Articles
Logistics
Lori Harper: Running a Tight Ship
Lori Harper is vice president, supply chain management at Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Pascagoula, Miss. HII was spun off from Northrop Grumman Corp. in 2011. Harper has served in this position since 2012. Responsibilities: Sourcing, procurement, receiving, warehousing, inventory, distribution, cost control, and analytics. Experience: Subcontract management specialist, material site […]
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Trends—May 2015
U.S. Ports Critical to Sustained Economic Growth Transportation budgeting at the state and federal levels has become a contentious battleground as politicians and private sector lobbyists search for new funding mechanisms to execute much-needed infrastructure upgrades. One point of consensus is that U.S. ports are key to sustained economic growth—and therefore should be a priority […]
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Global Logistics—May 2015
China Picks Pakistan for Trade Corridor China’s "global diplomacy" holds few bounds. From Central and South America to Africa, the country has been aggressively asserting its influence and injecting capital into new infrastructure developments that also pave the way for further commodity sourcing. But China’s impact in Asia is far greater, especially as it relates […]
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Tight Market for Industrial Real Estate Impacts Supply Chain Costs
The industrial real estate market is still recovering from the effects of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. The hangover from those years is now having a dramatic effect on the cost and availability of warehousing and distribution space in most key markets across the United States. Additional factors, such as positive demographic trends, expanding trade […]
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Improving the Warehouse Startup Process
Q: What trends are you seeing with customers and their warehousing needs? A: We are seeing a larger number of existing and prospective customers looking for space in short time frames. They might be looking to outsource their warehousing at the end of an existing lease or they may have short-term warehousing needs. Customers do […]
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The Driver Shortage—Not Just a Carrier Issue
Q: The transportation industry’s nationwide driver shortage is getting worse. What is the cause? A: Tougher regulations, a lack of interest by younger workers, and the graying of today’s drivers are contributing to the driver shortage. The problem will continue to grow over the next several years—especially as freight volumes increase. Despite the fact that […]
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Finding an Inventory Solution That’s Just Right for Your Small Business
Inventory management, put simply, is ensuring you have the right amount of product in the right place at the right time. It helps you determine which items sell well, and which do not, giving you the ability to adjust product levels accordingly. As such a crucial step in the supply chain, the importance of good […]
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Five Ways to Mitigate a Truckload Capacity Crunch
Many factors have led to increased costs for truckload services, and created challenges to the freight pricing status quo for shippers. In the wake of the disruptions caused by the current capacity crunch, many are asking: "Am I overpaying? And if I am, what can I do about it?" To avoid paying too much for […]
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Building a Smarter Warehouse
Cloud computing, omnichannel management, and big data are the questions. Can your warehouse supply the answers?
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The Changing Face of the Warehouse Workforce
How does a warehouse manager transform a group of people with different backgrounds, outlooks, and abilities into a high-powered workforce?
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Riding the Rails
America’s great rail intermodal sites serve as vital hubs in the logistics landscape.
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An Expanding Palette of Pallet Choices
The seven trends you need to know before you choose your next pallet system.
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Awake at the Wheel: Delivering Customer Satisfaction
When Sleepy’s customers got tired of short notice and missed deliveries, the specialty mattress retailer brought in a technology partner and dreamed up a solution that put those problems to bed.
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Communication is Key When Optimizing Logistics Networks
Within any logistics network there are vendors, warehouses, distribution centers, service operations, transportation routes and hubs, carriers, freight forwarders, importers, exporters, and more. The idea of optimizing all of it is enough to give anyone a splitting headache. The goal of optimization is to reduce costs while becoming more efficient. To do this, some companies […]
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The World is Your Warehouse, 2.0
Inbound Logistics regularly reports on the benefits of better linking demand to supply lines. Given the new and ever-growing crop of supply chain technology solutions delivering global visibility and ability to execute, we sometimes refer to the world as your warehouse. That’s why Apple’s patent #8,989,773 caught my eye. Granted on March 24, 2015, by […]
Read MoreMaximizing Intermodal Efficiency
Intermodal transportation was developed to improve efficiency as U.S. consumer demand and shipment volume grew. When a trucking entrepreneur realized it would be more efficient to use the same conveyance for different shipping modes, without having to handle the cargo, intermodalism was created. The resulting interoperability of the assets themselves—containers, chassis, railcars—is evidence of improved […]
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Judi Griffin: Sinks Her Teeth Into Her Work
Judi Griffin is director of logistics at Burkhart Dental, a supplier of equipment, technology, and consumables used by dental practices. She has worked for Burkhart Dental since 2009, and has held her current position at the Tacoma, Wash., firm since 2013. Responsibilities: Distribution centers, purchasing and customer service teams, hand piece repair center, and inbound […]
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Trends—April 2015
Supply Chain Modeling: Believe It! The supply chain sector is increasingly adapting and deploying technology to better understand the unknown. Big data provides a wealth of information and historical precedent to benchmark and optimize current and future events. Modeling and design software similarly affords users the latitude to engineer and plan for potentialities before they […]
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Global Logistics—April 2015
Larger Ships, Larger Losses? When Maersk Line introduced its Triple-E class of containerships in 2013, it raised the bar for the ocean shipping industry. China Shipping Container Lines and Mediterranean Shipping Company have since brought vessels online that top the 19-thousand TEU threshold. But now France’s CMA CGM SA, the third-largest container line in the […]
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How Location Decisions Impact a Lean Strategy
Companies often don’t consider the location decision to be a Lean concept, but they should. Moving goods efficiently from raw material sites to processing facilities, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers is critical to remaining competitive in today’s global economy. When manufacturers make location decisions, their priority is to minimize cost. Retailers look to maximize revenue […]
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