Articles
Supply Chain Management
Talent Gap or Training Gap?
In the past, workforce training and development for blue- and gray-collar jobs took a back seat at many businesses and academic institutions. Schools often steered students toward white-collar career paths, while businesses put cutting costs, staying globally competitive, and turning a profit above training workers—a short-sighted focus on the next quarter rather than the next […]
Read More6 Post-M&A Supply Chain Strategies for Success
The high-tech industry has experienced a season of acquisitions, and now it’s time to start thinking about supply chain optimization. According to the 2017 M&A Report, high-tech mergers and acquisitions totaled more than $700 billion in 2016, about 30 percent of the overall M&A market. This reflects a growth rate of 9 percent per year […]
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Home Depot Builds New Supply Chain
Home Depot will spend $1.2 billion to overhaul its supply chain to offer faster delivery for consumers and businesses. Walker Sands’ 2018 Future of Retail report offers the home improvement retailer some advice: To compete with Amazon, Home Depot should focus not only on delivery speed, but transparency as well. Only 30 percent of consumers […]
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Thinking Beyond Home Delivery – SEKO Logistics
Consumer expectations are becoming increasingly demanding, and matching supply to demand is crucial for any successful supply chain. Speed is where it’s at—if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. As consumers become increasingly savvy online, companies are quickly learning the importance of being at the forefront of change. Providing consumers with all […]
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Pork Processor Brings Home the Bacon
To ensure the path from pigs to people is the shortest possible, Smithfield Foods cooks up a sizzling supply chain.
Read MoreIt’s Supposed to Be, But ACE Isn’t Simple
Importing will always and forever be complex. Efforts to simplify some of the processes have, unfortunately, not always borne fruit. The aftermath of the overhaul of U.S. customs admissibility program – Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) – has created a heavier administrative burden on importers, not a lighter one. One has to believe the agencies see […]
Read MoreWhat Does World-Class Supply Chain Planning Look Like?
Omnichannel customers, increased product customization, and the emergence of non-traditional competitors all demonstrate that the old methods of brute force execution and elbow grease will no longer suffice when creating a supply chain. Relying on a “can-do” spirit is not enough—businesses must excel at operational planning across multiple dimensions to not just win, but to […]
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Supply Chain Needs More Accurate Costing Information
Supply chain professionals need more accurate and effective cost information to help their decision-making, highlighting the need for supply chain and finance departments to work more closely together. They also need to adopt progressive costing practices that are focused on informing internal decisions. That’s according to a joint research report from APICS, the professional association […]
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Supply Chain Commentary: Five Challenges to Embrace and Channel into Business Advantages
Disruption can be daunting, especially coupled with pressure from increasing competitive forces and shrinking margins. However, strategic navigation and preparation can lead to positive outcomes. In the supply chain, challenges can lead to improvements in key areas such as inventory management and order fulfilment. Technology innovation can help. A PwC study found that companies with […]
Read MoreMark Your Calendars: Logistics Events to Watch
MAR 16, 2018 Mexico City, Mexico Supply Chain Leaders Meeting supplychainleaders.mx/ — APR 9-12, 2018 Atlanta, GA Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics 2018 Georgia Logistics Summit georgialogistics.com/summit — APR 18-19, 2018 Atlanta, GA Terrapinn Home Delivery World 2018 bit.ly/homedelivery2018 — APR 29 – MAY 1, 2018 Orlando, FL […]
Read MorePlan for Change: How to Make Sure Your Supply Chain Remains Resilient in the Midst of Political Uncertainty
These days, disruption is a big part of the cost of doing business. Many of us feel we’ve got more than our share of uncertainty, thanks to technological advances, globalization, demographic shifts, and natural disasters. But U.S. companies today must also pay attention to political uncertainty in their supply chain and logistics risk profiles. The […]
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Status Grow? Yes.
I often disagree with IL’s publisher, but I can’t argue with his perspective in this edition. There is a great opportunity for growth in many business sectors, and supply chain excellence is fundamentally important in that economic environment. It wasn’t always that way, however. This publication’s mission since its inception in 1981 has been to […]
Read MoreHow Millennials Are Driving Modern Mobility in the Supply Chain
A recent analysis of U.S. Census data by the Pew Research Center found that more than 30 percent of today’s American workers are of the millennial generation. This percentage is expected to rise as an increasing number of those born between the early 1980s and mid-2000s enter the workforce. Within a few short years, we […]
Read MoreIndustrial Technology and the Supply Chain: Is 2018 the Year We Turn a Corner?
2017 may be remembered as the year we finally figured it out. After years of spending on the components of industrial technology, professionals in the supply chain and manufacturing disciplines should begin to see the fruits of their investments, as new capabilities and efficiencies begin to surface. 2018 won’t be so much about discovering anything […]
Read MoreSupply Chain Collaboration: Myth or Reality?
Today’s supply chains are more complex than ever before. And, due to a lack of collaboration, the supply chain sector is realizing a negative impact resulting from the increased time it takes to make critical decisions. This is why supply chain collaboration (SCC) is such a vital topic when it comes to outpacing the competition. […]
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Managing Complexity in the Aerospace Supply Chain – SCTL at the University of Washington
Aerospace is currently an industry at an inflection point, as it struggles to meet unprecedented challenges.
Read MoreSupply Chain Commentary: Sense, Shape, and Orchestrate Demand
Here’s a quick three-question test for supply chain professionals: Could you pinpoint the location and contents of a single shipment from San Francisco to Tokyo within a few minutes? How quickly would you know if a truck from Los Angeles to Denver had been compromised in a blizzard? If a customer in New Jersey is […]
Read MoreFive Reasons to Consider Cloud Services for Your Supply Chain
Supply chain and logistics management uses resources, processes, and technology to create solutions that deliver the right goods to the right place at the right time—as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Managers looking for technology to support those solutions may find that cloud computing offers some compelling options. Lower IT Infrastructure Costs Reducing costs […]
Read MoreSupply Chain Insight: What Do Young Supply Chain Professionals Want from their Career?
Today, the supply chain faces a unique challenge. According to the 19th Annual Third-Party Logistics Study, 60 million employees are exiting the supply chain industry, with only 40 million people joining the industry to fill the gap. So, how do we recruit and retain the young talent our industry needs to thrive? This is a […]
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