Archive: Oct 2002

Choosing Cross-Border Partners

Moving goods across U.S. borders into Mexico can be difficult if you don’t align yourself with the right partners and establish solid relationships with carriers and brokers. Here are suggestions to help you select your cross-border partners wisely, from Gene Sevilla-Secasa, vice president, managing director for Ryder Latin America. 1. Invest adequate time and do […]

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What Do You Really Know About Intermodal?

Remember the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day? The premise was that his character was trapped in a time warp that had him continuously reliving the same day. The people who work in the intermodal industry can probably relate—except it’s not their industry that’s stuck in a time warp. It’s their image. Intermodal transportation can take […]

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You Have Entered the Material Transfer Zone

The loading dock has become a critical component of virtually any supply chain strategy. Mistakes in dock design and equipment choices can have costly consequences that ripple throughout the supply chain. For instance, slowdowns and product damage can very quickly multiply when overhead door openings are too small and dock levelers too narrow to provide […]

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CLM: The Rules are Changing

The rules are changing? I wish somebody would tell that to the longshoreman’s union. I was recently in the center of the dock lockout imbroglio in San Francisco, having made the trip to attend the Council of Logistics Management’s 2002 conference. Business as usual for dockworkers apparently means a 70+ percent increase over three years, […]

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Sourcing Globally Now That The Rules Have Changed

MORE TO THE STORY: The e-Procurement Advantage During the 1980s and 1990s, manufacturers saved billions of dollars in inventory and other carrying costs by instituting effective just-in-time (JIT) supply chain management and production processes. These efforts were based on the fundamental assumption that, while global supply chains might experience short-term hiccups, they would run pretty […]

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Looking Inside The Box

As budget limitations and executive missives compel logistics managers to streamline operating expenses, web-based procurement solutions have become one obvious fix, offering greater control over purchasing decisions, the opportunity to consolidate supply orders and shipments, and the promise of reduced costs.

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The Supply Chain: A Canary in the Corporate Coal Mine

To avoid the fate of companies that collaborated with WorldCom, Enron, Vivendi and others, you must learn to read supply chain performance as a gauge of corporate financial fitness. SCM performance is a leading—not a lagging—indicator of a suppy chain partner’s true economic situation.

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Bob Wegmann: Blood Work

As Americans jammed Red Cross blood centers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bob Wegmann and his staff worked the phones. Their mission: to get vendors to rush enough blood bags, swabs, printed forms, and other supplies to accommodate the hordes of donors. “Obviously, no one predicted Sept. 11. But we were able to predict, […]

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Velant’s Automated Planning Solution

Two primary goals of transportation management are reducing costs and enhancing customer service. To meet these demands and improve its transportation planning offerings, Velant, a solution provider headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., has developed a managed service that integrates advanced technology with the expertise of logistics specialists. The company’s Transportation Management Center (TMC) is targeted at […]

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