Articles
Commentary
Winning the War Against Inventory Fluff
Nothing is more frustrating for DC managers than seeing unused, dust-covered pallets wasting away in a prime picking zone. Those 10,000 talking Pee Wee Herman dolls your buying department purchased a decade ago, for example, take up valuable space. Being greeted by Pee Wee every morning for the past 10 years is a reminder that […]
Read MoreRising Costs? Lateral Thinking May Help
There are two sides to the rising trucking costs issue—the carriers’ and the shippers’. Carriers say the confluence of rising diesel prices; the driver shortage; government mandates reducing gas mileage on new equipment and driver productivity; higher taxes, insurance, and compliance costs; and increased security costs for better background checks creates a “perfect storm” for […]
Read MoreSay Goodbye to ‘Dumb’ Devices
Of all the recent supply chain process evolutions – from push to pull, fat to lean, and manual to automated everything – one of the most compelling transformations is currently unfolding in an unexpected place: supply chain data capture devices. Forklifts, truck trailers, shipping containers, and other everyday logistics items look at first glance to […]
Read MoreThe Seven Abilities of Highly Effective 3PLs
The right logistics provider can bring you convenience, cost savings, and competitive advantage as you work to deliver the right product to the right place at the right time at the right price. Execution is the key, central to responding to fluctuating pressures of production schedules, capacity, weather, or other influences on your strategic supply […]
Read MoreTechnology Smooths Transportation’s Bumpy Ride
We’ve come a long way from the horse-and-buggy era when a transportation company’s biggest expense was feeding horses. Today, fuel costs nibble away at profits, and the transportation industry’s operational base is severely threatened. Fleet owners, as well as less-than-truckload (LTL) and delivery companies, face increased manpower and fuel expenses. Currently, the U.S. national average […]
Read MoreTaking the Bite Out of Crunch-Time Staffing
Seasonal hiring is one of the biggest challenges an operational manager is likely to face. Finding enough workers with the right skills to get the job done when projects are due, orders are set, and deadlines are looming can be daunting. How did seasonal hiring become such a challenge? Chances are, “human resources expert” was […]
Read MoreInbound We Trust
If I had a dollar for every time a reader asked me, “Why inbound? Why demand-driven?” I’d be living in a nice little house by the beach. And considering the number of new readers asking that question, it soon might be a nicer little house by the beach. Who are these new readers? Last year, […]
Read MoreBuild Your Case With Bills of Lading
Q: I work for a company that imports and exports cargo from countries all over the world. One of our import containers was recently stolen from a delivering carrier’s lot in Jacksonville, Fla., and was never recovered. Who is responsible for the loss—the Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVOCC) that arranged the shipment, the ocean carrier, or […]
Read MoreWe’ve Got a Long Way to Go, Baby
The globalization of commerce has made sophisticated logistics technology not just a luxurious expense for the Fortune 50, but a necessity for companies of all sizes and in all industries. A typical apparel company, for example, might source fabric from China, manufacture garments in Malaysia, send them to Italy for custom design work, then ship […]
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Proving Material Deviation
One question shippers frequently ask is, "How do we avoid carriers’ liability limits when they are negligent?" Generally speaking, carriers’ limitations apply if they are lawfully incorporated into a contract of carriage. If a shipper agrees to contract a low liability limit to obtain a lower rate, carrier negligence does not overcome that limit. In […]
Read MoreChoosing a WMS That Won’t Get You Fired
Many companies—Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Sainsbury’s, MFI Furniture Group, Molnlycke Health Care, and Heinz’s Portion Pac division, among others—have suffered well-publicized Warehouse Management System (WMS) failures in recent years. When Nike’s $400-million WMS project went awry, the company lost $100 million in one quarter and its stock plunged 20 percent. MFI Furniture’s WMS bugs forced it to […]
Read MoreCarriers Face Challenges, Shippers Pay the Price
Unless shippers have just returned from Mars, they are aware that motor carriers have been hit with severe cost and capacity issues during the past three years. At the same time, however, if they haven’t been visiting other planets, they also know shippers are paying a heavy price. Shippers first became aware of serious industry-wide […]
Read MoreGoing Above & Beyond: The Norm for Top 3PLs
Whether a third-party logistics provider receives enough reader votes to win an Inbound Logistics Top 10 Excellence Award (page 100), or is chosen by the editors for the Top 100 3PL list (page 128), they share one common attribute—they go above and beyond the norm to meet, exceed, and in some cases anticipate their customers’ […]
Read MoreMetals and Liquids: RFID Kryptonite?
A recent conversation with my seven-year-old nephew turned to the new Superman movie. “Superman is cool because he can bend steel with his bare hands,” he told me. Ironically, his statement made me think of an e-mail from a reader who was searching not for someone to bend steel, but for an RFID product that […]
Read MoreFirst-Time Outsourcers Can Keep Customers Happy
Companies that are considering outsourcing warehouse operations for the first time should keep several issues in mind. Most important is ensuring that customer service is enhanced, rather than diminished, in the process. Another important consideration is what logisticians call Optimized Network Design—or, more simply, “Where should I locate my outsourced warehouse, and how many should […]
Read MoreSecuring Truckload Capacity While Reducing Overall Costs
The motor freight industry continues to be plagued by cost pressures that keep truckload capacity tight and drive shipping costs to record-high levels. Currently, motor freight carriers are struggling with: The growing driver shortage. The lack of long-haul drivers is the fifth-largest position shortage in America—195,000 drivers less than the existing need. Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules. […]
Read MoreSelf-Criticism and Shared Pain
Jeff Shane shares our pain. Who is he and what is the cause of our shared transportation weltschmertz? Shane is the Undersecretary for Policy at the Department of Transportation and appeared to be thinking out loud at a recent speech to National Industrial Transportation League members. Shane was right there with us when we spent […]
Read MoreChoosing an Intermediary? Buyer Beware
Q: Can importers be held responsible for unauthorized fraudulent acts committed by a customs broker working on their behalf? A: The U.S. Court of International Trade faced this question during a recent case where a textiles manufacturer hired a freight forwarder to act as its importer of record and to file entries on its behalf. […]
Read MorePaying by the Drink at D/C Expo
If you missed this year’s Distribution/ Computer Expo, May 23-25 in Chicago—and judging from the poor attendance level, it’s likely you did—you missed seeing the supply chain technology industry line up to pay by the drink. No, I’m not talking about vendors’ after-show bar habits, but rather the industry’s embrace of pay-by-the-drink software solutions. More […]
Read MoreLast Mile Logistics: Key to Competing in the Retail Race
For U.S. retailers with broad global supply chain operations, “last mile”—the portion of transit from the final delivery center to the customer’s door—is really the last hundreds of miles from the destination port to the store. This crucial part of logistics, which accounts for the majority of a shipment’s cost and complexity, is becoming increasingly […]
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