Articles
Logistics

How Omni-Channel Commerce Is Changing Traditional Supply Chains
With the introduction of online (e) and mobile (m) commerce, consumers are now more comfortable than ever making purchases from any place, at any time, on virtually any device. This shift in consumer behavior has changed how goods and products flow through the supply chain to the end user. As a result, supply chain partners […]
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Inspecting the Unexpected: The Science of Packaging Perfection
Avoid these 10 common packaging mistakes to keep high transportation costs and inefficiencies from boxing you in.
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Site Selection & E-Commerce: Tapping Regional Excellence
When choosing new sites to locate fulfillment facilities, retailers opt in for e-commerce excellence and proximity to large population centers.
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A Supply Chain World Tour
Demand-driven logistics spans the world…in practice and in print. For a host of reasons, U.S. shippers and consignees are taking control of how they pull—and push—global product to market. Shifting demand dynamics, geopolitical volatility, currency fluctuations, government interference, lengthening and deepening supply networks, and cost reduction directives have conflated to consternate even the best supply […]
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Popping the Cork on Outsourced Logistics
To get its innovative wine access system to market, Coravin raises a glass to its third-party logistics provider..
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Jim Young: Sourcing for a Startup
Jim Young is senior supply chain manager at Applied Microstructures, Inc. in San Jose, Calif. He has held this position since 2011. Responsibilities: All supply chain activities required to support product development, configuration, and production, as well as shipment of products to customers. Experience: Variety of positions in materials and manufacturing support; materials planning and […]
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Trends—March 2015
Learning the ABCs of DCs To be competitive in today’s dynamic retail space, online companies need to rethink distribution networks that were built to serve the brick-and-mortar store model, suggests research conducted by supply chain faculty at the University of Tennessee’s (UT) Haslam College of Business. Supply chain faculty surveyed more than 200 companies, and […]
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Global Logistics—March 2015
Hong Kong: A Space Odyssey Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Remarkably, only 30 percent of its land is actually developed—a reflection of the area’s mountainous terrain. Hong Kong historically has focused much of its infrastructure development on costly projects to reclaim land from the sea. Accordingly, these constraints have […]
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What is Globalization Doing to the World of Logistics?
Since the early 1990s, global trade agreements have divided the world up into larger and larger chunks of trading blocks where goods can flow virtually unimpeded across national borders that once protected their precious industries from outside competition with tariffs, duties and penalties. The Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico was signed […]
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Three Ways to Drill Down Costs in Oil & Gas Supply Chains
Here are three ways companies are optimizing their oil and gas supply chains and creating more predictable financial returns.
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Preparing Your Company Today to Hire for Tomorrow
The logistics sector will create more than one million jobs through 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. To complicate matters, there is a skills gap in logistics, so recruiting proven and experienced professionals has become a priority for many companies. With competition for talent increasing, organizations must attract candidates who will be the […]
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Unlocking the Hidden Green Value in Mobile Devices
Reverse logistics for mobile devices is more important than ever. Mobile-connected devices exceeded the world’s population in 2014. Wearable technology sales will hit 22 million in 2015, and reach 370 million devices over the next five years, according to analyst CCS Insight. Imagine landfills piled high with smartwatches and connected egg trays, instead of smartphones […]
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Global Logistics—August 2014
Only the Good Drive Young With all the talk about the U.S. driver shortage, it’s easy to forget that similar labor constraints exist elsewhere around the world. For example, recruiting younger people into the trucking industry has become a challenge in the United Kingdom, according to Barriers to Youth Employment in the Freight Transport Sector, […]
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Lauren Corbett: Help is on the Way
Lauren Corbett is program assistant, acquisitions and logistics, at International Relief and Development (IRD), a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization in Arlington, Va. She joined IRD in 2014. Responsibilities: Working with donors to obtain in-kind donations and arranging to ship them to consignees for use in programs around the world. Experience: Teaching assistant, Aldea Yanapay, Peru; intern, […]
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Trends—February 2015
The Jones Act: Time to Change Course? Debate over the Keystone XL Pipeline Act has raised a new regulatory specter. The U.S. maritime industry fears that an amendment recently introduced by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will counter the pro-jobs pipeline bill by gutting the Jones Act and existing cabotage regs. The senator’s amendment seeks […]
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Designing a New Strategy for a New Year
With the New Year upon us, retailers and manufacturers need to rethink their supply chains and find new ways to work together, according to the 2016 Future Supply Chain, a report from the Global Commerce Initiative and Capgemini. Here’s a look at some external and internal industry trends from a Lean perspective. It’s not hard […]
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Seven Common Shipping Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Moving cargo is part of daily operations for a wide array of industry sectors worldwide, and processes to maximize time and cost-efficiency can be surprisingly detail-oriented. When moving freight is an every day operation, proper execution is a must. It can be easy to overlook the following mistakes, resulting in unwanted and unnecessary organizational spends […]
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Protecting Your Brand With Product Lifecycle Management
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and supply chain management traditionally focus on metrics such as speed to market, cost reduction, consumer trend response times, and supply chain agility. But there’s a new imperative: ensuring ethical sourcing and social compliance. Designing and delivering great brands means ensuring products are safe, manufactured responsibly, and comply with myriad complex […]
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Today’s Supply Chain Education: It’s All in Your Head
The list of competencies employers seek when they recruit supply chain professionals keeps growing longer and more complex. Here’s how degree-granting programs keep pace, and enable well-rounded graduates to fill prime positions.
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Oil, Gas, and Energy: Down Goes the Boom
Volatility in the oil, gas and energy business is forcing producers and industry to confront a legacy of poor logistics execution.
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