Articles
Viewpoint: Logistics & Supply Chain Analysis
Green Transportation: On the Road to Sustainability
In the past, transportation efficiency concerns primarily focused on areas such as route optimization, capacity planning, and partner collaboration. Today, efforts to improve service and reduce costs include an additional element: environmental impact. As new and aggressive social, environmental, and political pressures evolve, shippers and carriers must adopt and act upon “green” opportunities. Failure to […]
Read MoreCommunity Service: Supporting Logistics Education
Manufacturing jobs are leaving American shores at an increasing rate. While this presents challenges for manufacturing companies, it also boosts demand for distribution and logistics professionals. Because many products manufactured overseas are ultimately consumed in the United States, the need for warehouses and distribution centers to move those materials from port of entry to point […]
Read More3PL or Freight Forwarder: What’s in a Name?
After 30 years in the transportation business, I am still waiting for a clear, simple explanation of the differences between third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and freight forwarders or consolidators. Is 3PL just a fancy name for a freight forwarder, or do they actually provide services that an old-fashioned consolidator does not? Yes, there are differences […]
Read MoreFour Fast Ways to Cut Transport Spend
Transportation costs have become a bullish line item in virtually every corporate budget. Fuel costs have hit an all-time high and companies’ shipping needs are only becoming more complex. No wonder carriers are raising rates and transportation costs are rising. But the truth is, many companies simply lose control over transportation costs as shipping demands […]
Read MorePerfect Order Fulfillment: Getting it All Right
The journey through the supply chain is filled with constant movement and activity, and each step holds the potential for delays, wasted money, and errors. The complexities of an extended supply chain make the odds against fulfilling a perfect order overwhelming. The Supply Chain Council describes perfect order fulfillment as a discrete measurement defined as […]
Read MoreCan We Create a Viable National Transportation Policy?
State and federal transportation departments, the White House, and Congress have failed to promote and fund a coherent and dynamic national transportation policy to meet the infrastructure demands of our 21st century global business environment. Today’s overburdened and congested infrastructure cannot meet the economic and energy demands of a population that has doubled since 1950. […]
Read MoreReverse Logistics: It Pays to Do It Right
Returns management and reverse logistics represent a significant source of untapped profitability for many organizations. Specifically, reverse logistics is rapidly emerging as a core driver of competitive advantage and financial performance among leading manufacturers, according to a recent Aberdeen Group report, Revisiting Reverse Logistics in the Customer-Centric Service Chain. Optimizing reverse logistics operations also can […]
Read MoreWho Ruined the Inventory?
If you got a call from a customer complaining that the temperature-sensitive goods you shipped were ruined, would you be able to track down where and how it happened? If the problem was on their end, could you prove it? What if a supplier sent your company decayed goods? Nobody needs disputes like this wreaking […]
Read MoreThe Best Companies Hire the Best People
In today’s complex business environment, nothing is more important than justifying dollar impact. In sports, when a team wants to win a championship, the least expensive option is never considered. Managers want to ensure a win, regardless of cost. They are looking at Return on Investment (ROI). Likewise, all business functions ranging from sales and […]
Read MoreConverting Performance to Profitability
A workplace culture can be productive or disruptive, profitable or unprofitable. It is up to management to decide—or allow someone else to define a company’s culture. The United Nations defines culture as a “set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features of society or a social group. It encompasses ways of living together, value […]
Read MoreThe Shipper Empire Strikes Back
Sitting in the cab of a Class-8 truck provides a great real-time view of the country’s landscape, as we saw in the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) recent ad campaign. Sitting across the table from a present or prospective shipper, however, may present the best view of the future for both carriers and shippers. Today, transportation […]
Read MoreWhat North American Retailers Can Learn From Their European Counterparts
On a recent trip to a local grocery store, I noticed the organic produce section had doubled in size. I also noted the challenges this expansion presents to the retailer—the produce section had to be redesigned, produce bags specifically for organic foods had to be developed, and a little band with the word “organic” hugged […]
Read MoreCreating an Agile Transportation Enterprise
Due to an increasing number of enterprises involved in global logistics, and a growing number of logistics processing points, supply chains have become less agile. In response, manufacturers and retailers are developing demand-driven supply chains, in which suppliers manufacture products in the shortest possible time using the least amount of inventory. To achieve this goal […]
Read MoreGetting Government to Understand The New Science of Transportation
A freight transportation revolution has taken place in the past 25 years. Consumer demand, technology, expanding population centers, and vast global enterprises have combined to make intermodal the international standard for moving goods. Unfortunately, when it comes to U.S. government policy-making, ignorance of intermodal freight transportation is almost universal. The nation’s government agencies have not […]
Read MoreSourcing in a Seller’s Market
Rising commodity prices, growing global consumer demand, and increased political instability have put an end to the buyer’s market in procurement. Today, buyers are just as likely to be “fired” by their suppliers as they are to experience supply chain shortages or out-of-stock notices. So what is this new “seller’s market” like? And is the […]
Read MoreForklift Fleet Cost Management: It’s a Question of Time and Savings
Abundant questions and costs surround forklift fleet management; finding the answers and controlling those costs can be illusive. Many forklift fleet managers have a difficult time providing accurate answers to the myriad questions that need to be addressed (see sidebar, below). But accurately answering these questions can mean the difference between saving tens of thousands […]
Read MoreEasing the Pain of Product Proliferation
Product proliferation—the explosion in the number of individual stock-keeping units (SKUs) that has occurred over the past decade—poses a major challenge to supply chain managers and adds millions of dollars to logistics costs. In large part, product proliferation stems from the trend toward mass customization—providing consumers with custom-designed, personalized products at affordable prices. Other trends […]
Read MoreGlobal Sourcing: The Path to High Performance
Leading organizations on the path to high performance are those that accelerate global sourcing strategies, drive aggressive cost reductions, and look to contract manufacturing to leverage and expand the value of their brand. Most significantly, these organizations plan to double their spend on low-cost country sourcing in the next three years. High-performance businesses are masters […]
Read MoreHow Do You Spell Transportation Budget Relief? TSM
The increasingly complicated nature of global shipping, coupled with a shift in transportation budgeting from basic transportation costs to a base plus accessorial charges billing standard, has made managing transportation budgets extremely challenging. The good news? This cloud has a silver lining—it is called Transportation Spend Management (TSM). TSM is the practice of targeting specific […]
Read MoreThe Six Hidden Costs of Reverse Logistics
Due to both human nature and training, logistics professionals tend to be forward focused. They are learning, however, that their companies can realize dramatic cost savings by applying forward-focused processes and automation to optimize reverse logistics operations. Reverse logistics is no small matter in the supply chain. Industrial equipment return rates are approximately 4 percent […]
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