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Survey: Customers Place a High Priority on On-Time Holiday Shipping
27 percent of U.S. customers would rather get a root canal than have personal holiday shipments come late, according to a DHL holiday customer survey that reveals on-time shipments are a high priority. The survey helps to better understands customer trends and challenges this holiday season, and uncovered key business priorities for the holidays, and how they […]
Read MoreDos and Don’ts for Storing Temperature Sensitive Medicines
The UK Medicine and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) identified crucial mistakes in how wholesalers source and handle freezers and fridges used to store medicines. MHRA says the main metrics to measure when sourcing GDP qualified equipment are: The purpose – is it to store cold packs to be used in transit or to host frozen products? Temperature bracket required Capacity […]
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Is Supply Chain Planning Right for the Cloud?
The explosive growth of data that today’s supply chain teams must manage creates challenges even for the most seasoned professionals. Manufacturers, retailers, and distributors need agile systems that help manage and simplify complexity. However, one of the biggest hurdles today’s organizations face is gaining executive approval to implement an advanced supply chain planning system. Is […]
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Panama Canal Expansion Hits the Big Time
Two Great Pyramids of Giza, four Big Bens, eight Statues of Liberty. Lay them end to end, and you’ve got the equivalent length of the CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, the largest capacity vessel to ever transit the Panama Canal’s expanded locks. At 1,228 feet long, the Neopanamax containership has a total capacity of 14,414 TEUs. […]
Read MoreFacts About Friction
The average U.S. business loses $171,340 per year through clunky payment practices causing friction in their supply chain, according to new research by Tungsten Network. This equates to almost 6,500 man hours spent chasing purchase order numbers, processing paper invoices, and responding to supplier inquiries. Businesses estimate they spend an average of 55 hours per […]
Read MoreSupply Chain Commentary: Out Darn Spot! Out, I Say!
The comic Steven Wright once joked, “I spilled spot remover all over my dog. Now he’s gone.” For shippers who regularly leverage the spot market, it’s been a buyer’s market the past few years. One shipper I’ve worked with saved more than 9 percent on freight spend simply by moving away from only using brokers […]
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Urban Logistics: You Can’t Fight City Haul
The impact of urbanization—population increases in cities and towns as opposed to rural areas—on business growth and sustainability concerns nearly all companies surveyed in The Road to Sustainable Urban Logistics, a new report by UPS and GreenBiz Group. However, only 47 percent feel prepared to address the associated business challenges, according to the survey. Further, […]
Read MoreWhy the Rise of the 4PL Is Good News for Your Business
On-demand delivery, trade uncertainties, siloed information…for today’s supply chain managers, the list of concerns is long. Current industry and geopolitical trends are complicating matters further. Companies are juggling more products and suppliers, leaving supply chains increasingly vulnerable to disruption. In the grocery industry alone, the average number of SKUs skyrocketed from 9,000 in the 1970s […]
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Manufacturers Take to Technology, Automation
Driven by globalization, intensifying competition, and rising customer demand for more options and higher quality products, a connected plant floor has become a necessity. As a result, manufacturers are adopting the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to enhance visibility and improve quality, with the number of organizations achieving a fully connected factory expected to rise […]
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Staffing Your Warehouse: Addressing Hidden Risks
The warehousing sector and staffing industry depend on each other. In fact, they are so closely tied that the Department of Labor often considers warehouses and staffing companies “joint employers.” The rules for being a joint employer significantly increase the risks and exposures otherwise thought to be transferred to the staffing agency. Payroll Taxes Did […]
Read MoreWater Works
Unmanned surface and underwater vessels will dominate maritime activity in the United Kingdom and across Europe over the next decade, according to a new report on the future of autonomous maritime systems. Networks of autonomous surface and underwater vessels are set to radically change the nature of maritime operations, according to the follow-up to Global […]
Read MoreNew IoT Tools Enable Greater Visibility Into Complex Supply Chains
Shipping high-value goods is risky business. Supply chains are complex, and getting more complex by the day. More complexity means more surprises, and most supply chain managers don’t like surprises. Every year, pharmaceutical companies spend $30 billion replacing shipments that have been damaged due to temperature excursions. Cargo loss in other industries accounts for an […]
Read MoreU.S.-Cuba Trade: The Intersection of Sanctions, Sourcing, and Compliance
With the changing diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba, and expectations for the new administration to redraw U.S. policy toward Cuba, many involved in international trade are unclear of the sanctions status of trade with the island nation. The country is still embargoed and, at a practical level, for most all products, normalized […]
Read MoreCold Cuts: Refrigerated Transport’s Global Forecast
Globalization and technological advancements in refrigerated transportation systems and equipment are driving increased demand for temperature-controlled food across the globe. As a result, the refrigerated transport market is projected to reach 3.25 billion tons by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5 percent from 2017 to 2022, according to the latest study […]
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Six Surefire Ways to Build a Logistics Workforce
Indiana ranks second in the United States for manufacturing and logistics employment growth and first in the percentage of Hoosiers employed in these industry sectors. Couple those statistics with Indiana’s “Crossroads of America” logistics reputation and there is a compelling reason to develop a skilled workforce for continued growth. Building tomorrow’s workforce is a team […]
Read MoreReaching a Point of No Returns
Online shoppers can no longer take free returns for granted. The number of UK and European retailers offering customers free returns in at least one international market dropped from 55 percent in the first quarter of 2017 to just 28 percent in the latest benchmark report from research firm ReBOUND. Most brands are still not […]
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Supply Chain Commentary: Why Manufacturers Should Adopt an Ecosystem Strategy
Customers have always expected suppliers to quickly respond to their needs, but now they’re more demanding than ever. As the needs of buyers become more unpredictable and complex, and as they begin to demand more frequent product launches and extreme personalization, manufacturers are struggling to keep up, let alone profitably. One of the core challenges […]
Read MoreHow Supply Chain Managers Can Use
Artificial Intelligence to Their Advantage
Artificial intelligence (AI) now touches almost every industry and walk of life. Driverless cars are chauffeuring themselves through Pittsburgh’s roads, robots dominate the activity within Amazon’s warehouses, and increasingly sophisticated algorithms for demand planning and design have gone digital. Personalization and machine learning continue to improve customers’ experiences and open countless doors for the tech […]
Read MoreE-commerce Retailers Target Germany
Germany is the most important European future market for U.S. brands expanding their e-commerce business (see chart), according to Internationalizing Your Brand in 2017, a study of e-commerce retail decision makers commissioned by Arvato and conducted by the Worldwide Business Research Digital agency. Companies that focus consistently on omnichannel and offering convenient, flexible, and reliable […]
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