Articles
Supply Chain
3 Ways Digital Transformation Enhances Capacity
After consecutive pandemic years, supply chains are a mess. As a result, businesses are running out of stock just as surging consumer demand drives up prices for remaining goods, contributing to record inflation and further disrupting consumer markets.
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How to Avoid Paying Ransom
It is no great secret that cyberattacks are on the rise, and recent data suggests supply chains are no exception. A 2022 NCCGROUP survey shows that supply chain organizations experienced a 51% increase in attacks within the six months preceding the survey. The first step in addressing this risk is acknowledging that it exists. The good news is this should be a relatively easy step, especially compared to what comes next.
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Get Closer to the Action With Onshoring
Supply chains are the lifeline of globalization. In the years leading up to the pandemic, western companies routinely outsourced production to suppliers in lower-cost economies around the world. However, the seemingly never-ending string of supply chain disruptions over the past two years highlighted the fragility of complex and dispersed supply chains.
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Gaining Better Visibility: Where to Start
While the business-to-consumer (B2C) market has embraced sophisticated technology tools to enable a digital transformation across the supply chain, the business-to-business (B2B) industry has been slower to adapt, steadfast in a reliance on spreadsheets, phone calls and email.
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The Supply Chain: It’s Alive! It’s Alive!
In some ways, the supply chain of today is a living, breathing organism. It’s not just links and nodes on a map, but a blend of digital and/or analog data, machines, and yes, real people who are constantly moving and adapting.
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Agile Supply Chain: What It Is, Benefits, and Applications
Supply chains can be complex and sensitive. A company can’t survive without a supply chain because it needs everything from raw materials to the final product. Many companies have established an agile supply chain to manage supply better, move goods quickly, and deliver them on time. This process is fundamental to those who produce physical […]
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VERTICAL FOCUS: Raw Materials
Insight into the latest supply chain trends for raw materials.
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NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights
From sustainability efforts to recent mergers and acquisitions, here’s what’s new and notable in the supply chain.
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Waste Eats Away the Bottom Line
Overproduction and waste may push margins in the wrong direction. A recent Avery Dennison report finds that 8% of stock perishes or is discarded before it reaches consumers–inventory losses worth up to $163.1 billion or 3.6% of annual profits. Of the 8% waste, slightly more than half (53.8%) is lost in the supply chain before products reach store shelves.
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AI and ML in Retail: Help or Hype?
Top-performing retailers are bullish on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with 71% of respondents to a Retail Systems Research report saying AI-enabled analytics will fundamentally change their merchandising forecasting by 2025.
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Five Trends That Will Shape Logistics in 2023
Amidst concern over the economy and ongoing geopolitical issues, 2023 promises to pose challenges to managing logistics and supply chain operations. To help companies prepare for the new year, Anaid Chacón, head of product for Nuvocargo, a digital platform focused on U.S.-Mexico cross-border trade, identifies five trends to be aware of.
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How to Develop a Customer-centric Supply Chain
Supply chain variability creates hurdles to customer satisfaction. Prioritize the consumer experience by integrating flexible technologies and processes in your supply chain design.
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John Brewer: Building a Supply Chain Step by Step
John Brewer is director of distribution and logistics with CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the company behind quick-serve restaurant brands Carl’s Jr. and Hardees.
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10 Tips: Matching Inventory To Demand
Demand is a constantly changing variable in any supply chain. Each time the demand tides change, retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers must align inventory levels to meet customer expectations. Here are tips for doing it successfully.
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Stay Chill
Shippers face many challenges when maintaining the cold chain for food transportation. Chill out! These solutions can help.
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How to Unlock Opportunity With a Procurement Control Tower
With market volatility and sky-high inflation driving shifts in the price of oil and other commodities, it’s not surprising to see businesses adjust sourcing and inventory strategies in anticipation of future roadblocks. Plus, with consumer demand softening, many companies that largely over-indexed on orders last year are now sitting on a surplus of supply.
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Pumpkin Spice Pandemonium
Pumpkin spice mania is a fall tradition in the United States. Here’s how seasonality blended with limited supplies jacks up demand.
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Manufacturers Feel the Disruption Burden
Supply chain disruptions over the past 12-18 months—including shipping delays and parts shortages due to truck driver issues and congested ports—have heavily impacted manufacturers (see chart). That’s the consensus of Deloitte’s new study, Meeting the Challenge of Supply Chain Disruption, which was conducted in partnership with Manufacturers Alliance. (see chart).
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Land Of The Lost And Other Peak Season Challenges
A whopping 92% of merchants surveyed by UPS Capital report costly impacts to their business as a result of lost, stolen, or damaged shipments. Half of merchants say they lost $50,000+ in the past year.
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VERTICAL FOCUS: Automotive Aftermarket
Here’s a look at supply chain trends in the automotive aftermarket space.
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