Feature Stories
137 Tips for a Fully Charged Supply Chain
The ultimate list of tips for charging up your supply chain to full power in 2021 and beyond.
Career Moves that Pack a Punch
What makes one supply chain career move more impactful than another? We asked several supply chain professionals to share the moves that proved most significant.
Food Packaging: That's a Wrap
Environmental impacts, cost concerns, and technology advances drive food packaging innovation.
Amping Up the CX
A look at some of the strategies that shippers and their 3PL partners use to provide end customers with an excellent experience.
Expedited Carriers Guide 2020
To help make sense of all the expedited delivery options, we compiled this A-to-Z guide to some leading expedited carriers who can get your shipments where they need to go, as fast as they need to get there.
Airfreight Update: Managing the Turbulence
The air cargo market has faced numerous challenges since the pandemic began. Here's how airlines, airports, shippers, and others are stepping up to meet them.
E-Fulfillment Picks Up Speed
A look at strategies used by shippers and their transportation partners to deliver e-commerce orders with the speed that consumers require.
Yard Work
By weeding out detention costs, trimming inefficiencies, and seeding visibility and productivity, yard management systems (YMS) can fertilize your supply chain.
How to Leverage Rail/Intermodal…Now and Later
When used smartly, rail and intermodal can give your supply chain a lift today and down the road. These guidelines will help you get the most out of intermodal, even in a challenging market.
Maritime Logistics: Automate & Innovate
This story surveys some of the advanced technology that marine ports are implementing to improve their operations, with a side look at implementations at a couple of shipping lines.
Searching for the Perfect Site
Selecting the right site for your manufacturing facility, DC, or warehouse is more than just pinpointing a spot on the map. It’s about finding the best blend of features and opportunities those sites have to offer.
13 Keys to Choosing the Right Warehouse Management System
Following these guidelines can boost your chances for successfully implementing a warehouse management system.
Truckers Give It the Gas
Shippers look for truckers and partners that can shift gears quickly and provide dependable performance. Here are the strategies the best trucking companies use to meet—and even exceed—shippers’ expectations.
WMS Buyer's Guide 2020
WMS solutions are top of mind now more than ever as customer buying patterns continue to change. These forward-thinking solutions can help your business react quickly to today’s new fulfillment demands.
Mining Data Insights
Here's how freight bill audit and payment firms unearth and leverage data from freight audits to provide shippers the mother lode of information they need to make intelligent, strategic decisions.
2020 Top 100 Truckers
Selected by Inbound Logistics’ editors, the annual Top 100 Truckers directory is a comprehensive guide that matches you with carriers that will drive your company in the right direction.
Reshaping Retail
Agile and innovative retailers transformed their operations during COVID-19. Will their new fulfillment options and increased digitization go out of style as stores reopen, or will they become retail staples?
16 Transportation Metrics that Matter
Shippers want the right cargo in the right place at the right time. That takes planning, collaboration, and technology. Here are the metrics they monitor and how they do it.
COVID-19's Impact on North American Manufacturers
The latest COVID-19 Manufacturing Survey from Thomas Insights illuminates emerging trends in reshoring, labor, and technology, and reveals a positive outlook for the future of manufacturing.
Shaking Up Subscription Services
During the lockdown, some subscription services unboxed a demand surge while others were forced to close the flaps. Here's how successful services deliver the goods.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Recovery Strategies
Leaders share best practices for sharpening digital strategy, developing resilience, and improving visibility as shippers re-engage in trade and navigate COVID-19 uncertainty.
Economic Development in High Gear:
Incentives Propel Projects Forward
Incentives play an instrumental part in creating cost savings and cost avoidance for projects, touching on everything from workforce training to energy spending. ElectriCities of North Carolina and Hoosier Energy are examples of regional organizations that help attract companies to their communities with incentives and other advantages.
Florida Sets the Future
The Sunshine State is a strategic and economic powerhouse, driving companies' logistics success and setting the stage to play an even more substantial role in the coming years.
Traffic Control
To prepare for the return of crowded streets in urban areas, cities and shippers explore alternative vehicles, apps, pricing solutions, and distribution centers to address last-mile gridlock.
TMS Put to the Test
By providing visibility to items in transit, working to optimize transportation networks, and streamlining processes, transportation management systems (TMS) check off all the boxes.
Vertical Files
This story examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on five vertical markets and describes some of the strategies used in those markets to meet the challenge.
Logistics Workforce of the Future
As the country moves toward a new normal, what will the workforce look like?
Project Logistics: Doing the Heavy Lifting
The professionals behind special logistics projects need to attend to details, focus on the big picture and always prepare for problems.
Meat Supply Chain: Where's the Beef?
Responding to consumer demand for healthful options—and beef shortages—brands cook up plant-based meat alternatives while trying to avoid getting burned by supply chain challenges.
2020 Summer Reading Guide
Whether you're looking for an enlightening read in the sun or taking your book-reading indoors this summer, this 2020 logistics and supply chain reading guide will help you catch the latest wave of discussions.
3PLs Coming to the Rescue
When supply chain and logistics trouble brews, shippers summon third-party logistics (3PL) providers for their expertise, technology, and dedication to customer service.
Cross-Border Logistics: Supply Chain Synergy
Bolstered by a new trade deal, the longstanding partnership between Canada and the United States thrives during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing ample opportunity for companies that offer cross-border solutions.
2020 Top 10 3PL Readers' Choice Excellence Awards
When shippers send out distress signals, 3PLs answer the call. The providers that earned a 2020 Readers' Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence Award are among the most responsive and respected in the industry.
3PL Perspectives 2020
Inbound Logistics' newest exclusive 3PL market research provides a snapshot of how the world appears to shippers and their logistics service providers.
2020 Top 100 3PLs
The top 100 third-party logistics providers of 2020 as chosen by Inbound Logistics' editors.
75 Green Supply Chain Partners
Chosen by Inbound Logistics editors, these 75 green companies are dedicated to implementing best practices that make global supply chains more sustainable and their operations more socially and environmentally friendly.
Logistics Gets Schooled
As logistics challenges become more complex and technology advances, ongoing education, innovation, and research on the part of logistics and supply chain firms has become a competitive imperative.
COVID-19 Resets: Logistics Draws the Line
While the human and financial tolls wrought by COVID-19 are horrific, the pandemic has also brought out the best in many people and the logistics and supply chain organizations with which they work.
15 Down & Dirty Ways to Get Green Now
Practical suggestions for making supply chains more environmentally sustainable.
Formulating Solutions for Chemical Shippers
With exacting specifications and transportation challenges heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, shippers are turning to these partners to move chemicals safely and optimize supply chains.
The Next Generation of Warehouse Labor
How technology innovation is changing the nature of many warehouse jobs.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Recovery Strategies
Supply chain leaders share the latest innovations, solutions, e-commerce strategies, and IT operations
Smart Warehouses Boost Their IQ
Working together with IoT, AI, drones and other advanced technologies, WMS solutions help warehouses gain accuracy, efficiency, and speed.
Pallets Take the Spotlight
Before the advent of warehouse club stores, pallets were usually found behind the scenes. Now considered a crucial part of a systems approach to the supply chain, pallets are front and center in companies' sustainability strategies.
Intermodal Leans In
Intermodal has experienced a decline in volumes during the COVID-19 crisis, but it also has served as a dependable option for shippers in a time of turmoil. Because of its robust infrastructure and capacity, intermodal appears poised to resume its growth when the supply chain regains its footing.
2020 TMS Buyer's Guide
Inbound Logistics offers this annual guide of some top TMS providers and solutions that can put you on the right road toward improved transportation management and performance, regardless of the business conditions. Take a look at our 2020 TMS Buyer's Guide.
Blockchain, Meet Supply Chain
This story looks at some recent applications of blockchain technology in supply chain management.
2020 Logistics IT Market Research Survey
To help logistics professionals plan for the future, Inbound Logistics conducts an annual survey of logistics technology providers. Assembling data on current logistics IT trends, we paint a picture of the capabilities available today and the technology investments shippers are making to gain a competitive edge.
2020 Top 100 Logistics IT Providers
Our annual Inbound Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Providers list is a guide of the leading logistics IT solutions providers in the market in 2020. Next time you're ready to add to your company's logistics IT tools, you'll find our guide an invaluable resource.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Resources & Strategies
Supply chain management may have changed forever as COVID-19 brings heightened awareness to its fragility. With careful planning, shippers can minimize risks related to the pandemic.
3PLs Flex Their Tech Muscle
Increasing visibility, flexibility, and accuracy, these technological tools enable 3PLs to more effectively move, store, and fulfill shippers’ orders—even during supply chain disruptions.
Alaska: Rewarding the Resilient and Resourceful
Logistics providers in Alaska are on top of the world, literally and figuratively. They are a special breed prepared for every challenge the Last Frontier poses.
When Bad Things Happen to Good Supply Chains
Importers can use these strategies to monitor potential risks to their supply chains, respond effectively when disruptions occur, and work proactively to avoid future disruptions.
Georgia: Logistics Focal Point
With a bustling airport, booming ports, and ample highways and railroads, the Peach State is a sweet spot for international logistics.
Global Trade Management Systems: A Smart Bet
Global trade management systems (GTMs) can help organizations comply with trade regulations and tariffs, automate transactions, and gain visibility into their supply chains. By leveraging the information captured by the GTM, organizations also can improve their supply chain operations.
2020 Global Logistics Guide
Inbound Logistics' 2020 Global Logistics Guide provides an around-the-world look at the issues, opportunities, and concerns likely to affect global supply chain networks.
E-Commerce Engine Technology Revs Up Efficiency
E-commerce has remapped supply chains. Across both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions, technology is taking on the complexity caused by this shift and driving efficiency.
2020 Global Trade Management Guide
From resource planning and transportation management to analytics, these top global trade management (GTM) solutions can help take the stress out of managing your global supply chain.
Warehouse 2020
E-commerce growth and warehouse labor shortages create the perfect storm for online retailers. Undaunted, companies face these challenges with ongoing technology, equipment, and warehouse space innovations.
Making Sense of Supply Chain Education
Professors at some of the country’s leading supply chain education programs joined Inbound Logistics for a conversation about how they are preparing the next generation of professionals, whether they come from business programs or engineering schools, for tomorrow’s challenges.
Plan B: 5 Ways to Weatherproof Your Supply Chain
From establishing secondary suppliers to setting up alternative routes, here’s a look at how Plan B strategies can keep you up and running even during extreme weather events.
Leveraging Your Suppliers: What You Can Do for Me
This story looks at various ways in which companies take advantage of their suppliers’ capabilities and expertise, and at the benefits of those partnerships.
2020 Reading Guide
Give yourself an excuse to stay inside and open up a book you've been meaning to read. These titles will help you catch up on the latest deep dives into the world of logistics.
The Ultimate RFP Checklist for Shippers: Essential Things to Include in Every Bid
The clearer your RFP, the easier it will be for 3PLs to understand your requirements and provide you with the information you need to make an informed selection.
Ship More, Pay Less: Controlling Transportation Costs
Better matching demand to supply and adjusting contracts, tendering, and invoice auditing strategies can help shippers control transportation costs as rates rise in 2020.
3PLs Do It All
Third-party logistics providers are future-proofing supply chains, using a toolbox filled with business insights, predictive capabilities, and other new solution sets.
Supply Chain Predictions 2020
Industry leaders look to the future, offering advice and strategies to help you successfully navigate the year ahead.
Small Ports, Big Benefits
Smaller ports can often save time, lower costs, and provide superior customer service than larger coastal ports. Here are seven hidden advantages offered by ports off the beaten water path.
6 Supply Chain Risks Worth Taking
Supply chain professionals working in small and mid-sized businesses often operate with little margin for error. Taking calculated, thoughtful risks can pay off.
Charging the Electronics Supply Chain
Electronics suppliers, distributors, and retailers address high-voltage challenges–from shorter product life cycles to price erosion and unpredictable tariffs—with technology and changing business processes.
Applying Lean Thinking to Procurement
Here’s how to integrate demand and supply initiatives and techniques into your procurement strategies.
2020 Global Trade: It's a Whole New World
From tariff and trade wars to new trade agreements and updated Incoterms, 2020 is shaping up to be an interesting year for global shippers.
Winning Moves for the Last Mile
Take a look at the strategies that retailers and their service partners use to improve last-mile delivery for direct-to-consumer sales.
Most Read Articles of 2019
Take a look at the top ten Inbound Logistics articles that got readers buzzing in 2019.
What if General George Patton was Walmart’s CEO?
General Patton would survey the e-commerce battlefield where Walmart competes and conduct a threat assessment of every major competitor, especially Amazon.
Come Together: Logistics and the Sharing Economy
Cross-industry supply chain models and innovative ways of monetizing assets help shippers and logistics providers drive efficiencies
Reshaping the Supply Chain: How New Strategies, Goals & Technologies are Altering Supply Chain Operations
This story examines three big paradigm shifts that are likely to occur in supply chains in the coming years: technologies to promote greater transformation efficiency; supply chains optimized for sustainability; and the digitized supply chain.
The CX Files
This story looks at elements that produce excellent customer service and at some of the technology tools companies use to help them deliver excellent service to their customers.
Hunger Games: Managing Food Logistics Challenges When Demand Spikes
When consumers are ravenous for a trendy food or beverage, whether an unexpected, one-time jump or a seasonal occurrence, supply chain professionals can meet demand and boost sales by leveraging analytics to more accurately forecast demand shifts and working closely with business partners to expand capacity.
A Hire Purpose: 11 Strategies to Recruit Supply Chain Talent
Competition has never been tougher to obtain supply chain talent, forcing companies to rethink recruitment strategies. Here are some best practices for companies to integrate into supply chain talent recruitment.
2019 Airfreight Forwarders Guide
Need to move goods quickly? These airfreight partners offer speed and reliability with end-to-end solutions that ensure supply chain efficiency.
TURBOCHARGED! Secrets of Expedited Shipping
This story explores the strategies that expedited carriers use to deliver freight within the tight time windows their customers require.
It's Only Natural: The Challenges of Organic Food Logistics
Organic farmers face the same challenges as conventional farmers, as well as few more: the risks of contamination or commingling, as well as fraudulent competition. They’re addressing these challenges with technology and shifts in their supply chains.
3PLs Add Value
Increasing consumer expectations, market uncertainty, and other recent trends, have only enhanced the value 3PLs bring to shippers. From technology innovations to process insights, here are the ways 3PLs unlock and increase supply chain efficiencies.
Maritime Logistics in Ship Shape
While the prospect of higher tariffs and the cost of requirements to use low-sulfur fuel pose concerns for the maritime industry, it’s forging ahead with bigger, more automated seaports, as well as technology that improves visibility, reduces its environmental impact, and streamlines operations.
The Logistics of Liquidation
This story looks at the logistics of managing good through the reverse logistics and liquidation process. The goal is to recover as much value as possible from returned or unsold goods, and to keep product out of landfills.
Sites of the Stars
These logistics sites reach for the stars and deliver stellar performance.
19 Intermodal Tips for Success
This story offers strategies for making intermodal transportation efficient and cost-effective.
2019 Trucking Perspectives
Inbound Logistics' exclusive survey of shippers and truckers reveals where the wind is blowing in the trucking industry today.
CPG Brands Find Their Place Online
Established CPG brands accustomed to a pallet to pallet fulfillment model need to accommodate a pallet to piece approach in a growing direct-to-consumer marketplace. At the same time, these brands face competition from agile, online-only start-ups that begin with a direct-to-consumer fulfillment model.
Freight Bill Audit & Payment: It's More Than The Money
FBAP service providers use big data and business intelligence to drive global enterprise change.
How to Detox the Pharma Supply Chain
Advances in technology, new regulations, and more personalized medicine offer both challenges and opportunities for pharmaceutical supply chains. Successful ones will leverage technology, share information, and embrace change.
SMBs and E-Commerce
Here's a look at the strategies that small- and medium-sized retailers use to help them thrive despite competiton from much larger companies.
2019 Top 100 Truckers
The 2019 Top 100 Truckers list offers a snapshot of the trucking segment—from large truckload and LTL carriers with global inroads to niche-specific regional haulers that get their white gloves dirty delivering to the final mile.
Trucking Strategies for Whichever Way the Wind Blows
While there are more trucks in the marketplace now than there were a year ago, carriers and others warn against freight capacity complacency. They recommend three essentials for making sure shippers get the capacity they need now and later.
Incentives Power Economic Development
Tax, energy, and land incentives can play a crucial role in the site selection process, providing key economic benefits to companies and helping form long-term partnerships between companies and localities. Incentives’ value to a company depends on a variety of factors, including the site and nature of a project and the incentives’ ultimate usefulness to a company.
Aftermarket Auto Parts Supply Chain: No Time To Spare
As in many other industries, technology is changing the aftermarket auto parts sector. Not only is e-commerce upending traditional distribution channels, but advances in technology are changing cars themselves, and these shifts are reverberating to the auto parts market.
Destination: The Corner Office
As the supply chain exercises more influence over business outcomes, its managers are rising to top leadership positions. Supply chain pros with sights set on a corner office would do well to expand their skill sets and seek job experiences that prepare them for complexity.
2019 Top 100 3PLs
Providing innovative and reliable supply chain solutions, these third-party logistics providers drive home the goods. Presented in alphabetical order, these are the 100 3PLs Inbound Logistics editors selected as the best of the best.
3PL Power
Whether brand new, solidly up and running, or decades old, shipper-3PL partnerships thrive on open communications, flexibility and trust.
Going Dockside at West Coast Seaports
Here's an overview of the current West Coast seaport environment and a snapshot look at how top ports are accommodating and embracing growth.
Extreme Logistics: Making the Impossible Possible
An inside look at how project managers rise to the challenges of unique logistics initiatives.
Sneaker Supply Chain: Big Shoes to Fill
In the sneaker supply chain, manufacturers and retailers need to know where the product is in every stage of design, production, and shipping.
2019 Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards
The Inbound Logistics audience has stamped it license-plate official: These top-tier third-party logistics providers deserve accolades and the distinction of being a Top 10 3PL.
7 Outstanding Women in Supply Chain and Logistics
Women are steadily advancing in supply chain and logistics. Here's how seven leading women in logistics got to the top of the field.
3PL Perspectives 2019
This story highlights the results of Inbound Logistics’ 14th annual survey of shippers and 3PLs.
U.S. - Canada: Going the Distance
With a new treaty in hand, the long-established trade relationship between the United States and Canada continues to thrive for the benefit of both countries.
5 Supply Chain Myths—Busted
From Point A to Point Z, the supply chain provides fertile ground for persistent myths. Whether they concern job qualifications or day-to-day business practices, they merit some serious scrutiny.
75 Green Supply Chain Partners
Inbound Logistics’ annual G75 features a carefully curated list of 75 logistics companies that go above and beyond to maintain sustainable, eco-friendly supply chains and operations.
Green Supply Chains: Sustainability Sells
This article looks at three companies that aim for environmental sustainability in their operations. It examines their “green” practices and also considers the financial impact of those activities.
Feeding the Baby Products Supply Chain
The baby products category is one of the most highly regulated in the world. Rigorous testing and certification are designed to protect the smallest humans from injury and illness caused by everything from loose parts that could cause choking to flammable fabrics or toxic materials. In addition to intense regulation, manufacturers must deal with consumer preferences that change almost as quickly as a parent can diaper a baby.
Chemical Supply Chain: Innovative Solutions in the Mix
From specialized requirements to capacity constraints, considerable challenges face chemical shippers. In response, service providers are coming up with solutions of substance.
Automation Innovation
Innovations in material handling solutions are helping shippers cut costs and boost accuracy.
Safe & Sound
This story examines the labor management challenges associated with warehouse safety and recommends some best practices.
Making Space for Intermodal
Projects that boast intermodal access provide advantages for everyone involved. The keys to effective intermodal sites can be narrowed to a combination of location and physical accommodations. CenterPoint and Duke Realty are among those who have developed intermodal facilities that have proved attractive to shippers, while the TexAmericas Center is exploring the development of an intermodal site for the Texarkana area.
Pallets Support Supply Chain Strategies
Regardless of the type of pallet—wood, plastic, composite, or metal—shippers are looking for some essential characteristics to move their goods safely and efficiently.
2019 YMS Guide
Better manage your yard operations with this comprehensive guide. We showcase the providers and systems leading the market.
Choosing a TMS: How to Make the Right Move
The variety of transportation management systems available can make it difficult for shippers to target the solution that is the best fit for their organization. Experts say companies should strive to identify the features that will support their unique operation rather than falling into the trap of chasing options that will not provide a useful impact. The process for selecting a TMS should be marked by disciplined decision-making and a focus on the business case.
2019 TMS Buyer's Guide
Some leading vendors in the TMS market.
IT Gap? 3PLs Close the Loop
Today, many 3PLs provide the technology solutions and expertise shippers need to manage increasingly complicated customer relationships.
2019 Logistics IT Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics' annual survey highlights key trends in the supply chain technology market and shines a light on the brightest and most innovative providers.
Can You See Me Now?
New tools like blockchain and IoT, as well as advances in existing tools such as RFID, are helping companies gain greater visibility to their supply chains.
Choose Your Own E-Venture
As the demand for faster shipping and better e-commerce availability increases, retailers will need to adopt new order fulfillment and shipping strategies to stay in prime shape.
Alaska: The Last Frontier
Successfully tapping into Alaska’s growth depends on the perseverance, innovation, efficiency, and resources of logistics providers whose experience has withstood the test of time and travel in this most extraordinary state.
2019 Global Trade Management Guide
Some leading vendors in the GTM Solutions market.
2019 Global Logistics Guide
Inbound Logistics' 15th annual Global Logistics Guide provides an around-the-world look at the issues, opportunities, and concerns likely to affect global supply chain networks.
The Tricks Of Trade
Five regions/countries merit serious thought by any company doing business in those regions. They are the United States, Canada and Mexico, the United Kingdom, Russia and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) countries.
Today's Distribution Center: You Say You Want an Evolution?
Distribution centers used for short-term storage and cross-docking are changing to accommodate the growth in online ordering and rising expectation for rapid delivery.
Georgia: The Logistics Advantage
Georgia, a leading point of origin for companies to move products to their customers, has an inherent geographical advantage that is enhanced by a superior infrastructure and its status as home to many of the leading logistics companies and practitioners anywhere in the world.
Supply Chain Education: Building the Skill Set That Lands the Job
We asked faculty at four academic supply chain management programs to describe elements of a curriculum to prepare students for the supply chain challenges found in businesses today.
Super-sizing E-commerce Deliveries
Companies that manufacture, sell, and deliver an increasing number of e-commerce oversize goods face a unique set of challenges when delivering to homes. Delivery teams not only need access to home interiors for set-up, they must also communicate in real-time with recipients so they’re home when orders are delivered. What’s more, they need far more customer service skills than the typical delivery driver.
Shedding Light on New Tariff Impacts
As the impacts of tariffs increase, companies must find new ways to consider and classify their products and supply chains to minimize costs and other risks
CPG Success: Top-Shelf Solutions
Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are among those most impacted by the proliferation of delivery channels over the past several years. To succeed in this changing marketplace, successful CGP businesses are refining factory operations and developing new distribution and transportation models.
Putting the Brakes on Transportation Costs
As transportation becomes a larger portion of overall logistics costs, supply chain professionals are taking steps to control the issue. These include partnering with carriers, evaluating all modes, leveraging information systems, and minimizing delays when loading and unloading.
Setting Up Shop
This story examines some of the new models for e-commerce fulfillment that retailers are using today, particularly ones that involve the use of physical stores.
The Hassle Quotient: A New Formula for Industry Domination
This article first introduces Jim Bramlett’s Hassle Quotient score and how the internet has changed how companies compete, then focuses on how the Hassle Quotient applies to transportation and logistics.
International Intermodal: Containers on the Move
This story examines some of the challenges that are slowing the flow of intermodal containers, and also looks at some technology solutions that help to improve the situation.
159 Expert Tips to AMP Your Supply Chain
Get moving with these actionable tips to jolt your warehousing, transportation, and logistics operations.
Deconstructing Global Supply Chains
Despite a shift toward regionalization, the era of complex supply chain ecosystems is far from over.
Supply Chain Automation Surges
Supply chain automation is gaining ground, particularly in warehousing and middle- and last-mile logistics.
Project Logistics: Taming the Details
Whether they involve moving endangered animals or perishable delicacies, special projects demand teams that know how to plan thoroughly, collaborate with multiple partners and prepare for every eventuality.
The 10 Most Read Articles 2018
Inbound Logistics reveals the 10 articles that drew the largest audience and reader response during 2018.
Pay Your Own Way
This story examines factoring, supply chain financing, and variations on those strategies that trading partners use to optimize their cash flows.
Transport Decision Makers: Prepare for the Future
What is happening and what will happen to trucking capacity and costs? Here's the data you need to help plan for the coming months.
Get IT Together
Integrated WMS and TMS solutions increase visibility and communication and optimize the movement of goods.
Improving Ocean Shipping: Blockchain Reaction
Examining the effects of blockchain technology on ocean carriers and shippers.
U.S.-Mexico Trade: Strong But Shifting
Each year, billions of dollars of goods flow between Mexico and the U.S. While trade between the countries shows no signs of stopping, recent events may alter the flow. These include the USMCA, which still awaits ratification; decisions by the Mexican administration regarding construction of its ports and airports; trade disputes between the U.S. and China; and the Unified Cargo Processing program.
Disrupting the Future of Grocery Retailing
What’s needed is a new retail model for grocery shopping.
Today's Warehouse: Armed For Speed
More warehouses are moving “eaches” as well as traditional pallet orders, and facing ever-increasing demands for speed. To manage the diverse product flows in a timely manner, shippers are bringing different technologies to their warehouses, including robotics and robust warehouse management systems. They’re also supplementing mammoth warehouses with smaller “micro-centers” that they can locate closer to population centers.
The Changing Logistics of Grocery Delivery: It’s In The Bag
Grocers are working to satisfy consumers’ growing demand for rapid delivery of everything from apples to watermelon. To accomplish this, they’re educating personal shoppers, developing new technologies to handle the last mile of delivery, rethinking their distribution networks and inventory planning, and partnering with technology companies.
How Retailers Earn 5-Star Reviews
This story explores some of the ways retailers use customer service to build customer loyalty, both in stores and in the e-commerce channel.
2018: A Year to Remember
2018 has been marked by tariffs, trade deals, and technological advancements. Here are the highlights.
Continuing Education: What's on the Menu?
No matter how skilled or credentialed, today’s supply chain managers have a lot to learn–and a lot of ways to do so. With the marketplace growing more complex, continuing education professionals are introducing new programs and revising old standbys.
Airfreight Forwarders Guide
These airfreight partners can help you fashion transportation operations that make your company a model of efficiency.
12 Ways to Increase Supply Chain Velocity
This article recommends 12 strategies companies can implement to speed product flow in the supply chain.
PROJECT RUNWAY: Airfreight Forwarders Model New Service Collections
Many traditional airfreight forwarders are remaining relevant by enhancing their online capabilities and expanding the range of supply chain services they offer.
Great Logistics Sites & Services Leading the Way
In logistics, two Ws are most important — where and when. Choosing the right sites and services is vital in getting your products where they need to go, when they need to get there.
Intermodal Transport: Finding the Road to the Right Track
This story provides an update on the state of intermodal transportation in the U.S., including the conditions driving shippers to make greater use of intermodal, moves the railroads are making to improve service, and the factors that help to determine whether a shipment should go intermodal or over the road.
Maritime Update: Staying Above Water
Five trends shaping the maritime industry will also impact shippers: carrier consolidation and alliances, the increasing sizes of ships, ports that have become chokepoints, advancing technology, and increasing concerns about the environmental impact of shipping.
Facing the Crowd
Innovations in logistics technology are making it possible to apply crowdsourcing long used for product design or marketing feedback in ways that are solving new problems that include final mile delivery of groceries and e-commerce orders to homes and businesses.
6 Ways to Find Hidden Capacity
As a booming economy, an aging and shrinking driver workforce, and the new EDL mandate combine with other factors to create a truckload capacity shortage, shippers have to change how they do business to make sure they can move goods. Experts share how to survive in a new economy where truckers are in the driver’s seat in more ways than one.
Beyond Table Stakes: Freight Payment Clients Hold All the Cards
Advances in technology, increasing globalization, and the growth of e-commerce are upending the traditional freight bill audit and payment industry.
Driver Wellness Programs: The Right Thing to Do
Wellness programs keep drivers healthy, and carriers wealthy and wise.
2018 Top 100 Truckers
Inbound Logistics' annual Top 100 Truckers directory provides an in-depth index of carriers that match shippers' diverse and demanding needs.
2018 Trucking Perspectives
Insights collected through Inbound Logistics' exclusive annual survey of shippers and truckers find the industry's most significant trends and challenges.
Send It Back! How to Manage E-Commerce Returns
Up to 30 percent of e-commerce orders shipped to customers wind up coming back. Here's how smart retailers box up their reverse logistics strategies.
Supply Chain Visibility: Can You See Me Now?
Using technology to gain a clear view into your supply chain can both wipe out costs and pour revenue to your bottom line.
Tax, Energy, Land Incentives Drive Economic Development
Economic development partners collaborate to create incentive packages tailored to each company's needs.
Florida: Gateway to America, Pathway to Global Trade
For logistics and manufacturing companies, the Sunshine State is the place to grow.
Protecting Your Supply Chain
Do you sometimes feel like cushioning your facilities and workers with bubble wrap to keep them safe? Here are five ways to pop that problem.
Canada and the United States: A Resilient Relationship
The United States and its northern neighbor remain trading partners with staying power.
Cold Chain Strategies That Beat the Summer Heat
Ensuring summer foods make it to consumers fresh and intact ain't no picnic.
A Fresh Look at Intermodal
With driver shortage and capacity issues affecting trucking, once wary shippers are taking a different view of rail intermodal.
3PLs Put on the White Gloves
Logistics service providers reveal how they treat their customers like VIPs.
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Shippers can take several steps to rein in airfreight costs. These include checking that it’s truly necessary, combining air with other modes of transportation, incorporating air into their ongoing logistics planning, and developing strong relationships with freight forwarders.
The Automotive Supply Chain: Disruption Down the Road
This feature examines the impact of both upcoming and current disruptions on the automotive industry and looks at how automakers and their partners are adjusting to the changes.
Footwear E-Tailers: Shoe Me The Money
As e-commerce continues to grow, footwear brands and retailers benefit from continually increasing sales. The challenge for e-tailers is to be profitable while dealing with fickle consumer tastes and product seasonality, a high return rate and large number of SKUs, and packaging that’s larger and bulkier than its parent category, apparel.
Special Projects: Navigating Every Twist and Turn
Logistics professionals called on to execute an outside-the-box project need to think across dimensions and time zones while planning for every eventuality.
2018 Top 100 3PL Providers
It’s a boon year for third-party logistics providers offering innovative, flexible, and reliable solutions to meet shipper demands. Presented alphabetically, these are the 100 3PLs Inbound Logistics editors chose as the best of the best. Search the 3PL Decision Support Tool for an even deeper dive.
Managing Global Supply Chains: A Shore Bet
Should you offshore, nearshore, or reshore? It helps to understand how each model impacts the supply chain before you ante up.
Getting Wise to Smart Ports
The nation’s ports are testing technologies and investing in infrastructure improvements to adapt to a world where the ultimate consumer increasingly embraces Amazon-like expectations.
A Blockchain Reality Check
Blockchain is the topic of the moment in supply chain. But what can it really do for supply chains today, and where can it take us tomorrow?
Readers Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2018
Each year, the Inbound Logistics Readers’ Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence survey gives shippers the chance to give a shout-out to providers that have taken on so much of their load. Here are the best of the best.
Pork Processor Brings Home the Bacon
Consolidating three independent operating companies into one at Smithfield Foods is triggering significant changes in the three organizations’ supply chains. Reducing complexity and improving visibility are not only making supply chain processes more efficient, they’re also saving money and helping the corporation achieve its sustainability goals.
75 Green Supply Chain Partners
Inbound Logistics features its annual G75—a carefully curated list of 75 companies that go above and beyond to ensure their global supply chains are sustainable, and their operations are socially and environmentally friendly.
Put Me In, Coach! Next-Gen Leaders are Ready to Play
As next-gen supply chain professionals set their career goals, mentoring by seasoned professionals can help them up their game.
Chemical Logistics: The Price of Success
These are good times for chemical manufacturing in the United States. But an active market creates special challenges for companies that need to transport chemical products.
Clarifying The Business Case For Green Supply Chain Management
Clarifying The Business Case For Green Supply Chain Management
Combat Cargo: The Challenges of Military Logistics
Military logisticians may face unique life or death challenges when moving cargo, but in the end, the civilian and military supply chain aren’t so different.
Choosing a TMS: What’s Your Endgame?
With so many choices available, shippers must truly understand what they want a Transportation Management System to accomplish in order to make the right selection.
Logistics Hot Spots: What it Takes to Make the List
With a combination of compelling traits, some places are particularly well suited to supply chain operations. Here are 8 characteristics that define a logistics hot spot.
St. Louis: World-Class Multimodal Freight Network
Thanks to its strong global and fast-growing market, the St. Louis region is a leader in freight, setting records and gaining national and global significance.
Pallets: Backbone of the Warehouse
Wood or plastic? Lease or purchase? Whatever your operations need, there's a pallet provider ready to supply it.
Reinventing Your Warehouse or DC
Here are some warehouse operations moves—some small steps, some not—companies can do to boost their bottom lines and improve customer satisfaction, including layout and organization, docking, picking and receiving, fulfillment, and packaging.
Leave IT to Your 3PL
Still struggling to get your logistics technology up to speed? You're not alone. See why companies are increasingly outsourcing IT to their third-party logistics providers.
Robots in the Supply Chain: The Perfect Employee?
Various uses of robots in the supply chain and the benefits those systems provide.
Casting a Light on Procurement
As closer supply chain ties are forged with vendors, logistics managers must increasingly collaborate with procurement. To provide insight, a new study illuminates today's procurement process, and the many challenges purchasing managers face.
2018 Top 100 Logistics IT Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics surveys the supply chain technology market to evaluate the latest trends and uncover the most innovative providers in their respective fields.
Alaska: North To The Future
A mix of experienced logistics service providers, resilient infrastructure, flexible transportation options, and a seasoned workforce combine to make Alaska a land of promise for companies doing business with the state.
2018 Global Logistics Guide
Inbound Logistics' 14th annual Global Logistics Guide presents a transportation and logistics world atlas to help you stay on top of shifting global dynamics and identify and map out continents and countries that require further exploration.
Technology Fuels Truckload Transport
Dedicated truckload fleets fill up on technology solutions that pump crucial data from power units and trailers and deliver it to shippers ready to give their supply chains the gas.
Georgia: Pathways to Progress
In the logistics sphere, Georgia offers every important road—as well as air and sea route—to success.
E-Commerce: Cultivating a New Logistics Landscape
E-commerce continues to mow down traditional business practices. To adapt, companies serving manufacturing, industrial, and retail customers are seeding their portfolios with new services, and not letting any grass grow under their feet.
Core Competencies Every Supply Chain Manager Needs
In today’s complex marketplace, supply chain professionals need a varied set of skills and competencies to help their employers succeed — everything from a strategic orientation to a comfort with data and an awareness of social and environmental obligations.
6 Supply Chain Terms Creating the Buzz
What does 2018 have in store? Inbound Logistics asked industry watchers what tops their list of terms that will dominate conversations this year. The consensus is that the supply chain community will see these six terms continue to emerge and gain traction in the market.
Customized Supply Chains: Fit to a T
This article examines the special issues that companies encounter when they sell customized products to consumers and describes how some companies handle those challenges.
Dining In is the New Dining Out
As more and more consumers order delivered meals from restaurants or through pre-packaged meal kits, foodservice companies will need to focus on quality and safety as much as they do speed and cost-efficiency.
U.S. Infrastructure: Will It Finally Be Fixed?
Crumbling U.S. transportation infrastructure gets worse every year, and failure to address it soon will leave us in the midst of a crisis we can’t dig out of. There’s no more time to sit on our hands; it’s up to the U.S. government and the private sector to act before we reach a point of no return.
Current State of the 3PL Market
Shipper demands, customer expectations and 3PL capabilities increase, putting supply chain at the forefront.
Specialized Transportation: Paying the Price
When moving high-value items, proper packaging and labeling, efficient scheduling, discretion, and a bit of extra effort are key to minimizing the risk of theft or damage.
Let's Get Visible
Technological advances in the past decade have provided shippers with increasingly detailed visibility of their supply chain from end to end. As the tools available to view the supply chain become more sophisticated, shippers are taking advantage of this new level of insight to improve efficiency and better manage their inventory. Shippers no longer view supply chain visibility as a tool designed only to help cut costs – they see it as a potential contributor to growth.
Spot Market Strategies: Making the Right Connection
Digital loadboards are transforming the spot market from a people business to a fast-paced online marketplace that matches freight and shippers faster than ever. Shippers can tap into the flexibility of the spot market while working with carriers that meet their standards.
Cashing In: 5 Supply Chain Financing Trends
Supply chain financing allows companies to delay paying for transportation or goods while suppliers are still paid quickly – for a fee. While it might seem counterintuitive, participants say it’s a win-win for all. Here’s how it works and trends worth watching.
Supply Chain Convergence: Stitching Together Best-of-Breed Technologies
Supply chain technology ecosystems are evolving as once distinct processes for executing TMS, WMS and YMS functions converge. Is the best path forward stitching together a trifecta of best-of-breed technologies, or going all-in on a single instance, single platform for all three?
Global Trade Disruption: Managing the New Normal
Global trade disruptions come in all shapes and sizes, and can wreak havoc on supply chains. Find out what proactive strategies and tactics leading companies are using to tackle the escalating challenge of supply chain risk management.
Supply Chain Impatience: No Time To Wait
Artificial intelligence, hidden cameras, robots—These are not part of a new movie, but reflect daily life in a "hurry up" world of impatient consumers. Read how supply chains are adapting to serve a market increasingly driven by e-commerce and Amazon-like business models.
VMI Strategies: A Matter of Trust
Vendor-managed inventory partnerships strive to improve efficiency by allowing suppliers to maintain the inventory of their products at the stores and other locations operated by their partners in the supply chain. VMI relies on a tight-knit collaboration between supplier and buyer to improve product availability while decreasing excess inventory.
Truckload Carriers and E-commerce: Serving the Middle Mile
E-commerce is redrawing the landscape for freight transportation. Do truckload carriers have a place in this new world of high-velocity supply chains, especially as shipments get smaller and delivery windows shrink?
U.S. Manufacturing: Resurgence Sparks Dramatic Change
With one in every six jobs now tied to manufacturing, American-made products are making a profound comeback in today’s progressive U.S. economy. Known as Industry 4.0, this trending wave of innovative disruptors - 3D printing, robotics, big data, and the Internet of Things - is changing the global supply chain and the world's geo-political view of American manufacturing.
3PLs & Shippers: In It For the Long Haul
Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) drive continuous improvement for the shippers they serve through innovative solutions, up-to-date technology, and sheer effort.
Food Fight
The Global Food Safety Initiative is working to improve food safety across the globe through GFSI-recognized certification programs and its platform for collaboration, and by reducing redundant audits and developing food safety capacity around the world.
What the Health is Going on?
The U.S. healthcare system faces many challenges that efficient supply chain management can help heal.
Digital Supply Chain: What's Your Reality
What does the digital supply chain mean for your company? More integration, better visibility, a single version of the truth, a clearer view of the future—and maybe a few flying robots.
Creating The Internet of Everything
This story looks at some ways in which companies are using IoT or IIoT technology along the supply chain and discusses the added value companies will gain as they move from discrete applications to integrated ones.
LTL Carriers: E-Commerce Powerhouse
As more consumers choose e-commerce for a variety of goods, how are less-than-truckload carriers being impacted? Trucking companies are developing new strategies to serve retailers and manufacturers creating the goods that impatient consumers expect fast and free.
Inbound Logistics Winter Reading Guide 2018
A review of the hottest logistics and supply chain books available to help shippers boost their knowledge and skills.
The Customer Experience: The Last Mile Gets the Royal Treatment
This story examines how e-commerce retailers use last-mile fulfillment strategies to gain competitive advantage.
Supply Chain Super Bowl
Build-a-bowl restaurants are proliferating. But supply chain professionals have their work cut out for them because the concept creates new challenges.
Career Solutions: Talent Search
Internships have traditionally provided a short-term opportunity, but colleges and universities are experimenting with apprenticeships as a way to develop and attract supply chain talent.
Transportation Trends: Turn up the Air
Strengthening economies, increasing globalization, the growth of e-commerce, and software that enables companies to more precisely calculate the trade-offs between air and other transportation modes are driving growth in the airfreight market.
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.
Intermodal Benefits Come Into Focus
This story provides an update on the state of intermodal shipping in the United States today, with a look at some new services, new facilities, and infrastructure improvement projects.
Forming an Alliance with Ocean Shipping
In early 2017, major ocean cargo carriers further consolidated from four alliances to three that dominate global trade. Because this change impacts shippers in a number of ways that include lanes and ports of call, it’s important to know how best to work with them to minimize risks. Experts share best practices that will help.
Cargo Security: The Art of the Steal
Keeping your cargo safe from theft is a bigger challenge than you might think. Follow these steps to reduce the risks that make your company a target.
Top 100 Trucking Companies
Our annual trucking directory helps match shippers with the truckers that can best meet their needs.
10 Tips for Transportation Sourcing
Selecting a transportation mode and carrier isn’t as simple as identifying the fastest or least expensive option. It’s a complicated process that takes into account timelines and risks as well as budgets. Industry experts share best practices that will help save money and prevent costly mistakes.
2017 Trucking Perspectives
Inbound Logistics' exclusive annual trucking market research report delivers shipper and trucker insights into industry challenges and trends.
Freight Bill Audit & Payment: Getting More Bang for Your Bucks
Freight is a key part of most companies’ transportation expense. Along with ensuring freight bills are accurate and reflect contracted terms—a key capability—freight payment and audit firms can add even greater value.
Top 6 Factors for Selecting and Implementing a WMS
Warehouse management systems provide organizations with a boost to their operations and help them keep up with the growing demands of their customers and partners. Still, implementing a WMS is a complex process that requires extensive planning, study and patience. Experts point to a number of key factors to consider when shopping for a system for your organization.
E-Commerce: The Great Retail Equalizer
This story looks at some of the trends and challenges associated with e-commerce today, and strategies for dealing with those challenges, through the eyes of one small retailer, one medium-sized and one large.
Keeping Your DC in Peak Shape:
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Getting a distribution center in shape for a high-volume holiday or seasonal period requires advance planning to make sure all systems work, the facility is properly staffed, and temporary workers are properly trained. Inbound Logistics asked the experts for their holiday preparation advice; they provided these seven commandments that will light the way.
The Perfect Amount of Packaging
Sustainable packaging helps shippers’ bottom line and brand as well as being easier on the environment.
Reverse Logistics: Earning a High Rate of Return
Opportunities that will make a difference in reverse logistics programs, and establishing goals for returns programs.
Florida: Logistics & Distribution—The Future is Here
Florida's state-of-the-art seaports and airports, and strong highway and rail networks, have helped establish a strong and growing logistics sector.
Canada: Ties That Bind
The U.S.-Canada cross-border trade relationship remains robust in an evolving regulatory environment.
Direct Hit
E-commerce has forever changed the way people shop. Now businesses of all sizes must reassess their supply chains to go direct to the consumer with faster-than-fast delivery and free shipping.
Distributors Step Up Their Game
Distributors continue to play a valuable role within many supply chains. At the same time, changing business models, and especially the rise of e-commerce, are prompting many to enhance the services they offer.
Here Comes the Bridal Wear Supply Chain
The bridal wear supply chain is unlike any other in the apparel industry in that most bridal gowns are made to order, wedding dates create hard and fast dress deadlines, and emotional brides can turn a minor supply chain snafu into a major meltdown. Long lead times for dress manufacturers help make sure that deadlines get met and wedding parties are happy.
Supply Chain Collaboration: It Works Both Ways
Transparency, honest communication, and a commitment to forming a true partnership with shared goals and values are keys to successful supply chain collaboration between shippers and their third-party logistics providers.
Plug-and-Play Supply Chains: A Smarter Path to Growth
Companies and their supply chains have found a powerful new strategy for driving profitable growth – the plug-and-play supply chain. Here’s how it works.
3PL Change Agents
Trying to plot a different course? Figuring out how to spread your wings? A third-party partner might offer…just the kind of help you need.
3PL Perspectives 2017
Inbound Logistics’ 12th annual 2017 3PL Perspectives market research report examines the trends and challenges shaping logistics outsourcing strategy and the third-party logistics industry.
Spilling the Beans on the Coffee Supply Chain
Coffee has been a popular drink for centuries, yet its supply chain faces ongoing and emerging challenges, including fragmented production, commodity market instability, and climate change.
Cold Storage Logistics: License to Chill
Cold chain logistics means more than simply refrigeration and freezing. Today’s providers offer numerous value-add services, including logistics management, repackaging, and more.
Managing Project Logistics: Special Delivery
Whether they are supporting ventures in embargoed countries or first-ever projects in remote locations, logistics teams must be prepared to think quickly and clearly when unanticipated challenges arise
Summer Reading Guide 2017
Here’s a list of books that will help keep your logistics and supply chain skills sharp.
Readers' Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2017
Year after year, the IL 3PL survey reveals the importance of great customer service to shippers.
19 Steps to Creating a Lean and Green Supply Chain
Developing greener and more sustainable supply chains reduces the legal, financial, and reputational risks to which most companies are exposed, and has a positive impact on the bottom line.
75 Green Supply Chain Partners
Inbound Logistics’ annual G75 list honors companies that have demonstrated firm commitment to environmental initiatives and policies.
India and Southeast Asia: Land of Opportunity and Challenges
India and Southeast Asian countries–Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan– represent an attractive region for many companies looking to expand and build their global customer bases.
Online Education: Become a Supply Chain Leader…in Your Pajamas
Online supply chain education is flourishing, with options ranging from one-off courses to certification programs to master’s degrees. The best option for any individual depends on career goals.
Warehouse Management & DC Optimization: Measuring What Matters
Selecting the best metrics at your company’s distribution centers requires the right tools, careful study, and constant collaboration.
TMS Solutions: The Big Picture
Transportation management systems (TMS) streamline the information exchange between shippers and carriers. Cloud technology makes them affordable for many small- and mid-sized firms.
The St. Louis Region: Big Developments, Bright Future
Here’s a survey of the factors that make the St. Louis, Missouri, region an excellent location for logistics operations.
Managing Yard Work
Yard management systems (YMS) can boost driver efficiency, cut detention costs, and bring visibility to this link in the supply chain.
The Mighty Pallet: A Supply Chain Powerhouse
The reduced cost of recycled wooden pallets combined with increased interest in sustainable supply chains makes repaired wooden pallets increasingly popular in warehouses and distributions centers. And while wooden pallets dominate supply chains, plastic pallets are making inroads, particularly among food and pharmaceutical companies that are concerned about contamination issues.
Cosmetics Supply Chain Puts Its Best Face Forward
The cosmetics industry’s supply chain challenges include an above average number of SKUs, color changes linked to seasons and seasonal collections, products and ingredients requiring a temperature-controlled environment, multiple retail channels, and product trends influenced by celebrities and other taste-makers.
Alaska: Conquering The Last Frontier
By offering air, barge, ocean carrier, rail, and trucking services, logistics providers are minimizing the risks involved with transporting goods to, from, and within Alaska.
Supply Chain Management: It’s IoT Time
This story looks at several ways in which companies are applying Internet of Things (IoT) technology to supply chain management.
Top 100 Logistics IT Providers & Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics surveys the market to determine the latest logistics technology trends and chooses 100 IT providers that are leading the way.
Apparel Logistics: Stepping Out in Style
This feature provides examines the supply chain challenges arising from some recent trends in the fashion industry, and looks at how brand owners and retailers are meeting those challenges.
Incoterms: Playing by the Rules
Here's a brief description of the 11 commercial transportation terms that comprise Incoterms 2010.
GTM Solutions: Making a World of Difference
Global Trade Management (GTM) solutions automate complex international supply chain sourcing, logistics, cross-border trade, and regulatory compliance activities.
Retail Logistics Bets on E-Commerce
E-commerce impacts not only consumer supply chains, but business to business supply chains as well.
Georgia: Setting the Pace in the Logistics Race
From location to infrastructure and from workforce to technology, Georgia sets the pace in the logistics race.
Supply Chain Education: Aiming High
A look at six key competencies that university-based programs foster in students to prepare them for careers in supply chain management.
Placing a Premium on Cargo Insurance
Most companies have insurance to protect their property and equipment, their vehicles, and their operations from disruptions due to natural disasters and other events. For companies with extensive supply chains, cargo insurance can be an important addition to this list.
Build-A-Box
The subscription box industry launched by beauty products curator Birchbox in 2010 has expanded to include services for a remarkably wide range of consumer interests. A behind-the-scenes peek at this new e-commerce model reveals a highly complicated business that relies heavily on logistics pros managing everything from inventory to kitting to delivery and returns.
What's Eating The Health Food Supply Chain?
Healthful food — organic, vegan, non-GMO, local, sustainably or humanely raised, and allergen free, or any other variety — has captured attention and seen growing demand. Satisfying that demand, however, poses unique supply chain challenges.
Omni-Channel Retail: Roadmap To Profit
Omni-channel retail supply chains are forging new paths to profitability. Here's what they look like.
Automotive Aftermarket: Firing on all Cylinders
As Americans’ fondness for trucks and automobiles has grown, the specialized parts market represents the fastest growing subset of the automotive aftermarket. The emerging specialized parts sector of the automotive supply chain is vast and complex and requires skilled management.
What a Ride!
How powersports manufacturer Monster Moto worked with UPS to redesign its supply chain as it moved its product assembly from China to the U.S.
3PL Partnerships: You're In Good Company
As product demand continues to rise, companies in all industries are partnering with third-party logistics (3PL) providers to ensure their products are delivered to customers on time and cost effectively.
3PLs Up The Ante
Thirty years ago, third-party logistics providers offered mainly rudimentary logistics and warehousing services. Today, however, many 3PLs offer complex solutions that help companies achieve strategic goals.
Alternative Port Strategies: Getting In With The In Crowd
Inland ports provide shippers with new global trade strategies and relief from capacity issues facing North America’s deepwater container ports.
Making a Run for the Border
The logistics of trade between the United States and Mexico has changed significantly in the 20-plus years since NAFTA was enacted. There are still issues, most notably border delays and an imbalance of goods flowing north and south, but there are bright spots supported by an influx of foreign direct investment in Mexico, too.
Latin American Logistics: Learning the Tricks of the Trades
Working with a specialist can smooth the sometimes troubled logistical waters between the United States and Central and South America.
Construction Logistics: Raise the Roof!
This story looks at some of the major challenges and practices found in construction logistics, illustrated with stories from experts who work in this field.
Cruise Control
Cruise ship provisions must support a small town at sea for a week or more. Supplies are loaded on a docked vessel in four hours or less; there’s no second chance for deliveries that arrive after the ship has sailed.
Baseball Logistics: Hitting a Home Run Every Trip
Each year, 30 Major League Baseball teams travel for spring training and dozens of road games in a complex logistics web that's all the more incredible for its anonymity. When you're carrying all the bats, the game can't start until the truck arrives.
The Logistics of Franchising: Delivering the Basics
Franchisees sometimes don’t appreciate how important an efficiently functioning supply chain is until it isn’t there.
Global Trade Changes Course
While the regulations that govern the movement of goods across borders can (and do) fill volumes, some are of particular importance right now. These include changes to the Harmonized System, revisions to the regulations regarding the export and import of hazardous waste, guidance on voluntary self-disclosures, mandates regarding electronic logging devices, and modifications to Cuba sanctions. This article provides an overview.
Expect the Best, Plan for the Worst & Prepare to Be Surprised
How prepared are companies for supply chain disruptions such as fire, a data breach, natural disaster or terrorism? Not as prepared as you’d think, considering what’s at stake.
Supply Chain Management Students: School of Thought
Today’s logistics and supply chain management students are practical idealists, people who want successful careers that draw on their knowledge, skills and talents while allowing them to make the world — and the workplace — a better place.
The Back & Forth of Reverse Logistics
Companies that have reverse logistics processes and systems in place to capture all the value possible can beat competitors coming and going.
The Who, What, When, and Why of Warehouse Wearables
As wearable technologies, such as smart glasses and augmented reality, grow less expensive and more accessible, an increasing number of companies are exploring whether wearables could benefit their warehouse operation.
Winter Reading Guide 2017
Winter provides a great advantage–time. The hustle and bustle of the holidays is over and colder weather prevails. There’s no better time to hit the books and amp up your knowledge of important logistics and supply chain management issues.
Demand-Driven Logistics: Staying Right Side Up When Your Supply Chain Turns Upside Down
Even when the economy isn’t booming, the supply chain offers numerous opportunities for shippers to increase efficiency, save money and enhance revenues. This story looks at some of the bright spots in transportation, technology, global trade and outsourcing.
3PLs & Carriers: At Your Service
A look at the metrics that shippers and their service providers use to evaluate the quality of customer service.
Supply Chain & Logistics Education: Ask the Professors — 2016 Edition
Faculty members from some of the nation’s leading logistics and supply chain education programs share their thoughts about how higher education is preparing tomorrow’s professionals for the challenges ahead.
Panama Canal Expansion: Locks and Load
As larger vessels make their way through the expanded section of the Panama Canal, experts weigh the influence of the canal’s new capacity on global shipping.
Cargo-Dedicated Airport Speeds Supply Chain Efficiency
Rickenbacker International Airport offers fast, efficient operations.
Top 10 U.S. Cargo Airports
Offering top-flight cargo facilities and infrastructure, among other features, the following airports are ranked as the nation’s top 10 cargo airports.
Fast But Steady Wins The Expedited Race
More companies are relying on expedited shipping a regular part of their inbound transportation planning. However, intelligent systems are helping reduce the need for the Hail Mary emergency moves.
Airfreight Forwarders Ride Headwinds and Tailwinds
Airfreight forwarders face headwinds — from shippers shifting to ocean freight and fewer routes for air cargo shipments — and must learn to leverage opportunities.
The Best of the Best: Site Selection Assistance From Coast to Coast
Here are seven logistics hot spots that attract logistics site selectors looking for a superb location for long-term business efficiency and economic success.
Intermodal Transport: The Little Engine That Could
This article discusses the market forces that are prompting shippers to choose (or not choose) intermodal transportation today. It also looks at some recent developments that continue to increase the advantages that intermodal offers.
Hazmat Transportation: Have a Safe Trip
When moving hazardous materials, shippers can’t just send them packing. From preparing for compliance to keeping employees in the loop, here’s how shippers plan for risk-free travels.
An Intermodal Resurgence
The winter of 2013-14 disrupted the intermodal shipping industry in North America, causing service problems and impeding growth. However, intermodal now offers a number of attractive advantages for shippers, particularly as rail operations pour resources into their intermodal efforts to strengthen service and compete with trucking. Sites that specialize in intermodal utilize innovations to streamline the process and apply new resources to make for an increasingly efficient and effective distribution process.
Logistics Hotspots: Nine That Shine
Throughout the United States, a variety of cities and areas are arising as major logistics hubs and go to sites for distribution centers.
18 Sure-Fire Ways to Save on LTL Shipments
Inbound Logistics talks to carriers and third-party logistics (3PL) providers about sure-fire ways to save money on LTL shipments and serves up a list of 18 tips that will help shippers of all types and sizes.
2016 Trucking Perspectives
Inbound Logistics’ exclusive trucking market research report explores industry challenges and trends.
Freight Payment and Auditing Services: Solutions You Can Bank On
Freight remains a key component of most companies’ transportation expense. Along with ensuring the freight bills are accurate and reflect contracted terms—a key capability—freight payment and audit firms can add even greater value.
Retail Logistics: When Fast Isn't Fast Enough
This story looks at some recent trends affecting retail supply chains, including demand for speed and flexibility, ongoing emphasis on omnichannel marketing, and globalization.
Meal Delivery Services: You’ve Got to be Kitting Me!
The popularity of meal and meal kit delivery services makes for some very complicated supply chain management.
Taking the Show on the Road
This story provides a look at what it takes, logistically speaking, to stage various kinds of live entertainment events.
Florida: Your Partner in Progress
On the water and in the air, by road and by rail, the Sunshine State stands out as a logistics superstar. But stick around awhile – it’s also a great place to live, work, and to keep your products safe for the long haul.
Site Selection: A Power Production
ElectriCities of North Carolina works with companies closely to make sure they weigh electrical service and costs when planning to expand a site or relocate to a new one. Utilities such as ElectriCities must explore the unique circumstances of each company to help them meet their electrical needs in the most effective and cost-efficient way possible.
Cross-Border Trade is On a Roll
U.S.-Canada cross-border trade continues to be a mutually beneficial partnership between nations with a long history of friendship.
Navigating the Customs Labyrinth
Importers need to know what they’re doing to ensure goods proceed through U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as smoothly as possible, including understanding the relevant regulations and ensuring such information as the product descriptions and classifications are complete.
Healthcare Logistics: Filling a New Prescription for Supply Chain Improvement
Healthcare organizations are transforming how they source supplies and connect with manufacturers and service providers to meet emerging patient demands, address healthcare legislation, support an overall focus on improving patient care, and lower healthcare costs.
Get The Scoop: The Ice Cream Supply Chain
Ice cream companies have to ensure their products maintain their quality as they travel from the manufacturing plant to distribution center to the retailer, and finally into the consumer’s shopping cart and home. Cold chain management and proper sanitation are key ingredients.
6 Technologies Guaranteed to Disrupt Your Supply Chain
Emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, collaborative robotics, self-driving trucks, drones and the Uberization of deliveries are poised to be disruptive influences on logistics in the coming years.
3PL Partnerships: How to Ink the Deal
This story examines the secrets behind a successful shipper-3PL relationship, as seen through the eyes of four pairs of successful business partners.
3PL Perspectives 2016
Inbound Logistics’ exclusive market research survey on the third-party logistics (3PL) sector reveals new trends and opportunities.
Readers' Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2016
Year after year, the IL 3PL survey reveals the importance of great customer service to shippers.
Materials Handling Equipment Kicks Into High Gear
New technology abounds inside the four walls of a distribution center. From narrow aisles configurations, specialized rack systems and lift equipment to optimize stacking capabilities, WMS software that integrates with automated sortation systems, and self-guided intelligent robotic vehicles, innovations in materials handling products are transforming the supply chain.
Project Logistics: Going the Distance
When logistics professionals are tasked with a special project, no matter how enormous, no matter how infeasible, they’re expected to go the distance.
Tapping Military Talent: Shoes on the Ground
Supply chain logistics companies view veterans as a crucial pool of potential employees, and consequently they are using a range of methods to recruit and hire former members of the military for their workforces.
Summer Reading Guide: 16 Must-Reads This Summer
A handy reading guide summarizing supply chain books and their key takeaways.
Supply Chain Sustainability Takes Root
Whether to help the environment or just to cut costs, companies are making lean and green changes with a major impact.
G75: Inbound Logistics' 75 Green Supply Chain Partners
These supply chain, logistics, and transportation companies lead the way in supporting sustainability.
10 Greenest Ports in America
These ports have utilized various initiatives to ensure the ultimate impact of sustainability outweighs its costs.
30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars: Defining a New Generation
The accomplishments of the 2015 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars demonstrate that the future of the supply chain management profession is in good hands.
Warehouse Makeover: Blueprint For Change
The warehouse design of tomorrow is flexing to meet the physical needs of basic warehouse operators as well as more highly automated e-commerce fulfillment centers.
TMS: Time to Make Your Move?
This article looks at what’s new and interesting in transportation management systems (TMS).
Meet Me in St. Louis
The St. Louis region offers an ideal transportation infrastructure to move goods, skilled labor to meet the peaks and valleys of industrial demand, and the availability of highly qualified IT personnel to manage staff and facilities.
Intermodal Rail: Moving in the Right Direction
As the demand for supply chain efficiency and speed rises, companies are investing in intermodal rail infrastructure and repairs throughout the United States.
Pallets: The Power Behind the Supply Chain
Choosing the right pallet is key to streamlining and improving supply chains.
Alaska: The Vast Frontier
By offering air, barge, ocean carrier, rail, and trucking services, logistics providers are minimizing the risks involved with transporting goods to, from, and within Alaska.
Logistics Technology: 3PLs Span the Gamut
This story looks at ways in which 3PLs help small and midsize companies implement and take full advantage of information technology.
Top 100 Logistics IT Providers & Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics surveys the market to determine the latest logistics technology trends and chooses 100 IT providers that are leading the way.
Supply Chain Modeling: What Does the Future Hold?
Planners use sophisticated supply chain modeling and simulation to gauge the results of decisions before enacting them and to prepare for a range of possible scenarios. The result is better-prepared companies with a more clear view of themselves and their futures.
The ABCs of Supply Chain Compliance
Inbound Logistics explores the rules and regulations most likely to impact shippers in 2016.
Global Trade Management Systems: You’ve Got the Whole World in Your Hands
Global Trade Management (GTM) solutions are evolving to meet the new demands of today’s global shippers and consumers.
Georgia: The Gem of The Southeast
Tremendous logistical advantages—combined with a central geographic location, highly skilled workforce, and business-friendly environment—make Georgia an ideal site for new manufacturing and distribution facilities.
They Might Be Giants
This story provides a look at how e-commerce and logistics information technology help small and medium-sized businesses gain advantages that allow them to compete as though they were larger companies.
Intermodal Transportation: Rise and Shine
The use of intermodal transportation by shippers continues to grow. Here’s how shippers use intermodal to cut costs and mitigate risk.
Custom Education: Guaranteeing A Perfect Fit
A solid foundation of supply chain experience and education is just the beginning. Supply chain practitioners need to periodically update their knowledge as well. Here’s how companies are getting with the program— customizing curriculums and encouraging employees to enroll in executive education programs.
Military and Manufacturing Outsourcing: Not All Guns and Roses
Military outsourcing is good in concept but often problematic in practice for several reasons discussed in this article. Contracting for services year after year in support of multi-front contingency operations and train and assist missions, all with no clear end-dates in site, has the potential to be harmful to the “profession of arms” (a vocation comprised of experts certified in the ethical application of combat power, serving under civilian authority, entrusted to defend the Constitution and the rights and interests of the American people) and cost more than anticipated. This article will discuss why military outsourcing is currently problematic and explore why the military outsources mission-essential services. A comparison of similar outsourcing incentives associated with both military and manufacturing industrial complexes is discussed, along with some advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing with these sectors. The article concludes with a prediction as to what the primary outsourcing drivers will be for future military and manufacturing outsourcing decisions.
2016 Port Report: Great Expectations
Inbound Logistics predicts the top U.S. ports for business in 2016, based on volumes, efforts to improve infrastructure, and innovation.
Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: Come Sail Away With Me
What happens when a containership reaches a U.S. port? Inbound Logistics tagged along with French steamship line CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest ocean freight carrier, to find out.
Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: A Hard Day's Night
Companies that work with third-party logistics providers such as Penske Logistics get to share the pain when unexpected situations arise.
Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: Gimme Shelter
East Coast Warehouse & Distribution’s strategic port location brings both advantages and challenges. Its facility keeps supply chains rocking, serving as the crucial first step in importers’ distribution systems in the United States, through port delays and even Superstorm Sandy.
Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: Everybody's Doing the Locomotion
This story follows the progress of an intermodal container during its three-day, round the clock trip from the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach to a distribution center in Dallas.
Supply Chains that Rock Around the Clock: Rock and Roll All Night
This story follows a sleeper team for YRC freight as the two drivers make a run of approximately 22 hours from the Chicago area to Denver.
The Automotive Aftermarket: Time for a Tuneup?
Three recent developments—a shift to omni-channel retailing, an increase in manufacturing investment in Mexico, and the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—are having a pronounced impact on automotive aftermarket supply chains. Here’s how automakers, auto parts suppliers, and logistics service providers can respond effectively.
Keeping Partnerships Strong in a Shifting Landscape
As shippers evaluate existing, merged, or new 3PL providers, they should also be aware of their own processes and approach to vendor relationships and choose partners that best align with their strategies and needs.
Liquor Logistics: Solutions on Tap
The booming liquor business has added several layers of complexity to the supply chain with the addition of many new product SKUs. Shippers are using technology, data, and collaboration to keep the supply chain moving efficiently.
A New Rx for Pharma Cold Chains
Manufacturers are going back to the drawing board to rethink their temperature-controlled supply chains.
FSMA: How to Avoid the Compliance Cops
Some expert advice to help shippers and carriers navigate the upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
SWISH! Shippers Score with Small Box Deliveries
Companies are shipping ever-increasing volumes of small parcels as e-commerce grows. Read about the strategies that shippers and providers are using to offset the higher cost of small parcel delivery.
Trending Now: Supply Chains Get Social
This story examines how supply chain organizations are using three kinds of social media: supply chain operating networks, enterprise social networks, and public social networks.
Returning to the Screen of the Crime
As cyber crime and data breaches continue to climb, supply chain information is increasingly at risk. Here are ways to assess your vulnerability and keep supply chain data safe from hackers.
Are Manufacturers Ready to Reshore?
While a U.S. manufacturing revitalization is happening in some sectors, the chances of a wholesale national shift occurring are more rhetoric than reality in the current market.
The Science Behind Site Selection
Site selection and expansion is a science. This article discusses what industry leaders are doing to ensure new sites and expansions improve their supply chains, resulting in long-term growth and success, and how logistics professionals should respond in 2016 and beyond.
Warehouse Automation: The Next Generation
Investments in pick/put-to-light technology, wearables, robotic AGVs, high-speed conveyors, voice-directed picking, and a warehouse control system equate to an automated, smart, and efficient distribution center.
IoT in the Supply Chain
As the world becomes increasingly connected via the Internet of Things (IoT), the amount of data being created and shared is skyrocketing. Your supply chain will be profoundly affected.
Inbound Logistics Winter Reading Guide 2016
It's important to stay up to date on supply chain and logistics developments. Here's a list of books on wide ranging topics.
Customer Service Superstars And the Winners Are…
Three retailers explain how they use logistics and other functions to deliver outstanding customer service.
The Dairy Supply Chain: From Farm to Fridge
How milk and other dairy products moo-ve from tens of thousands of cows to store shelves across the country - with udder efficiency.
Great Logistics Sites: Prime Destinations, Unmistakable Results
The pursuit of perfection may seem an impossible goal. But, with the right combination of key elements, four regions in the United States have achieved logistics greatness.
Intermodal : Making the Connection
Railroads, ocean carriers, and ports are investing in new equipment and technology innovation to move freight from trucks to rails and attract intermodal shippers.
Transportation Metrics: Keeping Score
When every dollar counts, along with every mile, shippers need to know which carriers are keeping them on a course to profitability. That’s why carrier metrics are so important.
2015 Trucking Perspectives
Inbound Logistics exclusive trucking market research report delivers shipper and motor carrier insights into trucking challenges and trends.
What’s in Your Warehouse?
Warehouse operations no longer allow for “business as usual” practices. New initiatives and strategic investments in capital improvements will lead to greater returns in productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Investing in the latest materials handling equipment, WMS technology, and physical building improvements will result in a fully integrated distribution center.
Freight Payment and Auditing Services: Cash is King
Freight audit and payment companies help shippers find the hidden cash in their supply chains by eliminating overbilling, and paying invoices accurately and quickly.
Channeling the Brick and Click Dilemma
As e-commerce continues to transform consumer behavior, retailers explore hybrid omni-channel supply chain models that deliver the best that online and in-store have to offer.
Getting Packaging Costs Down to Size
Sustainability and cost savings are driving shippers to reduce packaging waste.
The Power of Power
Companies searching for the just the right spot to locate their manufacturing plants, warehouses, and other facilities rank energy high on the list of their priorities. This article explore the sites that rise to the top of the list.
8 Ways to File Effective Freight Claims
Freight damage, loss, and theft will always occur. Planning for those inevitabilities is key to prevention and faster claims settlement.
The Shape of ‘Things’ to Come
The Internet of Things is bringing major changes to the way companies plan and execute supply chain activities as sensors, communications systems, and analytics solutions all become cheaper, faster, and more capable.
Going Beyond the Call of Duty
Logistics companies are going above and beyond to ensure our nation’s heroes find opportunities to transfer their skills from the military to long-term, successful careers.
The Evolution of Third-Party Logistics
Join us as we turn back the clock and consider how outsourcing demand has changed over the past 20 years – and perhaps shed some light on where the 3PL industry is tracking.
2015 3PL Perspectives
Inbound Logistics’ exclusive market research survey on the third-party logistics (3PL) sector reveals new trends and opportunities.
Readers’ Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2015
Readers select the third-party logistics providers that provide the best outsourced logistics services.
The Big Chill: 10 Trends in Cold Chain Logistics
Shipments with strict temperature requirements, such as food and pharmaceutical products, create challenges for shippers and logistics providers.
Supply Chain Visibility: Chasing the Big Picture
As technology brings supply chain data into focus, the ability to access and interpret business information moves from nice-to-have to must-have.
California, Here We Stay
Yokohama senior director Jeremy Kahrs reveals the strategy behind the tire maker’s new distribution center and headquarters.
Supply Chain Security: Playing It Safe
Successful companies are concerned about supply chain security. Here’s how to prevent supply chain threats from negatively impacting your company’s bottom line and reputation.
Prepare for Impact
All global supply chains carry some element of risk, but working with third-party logistics providers, with transparency in full effect, can help you achieve the best risk management outcome.
Special Deliveries: Moving the Gargantuan, the Precious, and the Peculiar
When it comes to transporting the oversized, the awkward, the exotic, and the endangered, the secret to success is planning, planning, and more planning.
O Canada!
In the logistics of trade, the relationship between Canada and the United States is both friendly and advantageous on both sides of the border.
Summer Reading Guide 2015
This list of new supply chain and logistics books helps logistics professionals keep their skills up to date.
Growing a Culture of Sustainability
Finding a common ground between cost and corporate social responsibility remains a challenging proposition – unless organizations nurture a culture of sustainability.
G75: Inbound Logistics' 75 Green Supply Chain Partners
These supply chain, logistics, and transportation companies lead the way in supporting sustainability.
The Top Universities for Supply Chain Technology Education
A new study determines the top 15 undergraduate and graduate supply chain management programs in the United States, based on the teaching of technology, software, and quantitative tools used by supply chain professionals, as well as the variety and depth of this coursework.
Building a Smarter Warehouse
Cloud computing, omnichannel management, and big data are the questions. Can your warehouse supply the answers?
The Changing Face of the Warehouse Workforce
A look at the challenges warehouse managers face as they build a well-integrated warehouse workforce, and how they address those issues.
3PLs Put Technology Front and Center
This story looks at the role technology plays in the value that various third-party logistics (3PL) providers offer to their shipper customers.
Top 100 Logistics IT Providers & Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics’ annual Logistics Technology Perspectives offers market research to help IT buyers and users make better sense of what’s going on in the industry. And, the Top 100 Logistics Technology Providers list celebrates best-in-class innovators that are helping shippers revolutionize their supply chains.
The Race is On: Chain of Custody in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
New regulations ensuring the integrity of the pharma supply chain are nearing the finish line. While some companies have taken an early lead to compliance, others are late getting out of the gate. Which team are you on?
Collaborative Distribution: Taking Off the Training Wheels
To break the cycle of needless, duplicative logistics costs, many competitors are choosing to work in tandem.
Rethinking the Global Supply Chain
Shifting global dynamics and internal business process changes are compelling manufacturers and retailers to challenge the status quo and reinvent their supply chains.
Inspecting the Unexpected: The Science of Packaging Perfection
Here are 10 common packaging errors and how to overcome them.
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.
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.
30 Under 30: Rising Supply Chain Stars
Announcing the 2014 winners of the 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars program. Meet some of the brightest new lights in our industry’s firmament and see what makes them shine.
Trucking From the Driver’s Seat
From first mile to last mile and every mile in between, truck drivers are the lifeblood of your supply chain. Meet some of these dedicated professionals.
Regulatory Update: Playing by the Rules
Mark our words: Legislative and regulatory resolutions could spell trouble for shippers and carriers in 2015.
Clothes Encounters: The Logistics of a Revolving Closet
With its subscription-based clothing rental model, Gwynnie Bee is tailoring the rules of e-commerce to make fashion fulfillment a perfect fit.
A New Die is Cast: Digging Into the Rare Metals Supply Chain
IBC Advanced Alloys puts a pedal to the metals to manage the logistics of complex manufacturing.
Diving into Data: A Lean Six Sigma Journey
Six Sigma helps electronic products company Jabil run like a lean, green manufacturing machine.
Streamlining the Hospital Supply Chain: Just What the Doctor Ordered
As hospitals begin transforming to adapt to new healthcare initiatives, they are easing the pain by restructuring and streamlining supply chain operations.
Supply Chain Excellence: A Manufacturing Firestarter
Whirlpool is taking a page out of its Lean production manual and following Penske’s lead to create a more flexible and responsive North American supply chain.
VMI 2.0: A Whole New Game
Vendor Managed Inventory is shaking off its old-school image and regaining popularity thanks to improved technology, robust communication, tighter demand signal linkage, and a new openness to collaboration that has turbo-charged enterprise benefits.
Rail Freight: What’s Coming Down the Track?
We hit the road this past fall to get an up close view, around the bend, of where the railroad industry is tracking in 2015 and beyond.
Medical Devices: A Tale of Two Countries
It was the worst of times for U.S./Mexico healthcare. Can demand-driven logistics make it the best of times?
Breaking Down Big Data
Big data is a big deal, but what is it? Inbound Logistics asks four industry experts to file their report on big data and its benefits.
Global Ports: A Boatload of Opportunity
Facing a number of challenges and constraints, the global port industry is addressing concerns and capitalizing on new opportunities.
A DIM Future for Packaging
Inbound Logistics asked these experts to weigh in on the dimensional weight pricing changes that UPS and FedEx implemented on January 1, 2015.
U.S. Manufacturing: All Systems Grow
North America’s manufacturing sector is on an upward trajectory. However, a shortage of young talent, compounded by Baby Boomers’ negative perceptions about Millennials, could impact its continued expansion, according to ThomasNet’s latest Industry Market Barometer® (IMB) research.
Adding Resilience to Your Supply Chain
This article looks at issues that companies should consider when developing a more resilient supply chain.
2015 Inbound Logistics Winter Reading Guide
Inclement weather and capacity problems giving your supply chain the winter woes? Chill out! Here are some good reads to keep you up to date on supply chain, logistics, and transportation best practices.
Customer Service: It’s the Thought That Counts
Technology is enabling an unprecedented level of transparency and communication to help shippers and their logistics providers understand each other's operations, and collaborate in ways that were much more difficult in the past.
Food Safety Modernization Act: Safe Travels
Smart shippers are already preparing and making changes to their supply chain operations to ensure they will be in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act from day one.
Building an Effective Supply Chain Team
A successful supply chain team needs just the right mix of talent, skills, and personalities, not to mention a clear mission, the freedom to pursue it, and the structure to succeed.
Critical Shipments: If I Only Had a Part
Bad things happen when systems break down. Flights get canceled. Production lines stop. The critical spare parts logistics involved in getting operations running again demand both precision and speed. Here’s how you can become a wizard at critical shipments.
Intermodal: Too Much of a Good Thing?
As intermodal grows, so do its challenges. Increasing cargo volumes create bottlenecks and congestion; while the capacity shortage has everyone scrambling. How are shippers and service providers coping? This article helps solve the dilemma.
From the Outside In: Supply Chain as Strategic Advantage
Executives at two leading companies weigh in on supply chain’s value to their organizations.
By the Numbers: Tracking Carrier Performance
Tracking carrier performance metrics gives shippers insight into how well trucking companies serve their needs.
Steering Transportation Management Strategies
Managing transportation strategies requires a team effort — and sometimes a ‘dedicated’ transportation partner.
2014 Trucking Perspectives
This trucking market insight report includes trends and challenges from both motor freight carriers and shippers.
A Mobile Cure for the Warehouse Blues
Mobile communication technologies facilitate warehouse efficiency and productivity.
Freight Audit and Payment Services: Stacking Up Savings
Freight audit and payment services analyze shipment data to reveal inefficiencies and identify savings opportunities.
New Retail Strategies: It’s a Store! It’s a Site! It’s a Warehouse!
Retailers are modifying their supply chain strategies in response to recent industry trends.
First Aid for the Hospital Supply Chain
Hospitals can cut costs by improving supply chain operations, inventory control, and transportation management.
Incoterms® 2010: Speaking the Same Language
Incoterms simplify international purchase-sales contracts. Here are tips for applying them correctly.
Rolling Back the Walmart Way
Kevin X. Jones, vice president of inbound transportation at Walmart, focuses on building transportation synergies.
Casting Vets Into the Private Sector
Military veterans bring valuable skills and characteristics that make logistics operations stronger.
The Mechanics of 3PL Partnerships
Partnerships between four shippers and their 3PLs demonstrate logistics outsourcing strategies.
Market Research: 3PL Perspectives 2014
Logistics market report reveals trends in 3PL offerings and shippers' logistics outsourcing strategies.
Readers’ Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2014
Readers select the third-party logistics providers that provide the best outsourced logistics services.
LTL Leaders Make Tracks for the Web
Less than truckload (LTL) carriers use online freight portals to offer low-cost extra capacity to small shippers.
Forecasting the Unexpected: Home Improvement Retailers and Emergency Response
When a natural disaster hits, consumers rely on home improvement stores for the products they need to repair or rebuild.
Supplier Compliance: Ask the Experts
A panel of supply chain experts address questions related to ensuring supplier compliance.
Fueling the Oil and Gas Supply Chain
Transporting and storing oil and gas products represents a complex challenge and big opportunity.
U.S.-Canada Trade: Getting a Line on Cross-Border Shipments
Cross-border import and export trade between the United States and Canada requires planning and expertise.
Inbound Logistics’ Summer Reading Guide 2014
New supply chain and logistics books help logistics professionals thaw out their skills after a brutal winter.
Lean: Winning Strategies for Cutting Waste
With Lean tools and processes, companies can reduce waste in their supply chain operations.
G75: Inbound Logistics' 75 Green Supply Chain Partners
These supply chain, logistics, and transportation companies lead the way in supporting sustainability.
Economic Development: The Care and Feeding of U.S. Enterprise
Companies seek to put down roots in regions that nurture the entrepreneurial spirit.
Landing a Job in Logistics: It Takes a Wealth of Experience
Employers want new hires who combine diverse, real-world experience with academic achievement.
Refreshing Your Logistics Network: 6 Steps to Success
This article provides a step-by-step guide to logistics network optimization.
Materials Handling Equipment: Sorting Through the Options
Companies planning new distribution centers or warehouses weigh process data to choose materials handling equipment.
Leveraging Big Data
Analyzing supply chain data allows shippers to improve their logistics operations.
2014 Top 100 Logistics IT Providers
Top 100 Logistics IT Providers can equip you with the tools to meet your company's unique supply chain challenges.
Shipment Monitoring Technology: Picking Up the Signals
Shipment monitoring tools allow manufacturers and shippers to locate cargo, manage inventory and prevent theft.
Cold Storage: Optimization by Degrees
Shippers rely on 3PLs and refrigerated public warehouses to invest in technology, implement standards, and facilitate strategic business process change to drive greater efficiencies.
Protecting High-Value Cargo: A Sense of Security
Shippers and logistics providers take extra precautions to protect high-value products from cargo theft.
Global Trade in the Key of GTM
Global trade management (GTM) solutions help coordinate trade compliance, and allow trading partners to share data.
Steering Clear of Supply Chain Disruptions
Companies make contingency plans to prepare for possible supply chain disruptions caused by port labor negotiations.
Finding Cost Savings: It's the Whole Package
Looking at packaging and freight costs together boxes up logistics and transportation efficiencies
Career Solutions: Certifiably Savvy
Take your supply chain career to the next level with a certification or certificate program.
Managing Retail Returns: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Optimized reverse logistics processes provide a good customer experience and recover value from returned goods.
Cosmetics Logistics: The Beauty of an Optimized Supply Chain
Cosmetics companies face challenges such as time- and temperature-sensitive shipments and retailer packaging requirements.
Same Day Delivery: The Amazing Race
Garrick Pohl of Zipments discusses how the company facilitates same-day delivery.
Site Selection: Follow the Signs to Competitive Advantage
Selecting sites for manufacturing and DC facilities involves tax incentives, suppliers, and logistics providers.
The New 3PL Partnership: More Bang for Your Buck
Third-party logistics providers are assuming a less transactional, more consultative role with shippers.
Cross-Border Trade: Made in Mexico
U.S. companies stand to gain from establishing manufacturing operations in Mexico – if they manage the challenges.
Cargo Security: Protecting the Supply Chain
Ensuring supply chain security requires that shippers and logistics providers stay one step ahead of thieves.
Materials Handling Meets Big Data
Big data gathered by materials handling equipment helps warehouse managers improve productivity and safety.
7 Steps to Selecting a WMS
Follow these steps to choose a warehouse management system to improve fulfillment operations and inventory visibility.
Inbound Logistics Winter Reading Guide 2014
New books on supply chain, logistics, and transportation help logistics professionals stay sharp.
Automotive Logistics: The Upside of Resiliency
Collaborative risk management helps automakers and their supply chain partners protect against disruptions.
The Direct Sales Supply Chain: Where There’s a Will There’s Amway
George Calvert of Amway explains how the company's supply chain strategy supports its business model.
Controlling Costs in the Healthcare Supply Chain
Many healthcare companies are investigating ways to consolidate and trim expenses in logistics and supply chain.
Aerospace Logistics: Building for Growth
The aerospace industry explores new strategies for producing planes quickly, efficiently, and profitably.
Perishable Logistics: Cold Chain on a Plane
Air cargo shipments of perishable goods such as produce, flowers, and seafood require careful handling.
Risk Mitigation: Supply Chain Safety Net
Shippers protect against supply chain disruptions with physical, analytical, and financial risk mitigation strategies.
Setting the E-Commerce Gold Standard
Chris Halkyard, chief supply chain officer for e-commerce site Gilt, discusses managing flash sale logistics.
FTZ Basics & Benefits
Foreign Trade Zones can help global shippers cut operational costs and speed customs clearance for imports and exports.
Rail Trends Recap: Shared Strategies, Mixed Signals
The 2013 Rail Trends conference addressed issues of rail safety and regulation.
Reader Profile Reunion: Where Are They Now? 2014 Edition
Catch up with four supply chain professionals previously featured in Inbound Logistics' Reader Profile.
163 Ways to Supercharge Your Supply Chain
Actionable tips help you revitalize your warehousing, 3PL, trucking, and global logistics operations.
Customer Service: Delivering the Royal Treatment
As evolving retail models push shopper expectations, companies explore new models for delivering great customer service.
Food Shippers Go Green
Leading food manufacturers and producers make sustainability best practices part of their supply chains.
Logistics Grads Suit Up for the Future
Universities and corporations are collaborating to improve supply chain education offerings and better equip students.
Time-Critical Transport: Devising a Master Plan
Expedited shipping modes are a crucial part of shippers’ planned transportation strategies.
Vendor Compliance: Setting Them Straight
Drive out inefficiencies and boost customer service by aligning with vendors to meet your supply chain goals.
Event Logistics: On With the Show
Event logistics planners coordinate details to ensure precise requirements and deadlines are met.
Intermodal Efficiencies
Intermodal allows shippers to cut transportation costs without sacrificing service.
Railroad Operations: Where Safety and Innovation Converge
Railroads are investing in new safety processes, technology and policies to ensure cargo security and prevent accidents.
Inbound Logistics’ 2013 Shipping Lines Guide
A resource for information on steamship line service offerings, capabilities, and new developments.
Trucking Perspectives 2013
Shipper and motor carrier responses to Inbound Logistics’ market research survey indicate trucking trends.
The Nuts & Bolts of the Automotive Aftermarket Supply Chain
The automotive aftermarket’s logistics trends, challenges, and best practices give shippers a wild ride.
Building Capacity Through Specialized Truckers
Partnering with diversified and specialized truckers can help shippers who are struggling to find freight capacity.
Retailers Try I.T. On for Size
As the retail supply chain adapts to e-commerce and changing consumer behaviors, technology keeps pace.
Scantastic Bar-Code Tracking Tools
Increasing product traceability requirements are making bar codes an essential part of many supply chains.
Feeding the Line
A look at the supply chain for manufacturers that supply materials or components to other manufacturers.
Lift Trucks on the Rise
Innovation in the lift truck market is creating new options for companies seeking to improve warehouse efficiency.
Inbound Logistics’ Summer Reading Guide 2013
Sharpen your skills with these books covering supply chain and logistics topics.
Hiring Heroes: A Good Deal for U.S. Companies
Companies in the logistics sector are stepping up to hire U.S. military veterans with aggressive recruiting and training programs.
Middle East/North Africa: MENA at Work
Transportation and logistics investment is the cornerstone to economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa.
Supply Chain Remodeling
Four companies worked with 3PLs to make over their logistics operations, so they could meet evolving business demands.
2013 3PL Perspectives: Drafting a Blueprint for Growth
A logistics and supply chain market research survey reveal trends and insights about the third-party logistics sector.
Readers’ Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2013
Inbound Logistics readers' choices for the best third party logistics providers.
Transportation Infrastructure: Building Hope for the Future
U.S. industry confronts a failing transportation system and looming capacity crunch. New legislation may help.
Discount Apparel Logistics: Outfitting the Outlets
As consumers embrace bargain hunting, off-price apparel retailers reinvent their supply chains to meet demand.
Polishing the Furniture Supply Chain
U.S. furniture manufacturers rely on specialized furniture carriers and white-glove delivery companies.
Guiding an Energy Renaissance: Questions and Answers With Michael O'Neill
The emergence of domestically sourced natural gas heralds significant changes in the North America energy market.
Temperature-controlled Logistics: Cool Under Pressure
Perishable shipments such as produce and pharmaceuticals require temperature monitoring and careful handling.
The Lean Supply Chain: Watch Your Waste Line
Shippers and 3PLs have applied lean principles to remove waste from their operations and improve performance.
Logistics Education: Ready for the World
Specialized global logistics knowledge prepares students to manage worldwide supply chains.
Green Logistics The Walmart Way
Sustainability best practices are integral to Walmart's supply chain operations.
G75: 75 Green Supply Chain Partners 2013
Inbound Logistics' 75 Green Supply Chain Partners (G75) highlights sustainability leaders in the logistics and transportation sector.
Inbound Freight Management: 5 Roadblocks (and How to Get Around Them)
Shipping freight plays a vital role in supply chain management, yet many shippers neglect to take control of their inbound shipments. Industry experts offer strategies for overcoming five common obstacles to successful inbound freight management.
DC Automation: Sorting It Out
Changing consumer expectations and demand for greater efficiency, economy, and productivity present new twists and turns in warehouse automation.
E-Fulfillment Strategies That Deliver the Goods
This story examines what customers want in an e-commerce operation and shares fulfillment strategies that merchants use to keep those customers happy.
Business Intelligence in the Supply Chain
Business intelligence tools support supply chain management by helping logistics professionals derive meaning from the data collected by logistics technology solutions.
Electronics Logistics: Tech Transport TLC
Companies shipping high-tech electronics face unique challenges requiring specialized best practices.
Africa: The Last Frontier
A wealth of natural resources, growing labor force, and proximity to established and emerging consumer markets in Europe and Asia make Africa an attractive target for foreign exploration. The pace of development will depend on the cessation of social unrest, government collaboration, and continued investment in transportation and logistics infrastructure.
Mobile Communication: Connecting Supply Chains On The Go
Mobile communications tools track supply chain data such as shipment status, warehouse worker performance, truck location, and driver safety.
The Top 100 Logistics IT Providers & Market Research Survey
Logistics technology provides global supply chain managers with tools that help improve logistics operations. This market research survey and list of leading supply chain technology companies directs logistics professionals to the top software tools for their sector.
Sharing the Load
Transloading shipments allows shippers to reduce touches and costs, and create greater flexibility to respond to changing demand in global shipments.
GTM: The World at Your Fingertips
Global trade management software offers greater shipment visibility and control, eases the pain of border-crossing compliance, and streamlines financial transactions—all from your browser.
Emerging Markets Break Through
Growth in overseas manufacturing spurred a boom in transportation of goods to and from developing nations. New emerging markets require shippers to reconsider their global operations.
Sporting Goods Logistics: Keeping the Ball Rolling
Sporting goods manufacturers and retailers must manage seasonal peaks to avoid stockouts and meet online customers’ demand for prompt delivery. Supply chain technology helps provide visibility and track items during product recalls.
Distance Learning: Making the World Your Classroom
Online logistics education programs train students for supply chain jobs through webcasts and discussion forums, while short on-campus residencies help students network with peers and professors.
Distance Learning Programs
A sample of supply chain, logistics, and transportation degrees and certification programs offered partially or entirely online.
Less Than Containerload, More Than Worth It
The new wave of less than containerload (LCL) ocean services combines well-established networks, improved reporting, more certain delivery times, and end-to-end pricing.
Ag Logistics: Growing Pains
The success of U.S. agriculture depends on a functional transportation and logistics network that combines efficiencies and economies across all modes.
Southeast Asia: Region on the Rise
Southeast Asian nations – particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand – represent a region of rapid economic growth, thanks to high U.S. import volumes. Infrastructure and regulatory challenges could impede progress, however.
Transportation Liability: Busting Seven Common Myths
Understanding transportation liability is not just for lawyers any more. Shippers need to pay closer attention to contract language and the details of shipper and carrier insurance policies.
Locking Down Supply Chain Security
To ensure cargo security in the global supply chain, understanding the challenges, studying best practices, and putting a comprehensive plan in place are critical components.
Loadboards & Exchanges: Finding the Perfect Match
Shippers, carriers, brokers, and third-party logistics (3PL) providers use electronic loadboards to communicate opportunities, whether it's freight to be shipped or trucks to be filled.
Take Your Pick
Companies choosing between voice-directed and pick-to-light technology often find that the right choice is a combination of both.
Project Logistics: Handling the Big Challenges
Project logistics requires specialized knowledge, experience, and equipment. Shippers of oversized loads, heavy equipment, and other unusual items rely on service providers to move their project cargo.
Is Your 3PL Financially Healthy?
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Conduct a financial checkup of your potential 3PL partners before you sign the contract.
Inbound Logistics’ Winter Reading Guide 2013
Whether you want to casually brush up on your supply chain management techniques or drastically reorganize your purchasing processes, you’ll find the knowledge you need in the pages of these supply chain resources.
Supply Chain Management: The Great Equalizer
In a business world defined and dictated by change, supply chain management balances challenges and competitive advantage. Companies large and small are leveraging transportation and logistics best practices to act as great equalizers.
Demand-Driven Logistics: Remote Control
Adopting demand-driven logistics can increase visibility, drive supply chain efficiency, and offset any market advantage your competitors might have.
Transportation & Distribution: Geared to Demand
Schwan’s Home Services optimized its distribution network by using a hybrid insourced/outsourced model; and Sun-Maid Growers of California used collaborative distribution to create better economies of scale in its transportation operations.
Technology: The Leading Edge
Innovative technologies are helping companies improve visibility into their supply chains and gain better control over inventory, service, and cost.
Materials Handling Equipment: Flex Appeal
The materials handling landscape is shifting to accommodate traditional brick-and-mortar and Internet retailers’ changing needs.
Workforce Management: The Human Factor
Solid workforce training, appropriate metrics, and well-designed incentive programs give companies an advantage in building their supply chain labor pool.
Site Selection: You Are Here
Choosing the right location for your distribution center can give your business significant edge. Here’s how the pros decide where to go.
Trimming Your Transportation Spend
Leveraging IT, reconsidering warehouse processes, and conducting periodic network optimization projects are just three of many strategies that enable shippers to not only trim costs, but ensure that transportation spending supports overall business goals.
Resilient…Responsive…Determined: Rails Focus on the Future
At the annual RailTrends conference, industry experts shared insight on trends, opportunities, and challenges facing North American railroads.
A Reader Profile Reunion: Where Are They Now?
Visit with three supply chain professionals who were featured in the Reader Profile column in 2007-2009, and find out what they’re up to these days.
Logistics Leadership: Secrets to Success
Logistics professionals seeking to become supply chain executives can gain insight from the perspectives of four logistics experts, who share their knowledge about the skills and experience needed to climb the logistics career ladder.
Transportation Advocacy: Shippers Stand Up for Their Rights
Logistics and supply chain professionals are finding a greater need to speak out and educate government officials on key issues affecting transportation, logistics, and supply chain.
U.S.—Mexico Trade: Two-Way Traffic
The emergence of integrated third-party logistics (3PL) solutions, expanded and improved intermodal service offerings, and creative collaborations to optimize transport resources has prompted many companies to expand operations in Mexico.
Comfort Zone: A Better, Faster FTZ
The Alternative Site Framework designation is changing the Foreign Trade Zone landscape, allowing shippers a more expedient process for streamlining the supply chain.
Measuring Customer Service: The Up-and-Coming KPI
Customer service is improving as some shippers and their service providers work to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure customer service metrics.
Food Logistics Taps into Tech Solutions
Monitoring and tracking tools applied to temperature-controlled shipments ensure that perishables in the cold chain maintain the right conditions, protecting food safety and consumer health, and minimizing product shrink.
Panama Canal: More Questions Than Answers
As Panama Canal expansion nears completion, global shippers gain a viable alternative for shipping ocean cargo from Asia to U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports.
Career Solutions: Closing the Talent Gap
With an eye toward the looming logistics labor shortage, some companies are working studiously to attract millennials.
Expedited Transport: It’s All in the Timing
Expedited services transport cargo by air, sea, or ground to meet shippers’ demands for consistent, on-time delivery with short lead times.
Holiday Stocking: Preparing for the Seasonal Retail Rush
Strong forecasting, careful vendor management, solid partnerships with carriers and optimized use of labor and equipment all help retailers manage the year-end holiday rush.
Rail Intermodal: Where Rail Meets Road
Shippers such as Ste. Michelle, Welch’s, and Michaels Stores are using intermodal transportation to move freight quickly, efficiently, and sustainably.
Negotiating Ocean Contracts That Will Float Your Boat
The complexity of ocean freight contracts requires shippers to negotiate carefully with carriers so both parties can find beneficial terms.
Inbound Logistics’ 2012 Ocean Carrier Guide
Inbound Logistics' annual Ocean Carrier Guide outlines where ocean carriers are investing capital, and how they are enhancing fleets, services, solutions, and coverage areas to better meet ocean shipping demands.
Trucking Communications: Goin' Mobile
Mobile trucking communications technology signals new productivity gains for truckers, and helps improve truck driver safety.
Regulation & Legislation: Truckers Get the Message
Some new trucking regulations – and proposed changes to rules and legislation – have a major affect on motor carriers. Here’s a look at these changes, and how they could affect shippers.
Perspectives 2012: Exclusive Trucking Industry Research
The results of our trucking industry research report include in-depth analysis of the trends, challenges, and regulations that affect both shippers, truck drivers, and trucking companies.
The Gulf Coast's Rising Tide
Spurred by its advantageous location, international trade prowess, and transportation assets, the Gulf Coast emerges as a new distribution and logistics powerhouse.
You Are Everywhere: Mapping the New Retail Supply Chain
Multi-channel apparel retailers such as Nordstrom use strategic inventory management, order fulfillment, transportation management, and reverse logistics to meet customer demand.
Restaurant Logistics: Serving up the Perfect Meal
Facing increasing food safety and quality standards and soaring commodity prices, the restaurant industry turns to supply chain management to manage super-sized challenges.
Navigating Pharma Logistics
Pharmaceuticals manufacturers face special supply chain challenges such as temperature control, security, chain of custody, and regulatory compliance, but successful strategies help deal with these issues.
Failure is Not an Option: Questions and Answers with Brian Hancock
Brian Hancock, president, North America for Martin-Brower, discusses the unique supply chain and distribution operations supporting the McDonald’s restaurant chain.
Southeast Ports: What’s on the Horizon?
Looking out to 2015, anticipation is swirling about the Panama Canal's expansion and impact on U.S. trade. Among southeastern ports and shippers, that wave of anticipation has already made landfall.
Great Partnerships: 3PLs and Shippers
Many companies, including Kimberly-Clark, Ebro, and USG Corporation, are moving beyond the traditional, transactional shipper-3PL relationship to form collaborative partnerships focused on mutual gain.
3PL Perspectives 2012: Shippers and 3PLs—Perfect Together
Inbound Logistics’ eighth-annual 3PL market research report demonstrates how 3PLs and shippers are connecting to confront existing challenges and capitalize on new opportunities.
Readers’ Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2012
Inbound Logistics' readers voted on the third-party logistics providers (3PLs) that give them the best service and deliver outstanding results. Here is the list of top-rated 3PLs.
Loading Dock Safety: No More Risky Business
Fast-paced loading docks can present a dangerous work environment. Using proper vehicle restraints with visual communications systems keeps drivers, forklifts operators, and other workers safe.
Urban Delivery: Getting Into the Grid
Traffic congestion and infrastructure limitations can complicate shipment deliveries in major cities. Carriers such as DHL and UPS use network engineering, communication tools, and contingency planning to ensure they meet customer needs.
Thinking Small: The Business Case for LCL
Less-than-containerload (LCL) services are expanding to meet shippers’ need for a cost-effective approach to smaller ocean freight volumes.
Lift Truck Strategies Raise the Bar
Advancements in lift truck technology give distribution center and warehouse managers flexibility in using their forklift fleets.
Inbound Transportation Management and Control: Why It's Important and How to Grab It
Routing guides are a vital part of successfully managing inbound shipments. A clear, concise routing guide helps vendors meet your specifications for inbound transportation.
Inbound Logistics’ Summer Reading Guide 2012
New publications on supply chain and logistics topics such as warehousing, sustainability, and procurement help logistics professionals stay sharp. Here are some recent books on supply chain topics of interest.
The Illuminating Power of Yard Management Systems
Yard management systems (YMS) help prioritize shipment arrivals, identify trailer contents, reduce the time needed to allocate vehicles to loads, and avoid unnecessary vehicle movements.
Air Cargo’s Future: Ready for Anything
The airfreight industry is depending on the new efficiencies promised by new freighters, e-commerce, and updated air traffic control systems to offset economic uncertainties and increasing regulatory requirements.
Beating the Odds in Latin America
Multinational corporations are gambling on the Latin American market's growth potential. But meeting the region's supply chain challenges requires an understanding of local markets, strategic planning, and strong partnerships.
Battlefields and Boardrooms: The Military-Private Sector Connection
The traits of an exceptional soldier are also the traits of exceptional logistics professionals.
Green is Still White Hot
Fueled by cost reductions and efficiency gains, supply chain sustainability initiatives retain their heat.
The Bionic Warehouse
Companies such as Pep Boys and Georgia Pacific are harnessing technology to gain greater warehouse labor productivity through labor management systems; incentive programs; and warehouse management systems connected to forklift-mounted mobile computers.
Innovative Warehouse Strategies: Four Walls, Three Takes
A consultant, integrator, and wholesaler share some warehouse wisdom.
Economic Development: Pulling the Right Strings
Many state governments support transportation and logistics infrastructure development and legislation that facilitate business retention, investment, and expansion. Economic development efforts in Virginia, Iowa, Idaho, Utah, and Wisconsin demonstrate a variety of approaches to supporting in-state businesses.
All-in-One
Many ERP vendors have added full-blown supply chain management functionality to their solution suites. Here’s a look at some of their offerings, and at two large companies that are reaping the benefits.
The 2012 Top 100 Logistics IT Providers & Market Research Survey
Inbound Logistics' annual logistics technology market research report delivers exclusive insights on logistics technology trends, and reveals this year's best-in-class vendors.
Packaging Grows Green
Many shippers are looking to replace fossil-fuel based packaging materials with something more sustainable. But they must do their homework to find the best – and greenest – fit.
As the World Turns, Supply Chains Spin
As multinational companies in the United States and around the world are increasingly influenced by changes in the international economy, global distribution networks must be fluid enough to accommodate unpredictability.
Nearshoring Latin America: A Closer Look
Factors such as labor costs, transportation time and costs, and infrastructure may make Latin America the best global location for manufacturing operations.
Jumping Through Hoops: The Importance of Vendor Compliance
Small companies face challenges in meeting the rules set out in vendor requirements manuals. Best practices help them comply with retailers’ supplier requirements successfully.
Ocean Freight Carriers Weather Rough Seas
The demands of volatile markets and structural changes taking place in the ocean freight sector make strong shipper/carrier partnerships beneficial to both parties.
Supply Chain Education: Ask The Professors
Leading supply chain and logistics professors provide insights about the state of supply chain education and employers' expectations for new hires.
Wes Kemp: Portrait of a Leader
Recently retired from a 40-year career with less-than-truckload carrier ABF, former president and CEO Wes Kemp shares his insights on the transportation industry, trucking regulation, and the importance of logistics and supply chain education.
Project Logistics: Moving the Big, the Heavy, and the Wide
Project cargo logistics requires shippers and service providers become more sophisticated in how they plan and partner for success when transporting oversized and heavy-weight shipments.
Integration: The Dawning of a New Era
When baseball cap maker New Era’s business growth hit critical mass, it realigned its distribution operations, fusing Menlo Worldwide Logistics’ outsourced solutions with its global supply chain.
Integration: Making e-Fulfillment a Pet Project
Deploying a warehouse management system (WMS) on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis allowed online retailer PetFlow.com to manage its own fulfillment operations without a large capital investment.
Integration: United They Stand for Corporate Responsibility
Grocery store chain United Supermarkets achieved its sustainability goals by certifying chain of custody within a tight-knit supplier network and integrating responsible practices into daily business operations.
Integration: Call of the X-duty
Nussbaum Trucking and Wabash National collaborated with appliance maker Electrolux to create the X-duty trailer, which combines the protection and security of a dry van with the strength of a heavy-duty flatbed trailer, allowing Electrolux to use the same trucks for its inbound raw material and outbound finished goods shipments.
Integration: Bucking Convention
Buck Knives’ lean integration has allowed the company to sharpen efficiencies in its manufacturing operation, increase output, and pull back production from China.
Tiger Grants: Road Work Ahead?
The Department of Transportation's third set of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants provides funding for a range of projects.
Security Guard: Questions and Answers with Dennis Omanoff
In an exclusive interview with Inbound Logistics, Dennis Omanoff, senior vice president, chief supply chain officer, chief procurement officer, corporate facilities and real estate for McAfee Inc., shares his view of supply chain management, security, and the U.S. business climate.
Scrutinizing Supply Chain Security
The logistics sector is using new approaches, mandates, and technologies to support global supply chain security.
Purchasing Managers: Minding Everyone's Business
With companies intent on optimizing the supply chain, purchasing managers have emerged as key players in the business plan. To be successful, they need to communicate, collaborate, and venture into new territory.
Behind the Buzz About Flexible Automation
Thanks to e-commerce, many distribution centers are now fulfilling a greater number of smaller orders – rendering conventional materials handling automation systems somewhat outdated. Is flexible automation the next frontier?
Smarter Trucking Saves Fuel Over the Long Haul
Trucking companies around the world are looking to boost fuel economy by improving driver behavior, and they are using on-board technology to monitor and control what goes on behind the wheel.
Using Incoterms to Simplify Global Sourcing
Using International Commercial Terms (Incoterms) in transportation contracts give shippers more control over transport and delivery terms. Simon Kaye, CEO of Jaguar Freight Services, explains how importers can use Incoterms Group F for better shipment control.
Retracing the Trails of the Iron Horse
A group of determined leaders, engineers, and industrialists helped drive the westward expansion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Logistics Lets the Games Begin
Major sports events require intensive logistics planning. Here, a behind-the-scenes looks at the preparations for the 2012 Super Bowl XVLI in Indianapolis and 2011 PGA Championship near Atlanta, Georgia.
Sold! Ports Help Close the Deal on Economic Development
Demand for industrial real estate near U.S. seaports is outpacing demand for industrial sites in general. Whether it actively buys and develops land or simply improves its own facilities to draw more interest, port authorities are crucial partners in regional economic development initiatives.
In Mexico, Rail is On a Roll
As more manufacturers establish plants in Mexico, and as Mexican railroads improve their infrastructure and services, demand for rail transportation within the country and across the border with the U.S. continues to rise.
On the Docket
Key legislative and regulatory items on Capitol Hill will have a bearing on transportation and logistics in 2012 and beyond.
Cheers! Managing the Spirited Supply Chain
A look at the logistics challenges faced by companies shipping alcoholic beverages, and some practices for dealing with those challenges.
Superstar Service: Supply Chain Strategies Win Satisfied Customers
Retailers such as Brookstone, BuySeasons, Pet Supplies Plus, and Wayfair streamline their supply chains to deliver better customer service.
Foodservice Logistics Brings Value to the Table
The harsh economy is driving an increased need for top-notch supply chain management in the foodservice industry. Here, a look at how some restaurants are feeding their hunger for smart logistics strategies.
Mitigating Supply Chain Risk
Well-defined business practices, thorough contracts, physical security, and active planning, help mitigate supply chain risk.
Supply Chain Graduates: Now What?
Top-performing supply chains focus on attracting and retaining talent — both technical ability and leadership. Here’s how to find and nurture true supply chain competency.
Healthcare Supply Chain Costs: A Tough Pill to Swallow
Organizations all along the healthcare supply chain are taking a dose of smarter procurement and logistics practices to cure high costs and treat ailments in other areas of the business.
Expedited Carriers: The Fast and the Furious
Logistics technology helps turbo-charged expedited carriers move freight for shippers with an extreme need for speed. Con-way Truckload, FedEx Custom Critical, Old Dominion Freight Line, Schneider National, and UPS share their perspectives.
Improving Rail Infrastructure: On the Right Track
Railroads continue to ramp up capital spending on infrastructure and equipment, leading to new intermodal services that prompt more shippers – and motor carriers – to adopt multimodal approaches.
Intermodal Inroads
Carriers, port authorities, and other service providers are working to keep intermodal going strong. Here’s a look at some of the newest developments in intermodal transportation around North America.
The Rise of the Supply Chain Executive
Supply chain professionals get a lift as more companies grow to appreciate the strategic value of a well-run logistics operation.
Mobile Communications: Managing Supply Chains on the Go
Mobile devices and applications have become the go-to tools for logistics and transportation professionals looking to stay connected and keep their supply chains moving forward.
Looking Down the Road
Inbound Logistics spoke to CEOs at five leading motor carriers and logistics service providers about the issues driving change for their companies and the industry.
Trucking Perspectives 2011: Exclusive Inbound Logistics Research
Inbound Logistics' annual motor carrier survey provides an in-depth look at the trucking sector, addressing growth areas and obstacles such as CSA, hours of service rules, capacity and driver shortages, fuel surcharges, and freight brokerage.
Love it or Hate it, CSA is Here to Stay
Inbound Logistics gauges the trucking industry’s response to safety issues, with a look at CSA’s impact, and truckers that lead the way in safety performance.
Truckers Play Role in Homeland Security
Curt Shewchuck, chief security officer, Con-way Freight discusses how the carrier's security protocols helped avert a terrorist threat.
The Bright Side of Logistics in India
There is more to India’s supply chain scene than its shortcomings. APL Logistics’ David Frentzel shares insights from a recent tour of his company’s Indian facilities and meetings with shippers.
Is U.S. Manufacturing Coming Back?
Shifting perspectives on supply chain management, coupled with the realities of total landed cost, are driving manufacturers to weigh the benefits of flinging production operations in China back to the United States.
Temp-Controlled Food Transport: Safe Travels
Prompted by new FDA regulations, shippers examine food transportation and distribution safety procedures.
Material Difference: Packaging Innovation, Inside and Out
Manufacturers are adapting their shipping cartons to effect supply chain change by reducing waste, slashing transport costs, and boosting efficiency.
3PLs Save the Day
Just when a shipper needs help most, in steps a partner with super powers. These three case studies show how third-party logistics providers can swoop in to solve problems for shippers.
3PL Perspectives 2011: The Power of Three
Inbound Logistics' annual 3PL market research report reveals how the dynamic duo of shippers and 3PLs are responding to changing forces in the outsourcing industry.
Readers' Choice: Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards 2011
Responding to our annual Readers' Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence survey, Inbound Logistics readers voted on the best third-party logistics providers and related the ways in which they count on their 3PLs.
Does Size Matter? Tier II 3PLs Find Their Niche
3PLs, like shippers, come in many shapes and sizes. The "not-too-big and not-too-small" size of Tier II 3PLs makes them just right for many shippers.
On the Road...Again: New Times on the Mississippi
Lewis & Clark Marine, a St. Louis tugboat line, takes Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O’Reilly on arrange a tour of its Mississippi River operations.
Site Selection Decisions: A Matter of Data
When selecting locations for logistics hubs, regional factors such as population density and facility costs determine where and how businesses store and distribute inventory.
Inbound Logistics Summer Reading Guide 2011
A round-up of recently published books about supply chain, transportation infrastructure, and logistics.
Looking Beyond Rates: The Road to Smoother Carrier Contract Negotiations
Carrier-supplied data can provide valuable insight for writing contracts, but shippers who want to pave the way to strong business relationships must dig deeper.
The Box That Rocked the Boat
Containerization reshaped ocean shipping, spurring further innovations such as bigger ships, giant cranes, suburban ports, and intermodal transportation. Future trends will include challenges including how to accommodate ever-larger ships, how to guarantee a chassis supply for shippers and how the dynamics of fuel costs, vessel size, and sailing schedules will impact container rates.
Full Circle: Reverse Logistics Keeps Products Green to the End
Green reverse logistics strategies to reuse, refurbish, and recycle products and raw materials not only benefit the environment, but also save money and increase profits.
Career Solutions: Working Smarter
Advanced logistics and supply chain education brings rewards such as greater job satisfaction, the potential for promotion, and a salary uptick.
Green on the Ground
When looking for environmental sustainability solutions, which ground transport mode -- truck or rail -- is greener?
The Rail/Ag Connection: An American Revival
As U.S. railroads and agricultural businesses embark on a new era of relevance, they are encountering new opportuniteis working together, and old grievances working apart.
Warehouse Fitness Guide: Simple Exercises to Get Your Warehouse in Shape
Healthy warehouses use strategies such as one-on-one training, layout optimization, materials handling equipment, adjustable partitions, performance measurement tools, wrist-mounted bar-code scanners, and energy-efficient lighting.
Stacking Up Pallet Pros and Cons
Pallet management helps shippers uncover efficiencies and economies in their supply chain. Wood, plastic, and aluminum pallets all carry specific benefits, which can often be delivered via a pallet pooling service.
New Kids in Town: 3PLs Move Into the TMS Market
Third-party logistics (3PL) providers are bringing transportation management systems (TMS) to market.
Finance & The Supply Chain: Show Me the Money
Innovative supply chain management delivers financial benefits to your bottom line.
High Tech: The Rise of SaaS and the Cloud
Cloud-based multi-tenant supply chain technology solutions help companies achieve better execution, visibility, cost savings, and collaboration with trading partners across the supply chain.
Asia: Manufacturing Dynamo or Consumer Powerhouse?
Asia today is not just about manufacturing; it's also emerging as a consumer powerhouse. To seize the opportunity, manufacturers and retailers alike are rewiring their global supply chain strategies.
The Last Mile’s Lasting Impact
From traditional heavy goods shipments to the new influx of e-commerce-fueled home deliveries, the last mile plays a crucial role in the supply chain.
A New Day Dawns for 3PL Partnerships
Most logistics outsourcers today use an RFQ to select their 3PLs. But that model is outdated and ineffective. A handful of forward-thinking shippers and logistics providers are instead embracing a collaborative outsourcing method, with powerful results.
Continuing Education: Making the Right Selection
Pursuing continuing education — through an abundance of choices that includes classroom work, certification, or online courses — helps logistics professionals enhance their job performance and get ahead.
The Perfect Storm: Weathering a Chassis Crisis
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Roadability Rule has shifted responsibility for obtaining and maintaining chassis to shippers and drayage companies.
4PLs Take Control
4PLs guide transportation operations, manage product flow, and sometimes help avert disaster.
Supply Chain Gain: Global Growth
Contingency suppliers, sourcing differentiation, special incentives, and a host of other strategies generate improvements in supply chains that reach around the world.
Supply Chain Gain: Site Smarts
Where you locate a logistics facility can greatly influence how well your supply chain runs.
Supply Chain Gain: Call In the Experts
Outsource your way to a more efficient supply chain by selecting a knowledgeable and resourceful third-party logistics provider.
Supply Chain Gain: Better Data, Better Results
New technology solutions help improve inventory visibility, increase routing agility, manage labor more effectively, and capture valuable information from the field.
Supply Chain Gain: Shades of Green
Sustainability efforts can help companies grow more efficient supply chains.
Supply Chain Gain: Trucking Tactics
Strategic transportation management puts shippers on the road to increased fuel economy and improved asset utilization.
Supply Chain Gain: Simplified Sorting
Warehouse automation allows distribution centers to take a hands-off approach.
You’re in Charge: Selecting and Managing Freight Forwarders
Effectively managing your freight forwarders helps improve supply chain compliance.
Securing the Supply Chain
Industry experts explain how to avoid threats to warehoused goods, conduct a global security assessment, and benefit from renewed government and private sector attention to supply chain security initiatives.
The Wheels of Change: Questions & Answers with Ed Melching
To roll out a supply chain overhaul, truck and engine manufacturer Navistar chose third-party logistics provider Menlo as its strategic partner. Ed Melching, director, Global Logistics, describes the project.
Sorting Through Materials Handling Decisions
Optimizing materials handling equipment and processes in the warehouse impacts the entire supply chain.
Following the LEED
Industrial property developers are cultivating greener distribution facilities and nurturing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards compliance. The bounty? A harvest of benefits for their tenants.
Certifiable Results
Logistics service providers are eligible for a range of certifications, such as C-TPAT, SmartWay, FAST, and IATA. But what they must do to qualify, and why should these certifications matter to shippers?
Auto Logistics: Revving Up Service Parts Logistics Operations
Ford revamped its service parts network, processes, and technologies to boost efficiency and set the stage for global service parts logistics management.
On the Road: Between the Pines In Florida’s Great Northwest
Panama City, Fla., is primed for economic prosperity, thanks to the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport and a local aerospace and defense research and development facility.
On the Road: Midnight in Memphis
FedEx primary package facility processes 2,500 items an hour. A behind-the-scenes look reveals how the bustling facility operates.
On the Road: Cross-Country Running
Driving across the United States presents insights into the nation’s manufacturing, energy, transportation, and sustainability developments.
Ask the (M)experts 2011
Supply chain leaders and economic development experts provide insight on what's new in security, infrastructure, and manufacturing in Mexico.
Economic Development Outlook: Focus on 2011
Does lingering uncertainty about economic conditions, freight demands, and funding sources pose a threat to industrial real estate development and transportation infrastructure projects?
Logistics Gets to Work
As yet another sign that the U.S. economy is emerging from the downturn, the logistics job market is picking up, with a steady increase in hiring since last year.
The Shipper’s Guide to Project Logistics
Handling oversized cargo requires a special touch. Here's how to find a project logistics provider with the know-how to get the job done right.
Food Logistics: From Farm to Fork
A growing consumer interest in locally grown food is changing the way many food companies source products. Food quality and safety concerns, transportation costs, and local economic development efforts are compelling restaurants, groceries, and wholesalers to engage smaller producers and localize their supply chains.
Managing a Customer-Driven Supply Chain
Logistics providers who work to understand shippers' needs help create customer service success, as illustrated by case studies involving Pep Boys, McCain Foods, and USG Corporation.
Transport Funding: Who Gets the Big Piece of Pie?
The U.S. Department of Transportation's second round of stimulus funding for infrastructure development exposes a widening gap between U.S. roads, rails, and bridges and government special interests.
CSCMP Annual Conference: Can We Talk?
Wherever you went, attendees at the 2010 CSCMP Annual Conference were talking supply chain risk, volatility, disruption, and visibility.
Supply Chain Velocity: Shifting Into Overdrive
When expediting shipments, visibility, communication, and customer service get into gear.
Reassessing Rail Reregulation
Will rail reregulation untie captive shippers but tie up rail productivity?
Trucking Alert: Steep Grade Ahead
Faced with challenges such as a capacity shortage and lack of qualified drivers, companies that ship product by truck are learning that working collaboratively with carriers can benefit both parties.
Exclusive Research: Trucking Perspectives 2010
Our annual motor carrier survey provides an in-depth look at the trucking sector, addressing growth areas and obstacles.
Consumer Packaged Goods: Lightening the Load
Here's the story of one consumer product, starting with its origin as a variety of inbound ingredients and following its progress from plant to warehouse to retail store.
Your Guide to Routing Guides
Retailers publish routing guides to establish rules for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors to follow when fulfilling and shipping orders. Here are the benefits of establishing a routing guide.
Lean Six Sigma: Leaning by Degrees
Lean Six Sigma enablers and practitioners are using continuous improvement methodologies to squeeze cost and inefficiency out of the supply chain.
The Top 10 3PL Excellence Awards
Inbound Logistics readers select the top third-party logistics (3PL) providers.
3PL Perspectives 2010: A Paradox Bound by Demand
Inbound Logistics' exclusive market research compiles shipper and 3PL input to illustrate the outsourcing sector's rapidly changing dynamics.
Ties That Bind: Sewing Up U.S.-Canada Trade
A steady stream of goods passing north and south across the U.S.-Canada border stitches the two nations tightly together, complicated by factors such as customs regulations, security protocols, data exchange, and infrastructure projects.
Amazing Race: Questions & Answers with Brigadier General John O’Connor
Inbound Logistics goes behind the scenes of a five-month pursuit to move the U.S. military from Iraq to Afghanistan with Brigadier General John O’Connor, director of logistics, Third Army, and commanding general of the Army Materiel Command.
Tying the 3PL Knot
Shippers and service providers discuss their experience building a strong working relationship.
Inbound Logistics’ 2010 Summer Reading Guide
Recent books shed light on various aspects of supply chain, logistics, and transportation management.
The Green Rule: Measuring Progress
Government, industry, and consumers are creating new standards for supply chain sustainability excellence.
Mentoring’s Long Reach
A mentor's advice and attention can make a world of difference to professionals trying to rise to the top of the logistics field. Here's how three companies in the industry help their employees scale new heights.
Keeping Surprises Out Of The Warehouse
Warehousing risks can spring out at any moment. Some are meant to be shared, others avoided. Successful warehousing operations strike a balance.
From the Service to the Supply Chain
Can you really model best practices from the military? After all, they invented the acronym SNAFU. But companies are finding veterans' experience and skills help promote ship-shape supply chains.
Technology Drives Supply Chain Excellence
Growing companies harness a variety of IT solutions to help them maintain outstanding performance.
Let's Go Europe: Touring Transportation Best Practices
U.S. companies exploring uncharted markets to expand their global presence might consider taking a second pass through Europe for a fresh perspective on transportation best practices.
Logistics Education: More Is Better
Evolving to meet changing industry needs, logistics and supply chain education helps students hone their skills, gain a broader perspective, and bring bottom-line benefits to employers.
ISF Compliance: Solving 10+2
Importers and exporters must make sure the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's new 10+2 equation adds up. Here's the formula for successful compliance with the Importer Security Filing (ISF) regulation.
On the Road | Introduction: Off the Beaten Path
Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly's supply chain travelogue details a year spent visiting logistics and transportation sites and businesses around the country.
On the Road | Belen, New Mexico: The Land of Enchantment and 10,000-foot Trains
BNSF Railway's Belen, N.M., rail yard serves as a regional maintenance and fueling facility for trains up to 10,000 feet long. Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly offers a behind-the-scenes look.
On the Road | Elizabeth, New Jersey: On the Waterfront
Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly visits New Jersey's Port Elizabeth, one of the East Coast's busiest intermodal ports.
On the Road | Piedmont Triad, North Carolina: Visions of an Aerotropolis
Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly tours North Carolina's Piedmont Triad, home to a new FedEx hub and growing Aerotropolis.
On the Road | Nashua, New Hampshire: The King of Beer Distribution
Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly visits Bellavance Beverage Company, a Nashua, N.H. beer distributor.
On the Road | Morris, Illinois: Plastics, Pellets, and Pallets
A&R Logistics' Morris, Ill., dry bulk intermodal facility specializes in hauling plastics. Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly tours the operation.
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On the Road | Conclusion: Anything But Uncommon
Inbound Logistics Senior Writer Joseph O'Reilly reflects on his travels for the On the Road series.
Containing Ocean Costs
Shippers use overseas consolidation, strategic loading tactics, and container sharing to cast off ocean transportation's financial burden.
Healthcare Logistics: Under Pressure
Healthcare leaders diagnose their biggest supply chain pains and write a prescription for the Obama administration.
Green Reverse Logistics Brings Many Happy Returns
Companies that combine the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra with the supply chain wisdom of managing costs and stamping out inefficiencies are developing reverse supply chains that help the Earth, the customer, and the bottom line.
Paving The Path To Progress
Public-private partnerships fund transportation projects and make infrastructure improvement a priority.
Ask The (M)experts
For an update on customs, infrastructure, and manufacturing, IL went straight to the supply chain leaders and economic development experts who make Mexico their business.
Logistics Goes To Hollywood
The supply chain plays a starring role in popular entertainment. Grab some popcorn and watch as we show some highlights of logistics' distinguished career in television and film.
What’s the Difference?
Industry experts explain the source of some common misperceptions regarding supply chain and logistics lexicon.
Snapshot: Cosmetics And Skin Care
Cosmetics and skin care manufacturers look in the corporate mirror and smooth logistics and supply chain wrinkles.
The Cargo Theft Threat
A thriving black market keeps cargo thieves in business -- to the detriment of the global economy.
Double Trouble: Avoiding Excess Freight Charge Liability Risk
In cases of double payment liability, innocent shippers and consignees find themselves ordered to pay for services twice. Contracting with a reputable broker can protect you from ending up in this situation.
Where Are They Now? A Reader Profile Reunion
Time flies, and careers evolve quickly. Since 2002, Inbound Logistics' Reader Profile column has introduced readers to more than 90 colleagues who work in logistics and supply chain management. Many of those professionals have since moved on from the jobs they held when we visited with them. Others still hold the same positions but have seen significant changes in their work. Let's catch up.
Uncommon Ground
Ground carriers redefine expedited services to meet new delivery and security demands in a down economy.
Relieving The Holiday Hangover
Retail madness doesn't stop at year's end -- it just reverses direction. A medicine chest of reverse logistics remedies helps alleviate retailers' inventory headaches.
Wind Power Logistics: Tilting Toward Wind Turbines
Wind machines have been spinning imagination and innovation for centuries, but only now is past fancy and contemporary fabrication melding into a composite reality for U.S. industry. Where wind blows, economic promise follows. The wind energy industry is taking over the world and the United States is center stage in an unfolding drama.
Intermodal: Ready To Roll
Although volumes dipped in nearly all transport sectors this year, a small boost in domestic intermodal points to a better future for multi-mode transportation as the economy rebounds. In the meantime, intermodal facilities are taking advantage of the lull to upgrade so they'll be ready when business picks up again.
Special Economic Development Supplement Great Logistics Sites: You're Welcome
A visit to five U.S. locations that are creating inviting environments for companies striving to achieve logistics excellence.
1919-2009: Celebrating 90 Years in Ship By Truck
They did things the hard way because they had to. They saw opportunities and seized them, took risks, rolled with the punches, and reaped the rewards. They didn't squeeze pricing or pinch service; everything was set in stone. And they hauled everything and anything during the Great Depression, World War II, and beyond. Join Inbound Logistics as we celebrate the legacies that made motor freight move.
Exclusive Inbound Logistics Research: Trucking Perspectives 2009
Our annual Motor Freight Market Insight Survey provides an in-depth look at the trucking sector. Motor carriers and Inbound Logistics readers address growth areas and obstacles.
The Perfect Center: Missouri
Need to be within easy reach of just about everything? Missouri is the place to be.
Freight Payment Services Boosting Invoice IQ
Freight payment/audit providers scrutinize shipper invoices using detailed reporting, sophisticated technology, and international capabilities. Here's a close-up look at how they discover savings and efficiencies.
Refashioning Retail Supply Chains
Whether they're pooling loads or promoting best practices, retailers tag consolidation and collaboration as powerful strategies.
Outpacing the Perils of Perishables
Haunted by the challenges of environmental unpredictability, safety scares, and regulatory red tape, food shippers rely on supply chain efficiency to keep their cool.
Power Brokers
Across the country, public utilities are empowering local and state economic development while helping businesses amp up their site selection due diligence.
Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor: North America's Energy and Agricultural Heartland
Linking North America's top energy and agricultural regions, the Ports-to-Plains Corridor helps deliver food and fuel to the city, and keeps the Heartland economy humming.
Switched On: Bringing The 3pl Machine To Life
Like any well-oiled, multi-articulated machine, today's supply chain comprises many inter-related parts that alone serve specific needs and together function as a finely calibrated mechanism for consuming raw materials and spitting out finished goods.
SMB/3PL Partnerships: Small Fish, Big Splash
When small and medium-sized firms are ready to swim with the big fish, they team up with 3PLs to gain a sea of business capabilities.
Planning And Maintaining Your Dream Yard
One key to logistics success is a healthy, well-maintained trailer yard. YMS solutions provide the fertilizer to help grow a yard to be proud of.
Summer Reading Guide2009
Summer's lazy weekends and long nights are the perfect time to catch up on your logistics reading. Dive into these titles for a new supply chain perspective and a logistics knowledge boost.
Northwest Iowa: Connectivity Beyond Expectations
At the core of America's heartland, Northwest Iowa delivers easy access to major markets, a first-class transportation infrastructure, a welcoming business environment, and outstanding workforce development programs.
Cleared For Takeoff
Security and customs requirements impose major constraints on airfreight shipments. Two new programs aim to remove some of the obstacles.
Air Cargo Perspectives 2009
Leading air cargo companies share their perceptions on important trends shaping the trajectory of today's global supply chain.
Smart Strategy: South Of The Border
Companies that source and manufacture products in Mexico gain opportunities to cut transportation costs, hold less inventory, and provide faster service to customers. But to reap logistics benefits in Mexico, you have to know your way around.
Supply Chain Research Labs: Brain Trust
Relevant, rigorous, and wide-ranging, university studies of supply chain issues focus on real-world challenges.
Energizing Your Warehouse New Strategies For Greater Efficiency
In a tough economy, the universal battle cry is, Do more with less! We're all looking for new ways to squeeze a few more dollars, or a few more hours, from our operations while also delighting customers with ever-better service. In many cases, we're trying to achieve those goals while saving energy and reducing our environmental impact.
Good Things Come From Green Packages
Why are companies sticking with green packaging initiatives in the midst of an economic recession? Because reusing materials, reducing waste, and improving transportation efficiency is not only good for the planet, it's good for business.
Arkansas: A Natural Wonder
Arkansas has long been known for its geographic diversity and scenic beauty. Now it's a burgeoning Natural Wonder when it comes to transportation, logistics, and trade.
IT Perspectives 2009: Exclusive IL Research
Logistics information technology is many things to different companies. It is an investment, a risk, a market neutralizer, and often a competitive differentiator. Technology can micromanage the mundane with extraordinary savings; or it can tackle the extraordinary with mundane consistency.
Internal Collaboration: A Bright Idea
Leading companies are plugging into current economic volatility to switch up their supply chains and make a connection between internal logistics departments.
Plastics Surgery: Remolding the Supply Chain
In the face of a recession, plastics companies recognize the importance of efficient transportation and supply chain management.
Coming (Back) to America
A decade ago, garment manufacturing in the United States was practically dead as apparel companies flocked to low-cost countries. But then came the economic downturn, and the realization that the time merchandise spends traveling in a container is time not spent on store shelves. Suddenly, America is the new global hot spot.
Lock, Stock, and Barrel: How Secure is Your Cargo?
When it comes to protecting shipments from theft, businesses have an arsenal of tools at their disposal. From high-tech tracking and monitoring to basic intrusion prevention, these devices and technologies, combined with common-sense security practices, can help thwart cargo thieves.
Passport To Knowledge: Gaining a Global Perspective
The sun never sets on the global supply chain. Advanced education programs at a variety of universities offer logistics professionals a world tour unlike any other.
Why Comply?
Understanding the latest CBP programs and requirements involves homework and headaches. So...
Rediscovering The Classics, Volume I: Prologue
Logistics fundamentals are oft cited but more often overlooked or misread. Mastering these basics builds a foundation for supply chain sophistication. So grab your slippers, pull up a chair, and stoke the fire -- get comfortable. Join us as we retire to Inbound Logistics' library of logistics best practices and dust off some classics.
Ask The Big Wheels
Inbound Logistics asked seven leading trucking executives to tackle some tough questions about the challenging year ahead. Their advice, words of caution, and strategic vision can help you face the challenges of using motor freight in the short term and beyond.
Channel Surfing
Click...Click...Click.... Consumers' short attention spans demand greater shopping flexibility. For some retailers, that means it's time to flip the supply chain processes behind their sales channels.
How'd That Get On My Plate
With a nod to the Food Network, and a toast to the Chef, join us as we cut from the table and go straight to the source.
A Day in the Life of a Transportation Manager
Spend some time with the professionals who get business in gear.
Business Guide to Tax Evasion -- relax...it's perfectly legal!
Companies can avoid import duties and other fees by shipping through and manufacturing in a Foreign Trade Zone.
Growing Together
Inbound Logistics' NAFTA Summit Report -- Insider Perspectives on the NAFTA Nations' Economies
Supply Chain Visibility: Now You See It
The more transparent the supply chain, the more easily you can spot ways to squeeze value from your operational data.
Snapshot: Entertainment Logistics
In the entertainment industry the show must go on, despite heart-stopping supply chain challenges.
Hospital Logistics Gets a Check-Up
Symptoms such as erratic billing rates, supply closet vertigo, and constricted inventory flow have healthcare facilities diagnosing better supply chain management as the cure for what ails them. To improve their condition, theyπll need help from suppliers and service providers.
Customer Service Gets Personal
Businesses today face the unenviable task of reducing supply chain costs while increasing front-facing service to end customers. Technology and automation help integrate and expedite service, but they don't allay the problems and emotions -- good, bad, and indifferent -- that befall poor execution or unforeseeable exceptions.
Standing out in the Crowd
Whether you're a rookie warehouse operator, a mid-level transportation manager, or a veteran logistician, industry associations can help you make a name for yourself.
Going Critical
When an item really has to get there -- and fast -- critical shipment service providers spring into action.
All I Really Need to Know (about Logistics) I Learned From Rudolph: A Holiday Demand Story
Taking a lesson from a holiday hero with a glowing red nose, retailers and suppliers embrace accurate planning, lean strategies, and transportation efficiency to guide their supply chain sleigh through any storm.
NASCO: North America's SuperCorridor Coalition
The multimodal transportation network known as NASCO runs through the heart of trade in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Find out what makes this corridor unique and why companies are banding together to support it.
Snapshot: Pharma Logistics: Prognosis Positive
Pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug distributors, and health care providers are taking a double dose of technology and business process improvement to keep consumers safe and competition one step behind.
Maritime Logistics: Staying Afloat
Ocean carriers toss out lifelines to help shippers navigate economic riptides.
New Horizons: 2008 Ocean Carrier Guide
Inbound Logistics invites you to tour some of the ocean freight industry's top players.
Pacific Rim Logistics: Proceed with Caution
The road to successful Pacific Rim outsourcing has more than its share of bumps. Here are some turn-by-turn directions to the path of least resistance.
Memphis: North America's Logistics Center
With its wealth of resources, central location, highly developed infrastructure, depth of logistics and transportation services, and talented labor pool, Memphis claims its right to the title North America's Logistics Center. No wonder so many companies can't help falling in love with Memphis.
Great Logistics Sites: The Pursuit of Excellence
Throughout the United States, local, regional, and state economic development authorities are ramping up investments in transportation and logistics infrastructure to stimulate and sustain business growth.
Ground Tactics: Optimizing Transportation Networks
Battle-weary shippers design strategic networks to withstand market challenges.
Trucking Perspectives 2008
Our annual Motor Freight Market Insight Survey provides an in-depth look at the trucking sector. Motor carriers and Inbound Logistics readers address growth areas and obstacles.
Freight Payment Services: Dollars & Sense
Freight payment services are no longer just about paying your carriers quickly. Today's freight payment service providers have expanded their portfolios to offer an array of cost-cutting, productivity, and efficiency benefits.
Purchasing Managers: Shop Talk
Purchasing managers juggle a To-Do list of stressful, business-critical tasks -- from striking the best deals to projecting demand to staying abreast of financial and political changes worldwide. Listen in as four purchasing managers chat about challenges and shoot the breeze on strategy.
Retail Logistics: Open for Renovation
Retailers are deploying a number of survival strategies and tactics to cope with the U.S. economic downturn.
Fast Food Logistics: Having it Your Way
Variety and freshness are paramount to keeping fast-food customers hungry for more and supply lines and inventory ripe and ready for change. Fast-food chains look to logistics service providers with a similar craving for made-to-order selectivity, quality, and service - all at an affordable cost.
Snapshot--Food Logistics: A Lineup of Challenges
With safety and recalls, sustainability, rising costs, and infrastructure improvements the usual suspects, food companies investigate strategies for locking down supply chain management efficiencies.
3PL Elements: Outsourcing = A Formula for Change
When shippers mix the 3PL elements of expertise, process efficiency, and technology into their supply chain, the results are potent. Eureka! A stronger, more efficient, and cost-effective logistics operation! Step into the logistics lab for a look at how and why outsourcing can give businesses a positive charge.
From the Back Room to the Boardroom: Logistics Gets on the Agenda
Supply chain management is no longer a backroom function. It has secured its place at the boardroom table, and greatly impacts corporate success.
Project Logistics: Mission Possible
Their mission, should they decide to accept it, is to transport sensitive materials around the globe. They'll grapple with issues of size, time, cost, scheduling, security, and fragility. Failure is not an option. They are project logistics professionals.
Green Packaging: Waste Not, Want Not
By moving beyond conventional packaging methods and materials, companies can reduce their carbon footprints as well as their transportation spend and warehousing costs.
Snapshot: Sewing Up the Apparel Supply Chain
Weak supplier relationships, restrictive trade regulations, and brand counterfeiting can put a wrinkle in garment transport. How do apparel shippers keep from getting tied up in knots.
Fresh Water Rising: Charting Great Lakes Shipping
A once-flourishing means of transportation is poised to not only withstand change, but also thrive on it.
Summer Reading Guide 2008
After you pack the picnic basket with sandwiches, potato salad, and lemonade, toss in one of these interesting summer reads. You'll quench your appetite and your thirst for supply chain knowledge at the same time.
Airfreight Logistics: Plane and Simple Strategies
Although high fuel costs cloud the view, airfreight forwarders still play a vital role in transportation and supply chain strategies.
IL Exclusive Research:2008 Airfreight Forwarders Perspectives
In a recent survey, Inbound Logistics asked airfreight forwarders how they are expanding their global coverage and services to meet shipper and corporate expectations. Listen in as they air their thoughts.
Learning for Life
Logistics professionals who pursue continuing education keep up with industry innovations and move ahead in their careers.
Latin American Logistics: A New World Venture
As rising fuel costs and lengthening supply lines give businesses further pause assessing total landed logistics costs and proximity to market, Latin America finds itself squarely in the middle of an emerging logistics land swap. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of visionary 3PLs, U.S. companies are prospecting sites in Mexico, Brazil, and elsewhere as they explore new sourcing and selling opportunities.
Warehouse Labor Performance: And the Winner is...Everyone
Looking for award-winning performance incentives for your warehouse workforce? The nominees are: Measuring Productivity; Setting Labor Standards; Implementing Gainsharing Programs; Training Workers for Results; and Promoting Safe Practices.
Getting Lean and Going Green: Innovations in Warehouse Operations
When warehouses and DCs explore innovative ways to optimize flow and reduce waste, the benefits can be bottom-line friendly and eco-friendly, too.
U.S. Economic Development: The Great Divide
When it comes to economic development, there are two Americas -- communities that invest in transportation infrastructure and those that don't. Here are three that do.
Spokane: Hub of the Inland Northwest
Looking for easy access to major U.S. markets? A gateway for international trade free of traffic snarls? Inexpensive utilities and real estate with plenty of room to expand logistics or manufacturing operations? Spokane is just what you're looking for.
Balancing Act: Matching Supply to Demand
Three companies at different stages of demand-driven sophistication use greater visibility, automated data flow, and real-time alerts to preserve the delicate balance between suppliers and customers.
TMS Under the Microscope
Companies take a closer look at technology solutions to discover the secret of optimizing transportation operations.
IT Perspectives 2008
Supply chains are only as flexible as the technology that exists to support them -- and thanks to an emerging class of logistics IT providers, and a new breed of sophisticated solutions, there are plenty of options to help enterprises respond more quickly and efficiently to shifting market dynamics.
Small Business Logistics: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Small businesses level the playing field by getting a boost from big service providers.
Snapshot: Beverage Companies Thirst for Supply Chain Efficiency
Beverage makers drink a toast to forecasting, TMS, and WMS solutions, which help them keep shelves stocked when customers' glasses are half empty.
Study Highlights Strategic Role for Logistics (Online Exclusive)
For all the operational advances chemical logistics achieved in the past few years, and for all the savings producers and shippers have realized, large opportunities for gaining efficiency and saving money remain. The most important advance would be for logistics to be included in the strategic planning stages with an equal seat at the table with production and sales.
Congress Plans Changes to Chemical Regulations (Online Exclusive)
Within days of the late-January deadline for chemical producers and distributors to file their ≥top screen≤ hazard-assessment questionnaire to the Department of Homeland Security, a Congressional subcommittee approved legislation to further tighten handling, transportation, and reporting rules for hazardous materials. Chemical producers, distributors, and carriers responded with a quick and loud call for legislators to wait for current rules to work before changing them.
Brenntag Acquires Schoofs, Names New Regional President (Online Exclusive)
Global chemical distributor Brenntag is not just California dreaming. It recently acquired West Coast specialty chemicals distributor Schoofs, Inc. based in Moraga, CA, and named Steven M. Pozzi as president of Brenntag Pacific, based in Santa Fe Springs, CA. No price was disclosed for the acquisition.
Tracking Totes Turns to Technology (Online Exclusive)
As totes and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) become more sophisticated and more expensive, chemical producers and distributors view them more as a fleet such as rail cars or tank trailers rather than as a disposable cost of doing business. Strict new rules on tracking and tracing hazardous materials also make it imperative for shippers to know where their containers are.
Globe Spinning
As the world flattens, global sourcing invariably becomes more dynamic. Sophisticated technologies and an emerging crop of offshore suitors are forcing today's intrepid explorers to balance reason with instinct.
Made in China: Perspectives on the Global Management Giant
What makes logistics in China so challenging? Who's really to blame for its much-publicized product quality failures? What's the secret to outsourcing success? A trio of industry experts responds.
Snap Shot: Furniture Logistics
Will the shift to global sourcing - combined with an economic downturn, housing slump, high fuel costs, and lack of visibility - unseat the furniture industry?
Most Likely to Succeed
From an undergrad learning the fundamentals to a Ph.D candidate conducting groundbreaking research, meet the students pursuing supply chain education at all levels.
Tuned Up: Priming Auto Logistics for Peak Performance
As new challenges drive the need for leaner and faster automotive parts logistics, suppliers ask 3PLs to take the wheel.
Industry Snapshot: Electronics
Is the latest gadget a hit or just hype? Will that newfangled gizmo be cutting- edge for a year or obsolete in a month? Fickle buyers and unpredictable lifecycles can short-circuit the consumer electronics supply chain.
The Evolution of Inbound Logistics
From yesterday's legacies to tomorrow's visionaries, the theory and practice of inbound logistics is timeless.
Dirty Jobs
Here's a look at the less- than-glamorous work that unsung logistics heroes perform every day.
Ask the Experts
Leading C-level execs with 260 years of combined logistics and transportation experience address tough industry questions. Their advice, words of caution, and strategic vision can help you face the challenges of 2008 and beyond.
Premium Trucking: The Right Tools for the Right Job
For many high-value shippers, enhanced efficiency, customer service, and profitability offset the cost of investing in DCC, white-glove, and last-mile services.
Sustainability: Green is the New Black
It's not easy being green. But, driven by impending regulations, consumer pressure, and mandates from corporations such as Wal-Mart, more and more companies are forging ahead with supply chain sustainability efforts.
West Meets East
Make a good impression on potential business partners in China by orienting yourself to some key cultural differences.
Mexico Paves The Road to Properity
Transportation infrastructure lies at the heart of Mexico's ambitious plans for the future.
Space Exploration: New Frontiers in Site Selection
They might not yet have the clout of their long-in-the- tooth but short-on-space peers, but that's exactly why shippers are gravitating toward their pull. These new logistics hotspots are committed to going to the ends of the earth - and then some - to meet shipper and consignee needs.
3PLs & PLM: Returns on Investment
Is product lifecycle management the next market opportunity for third-party logistics providers?
Gauging Change
A soft economy, increasing global competition, the Mississippi River bridge collapse, and an influx of product recalls give global shippers plenty of reasons to slow down and check the rear-view mirror before accelerating into 2008.
Thinking TMS
As the transportation management systems market broadens, and as software delivery options expand, businesses increasingly have TMS on the brain.
Career Solutions: It's Who You Know
A well-engineered network of professional contacts provides the structural support to build a logistics career with potential for expansion.
Expedited Shipping: ''We Need It Yesterday!''
Business is a blur for expedited carriers, and that's just the way shippers like it.
Retail Channel Convergence: Stock 'Til It Drops
Changing consumer buying habits compel retailers to integrate in-store, catalog, and online channels to keep inventory on hand and shoppers coming back for more.
NASCO: NorthAmerica's SuperCorridor Coalition
The multimodal transportation network known as NASCO runs through the heart of trade in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Find out what makes this corridor unique and why companies are banding together to support it.
E-Commerce Network Posts Profit, Holds First Conferences
Elemica, the virtual supply chain management network for chemicals, reports $50 billion worth of transactions for the fiscal year just ended and will hold its first Supply Chain Collaboration Conference at Ashland Inc. facilities in Dublin, Ohio.
Univar Acquires Dow Canada Inorganics Distribution
Univar Canada, based in Vancouver, has signed an agreement to purchase Dow Canada's western Canada caustic soda distribution assets. Those include all related supply and sales contracts, as well as storage and transportation assets and a proprietary fleet of 374 railcars.
Logistics at Sea Level
Ocean, rail, and intermodal leaders discuss why capacity concerns, infrastructure inadequacies, and a paucity of policy keep them up at night.
Rockin' Rail
For years the rails sang the blues. Now they rock around the clock. Could rail transport soon be the leader of the pack?
Drum Beaters
Bulk containers and 55-gallon drums continue to duke it out. Bulk containers are the heavyweight favorite, but the venerable drum has not yet gone down for the count.
Setting Sites On Tomorrow
Third-parties and economic development interests can help businesses look beyond the basics to find sites fit for today and tomorrow.
Inbound Traffic Control
Tracking inbound transportation used to fly under shippers' radar screens. Today, however, companies as large as Pepsico and as small as Pamida know the position of every shipment headed their way.
Inbound Logistics Trucking Perspectives 2007
An in-depth look at motor carriers and their customers.
Specialized Carriers: And Now for Something Completely Different
From traversing the tundra to White Glove residential deliveries the last mile is the most important.
Go Figure! Freight Payment Services Add Up
The cost-savings benefits of outsourcing freight bill payment and audit are well-documented. But it's the decision-support data these third parties provide that delivers the real payoff.
Managing Domestic Supply Chains
How consumer goods manufacturers leverage domestic supply chains for fast cycle times that global outsourcing can't match.
Temperature-Controlled Logistics: Provide or Perish
Whether shipping fruit, seafood, flowers, or any other perishable goods, transportation must be fresh, fast, and error-free.
Welcome to The 3PL Zone
There is a dimension beyond that which is known. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between demand and supply, between strategy and tactics, and it lies somewhere between the pit of an enterprise's fears and the summit of its visibility and knowledge.
Go Ahead...Pile It On!
Today's outsourcers expect 3PLs to offer a wide range of value-added services. 3PLs respond.
Outsourced Logistics: 4Ward Momentum
What is the real role of today's 4PLs? How do they differ from 3PLs? Who's driving the growth of this outsourced logistics niche? Inbound Logistics picks up the lead and explores the changing dynamics of the 4PL/LLP market.
Inbound Logistics Market Insight Survey: 3PL Perspectives
IL's annual 3PL Market Insight Survey offers a penetrating perspective into the market drivers governing 3PL growth strategies - in terms of operational scope, as well as the types of services and technologies logistics providers are investing in to meet outsourcers' evolving needs.
Global Logistics Spotlight: Dubai Flying High
With constant new development, soaring air cargo growth, and a busy port system, Dubai is shaping up to be the crown jewel of logistics in the Middle East.
Hospitality Logistics: Supply Chains Made to Order
Welcome to hospitality logistics, where five-star supply chain management helps keep customers happy. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your stay.
Materials Handling Update: Pleasing to the Pallet
Before businesses begin tinkering with state-of-the-art conveyor networks and automated storage and retrieval systems, they might want to reconsider the role of the warehouse's most underrated asset - the pallet.
Race To The Border: Catching Up With Latin American Logistics
Progressive trade policies and foreign investment, developing transportation infrastructure, and a growing 3PL presence in Brazil and Mexico are heating up Latin American logistics.
Career Solutions: Meet the Teachers
Who better to comment on the future of the supply chain than the people educating the next generation of logistics executives? Inbound Logistics profiles three dynamic professors on the front lines of logistics education.
Warehouse Safety: It's No Accident
Careful planning and a dedication to safety are top priorities for keeping warehouse workers injury-free. Here is your no-slip, no-trip, ergonomically correct guide to warehouse safety.
Navigating U.S. Site Selection
Inbound Logistics identifies 16 U.S. sites and clusters that are fast becoming popular distribution destinations for logistics-minded companies.
Caribbean Logistics: Ports Poised for Growth
As the Caribbean islands cruise toward CSME implementation, and the new free flow of trade it brings, ports in the region are investing in new facilities, services, and security.
IT Perspectives 2007: Logistics IT Market Insight Survey
IL's exclusive research polls IT providers to gauge their perspectives on logistics IT challenges, solutions, and opportunities. Their answers provide an in-depth look at the state of the logistics IT market.
SMB Logistics: Small is the New Big
Small and mid-size businesses leverage new market offerings to level the playing field.
Truckers Get Connected
Boosting safety, productivity, and efficiency, sophisticated wireless technologies link vehicles, drivers, and shipping data to the world.
CEE Change: Central & Eastern Europe Makes Waves
Nearly two decades removed from the fall of Communism, Central and Eastern Europe is transforming into a pivotal global logistics hub. Hungary for more information? Czech it out.
Furniture Logistics Finds its Legs
The furniture logistics industry adapts to the shift in production from the U.S. midwest to Asia by improving transport operations, collaborating more and bringing technology into play to remain competitive. Read this in-depth article from Inbound Logistics magazine.
Back to School? Start Your Search Here
Succeeding in the logistics field often requires an advanced degree. But finding the right school to attend sometimes comes with an advanced degree of aggravation. Inbound Logistics is here to help.
Change Drivers: Navigating the New Auto Supply Chain
Globalization, evolving supplier roles, and new network design models are driving change across the U.S. automotive industry. Logistics management is where the rubber meets the road.
People: The Power Behind the Supply Chain
The most important link in the supply chain is the one who gets up every morning, drinks a cup of coffee, and gets down to work. Here are profiles of some of the coolest people in logistics:
Retail Logistics: Shopping for the Right Site
Retailers buy into the impact global outsourcing has on their transportation practices, and now think twice about whom to partner with, and where to locate stores and distribution facilities.
Extreme Makeover: Supply Chain Edition
Transforming sub-par supply chains into competitive powerhouses takes knowledge, persistence, and guts. So move that bus, and see how it's done.
So Your Provider has Merged. Now What?
A look behind M&A activity in the logistics provider market and how it impacts shippers.
Demand Calls, Mexico Responds
As congestion and capacity concerns threaten cargo movement through the West Coast, Mexican ports present an alternative distribution point for U.S. supply chains.
Freight Transportation: Four for the Road
Four strategies to help you get the most out of your carrier relationships.
The Unexpected Happens: Is Your Supply Chain Prepared?
Relatively few companies have a detailed and tested plan for responding to potential supply chain disruptions - great or small. Those that do have a distinct advantage.
Moving Up: The New Supply Chain Executive
The transformation to an integrated supply chain boosts the role, responsibilities, and compensation of today's supply chain executives.
Unwrapping Seasonality Challenges
All retailers and vendors want for Christmas is supply chain success. Using logistics technology, savvy shipping strategies, and better planning, many will get their wish.
Getting Service Parts Logistics Up To Speed
Ensuring velocity in the critical parts supply chain is the major focus for manufacturers—and their carriers and 3PLs. How can shippers and their partners work together to expedite this facet of the supply chain?
High 5: Air Cargo's Top Challenges
Increasing fuel prices, security threats, changing inventory strategies, mode shifting, and provider consolidation have the air cargo industry in a tailspin. Here's how carriers and shippers plan to fly past these challenges.
WMS: Beyond the Basics
Think you know absolutely everything about your warehouse management system's capabilities? Think again.
Paying the Bills: Choosing The Right Freight Bill Payment Provider
Outsourcing any logistics function is an important decision, but it's especially crucial when it comes to freight bill payment. After all, it's your money that's at stake. Here is some free advice to help you make a choice that's right on the money.
Private Fleets: Your Own Private Ride
Targeting service, capacity and cost issues, companies turn to private fleets.
It's 4 U: Tracking Cell Phones From Manufacturer To Market
Mobile handset and device manufacturers are evolving their product lines and adapting their global supply chains to meet the ever-shifting needs of consumers.
3PL Hybrids: Becoming a 3PL for Fun and Profit
For shippers with solid logistics expertise who want to enter a fast-growth industry, becoming a 3PL may make sense. Hybrids such as Cat Logistics and Mitsui lead the way.
Green Thumbs Up
Want to grow profits? Plant the seeds of environmental concerns, rake in supply chain best practices, and watch what sprouts.
The Ocean Carrier Connection
Global shippers are pushing ocean freight carriers into uncharted waters. And carriers are up to the task. Here is the lowdown on some leading ocean freight carriers.
Launching an RFID Pilot that Flies
The best way to separate the hype from the reality surrounding RFID technology is to set up and execute a controlled pilot to determine what benefits RFID can bring to your organization. Here are three practical pilots to get you off the ground.
Breaking Point: Ports Perform Under Pressure
U.S. container ports are busy trying to update aging infrastructure and ease congestion, while handling increased demand. Can the government and private sector help? What does the future hold?
Piecing Together the Intermodal PuzzleJune, 2006
Stumped by transportation challenges such as rising costs, capacity congestion, and infrastructure meltdowns? Here's a clue: try mixing up modes to see if intermodal is a fit.
Piecing Together the Intermodal PuzzleJune, 2006
As supply chain management continues to evolve, so, too, must logistics organizations. Here's how CSCMP, NASSTRAC, and others are reinventing themselves to better serve their members, and keep careers moving forward.
Home is Where the Heart (of Economic Development) Is
As state and local authorities survey investments in transportation and distribution infrastructure, one glaring omission interrupts their planning—a lack of oversight and assistance from the federal government. What are they doing about it?
Warehousing: The Safety Zone
Increased warehouse worker productivity. Fewer safety claims. Lower workers' comp costs. Soaring employee morale. You have just entered ... The Safety Zone.
Gainsharing in the Warehouse: Power from the People
Programs that properly motivate and compensate workers can send warehouse productivity soaring.
U.S. Site Selection: Building for the Future
Bigger isn't always better. Many smaller regions are investing in infrastructure and transport capabilities to attract logistics and distribution activity.
Cross-Border Transport: Keeping Free Trade Safe and Sound
Cross-border shippers who implement and enforce sound security compliance procedures can live happily ever NAFTA.
Transportation Management Systems: Pulling It Together
Transportation management systems attract companies with the promise of bringing structure and efficiency to polarized processes. But it's crucial to weigh the positives and negatives before pulling the product from a wealth of choices.
M2M 101
Haven't heard of machine-to-machine technology yet? You will soon enough. Here's a quick primer.
India: Asia's New Frontier
Global pioneers are peeking around China's corner and beyond the Himalayas into Asia's next major logistics hotspot—India.
Logistics Goes to the Head of the Class
Ten years ago, logistics education meant learning how to drive a forklift. Today, schools focus on teaching total supply chain management, and graduates are quickly snatched up by recruiters who know smart logistics managers can help the bottom line.
Supply Chain Security: Tapping Into C-TPAT
Many companies embrace C-TPAT in the fight against supply chain security threats, but just as many shun it. What is C-TPAT? How does it work? What benefits—if any—does it bring shippers and carriers? Here's a closer look.
Carrier Partnerships: A Matter of Trust
Building trusting relationships with your transportation partners makes the best sort of business sense.
Matchmaking
Inbound Logistics editor Joseph O'Reilly ventures into the world of online load-matching services.
Mexico on the Move: Building New Opportunities
New investments in Mexican transportation and logistics infrastructure create opportunities for U.S. manufacturers and logistics companies.
Supply Chain Technology: Integrating the Old & New
New supply chain technology can power up existing operations, streamline inventory, and increase revenue—if implemented correctly. Making sure new solutions integrate with existing technologies and processes is crucial. Here's how it's done.
Career Solutions: Playing the Job Board Game
Are job boards your winning move? Learn the rules and strategies you'll need to score your dream job on the web.
Track to the Future
Innovations in web-based communication technologies, global positioning systems, and equipment are taking freight railroads into a new era.
Apparel Logistics & Technology: A Perfect Fit
Technology is the latest accessory to hit the apparel world. By embracing technology solutions, forward-thinking apparel and footwear companies are fashioning tight, visible, integrated supply chains—and reaping the rewards.
Managing Inventory: From Fat to Lean
As more businesses source from offshore manufacturers and suppliers, having visibility and control over moving inventory requires both a tactical and strategic lean approach.
Trucking Tips of the Trade
Transport buyers face tough questions every day. To help find answers, Inbound Logistics turned to transport buyers and service providers for the inside story.
Cool Stuff, Blazing Speed
When consumers need the hottest new gadget, they need it cheap and they need it now. That's why logistics leaders such as Hewlett-Packard power up their supply chain to deliver the goods. Now that's cool.
SCM: Pharma's First Aid Kit
Pain points plague the pharmaceutical industry—skyrocketing expenses, stringent regulations, costly product development. Is supply chain management the cure?
Fast Forwarding
Globalization and security concerns are thrusting the air cargo industry into full throttle. From their unique perspective as both service provider and shipper, airfreight forwarders air their views about the growing challenges facing global businesses.
Rethinking Reverse Logistics
Companies have become more aware of the benefits of managing reverse logistics. But now it's time to decide between merely managing returns more effectively and rethinking reverse logistics' role as a supply chain strategy.
Going for (Not So) Broke: The True Cost of RFID
The cost of RFID implementation has been over-hyped and exaggerated. Early cost predictions had vendors seeing green, but in reality, an RFID implementation need not bust your whole technology budget. Find out the true costs of taking the RFID plunge.
Making Career Building Connections
Logistics professionals at all levels can cultivate contacts and rely on their peers for advice and education. Here's how to network successfully to help build your career.
Best Practices in Today's Distribution Center
The right people, processes, technology and tools help achieve the right results.
Survival of the Retro-Fittest
Improving processes and upgrading material handling systems in your warehouses and distribution facilities is not only a solid recovery strategy but also good business.
Transportation Transformed!
How seven companies of all shapes, industries, and sizes, transformed their transportation and logistics operations through the use of technology.
Switzerland Banks on Logistics
With a dense transportation infrastructure, financial stability, and a favorable corporate tax structure, Switzerland is quickly becoming a stepping-stone for global businesses targeting new markets.
From Cost to Profit: Service Parts Logistics
Some companies pay little attention to service parts logistics. Others are tapping its potential to increase revenues and reduce operating expenses. Here's how to transform your service parts operations from a cost center to a profit-driven business.
Supply Chain Strategies: On-Demand is In Demand
Forward-looking companies such as Lucent and IBM strike a balance between ìpushî ñ making decisions based on forecast, and ìpullî logistics ñ closely matching logistics strategy to demand signals and aligning the business process to serve that call.
The Real Story on RFID: 5 Questions for 6 Experts
RFID experts answer your questions about compliance, ROI, costs, and implementation.
Build to Scale: Bringing PLM to the Masses
As globalization continues to level the playing field, smaller enterprises embrace PLM solutions as a go-to-market strategy for managing and scaling growth, and enhancing visibility and communication within the supply chain.
Environmental Compliance: Seeing Green
The EPA's 2007 low-emission diesel engine specifications loom large in the minds of shippers and carriers. Will the industry take the high road and embrace the eco-friendly policies?
Career Solutions: Hiring a Logistics Problem Solver
Making the right hiring decisions for your organization is crucial. Easier said than done? Not if you know what to look for.
Supply Chain Careers: An Inside Look
If you are looking to build your supply chain career, this is the resource for you.
Shipping Spree: Unlocking the Secrets to the Holiday Rush
In preparation for the peak holiday season, retailers and manufacturers reassess their supply chains to optimize planning and combat increased demand.
RadioShack's Supply Chain Tune-up
Thanks to a strong foundation created after a three-year, company-wide supply chain project, RadioShack has a new direction, new goals, and new customer markets.
CLM 2004: Following The Leaders
What are the hot logistics topics for 2005? IL sat down with a number of different logistics solutions providers and practitioners at this year's Council of Logistics Management conference to track the latest buzz in global supply chain trends.
Going Global: 3PL or Solo?
As companies expand their global reach, they are increasingly leveraging the infrastructure, resources, networks and expertise of third-party logistics providers to enhance capacity while minimizing risk.
Maritime Security: Open to Risk?
The U.S. maritime sector offers an attractive target to terrorists. But the ocean community is taking steps to help protect maritime trade from catastrophic events.
China: The Dragon Awakens
Chinese cities are teeming with manufacturing initiatives, prompting numerous expansions of the country's transportation and logistics infrastructure.
Motor Carriers & Technology: Optimizing Like Never Before
Motor carriers were once notorious laggards when it came to IT investment. No more. A robust freight market and higher margins are driving truckers to once again invest in their IT infrastructures. And the motor freight buyer comes out the winner.
The Transformation of Truck Transportation
Join us for a look back at the history of trucking in the United States, lessons motor carriers have learned through the years, and what the road ahead looks like for shippers and carriers.
Building the Sense and Respond Company
Supply chain management reshapes the future of leading companies while attracting a lot of C-level attention along the way.
Cargo Crossroads of the World: Alaska
Located nine hours by air to 95 percent of the world's industrial population, Anchorage is quickly becoming one of the world's preeminent cargo hubs.
Career Solutions: Knowledge by Association
Regardless of your title or experience level, getting involved in an industry association could be one of the best career moves you ever make.
Industry Associations
Searching for a professional organization? Here's a brief list to help you get started.
Pharma Logistics: Can RFID Heal Supply Chain Security?
From counterfeiting to tampering to terrorist threats, the pharmaceutical industry faces complex security challenges. Can a dose of RFID track-and-trace technology, prescribed by Dr. Wal-Mart, keep the pharma supply chain safe?
U.S. and Canada: Partners in Trade
Canada's world-class infrastructure and easy access to North American markets offer U.S. companies strategic logistics opportunities for goods distribution. Beauty, eh?
Intermodal Shows its Mettle
Congestion in the intermodal network puts unprecedented stress on shippers and receivers. Intermodal operators are responding with innovative solutions that keep freight moving.
The Plane Truth About Airfreight Forwarding
Once it was enough for airfreight forwarders to move cargo on time from A to B. But with new security regulations, technology tools, and capacity reductions, forwarders today have to meet a full range of logistics needs.
Who's Who in Airfreight Forwarding:
Large forwarders handle the bulk of airfreight volume but a small, niche player might be just what you need. Here's a list of some leading forwarders—both large and small—to help launch your search.
Get a Lift
Looking to streamline your material handling operations? Consider beginning with your lift trucks. Here's a snapshot of the industry's leading manufacturers and some of their newest solutions.
Bytes...Data...Action: How Small Warehouses Compete
Smaller distribution centers and warehouses leverage information technology to operate like the big boys.
Economic Development: The Science of Site Selection
Follow the formula for choosing the right site for your supply chain facilities and you'll increase your ability to adapt quickly to market change, improve customer service, and reduce transportation costs.
Net Gains
Here's a look at how several companies have successfully tapped the Internet and the web to improve their logistics and supply chain operations.
Pier Pressure: Customers Call the Shots
Competitive pressure drives ocean carriers, ports and terminal operators to collaborate to improve efficiency and accommodate customers.
The New Frontier of Border Security
Are you committed to protecting the safety and security of goods in transit? Pretty soon, you'll have to be. Here's a look at the latest security initiatives affecting transportation and logistics, and what you need to know to comply.
Smart Moves: Managing Your Logistics Career
Winning the corporate game requires careful planning and strategic career moves. Learn from these logistics pros who describe the steps they took get ahead.
The Soft Side of Career Development
Building a career is certainly a complex task. An important part of your plan must be to strengthen the skills required for you to move up successfully, including the intangible skills that come from your head and your heart.
Blueprint for Excellence: Complex Logistics Made Simple
It doesn't matter whether your company is large or small, when you undertake dramatic supply chain reengineering projects you need a blueprint. See how leading companies set plans to successfully implement complex logistics change.
Driving Efficiencies in Automotive Logistics
Automotive manufacturers find the key to squeezing operations costs: establishing strong partnerships with their 3PLs.
Competitor or Co-Pilot: Air Carriers Work Together to Fill Gaps
With airlines limiting lift in most areas and shippers demanding more, major airlines and cargo carriers survive by combining forces. Goal? To provide worldwide seamless service by managing capacity across carriers to better match the demand.
Trust Me! The Human Side of Collaboration
How business partners can conquer their fears of intimacy by learning to collaborate, share forecasts and plans, and build the kind of trust that supports successful supply chain operations.
Closing the Supply Chain Loop: Reverse Logistics and the SCOR Model
With product returns on the rise, many companies strive to formalize the reverse logistics process.
Washington Briefing 2004: Enemies at the Gate
The practical implications of the 24-Hour Rule and C-TPAT will reverberate in 2004. Here's an update to help you meet the requirements and responsibilities of being a logistics partner in Homeland Defense.
Hitting the Mark: Supply Chain Best Practices
A look back at 2003, when companies took aim at improving supply chain systems and security, cutting costs, and providing excellent customer service.
Deck the Hauls: Getting the Holiday Rush
The holiday season is a real "rush" for operational folks who thrive on the excitement of making it through the peak time successfully.
Revving Up Returns
Optimizing reverse logistics can result in cost reductions and service level improvements of up to 50 percent.
Managing Imports: From Docs to Docks
Technology and third-party providers can help streamline the importing process and speed cycle time while complying with increased regulatory requirements.
Green Light for Yellow-Roadway
What the acquisition means for customers of the $6-billion newly formed transportation provider.
Wheels of Fortune: Truckers Deliver a Wealth of Services
Motor carriers help companies optimize their core competencies by providing value-added services.
Military Logistics Shapes Up
As the need for efficiency in military operations grows, streamlining the supply chain becomes imperative.
Fast Food: SCM Feeds the Need
Whether by increasing inventory turns or compressing order cycle time, food companies are looking for ways to reach maximum speed.
Don't Even Think About Outsourcing Until You Read These Success Stories
From Fortune 50 organizations to startup operations, a growing number of companies are outsourcing components of their logistics and supply chain functions to third-party logistics providers.
Career Moves: Does Outsourcing Help or Hurt?
The right outsourcing recommendation can make or break your career. Here's some advice for using outsourcing to fuel your trip up the corporate ladder.
At Long Last, Logistics Reaches the Boardroom
The CEOs of two vastly different companies—The Container Store and Leiner Health Products—share their views on the importance of logistics and supply chain management to their companies' bottom lines.
Warehousing: The Evolution Continues
As the evolution of warehousing continues, logistics professionals will have plenty of opportunity to show just what kind of contribution they can make.
Optimizing Your Supply Chain: A Model Approach
A wide array of technological tools are just the do-it-yourself kit companies can use to model, then optimize, their supply chains.
Wireless Supply Chains: No Strings Attached
On the road, in the warehouse or the office, today's wireless technologies help streamline supply chain operations.
Global Logistics: Bridging the Cultural Divide
Companies move to ensure operational excellence when working across the cultural divide.
SCM & Logistics: What's the Difference
Are logistics and supply chain management the same thing? How are they alike? How do they differ? IL readers weigh in with their opinion, and Dr. Edward J. Marien tries to make sense of it all.
Choreographing the New Supply Chain
Connecting customers, distributors, manufacturers and suppliers to allow real-time workflow requires they all dance to the same music.
Delivering the Goods: The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain
Master the recipe and you achieve efficiencies and savings. Becoming a better global competitor is just the icing on the cake.
Slow-Moving Inventory: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
Some companies that think they do a good job speeding inventory have it only half right. Many focus only on fast-moving items, ignoring the savings potential of managing slow-movers. Here's how to tap this new opportunity.
This Just Out: The Latest in Logistics I.T.
Heavy freight, "lite" logistics and global customs clearance procedures drive three new supply chain applications.
Logistics I.T.—5x5
Five solutions providers answer five questions about new logistics IT buying trends.
Super-Charging Your Supply Chain
Companies use different options to fight the never-ending battle of optimizing their supply chains.
Winning Supply Chain Strategies: Adversity Breeds Creativity
While a slow economy drives many companies to wait out the siege, others do everything but. These winning companies look to the future, building supply chains based on creativity, velocity, collaboration, and speed. Here are their strategies for success.
Managing Your Spend
New strategies, reengineering, and powerful technology enable companies to revamp sourcing and procurement.
Logistics 101: Back to Basics
Logistics can confound the newly initiated and veterans alike. So take out your notebook, sharpen your pencil, and take this Inbound Logistics short course on the fundamental concepts driving logistics theory and practice today.
Routing Guides: Inside the Matrix
Successful implementation of a routing guide feeds off constant communication among vendors, carriers, and consignees. Find out how you can help foster better shipping compliance among your supply chain partners with a dynamic routing guide.
Turning Invoices Into Intelligence
Don't let bankruptcies in the freight payment industry overshadow the potential power of turning freight invoices into actionable information.
Slow Economy? Invest Now in Logistics IT
While some companies have frozen investments in logistics and supply chain technology, forward-thinking companies seize the opportunity to gain a competitive edge.
Shopping for Supply Chain Excellence
Food companies embrace collaboration and supply chain technology in their quest o deliver service, selection and savings.
Europe's Evolving Logistics Landscape
The advent of the European Union is dramatically changing logistics and supply chain management in the Old World.
Logistics Outsourcing: Making a Long-Term Commitment
Experienced outsourcers identify keys to establishing long-term relationships with third-party logistics providers, for better or for worse.
3PL Roundup: Straight from the (Out)Source
Market pressure has driven more business to the third-party logistics sector, but as a result, businesses are expecting more from their 3PLs. Find out what customers are demanding and what potential customers should know before they decide to outsource.
Logistics Outsourcing: A Panacea?
Is outsourcing a panacea? Of coursenot. But depending on your company's circumstances, it can be a cure.
The Right-Tech Warehouse
High tech or low tech - which level of technology is right for your warehouse or distribution center?
Materials Handling Technology: Toy or Tool?
Consider all the options when deciding what materials handling technology works for your operation.
Warehouse Visibility: Looking Beyond the Four Walls
Today's visibility tools open a window into the warehouse so supply chain partners can see in—and out.
Making Dollars & Sense Out of Logistics
Treating logistics as a profit center can expand both revenue and profit, and build your leverage base. But this approach is still a brave new world.
Logistics Education: Beyond the B.A.
A graduate degree plus executive education can help you be more competitive in the job market, and improve your paycheck's bottom line.
Service Parts Logistics: Taking it Outside
Companies outsource service parts logistics to focus on their core competencies.
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Logistics innovations take courage, resources, and time—but the payback can be great. Here's a look at key logistics developments over the years, what companies are doing today, and how to become a logistics innovator.
Reader Profiles
Here's a new column featuring logistics professionals who've been around the block a few times and have volunteered to share their experiences with readers. This debut installment features three profiles; future issues will carry one profile each.
Getting Started in Reverse Logistics
An integrated approach to reverse logistics can improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, drive continuous improvement, and maximize return on assets.
Keeping Pace with Logistics IT
Supply chain management practices are tough to integrate with ERP. Executive Editor Robert Malone assembled a panel of four logistics IT experts to benchmark the state of the supply chain ERP integration challenge.
8 Steps to Info Systems Happiness
IT systems got you down? Before you go looking for an ERP solution, you must define an information systems architecture for your company. Follow these eight steps and turn that IT frown upside down.
A Strong Sense of Security
How to keep imports moving amidst fears of future terrorist attacks.
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