Articles
Logistics
Cross-Border Trade is On a Roll
U.S.-Canada trade will continue to be a mutually beneficial partnership, as long as shippers keep their eye on the ball.
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Still Pushing Your Customers Around?
Inbound Logistics published its first healthcare logistics article back in 1994. That article revealed several important reasons for companies to move to demand-driven logistics, even those not in the healthcare value chain. Hillarycare was introduced the year before that article ran. My opinion then was, “Fine, look at Hillarycare, but first cut costs and boost […]
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6 Cool Things I Learned Editing This Issue
This summer is a scorcher here in New York. Luckily, this issue is chock full of cool things. Here are a few of my favorites: We asked logistics and supply chain professionals to explain what they do in terms a five-year-old would appreciate. You’ll find their way-cool answers here. Like baseball, logistics is a game […]
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GOOD QUESTION | How would you describe your job to a five-year-old?
MORE TO THE STORY: Comments from LinkedIn Your toys and clothes are made far away. They’re put in big metal boxes that go on ships across the ocean. I work with my team to make sure there’s space for our customers’ boxes on those ships. Inna Kuznetsova President and COO, INTTRA I help […]
Read MoreUsing Social Media to Empower Your Supply Chain
Social media benefits supply chain management in many ways. Through their social channels, companies enhance communication with customers, generate demand, reduce operating costs, mitigate risk, increase productivity, and gain marketplace intelligence. Companies that aren’t active on social media are at a disadvantage because most of their customers, suppliers, and competitors are. Ready to leverage social […]
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Build a Great Team and Get Out of Their Way
Mike Gardner put himself through college working as a chef in a four-star Italian-American restaurant. But he hadn’t decided on a long-term career when he entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Then he took a class in physical distribution management with professor Thomas Speh, and lightning struck. MORE TO THE STORY: Logistics to the Rescue […]
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Diandra Hayban: Keeping New York City Prepared
Diandra Hayban is the logistics shelter support program manager for NYC Emergency Management, a coordinating agency for the City of New York that plans and prepares for emergencies and coordinates emergency response and recovery, among other functions. She has been with the agency since 2013. Responsibilities: Managing logistics for NYC emergency shelters, including the agency’s […]
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Global Logistics—July 2016
UK Voters: See EU Later The British exit, or Brexit, referendum by the population of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU) has already had some impact on the supply chain, and will likely have much more in the coming months. The dust is still settling after the narrow 51-percent victory, but as […]
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Balancing Inventory for a Better Customer Experience
Q: How is e-commerce impacting inventory management for retailers? A: Inventory is a costly investment for retailers. With the growth of e-commerce, retailers have identified a potential opportunity to reduce working capital by thinning inventory at brick-and-mortar stores—opting instead to maintain major portions of inventory at distribution centers upstream. By adopting this strategy, retailers are […]
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How to Stand Out From the Crowd
The changing needs of today’s manufacturers, coupled with the intense challenges third-party logistics (3PL) providers face—from greater reliance on just-in-time inventory and the increasing role of technology, to port congestion and the truck driver shortage—have led to a landscape ripe with competition. Arguably more diversified and sophisticated than ever, the 3PL sector is seeing an […]
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How to Be Fashionably Green
The retail industry’s tectonic shift toward sustainability is real, with a renewed focus on clothing made from raw, organic materials, and nontoxic dyes or bleaches, with low water usage, and produced under socially responsible conditions. Yet this shift is only part of the story of how the retail and fashion industry is becoming greener. Other […]
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Supply Chain Execs Shift Focus From Sustenance to Survival
While we usually reserve 1990’s nostalgia for fashion, film, and music, a glimpse back at the technology landscape is just as jarring. Many remember a time before the internet was a necessity, but what about the pre-SCM age? For today’s large manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, supply chain management (SCM) has become such an indispensable area […]
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Who Are You Doing Business With?
In our ever-connected and increasingly global economy, aggregated, real-time global trade data—such as denied party screening results—helps businesses ensure protection and compliance. Denied party screening is critical in shipping and international trade, and essential for minimizing business risk today. Country governments and international organizations maintain lists of people, organizations, and countries they are prohibited from […]
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Physics of a Customer-Centric Supply Chain
The supply chain strategy shift from business cost efficiency to customer purchase location flexibility is similar to the Copernican Revolution. Many companies are becoming customer-centric and putting the customer’s experience at the center of business objectives. Nicolaus Copernicus’ Revolution was the creation of a heliocentric model where the sun—instead of the earth—is the center of […]
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Prepare Today for the Workforce of Tomorrow
In the past decade, consumers have embraced the internet to gain control of the shopping landscape. Shoppers no longer clip coupons or wander big box stores without information. Instead, they compare prices, seek out deals, and research and review products on their smartphones—from wherever they happen to be. In response, retailers have to increase consumer […]
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Panama Canal Expansion: Four Keys to Unlocking its Potential
The Panama Canal’s new set of locks offers the opportunity to increase ocean transportation by more than twice the number of containers on one ship, creating a potential sea change in economies of scale. Here’s what shippers need to know. Today’s global macroeconomic and cross-border logistics environment is already incredibly complex, with higher U.S. domestic […]
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Does Your Supply Chain Need an Alignment?
If your supply chain isn’t aligned with your overall competitive strategy, then performance may fall short of expectations, with higher costs, poor execution, and reduced revenue and profits. When a company develops a strategic growth plan, it has to decide which priorities—cost, quality, time or flexibility—to focus on. It must then manage the supply chain […]
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How Secure Is Your Air and Ocean Cargo?
Air and ocean cargo security remains a high priority for supply chain managers across the globe. While cargo theft has been a concern for years, organizations also contend with the risk of terrorist groups uncovering vulnerabilities in global supply chains to carry out illicit cross-border operations. While the United States introduced the C-TPAT program in […]
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10 Steps for a Win-Win Shipper-Forwarder Partnership
While many companies rely on forwarders and brokers for compliance, it is ultimately the importer/exporter’s responsibility. Here are 10 key steps to create a win-win partnership with your forwarder where compliance is the top goal. Create SOPs. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) clearly communicate how you expect the forwarder to proceed in certain situations and should […]
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Dialing In to the Secondhand Smartphone Market
More than any other mobile device, our gadget-centric society loves smartphones. The next big thing is always right around the corner. And that’s the phone we want. This compelling trend has spawned a budding market for secondhand smartphones. Many consumers are content to chase the next product generation one or two years behind if it […]
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