Articles
Supply Chain Technology
DSC Logistics: Focusing on the Process
Over the years, many fine voices—W. Edwards Deming, Eliyahu Goldratt, Taguchi, Michael Hammer and James Champy—have emphasized examining and improving business management processes. The reason they, and others, place such importance on process is to counter some companies’ tendencies to fixate on disparate details, personalities, or other matters peripheral to their essential business interests. That’s […]
Read MoreSimple Collaboration: The Focus is Transportation
Reduced to its base element, supply chain management is the transportation of goods from Point A to Point B. At this core, the fundamental players are shippers, receivers, and transport providers. How well they perform together is the basis for creating wealth in companies and nations. Goods efficiently sourced and manufactured, but not shipped, have […]
Read MoreLeading Logistics to the Fourth Dimension
This past year has brought growth, mergers, and a steady move toward collaboration among supply chain suppliers and users. The supply chain community is growing up—and boldly—in a not-so-confident e-commerce world. There is a big difference between B2B supply chain organizations and standard fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants e-commerce companies. The strong will survive and the poorly thought through […]
Read MoreNew Logistics Portal Saves Money on Every Shipment
Supply chain portals are growing in number, uniqueness, and breadth of service to all partners. They will continue to grow, given the ever-increasing usefulness of conducting supply chain management on the web and the constant growth of new technologies in this area. One new portal, which went live in November 2000, is worth noting. LTLNET.com, […]
Read MoreAutomatic Information: The Supply Chain Goes Live
As the pressure for speed and accuracy increases within the supply chain, companies constantly search for technology to deliver goods quickly and reliably. To meet that demand, an ever-increasing number of end user communication solutions—such as RF devices, subtle bar-code readers, cell phones, and personal digital assistants—have been developed and marketed in the past 10 […]
Read MoreDelivering B2B Supply Chain Flexibility
The stakes continue to rise in the online business-to-business world. Despite the still rapid entry of new dot.com players—1,000 new sites since the beginning of the year—Forrester Research predicts that within three years, less than 200 will remain. While there are many reasons for the falloff, the main reason is that many sites do not […]
Read MoreLeveraging the Power of XML for Supply Chain Integration
Using the Internet to automate the supply chain process is a growing worldwide trend. While many players from diverse backgrounds have entered the field, that does not mean they all have the right stuff to make it in this market. These players—whether providers or users—have to keep in mind the need for new and robust […]
Read MoreUnderstand the Net, Don’t Get Caught In It
This past year has seen an unprecedented move toward consolidation of the supply chain and the Internet. It also has seen a major push toward integrated trading exchanges. These trends are keeping consultants such as Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR), The Gartner Group, Dataquest, and Aberdeen Group pretty busy. Here’s a look at what these analysts […]
Read MoreGlobal e-Logistics Comes of Age
The technologies available through the Internet, combined with ongoing advances in logistics software development, have given supply chain management an enormous boost—far greater than those who first promulgated the supply chain could have anticipated. The scale of solutions has increased while the volume of transactions has grown at a staggering rate. This is a time […]
Read MoreThe e-Enabling of Hub Group
The advantages of collaborative partnerships in the emerging world of e-business logistics are numerous. As portals, application service providers, and other services burst forth into this arena, it is important to understand that no enterprise is large enough to do it all alone. Hub Group Inc., Lombard, Ill., a non-asset-based transportation management company specializing in […]
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