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Technology

COVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Recovery Strategies
3 Innovations on the Fast Track 1. Delivery drones. Their deployment has been fast tracked to reduce the risk of exposure for drivers and bolster capacity to meet soaring demand for home deliveries. For example, UPS and CVS plan to use drones to deliver prescription medications to a Florida retirement community. Alphabet’s drone delivery company, […]
Read MoreAutomation Is the Key to Warehousing During COVID-19
Supply chain managers don’t have to sacrifice worker safety to maintain production levels during coronavirus—warehouse automation can solve the problem. COVID-19 has infected a great number of essential workers in the United States, leading companies on the front lines to implement new safety processes. While the spread of the virus has been grave enough to […]
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Smart Warehouses Boost Their IQ
Implementing IoT, AI, drones, and other intelligent digital solutions in your warehouse is a brilliant move.
Read MoreTrucking Companies Need to Flex in the Face of Disruption
This is an unprecedented time of disruption and volatility. The pandemic is showing the need to be more diversified. Trucking companies built around a specific customer base shut down when that industry shut down. Oversaturation in one market or customer base means disruptions hit harder. Companies supporting the food and beverage supply chain saw traffic […]
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Bringing End-2-End Efficiency to Your Logistics Operations
With economic consequences from COVID-19 and other resulting challenges, companies are looking for ways to manage more efficiently with less—while reallocating resources to more productive activities and maximizing freight spend value. Logistics operations are a great place to start, as even the smallest percentage savings could mean triple-digit impact to bottom lines. These operations are […]
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Efficiencies and Revenues Skyrocket for Distributor with Digital Order and Logistics Management
MPO’s cloud platform for order and logistics management allowed an agricultural spare parts distributor to streamline fulfillment, obtain full order visibility, and reduce shipping costs for customers.
Read MoreWhat Is a Continuous Delivery Experience and How Has COVID-19 Increased Its Importance in the Supply Chain?
As the country and global economy begin to recover, the question on everyone’s minds, is “what will re-entry into the business world look like?” More specifically, how do companies fortify their supply chain, fulfillment functions and relationships with logistics providers to bring everyone back online smoothly? It’s difficult to imagine going back to business as […]
Read MoreCreative, Agile Leaders Look to Technology for Answers in a Post-Pandemic World
These are trying times as the current healthcare crisis affects us in ways never imagined. This is certainly the case in the supply chain, logistics and transportation sectors. What hasn’t changed, however, is the importance of strong, agile, creative leaders. These are the ones able to pivot their companies in response to anticipated lower volumes […]
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Get RIP-Roaring Results with IoT
Companies are increasingly investing in returnable industrial packaging (RIP) to ship products to customers as sustainably as possible.
Read MoreHow Machine Learning Solves the COVID-19 Supplier Discovery Dilemma
Machine learning, in addition to a large amount of data, is a critical tool that can help manufacturers and supply chain professionals find, qualify, and use new suppliers for personal protective equipment (PPE) and raw materials during the COVID-19 pandemic. As stated in a recent Inbound Logistics article, “Companies need to first quickly develop transparency […]
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Grape Expectations: Wine Quality Control
The global wine industry is complex and interconnected, but lacks the tools to properly optimize its supply chain. To improve transparency for producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers, IBM and eProvenance released VinAssure, a blockchain solution that tracks wines as they move from the vineyard to the end-consumer. By encouraging transparency, accountability, and rapid data exchange, […]
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Blockchain, Meet Supply Chain
When distributed ledger technology joins supply chain management, companies can make reverse logistics more efficient, better track product history, generate trustworthy freight invoices, and more.
Read MoreIN BRIEF: New Services & Solutions-May 2020
Products Southworth Products’ Model GTU-500 Gaylord filter moves parcels from gaylords and large containers onto conveyors and automated sortation systems. The filter tilts loads to provide controlled emptying, and its pan-style platform sits flush with the floor when lowered, allowing hand pallet trucks to place and retrieve gaylords. Materials handling products manufacturer Steel King Industries released the SK […]
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VERTICAL FOCUS | Electronics
India Inks Plan to Attract Electronics Makers India has launched two new programs designed to attract electronics manufacturers. The first—the Production Incentive Scheme for Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing—offers a 4% to 6% incentive on incremental sales for goods manufactured in India. This plan is designed to benefit the major global players in mobile manufacturing and specified […]
Read MoreSupply Chain Movers and Do-Gooders: Companies Step Up in Response to the Pandemic
Companies in the logistics space are responding to the crisis by providing free goods and services: Pierbridge offers a free one-year subscription to Transtream Home Office, its cloud-based multicarrier management solution, to help companies equip employees with enterprise-level shipping capabilities from their home offices. Scandit created a contactless proof of delivery web app using its […]
Read MoreCOVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Strategies
Redefining Global Supply Chain Management The traditional ways of managing the supply chain may have changed forever as COVID-19 brings heightened awareness of its fragility. Every shipper, carrier, and logistics manager appreciates there could be a significant paradigm shift for future sourcing and inventory management. While just-in-time shipment delivery with tight inventory-to-sales ratios were the […]
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GOOD QUESTION | How should shippers adjust their supply chains in response to the disruption caused by COVID-19?
Keep a daily pulse on supply and customer demand. Daily monitoring on COVID-19 restrictions in supplier and customer locations is essential to understanding when and where to ramp up or down capacity within your supply chain limits. It’s also important to communicate up and downstream projected manufacturing or demand signals so that your supply base […]
Read More10 Tips | Managing Inbound Freight
Inbound freight can be challenging to analyze or control, but it significantly impacts operational results and costs. Traverse this “final frontier” of supply chain management by collaborating on the following strategies across departments.
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This Is Not a Drill
Create an agile, real-time approach. Have an effective communication strategy, one that includes internal users, vendors, and carrier partners.
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UPS Upgrades Unmanned Drone Fleet
UPS drone delivery subsidiary UPS Flight Forward will collaborate with German drone-maker Wingcopter to develop the next generation of package delivery drones for multiple uses in the United States and internationally. Both companies will work toward earning regulatory certification for a Wingcopter unmanned aircraft to make commercial delivery flights in the United States and build […]
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