commercial transportation company after a motor vehicle accident, creative lawyers are increasingly including negligence claims. Such claims focus attention on how the transportation company hires, trains, supervises, and disciplines its drivers. Falling short in these practices can form the basis for a jury […]

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Robert Clesi

To Boost Shipment Productivity, Look to the Cloud

Deploying a cloud-based shipment execution system promotes a healthier ecosystem within the company, reduces costs, and pays big dividends via customer satisfaction. When corporate enterprises grow and evolve, their internal departments can develop a silo mentality and become more protective of their information. Because of these informational turf wars, the organization becomes disjointed and less […]

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Glenn Palanacki

Top 5 Things Shippers Need to Know about the Canadian eManifest

Moving data is often as important as moving freight. The Canadian eManifest is an important step toward improving security by receiving cargo and conveyance information before a shipment arrives at the border. The list below compiles the top five items that shippers, their carriers, drivers, and any company involved in U.S.–Canada highway transport should know […]

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Neal Walters, Matthew Getz, and Mike Piccarreta

Reshape and Refresh Your Product Portfolio for a Streamlined Supply Chain

Organizations embrace periods of strategic portfolio expansion as a lever to improve top- and bottom-line growth. But in the wake of product proliferation, portfolio complexity emerges with unanticipated supply chain consequences that can significantly impact customer service, quality, and cost. The accumulation of products spanning multiple life-cycle stages may redirect the organization away from its […]

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Mark Montague

Amid Hanjin Backlog, Shippers Can Turn to Port Strike Strategies

While news of Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy dominates today’s headlines, shippers will be feeling the ripple effects for weeks or months to come. Of the nearly 100 ships listed on the company’s latest operating vessel status report, dozens carry the status of “waiting in open sea.” Others are “arrested,” “embargoed,” or “returned to owner.” A scant […]

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Paul A. Myerson

Lean: It’s Not About Pens and Pencils Anymore

Traditionally, Lean has been considered a "pen and pencil" technique. But today it is a key enabler of an efficient supply chain that links lean thinking with available and affordable systems and technologies to get the most out of improved processes. This "traditional" view is understandable. In the past, Lean was more often than not […]

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Barry Matherly

Reshoring Resources Bring It All Back Home

As U.S. firms continue to reshore, new supply chain opportunities are arising for both shippers and providers. To capitalize on these opportunities, manufacturers and their logistics service providers should understand the reshoring trend and the resources that are available to assist them with both the reshoring decision and the process of returning jobs. Since 2010, […]

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GOOD QUESTION | How would you define a 4PL?

GOOD QUESTION | How would you define a 4PL?

A 4PL is the conductor of the orchestra. It oversees disparate pieces of the supply chain and brings them into harmony to achieve efficiency and, ultimately, applause from the shipper client. Larry Hall Principal and Founder Logistics Planning Services (LPS) A 4PL manages logistics functions, such as a mix of a private and/or dedicated fleet, […]

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Walter Lynch

Instill Passion, Purpose, and Leadership To Attract and Retain Logistics Talent

The talent gap in the logistics field is vast, touching everyone from truck drivers and warehouse staff to supply chain and third-party logistics (3PL) professionals. Finding the right people, and fast, is an ongoing struggle. Seventy-nine percent of 3PLs feel they are unprepared for the looming labor shortage and its impacts, states the Council of […]

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Keith Biondo

Politically Direct

Yep, we went there. Supply chain leaders on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border attending a recent summit hosted by Inbound Logistics and Inbound Logistics LATAM introduced the issue of The Wall and NAFTA while discussing the impact on trade of Brexit and the populist trend that sparked it. Some might consider discussing such a […]

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Theodore Prince

Houston, We’ve Got a Problem

The Intermodal EXPO, held in Houston, Texas, in September 2016 as part of IANA’s 25th anniversary, includes some particularly unique historical aspects. For example, this is the second year the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) and National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) will hold separate shows. The divorce was prompted by many issues—primarily low attendance […]

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Matt Engle

Using Tunnel Scanning to Meet
E-commerce Challenges

The recent increase in the number of consolidation warehouses operated by e-commerce companies that receive orders from many different suppliers in relatively small quantities creates challenges from an ID reading perspective. The small size of their typical order means that consolidation warehouses usually do not have the leverage over their suppliers that would enable them […]

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Keith Biondo

Working at People Speed

Elon Musk describes the manufacturing operation for the new Tesla as so complex that no humans will participate in building the car. "You really can’t have people in the production line," says Musk. "Otherwise, you’ll automatically drop to people speed." Drop to people speed? Will supply chain impatience—a term I coined to define an inexorable […]

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GOOD QUESTION | Has supply chain impatience gotten out of hand?

GOOD QUESTION | Has supply chain impatience gotten out of hand?

Absolutely. While it is nice that consumers can get more things faster and cheaper than ever before, it puts tremendous pressure on retailers to keep profits up. Retailers start moving up sales for each season: back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It’s getting so bad that I predict the Christmas 2018 season will be […]

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