Articles
IT Matters: Logistics & Supply Chain Technology
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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