Articles

Feature Stories

Transportation Management Systems: Pulling It Together

Transportation management systems attract companies with the promise of bringing structure and efficiency to polarized processes. But it’s crucial to weigh the positives and negatives before pulling the product from a wealth of choices.

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M2M 101

Haven’t heard of machine-to-machine technology yet? You will soon enough. Here’s a quick primer.

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India: Asia’s New Frontier

Global pioneers are peeking around China’s corner and beyond the Himalayas into Asia’s next major logistics hotspot—India.

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Curing Health Care’s Ills

SYMPTOMS: hemorrhaging costs, swollen inventory, impaired visibility & tracking, technological paralysis. DIAGNOSIS: unhealthy supply chain management and related complications. RECOMMENDED TREATMENT: take control of costs, exercise better visibility, optimize infrastructure…and call me in the morning.

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Nebraska: America’s Emerging Logistics Center

Strategically positioned in the center of the country, with a business-friendly climate and well-educated workforce, Nebraska offers an ideal location for transportation, logistics, distribution, and warehousing companies. The state has become a manufacturing growth center and an emerging distribution hub.

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Logistics Goes to the Head of the Class

Ten years ago, logistics education meant learning how to drive a forklift. Today, schools focus on teaching total supply chain management, and graduates are quickly snatched up by recruiters who know smart logistics managers can help the bottom line.

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Reducing Complexity

Increasing globalization and demand for diverse product offerings puts supply chain complexity at an all-time high for many manufacturers and retailers. Some degree of complexity is inevitable, but too much causes a logistics double-whammy: increased costs and decreased efficiency. Companies are taking a hard look at product mix and processes to find ways to keep it simple.

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Innovation: A Fresh Eye on the Supply Chain

Innovation is in. Just ask Bill Ford, star of the Ford Motor Company commercials touting the company’s “new mission—innovation.” Innovation is also at the core of IBM, which invests billions of dollars in research and development every year and has been the leading patent-generating company in the United States for more than a decade. “Innovation […]

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Innovation: From Vision to Execution

Innovation is in. Just ask Bill Ford, star of the Ford Motor Company commercials touting the company’s “new mission—innovation.” Innovation is also at the core of IBM, which invests billions of dollars in research and development every year and has been the leading patent-generating company in the United States for more than a decade. “Innovation […]

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Innovation: Igniting New Ideas

Transforming a supply chain through innovation and ingenuity starts with understanding what you’re trying to accomplish. “Setting clear, aggressive goals in a collaborative way is the best thing organizations can do to foster innovation,” says Judith Anderson, partner and founder of consulting firm Anderson & Rust, Allendale, N.J. Critical success factors that enable companies to […]

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Innovation: The 3PL Connection/The Creativity Factor

Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) are often powerful enablers of logistics and supply chain innovation. “Due to their exposure to ample transportation and fulfillment challenges, 3PLs have developed creative ways to get product to the shelf,” says Accenture’s Bill Read. “3PLs have multiple customers with problems and opportunities across industry verticals, and can provide insight into […]

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Innovation: Insider Insights

In April 2005, at a Princeton, N.J., conference of trucking technology suppliers and users, Alain Kornhauser declared the just-in-time era dead. “Just-in-time logistics is inherently deterministic,” said Kornhauser, a Princeton University professor, and founder and chairman of mobile transportation solutions provider ALK Technologies. He then held up a mobile phone. “This is the new paradigm,” […]

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Balancing on the Rim

Like gravity, the lure of Asia’s rock-bottom costs and abundant labor force has a powerful pull. But companies need to closely examine potential pitfalls of sourcing halfway around the globe. Taking that first step into the Pacific Rim means walking a tightrope between the benefits and risks.

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Supply Chain Security: Tapping Into C-TPAT

Many companies embrace C-TPAT in the fight against supply chain security threats, but just as many shun it. What is C-TPAT? How does it work? What benefits—if any—does it bring shippers and carriers? Here’s a closer look.

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Bulk Logistics: Hefty Freight, Hefty Issues

As transportation costs, congestion, and capacity threaten to derail global supply chains, bulk freight shippers are collaborating with their logistics partners to streamline plant operations and rethink how they align stateside distribution networks to better match supply to demand.

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Matchmaking

MORE TO THE STORY: The Load Matcher’s Little Black Book Scoping Out Potential Shippers, like love-scorned romantics, are willing to try almost anything to find a bigger pool of suitors and more capacity. Carriers, by contrast, are continually looking for ways to get the most out of their freight dates while avoiding costly deadhead rendezvous. […]

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