Articles
Demand Planning
Managing Working Capital Amid Product Shortages
Distributors can’t seem to catch a break. First they faced a liquidity squeeze when COVID-19 raged onto the scene, triggering a dislocation in the supply and demand for products. Now, as they enter the third year of the pandemic, distributors are grappling with wide-ranging shortages of goods and commodities across the supply chain that show no sign of abating.
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5 Tips for Finding the Right Retail Consolidation Solution
Using multiple vendors can leave you vulnerable to inefficiencies and higher transportation spend. Here’s how to find the right consolidator for your business. The planning and management that go into multivendor supply chains are an orchestration of many complex parts. The process for new and existing brands trying to get into big box retail requires […]
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Vertical Focus: Exercise Equipment
Planet Fitness is one fitness club company that has thrived in recent years, growing from 918 locations in 2014 to more than 2,200 in 2021. FISCAL Fitness Here’s a sampling of statistics about the fitness equipment industry, compiled by RunRepeat and other sources, that helps to illustrate its status today. The fitness equipment industry is […]
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Lean Isn’t Mean and Agile Isn’t Cheap
Back in 2014, I wrote a column extolling the benefits of a lean and agile supply chain, also known as a hybrid strategy. Depending on your product or service, your supply chain may tilt more one way or the other, or it might be segmented but still exhibit characteristics of both. For example, if you […]
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Digital Transformation: The Experience is King
Over the holidays, my wife and I decided to give ourselves the gift of a new couch. Because I work in transportation and logistics, I knew that constraints up and down the supply chain easily could result in a long delivery lead time. So it was a pleasant surprise when the home furnishings company said to expect the couch in about three weeks.
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Out of Stock? Hoarding is Not a Solution
Investing time and money in making products available is more important today than ever before, thanks to the ripple effects of COVID-19. Capacity constraints and delivery agents have been upended, and product availability is at risk. Rising digital trends and changing consumer behavior and spending habits have also led to an urgency to respond to market conditions quickly.
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Artificial and Human Intelligence: An Unbeatable Combination
Investment in logistics technology—$26 billion in the past seven years—is white hot right now. Here’s a small sampling of the types of solutions that venture capitalists arefinancing: An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven demand-prediction engine that helps lifestyle brands forecast how many units of a particular item will sell. The mission? To better match global inventory levels […]
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E-commerce Growth: Slower but Hefty
Even as growth slowed from 2020’s pandemic-fueled explosion in activity, the global e-commerce market still grew a robust 19.9% in 2021, according to Transport Intelligence (Ti). Indications are growth will slow but remain hefty. Ti’s market sizing and forecast data and analysis shows a projected annual growth rate of 11.8% in the global e-commerce logistics […]
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Evaluate Risk Before Critical Decisions
Disruption across global supply chains has always been present, but the ongoing pandemic has magnified the risks supply chain leaders face, while simultaneously limiting response options in an already high-pressure environment.
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9 Innovative Ways to Manage and Meet Demand Surges
Retailers uncover new ways to respond to anticipated and unexpected order spikes so they don’t lose the sale.
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Getting Into the Spirit of Things
Alexi Cashen drinks up supply chain challenges by staying centered, and listening and talking to customers with honesty, empathy, and complete transparency.
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Is There an End to Amazon’s Impact?
The absorption of industrial real estate is setting all-time highs as consumer demand, with COVID-19 as its catalyst, has shifted to a greater dependency on consumers having products shipped to them rather than them visiting brick-and-mortar retailers.
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Scalable Automation Boosts Productivity for Peak Season and Beyond
Verst’s partnership with Locus Robotics addresses labor challenges by using system-guided robots, enabling Verst to fill orders faster and with pinpoint accuracy.
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S&OP: Bringing the Outside In
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is an integrated business management process through which the leadership team continually achieves focus, alignment and synchronization among all functions. This ensures that supply meets demand while the organization meets general business objectives, including profitability, productivity, competitive customer lead times, and others.
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2022 Supply Chain Predictions
What’s in the supply chain cards for 2022? From limited transportation capacity to skyrocketing material costs to continuing supply chain disruption, learn what’s on deck and how to deal.
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Vertical Focus | Home Improvement
Pre-Orders Build Up Home Improvement Inventory Many manufacturers have discontinued their less-popular products or increased prices across product categories as ships wait off the California coast, truck drivers face long wait times, and rail yards remain backed up. AAA Distributor, however, has all its kitchen cabinetry, shower doors, vanities, and flooring products ready to ship […]
Read MoreLeveraging 3PLs to Ease COVID Business Growing Pains
As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation, a second and unexpected problem emerged along with it: A shortage of toilet paper. Panic-buying and hoarding left store shelves empty. New deliveries routinely were sold out within minutes. And toilet paper manufacturers, who had long ago leaned out their operations in an effort to maximize profit, found […]
Read MoreHow to Avoid Fragile Supply Chains
Supply chains breakdown in different ways, and each type of risk needs its own mitigation strategy. External shocks Supply and demand shocks and shifts are one reason why supply chains break down. One example of a supply shock would be a supplier delivering late or not at all, which frequently happened in 2020. A demand […]
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Precision Starts with Visibility
The new must-have supply chain qualities are speed and accuracy—and the cost for not measuring up is unequivocally high. Manufacturers have been given a seemingly simple choice: maintain optimal levels of accuracy, dependability, and responsiveness, or pay the hefty price. Assuming success will be easy is a costly mistake.
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How can brick-and-mortar retail make a comeback?
Retailers are wise to prioritize flexibility rather than putting all their eggs into either in-store or online baskets. The future of retail may be brick-and-mortar for some, however many factors are still at play. It’s not a simple answer. The future is not one-size-fits-all. The ability to be nimble and proactive not only boosts efficiency, […]
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