Articles
Supply Chain
K Line, Agunsa Drive KAR
To leverage rising automotive import traffic in Latin America, particularly in Chile, multinational logistics agency Agunsa has partnered with Japanese shipping firm “K” Line to create a dedicated automotive logistics company. The new company, KAR Logistics, offers integrated transportation services as well as warehousing, customization, pre-delivery inspection, and spare parts services. Its target is automotive […]
Read MoreCan Your Supply Chain Keep Up With Technology?
New technology has rapidly impacted our everyday lives. Consumer technology advances are having a profound impact on the art of supply chain management, requiring constant evolution and rethinking of the way products are marketed, sold, produced, and delivered. The Tesla Effect In the automotive industry, customers will soon expect to be able to configure their […]
Read MoreDo Buy, Says Dubai
E-commerce is booming and everyone wants a piece of the pie, including Dubai . The country recently announced its first free trade zone dedicated to e-commerce in the MENA region: Dubai CommerCity, a multi-million-dollar, 2.1-million-square-foot complex that is a joint venture between Dafza and Wasl Asset Management Group. The project is designed to promote Dubai’s […]
Read MoreAddressing Expedited Delivery Expectations
Amazon and other large retailers set customer expectations by offering expedited delivery at low or no cost. Retailers of all sizes must compete on the same turf, yet lack the negotiating power that could net meaningful discounts with commercial carriers. And private carriers often assess charges such as delivering to a residential address, penalties for […]
Read MoreLeveraging Supply Chain Automation to Meet This Year’s Holiday Shopping Demands
Businesses face an increase in order volumes as shoppers stock up for the holidays. According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, sales are expected to rise 4 to 4.5 percent from 2016. At the same time, online sales are predicted to reach $111 to $114 billion as more customers move away from brick-and-mortar shops […]
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Assessing U.S. Shipments and Spend
A tighter truck market, increase in national shipments, and accelerated factory output are among the highlights of the Q3 2017 U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index, which measures quantitative changes in shipment and spend activity (see chart) based on data from transactions the company processes. Highlights include: An 8.3-percent jump in U.S. Bank’s national spend index, […]
Read MoreIndustrial Companies Map Data Gap
Eighty-four percent of industrial companies face a disconnect between data from connected devices and strategic decision making and operations, limiting the Internet of Thing’s (IoT) digital transformation potential, according to a research study conducted by IFS, a global enterprise applications company. Only 16 percent of survey respondents consume IoT data in enterprise resource planning (ERP) […]
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Young Professionals and Supply Chain: So Happy Together
The opportunity for interesting work, as well as development and advancement, top the list of requirements for young professionals, according to the 2018 CSCMP/Penske Young Professionals Survey of 300 supply chain professionals younger than 30. The average young professional responding to the survey has worked in the supply chain sector for about three years and […]
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6 Strategies for Finding the Right 3PL Partner
RFP season is upon us. It’s the time of year when shippers request bids and plan their optimal logistics strategy for 2018. Shippers are increasingly involving 3PLs in the request for proposal (RFP) process for access to tens of thousands of pre-qualified carriers, industry expertise, and advanced logistics technology that provides supply chain visibility and […]
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Supply Chain Commentary: How to Reduce Supplier Inventory Costs
Managing supplier goods can be a complex process with multiple stakeholders. You have planning that drives forecast and production scheduling, and procurement that purchases materials based on forecasts. Operations oversees the flow of incoming goods and warehouse management receives inbound shipments. While the titles and roles may vary among organizations, the basic supplier workflow is […]
Read MoreChina Ups Delivery Service to the U.S.
Two leading express companies are joining forces to leverage their complementary networks, service portfolios, technologies, and logistics expertise. China’s Ministry of Commerce approved a planned joint venture between UPS and SF Holding, the parent company of SF Express. The agreement allows UPS and SF to collaborate on developing and providing international delivery services from, initially, […]
Read MoreMore Temperature-Sensitive Medicines Moving by Ocean
Over the years, the ocean freight market has been fraught with capacity and wildly fluctuating rates. By 2016, the market underwent a series of consolidations including a bankruptcy of a major container carrier. In addition, rates fell to historic lows but began to recover towards the end of the year. Meanwhile, air freight rates remain […]
Read MoreDebt: A Rising Risk in Your Supply Chain
Of all the sources of risk supply chain managers face on a daily basis—cargo theft, natural disasters, long lead times, and unpredictable demand—none is currently at an inflection point quite like debt. This topic was addressed in a recent webinar by two leading authorities on corporate financial health: Dr. Edward Altman, Professor of Finance, Emeritus, […]
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New Pallet Program Better by Half
Fun food manufacturer Jel Sert finds pooled half-pallets provide full supply chain benefits.
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Stop, Look, Listen
We all know the best way to approach an unguarded railroad crossing is to stop, look, and listen. That same advice applies when examing the economy, which will likely roar through 2018 at full speed. While it is tempting to climb aboard and enjoy the ride, that is the exact wrong approach from a supply […]
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Transportation Trends: Turn up the Air
The airfreight market has been flying high, but headwinds persist.
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The Amazon Effect: No Longer a Phantom Menace
Retailers strike back at the Amazon empire by providing e-commerce customers with same-day and faster delivery.
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5 Ways to Improve Fulfillment Center Efficiency
To capitalize on the e-commerce boom, fulfillment centers—which are different from distribution centers in that they do not distribute inventory but fulfill customer demand in either B2B or B2C businesses—need to scale and react nimbly and agily. Fulfillment centers must also be as efficient as possible to maximize customer satisfaction. Fulfillment centers do not generate […]
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Sometimes It’s Better Not to Be So Pushy
Supply chain processes fall into one of two categories: pull systems, where a company initiates execution in response to a customer order (reactive) and push systems, where execution is initiated in anticipation of customer orders (speculative). The boundary that separates push processes from pull processes is one measure of a supply chain’s “lean-ness”—the farther upstream […]
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