Articles
Commentary
Logic Tools Addresses Network Design, Decision Support
The key to doing good business when providing supply chain solutions is to have a handle on network design and decision support. This means having support systems in place that have the functional clout and services required to sustain these applications. Network design and decision support are strategic components of any company’s long-term and tactical […]
Read MoreImproving Employee Efficiency Through Education
Providing superior customer service is a fundamental goal of every successful business. The manner in which employees provide value-added service is key not only to maintain, but also to attract, additional business. To be successful service providers, companies need to focus on variables such as improving employee efficiency and productivity through focused training and education […]
Read MoreNavigating the Virtual Marketplace
Within the logistics online marketplace operates an aggregation of companies acting on behalf of shippers that purchase transportation from a diverse group of logistics services providers. These providers include trading exchanges; logistics solutions providers; trucking, rail, ocean, and air carriers; and companies specializing in ancillary logistics services such as supply chain event management. Over the […]
Read MoreLogistics Education: Homegrown Distance Learning
Today’s business logistics professionals need to continually upgrade and improve their supply chain skillsets. Besides the expected benefit of administering logistics responsibilities more effectively, the effect on your paycheck’s bottom line will be dramatic. Yet who among us has the luxury to stop work and take off for the nearest college campus, whatever the personal […]
Read MoreThe Search for e-Business Enlightenment
A zen approach to logistics? It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. In an industry where the quest for perfection is persistent, if fleeting, an enlightened approach to e-business and supply chain management has some merit. In their book The Seven Steps to Nirvana (McGraw-Hill, 2001) Mohan Sawhney and Jeff Zabin draw on this […]
Read MoreCreating New Avenues for Cost Reductions
To significantly reduce logistics costs, look beyond network optimization and rate reductions from your carriers. Transportation providers have limited opportunity left to cut costs, yet significant savings opportunities—in managing inbound inventory, reducing static inventory, and increasing supply chain velocity—often go untapped. The challenge in achieving these benefits is to replace traditional thinking with a new […]
Read MoreReading the Logistics Radar Screen
Private network proliferation and the Internet’s global commercialization improve productivity in manufacturing and customer-facing business operations. But at the interface between information technology and the physical world of transportation and logistics, we still have a long way to go. The flip side of the IT revolution is that the quality of data fed into logistics […]
Read MoreProducing the January Issue: Making Planners
While the publisher is thinking about making waves, I am busy editing and producing this Logistics Planner issue. It’s what I look forward to most each year. I guess I love pain, because I am writing this—the last page to go to the printer—in the office late Sunday afternoon. But it’s worth the effort. My […]
Read MoreHow Logistics Shaped Our Nation: Making Waves
New York, it turns out, achieved its “Empire State” status, at least in part, because of the canals that linked New York City to the Midwest and the west. That point was made in a recent PBS special on New York State and the integral role transportation played. Products, people and ambition flowed west. Raw […]
Read MoreWeb Portal Delivers Ocean Freight Connectivity
Despite some wavering in the e-commerce industry, web portals are not only here to stay, they have great potential to be a B2B growth area, and for good reason. Portals allow companies to take advantage of immediate, online access to trading partners, suppliers, and service providers. This access can lead to greater levels of collaboration, […]
Read MoreOutsourcing from the Buyer’s Side of the Table
Since as long as I have been in the business, experts have debated the pros and cons of outsourcing logistics services as well as strategies for successful outsourcing. With logistics service providers claiming they can cure everything but world hunger, it is important to remember these 10 fundamental rules when you are on the buying […]
Read MoreCreating a High-Velocity Supply Chain
Performance improvement over the past 10 years has been largely based on internally focused enterprise systems that integrate functional processes and promote internal efficiencies. With ERP and various flavors of supply chain planning and transportation management tools, manufacturers and distributors have been successful at achieving a first level of benefit, but often at the expense […]
Read MoreDrilling Down to Core Competencies
With increased competition in a sluggish economy, many companies are getting back to basics by re-focusing on critical operational elements and recommitting themselves to the principles on which their businesses were built. Have you taken a step back to examine your company and determine what truly makes it better than the competition? Not in terms […]
Read MoreA 2001 Supply Chain Odyssey
Had science-fiction guru Stanley Kubrick been a logistician, even he would have been hard-pressed to envision or even script an odyssey as surreal and unimaginable as 2001. Californians spent the beginning of the year in the dark—literally—as gas and oil prices skyrocketed and fuel surcharges became an added burden. If ever there was a doubt […]
Read MoreEnsuring Security Through Visibility
We have all become more security conscious in the last few months. Keeping tabs on processes has never been a bad idea, but under today’s circumstances better visibility, closer attention to procedures, and tight recordkeeping make the flow of information about personnel and goods all the more useful within the supply chain. Supply chain video […]
Read MorePaying Attention to the Whole Logistics Package
Lance Armstrong doesn’t know it, but when he won the Tour de France this year, he provided a powerful business parable for our times. His come-from-behind victory demonstrated an important, but often overlooked, competitive concept: No matter how impressive your start, you must have a strong finish to win the race. Nowhere is this more […]
Read MorePorts Play Role in Homeland Defense
Rizak Amid Farid was arrested in Italy on Oct. 18 after police found him hiding in a container bound for Canada. The container was equipped with a satellite phone, two cell phones, a laptop, a bed, a bathroom, and enough food for an extended trip. Farid carried falsified passports, and documents identifying him as an […]
Read MoreMany Happy Returns
Recent events have compelled many businesses to narrow their focus on specific components within the supply chain. But in terms of product recalls, the potential impact a product defect might have on other manufacturing, distribution, and transportation processes demands that companies take a broader view of the supply chain. This past year, several widely publicized, […]
Read MoreWhen Should You Outsource Transportation?
Outsourcing non-core competencies has now become a widely accepted practice across many industries. One company may outsource IT hosting capabilities while another outsources customer service and yet another fulfillment needs. Consider the many retailers who have outsourced their fulfillment to third-party logistics (3PL) providers the past few years. A retailer’s strength is in selling directly […]
Read MoreBringing Logistics Out of Medieval Mode
At the end of the quarter, as salespeople demand that items move off the dock and into revenue status, logistics specialists find their faxes humming, phones ringing, and desktops overflowing with paper. The struggle to meet the transportation needs of customers and move products across international borders would be easier were it not for the […]
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