Articles
Reader Profile
Fred Walker: Logistics at the Speed of Life
In his first job after high school, at a Sears Roebuck catalog warehouse, Fred Walker spent his days on roller skates. “We used to skate into a huge elevator to get to the building’s various floors,” recalls Walker. “We picked items, took them back to our tables, and packed them for shipping.” The eight-story building […]
Read MoreKen Bailey: Logistics Fun-damentals
“Selling fun” is the main priority at Leisure Bay Industries, says Ken Bailey, the company’s vice president of operations. Since 1998, Bailey has been in charge of moving the furniture of fun—above-ground pools, portable spas, billiard tables, tanning beds, gas grills, and patio furniture—from Leisure Bay’s Orlando, Fla., distribution center into retail outlets. Those include […]
Read MoreWayne Thompson: Different Spokes
The path to Wayne Thompson’s logistics success began in the jungle. Fresh out of college, he took a job conducting helicopter surveys for a mining firm. As project manager, Thompson directed the movement of equipment in and out of field locations in Africa, Asia, and South America, handling documentation and arranging security clearances. When the […]
Read MoreBradley Morris: Change Gets Under Your Skin
One thing that never changes for Brad Morris is the need to manage change. When he joined NuSkin Enterprises as warehouse supervisor in 1988, the company had annual revenues of $50 million, and shipped 150 orders a day, nearly all to U.S. customers. Today, NuSkin is a $1.1-billion enterprise with customers in 39 markets worldwide. […]
Read MoreCheri McCaslin: She’s Got Game
Cheri McCaslin first gained a taste for logistics when she taught herself to run a transportation brokerage. A few months into her job at a local delivery service in St. Louis, the company earned its brokerage authority. “The company decided it needed someone to start the brokerage,” McCaslin says, “and they handed the job to […]
Read MoreDave Moynihan: A Toast to Streamlined Sourcing
To achieve a successful supply chain career, Dave Moynihan believes it’s important not to get comfortable too soon. Young people entering the field, he says, should “jump around to different industries, gain experiences, and work in different departments” to acquire the deep and broad understanding they’ll need for leadership. Moynihan gained this insight first-hand. Starting […]
Read MoreDrew Alexander: Building Logic and Discipline Into the Supply Chain
You could say Drew Alexander grew up with Wal-Mart. As a boy in Bentonville, Ark., he worked at a local pancake house where Sam Walton sometimes ate. “I never got a tip from Sam,” he says. Throughout his teens, he loaded trucks at a Wal-Mart distribution center. And he later took a job in the […]
Read MorePeter Kelly: Engineering A Nimble Response
Imagine each of your customers requires an entirely customized product. It take eight weeks to make, but when buyers need to replenish their supplies, they want to place orders today and take delivery tomorrow. Keep too little on hand and you’ll upset your market. But “if I have the wrong ones in stock, I run […]
Read MoreMarilyn Necak: Making Freight Pay
For Marilyn Necak, success lies in the details. In her job as disbursement manager for General Electric’s Client Business Services Inc. (CBSI), she monitors the service providers that handle freight payments and accounts payable to make sure they process each invoice correctly and hold vendors to the terms of their contracts. More and more, she […]
Read MoreCurtis Brewer: Master of the Schedule
As he works toward his MBA, it’s no wonder Curtis Brewer focuses on international logistics. Since his days as a college intern, Brewer has kept his eye on the supply chain challenges inherent in global trade. In fact, his biggest career challenge so far came during that internship, when a customer’s needs collided with a […]
Read More