Articles
IT Matters: Logistics & Supply Chain Technology
Enterprise Labeling for a Connected, Flexible, and Efficient Supply Chain
Looking toward the future, businesses are taking a more standardized approach and respecting the key role that labeling solutions play in the supply chain. Companies are beginning to understand that they need to develop a labeling strategy to meet all of the challenges of today’s global supply chain. This new focus on the strategic value […]
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What Is Your Fleet Trying to Tell You?
Each day, every vehicle in a fleet generates hundreds of pieces of data. Everything, from miles driven and fuel consumption to the repairs conducted and driving habits, generates data points that together, compile the overall view of a fleet. While this data can be extremely valuable to fleet managers, it also presents a daunting challenge. […]
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Tapping the Power of Performance Management
In today’s workplace, performance improvement and the role of performance management are increasingly important. Organizations are under more pressure than ever to become more efficient and improve business strategies to remain competitive. Consider, for instance, a manufacturer with five warehouses that decides to implement a new enterprise resource planning system. The goal is to increase […]
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Leverage Dashboard Technology to Improve Decision-Making Capabilities
As a logistics professional, you’re familiar with the value of high-quality data. Experienced supply chain practitioners recognize that the value of data is directly related to its utility: Raw data without context or consequence is virtually meaningless. With even more tracking systems contributing to a dramatic increase in the volume of available data, companies are […]
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Getting Fleets Mobile Ready
Many transportation fleets are now embracing mobile technologies, and there are clear reasons why. Today’s smartphones and tablet computers put more computing power in the palm of a driver’s hand than what was available in the earliest NASA computers that put man on the moon. Furthermore, the ongoing R&D investments by chip and device makers […]
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Five Driving Forces Behind Driverless Trucks
The introduction of driverless trucks could be the biggest change the transportation industry will ever see, and the concept is closer to reality than you might think. Vehicle manufacturers say drivers will still be essential in the next 10 years, and the technology will be there to assist drivers rather than take their jobs. Daimler, […]
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The Future Is Now: Strategic Technology Thinking for Shipping and Logistics Facility Managers
All over the world, forward-thinking shipping and logistics facility management (FM) professionals are frequently turning to next-generation, FM software to efficiently manage their facilities and real estate portfolios. It’s being used to streamline business processes, reduce facility costs, and simplify space and maintenance management. Simply put, it is revolutionizing overall workplace performance and helping businesses […]
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Building the Connected Warehouse
Boxes, pallets, and forklifts aren’t the only things that move throughout a warehouse. Data also flows across a range of warehouse business processes, from the receipt of goods to storage and tracking, picking and packing, and outbound transportation. How effectively a business utilizes that information has a massive impact on warehouse and supply chain performance. […]
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Dimensioning on the Move
Growing fuel costs and capital expenses paired with a driver shortage have left companies shipping less-than-truckload (LTL) freight scrambling for ways to cut costs. Unfortunately, opportunities to counter fuel costs, eliminate capital investments, and reduce the manpower required to keep business moving are limited. That’s why many shippers are turning to dimensioning technology to gain […]
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Optimizing the Holiday Supply Chain With Reliable ETA
Timeliness is top of mind during the holiday season. As Santa prepares for his ride around the world to give every child a gift by Christmas morning, manufacturers and retailers are also busy planning to meet increasing customer delivery demands during the holidays. Santa has his magic and his elves, but companies must find other […]
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Why Parcel Sorting Automation Can’t Wait
Shoppers have embraced e-commerce, and, for retailers, it has been a boon. The volume of products that people are buying online is skyrocketing. U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2015 totaled nearly $84 billion, an increase of 14.1 percent from the same period in 2014, according to the Department of Commerce’s Census […]
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Shipping for the Digital Age
Robots, autonomous vehicles, and other fancy hardware like drones are the cool new toys in logistics. Although logistics and transportation is one of the largest markets on the planet, the relative lack of innovation in the sector is surprising. Marty McFly and the rest of the “Back to the Future” crew predicted that this year—2015—would […]
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Use Supply Chain Modeling to Mitigate Port Shutdowns and Other Risks
Recent massive strikes among dockworkers on the California coast brought the reality of supply chain continuity planning to the forefront once again for global businesses. The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handle nearly half of the nation’s cargo, and are the main gateway for imports from Asia, including automobiles, furniture, clothing, electronic products, and […]
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Using Analytics to Differentiate Your Customer Service
Differentiated service is about making your company easier to do business with, anticipating the needs of your customers, and having products available when needed. For example, when I travel last minute, I expect my preferred rental car provider to have a vehicle available for me when I arrive. I don’t think about their current demand, […]
Read MoreHow to Make Ship Arrival Analytics and Predictions More Precise
Ninety percent of the world’s logistics traffic moves via ocean transport, and until today, the entire logistics community of shippers, forwarders, carriers, and tracking technology providers has suffered from the struggle to consistently predict the precise arrival of the world’s ocean vessels with reliable certainty. Many in the supply chain industry claim that dynamically predicting […]
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Reducing Supply Chain Risk by Outsourcing Technology
Supply chain risk management is a major concern for many companies. Risk management data would influence board-level decisions for 70 percent of respondents to a Gartner IT Risk Management Survey, up from just 46 percent a year earlier. While data loss and the threat of cyber-attacks are the most well-known security issues, there are three […]
Read MoreHow to Wirelessly Enable Your Supply Chain
Just in time is challenging enough. It’s even more so when it involves high-value assets such as construction, forestry, and agricultural equipment. That was the case at one major U.S. manufacturer who supplied those kinds of equipment. For years, the company’s supply chain used specialized containers to shuttle work-in-process inventory between multiple suppliers and manufacturing […]
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Benchmarking Transportation Processes With TMS Data
Many businesses that ship products use transportation management systems (TMS) for visibility and control within their supply chain operations. The introduction of cloud-based TMS has also opened the door to many small and mid-sized companies to find great tools that fit their budgets. While using TMS capabilities to support everything from carrier rate management, shipment […]
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Inventory Replenishment: Why Push When You Can Pull?
Today‘s supply chains are undergoing significant pressures to become more demand-driven. Retailers, distributors, and manufacturers must choose the approach they hope will make the most profit. Should you produce goods according to demand forecasts, or by reacting to what consumers already bought? Companies are investing in a new generation of cloud technologies that enable the […]
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Ditch the Spreadsheet and Grow Your Business with Quality Data
To optimize logistics execution, shippers must gain visibility by adopting new technologies that provide high-quality data. But at many companies, separate freight procurement and logistics management functions leave managers struggling to optimize processes beyond freight rates, producing results that may have a large financial impact and damage customer satisfaction. Even today, many companies manage information […]
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