Articles

Finance

Maureen Sullivan
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Solving Distributor Liquidity Shortages

The pandemic is inflicting financial hardship on the supply chain—from manufacturers down to the end consumer—with particular pain for distributors, who are the critical intermediary agents responsible for delivering goods from producers to retailers and other businesses that sell to consumers.

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Justin Turner
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Shared Truckload Creates Efficiencies, Reducing Shipment Costs

COVID-19 upended supply chains, increased costs, and tightened capacity, leaving shippers struggling to deliver high-quality service. Shared truckload could be the answer. Q: How has shared truckload alleviated shippers’ issues during the pandemic? A: Capacity challenges and increased costs across supply chains have driven shippers to become more creative and innovative. When faced with substantially […]

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Randy Ofiara
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3 M’s to Cut Supply Chain Costs

As the global supply chain settles into the COVID-19 technology-driven and customer-centric decade, there’s no time to pause and reflect on what has happened. Now is a time for action. Pick up the pace and ensure your processes are leaner and faster, and you are equipped to meet your customers’ expectations.

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Master Class in ROI
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Master Class in ROI

Large companies invested $153.4 million on average to transform their supply chain in the past three years, but only 10% of leaders became "masters" in achieving a profitable customer experience, according to a survey from Accenture. Successful companies took the following steps, according to the study: Customer-first approach. They base their supply chain strategy on […]

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How to Make Supply Chains “Antifragile”

Cost savings has been the number one priority for heads of procurement and finance across industries. Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that this must be achieved through lean, just-in-time processes and a focus on limited inventory. COVID-19 exposed just how quickly this can create shortages in critical industries like food and manufacturing — in […]

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Five Keys for Turning Challenge into Opportunity

To capitalize on what they’ve learned, transform, and thrive in a post-COVID world, supply chain leaders should focus on the five core pillars: People. Leaders must reassure, clarify, protect, encourage, motivate, recognize, and reward people they manage. Each of these actions can make a fundamental difference in a successful post-COVID-19 transformation. When the crisis hit, […]

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Ralf Duester
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The High Cost of Invisibility

The research is well documented and it’s not pretty. Supply chain visibility is a key driver to a company’s success, yet remains a top challenge. Nearly 7 in 10 procurement executives say they do not have full visibility of their supply chains, according to the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

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Distributors, Shippers Eye Surcharging to Stay Afloat Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Logistics is one of the many sectors currently grappling with the impacts of COVID-19 on the bottom line. The need for seamless supply chains is paramount, with much of the world looking to the industry to feed families, maintain infrastructure, and even deliver essential medical equipment to front-line healthcare workers. Although the industry is among […]

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3 Ways to Mitigate Supply Chain Slowdowns

As the supply chain faces factory closures and limited access to employees and logistics to move goods amid the COVID-19 outbreak, leaders can help ease disruption by focusing on their workforce, products, and costs. Gartner recommends: 1. Support Your Workforce To limit the impact of COVID-19, governments and employers instructed many employees to stay at […]

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Shannon Vaillancourt
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Do You Have Bad Strategies or Bad Data?

Q: Why do most supply chain strategies fail? A: It comes down to data. Most companies have data quality issues. Companies make decisions with no data, partial data or, worse, misleading data. The misleading data is the worst because it looks right, but is inaccurate. Decisions made with incorrect data lead to no cost savings […]

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