Articles

Feature Stories

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Rediscovering The Classics, Volume IV: Inbound Routing Guides

All the supply chain’s a stage so why not command top billing? When businesses actively enforce inbound routing guides and dictate shipment instructions, efficiencies fall into place and economies run wild. Ensuring vendors comply with your transportation requirements is as simple as putting instructions in writing. That’s why a routing guide is an essential tool […]

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Rediscovering The Classics, Volume V: Transloading

In today’s lengthening supply chain, a mode alone is a road less traveled. Businesses shift gearS and mix transportation options to account for fluctuations in capacity and freight costs. When shipments switch track, transloads take center stage. The growing importance of intermodalism in the United States raises the stakes for efficiently managing transportation at key […]

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Rediscovering The Classics, Volume VI: Crossdocking

Waste not. Want not. Store not. The shortest and fastest distance between supply and demand is in one door and out another. Enterprises rocking high-velocity crossdocks wield greater power flowing visibility and freight through the supply chain. In a perfect world, inventory would never remain static. Product would flow from manufacture to consumption in a […]

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Rediscovering The Classics, Volume VII: Labor Management

Managing labor in dynamic supply chain environments forces businesses to “sense” demand shifts to better match resources to need. It also requires “sensibility” in properly training and incenting employees to be productive, and engaging third-party expertise when internal objectivity is lacking. When companies are in periods of flux—experiencing growth or reduction in business, scaling resources […]

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Rediscovering The Classics, Volume VIII: Forklift Utilization

Time is money and in a warehouse the forklift is a time saver and a money guzzler. Companies that pay attention to how they use and maintain their fleets can lift economy and efficiency to new heights. In warehouse and distribution facilities, it doesn’t get more basic than using forklifts to move product around. All […]

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Hospital Logistics Gets a Check-Up

Symptoms such as erratic billing rates, supply closet vertigo, and constricted inventory flow have healthcare facilities diagnosing better supply chain management as the cure for what ails them. To improve their condition, they’ll need help from suppliers and service providers.

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Customer Service Gets Personal

MORE TO THE STORY: SERVICE BY EXCEPTION Businesses today face the unenviable task of reducing supply chain costs while increasing front-facing service to end customers. Technology and automation help integrate and expedite service, but they don’t allay the problems and emotions—good, bad, and indifferent—that befall poor execution or unforeseeable exceptions. The business-to-consumer universe is rife […]

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Standing out in the Crowd

Whether you’re a rookie warehouse operator, a mid-level transportation manager, or a veteran logistician, industry associations can help you make a name for yourself.

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Snapshot: Pharma Logistics: Prognosis Positive

Pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug distributors, and health care providers are taking a double dose of technology and business process improvement to keep consumers safe and competition one step behind. Transformation in the pharmaceutical marketplace is challenging traditional approaches to manufacturing and distribution. “Pharmaceutical, medical, and medical device margins are collapsing quickly,” says Daniel Carbery, senior vice […]

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Going Critical

When an item really, really, really has to get there—and fast—critical shipment service providers spring into action, STAT!

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All I Really Need to Know (about Logistics) I Learned From Rudolph: A Holiday Demand Story

It is both a holiday classic and one of the best depictions of a supply chain solution ever broadcast. The factory floor hums as a shipping deadline approaches, but a logistical disaster looms in the guise of an unexpected storm. The solution turns out to be right at the end of the hero’s red nose. Yes, all you really need to know about logistics you could learn from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

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NASCO: North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition

NASCO, the multimodal transportation network running through the heart of trade in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is all about sustainable, secure, and efficient economic development. See why its future looks so bright.

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New Horizons: 2008 Ocean Carrier Guide

Changes in trade latitudes and changes in shipping attitudes are steering ocean carriers in new directions. As global businesses explore new offshore manufacturing and sourcing locations and more efficient routings for pulling product to U.S. markets, carriers are tacking their sailing schedules, following demand into new ports of call, and developing a dashboard of value-added […]

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Memphis: North America’s Logistics Center

With its wealth of resources, central location, highly developed infrastructure, depth of logistics and transportation services, and talented labor pool, Memphis claims its right to the title “North America’s Logistics Center.” No wonder so many companies can’t help falling in love with Memphis.

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Great Logistics Sites: The Pursuit of Excellence

Throughout the United States, local, regional, and state economic development authorities are ramping up investments in transportation and logistics infrastructure to stimulate and sustain business growth.

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Trucking Perspectives 2008

Our annual Motor Freight Market Insight Survey provides an in-depth look at the trucking sector. Motor carriers and Inbound Logistics readers address growth areas and obstacles.

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