From fluctuating volumes and constrained labor pools to rising costs and changing customer expectations, warehouse operations have become the pressure valve of the entire supply chain. To keep pace, forward-thinking leaders are moving away from the traditional warehouse hiring model and reimagining their approach to workforce management altogether—often through warehouse outsourcing.

Here’s why.

The Labor Equation Has Changed—Permanently

Traditional warehouse hiring was built for a world with more predictability—steady demand, abundant labor, and long hiring cycles. That world no longer exists.

Today, supply chain leaders are grappling with:

• Volatility in demand driven by e-commerce surges, seasonal shifts, and geopolitical disruption
• A shrinking labor pool, especially for second and third shifts, and in high-demand regions
• Rising costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and turnover
• Compliance and safety requirements that are increasingly complex and resource-intensive

Under these conditions, the in-house hiring model struggles to keep up. It’s expensive, slow to scale, and difficult to optimize across a network of facilities. This has led to an industry-wide rethink of how labor is sourced and managed, with more leaders turning to 3PL warehouse management partners for support.

From Hiring to Workforce Strategy

In 2025, the smartest supply chain executives aren’t just filling open roles—they’re building workforce strategies that align with business goals.

Rather than focusing solely on internal headcount, they’re embracing hybrid labor models that incorporate external partners, managed service providers, and data-driven planning. These models are designed to deliver:

• Scalability to meet peak volume without burning out core teams
• Flexibility to shift resources as business needs evolve
• Accountability from partners with skin in the game and aligned incentives
• Visibility through real-time reporting on performance, productivity, and safety metrics

This shift from a hiring-centric approach to a workforce-centric one is helping leaders drive efficiency, mitigate risk, and create more resilient operations.

Technology Is an Enabler—But Not the Whole Story

It’s tempting to think automation is the silver bullet. While warehouse automation and robotics are playing an increasing role in fulfillment, they’re not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Most distribution environments still require a significant human component. But the expectations for that labor are changing.

Today’s warehouse workers need to be cross-trained, tech-savvy, and safety-conscious. They also need to be part of a system that prioritizes retention, continuous improvement, and productivity—not just brawn.

Progressive leaders are using technology to support this new workforce model:

• Labor management systems and predictive analytics are guiding staffing decisions
• Productivity dashboards are aligning performance with incentives
• Workforce engagement tools are improving communication, safety, and morale

These tools are only effective, though, when paired with the right labor strategy—often enhanced by warehouse outsourcing partners who understand the operational nuances of your environment.

A Leadership Mindset Shift

Perhaps the most important shift isn’t technological or operational—it’s cultural.

The traditional view of warehouse labor as transactional is being replaced with a more strategic lens. Labor is no longer a cost center to minimize but a performance driver to optimize.

As supply chains become more complex, leaders are recognizing the value of workforce partners who bring not only people but process, technology, and accountability to the table.

They’re asking new questions:

• Can this model scale with our network growth?
• Are we spending time managing people or managing outcomes?
• How do we make labor a competitive differentiator?

In this environment, 3PL warehouse management is becoming a preferred solution for supply chain executives who demand agility without sacrificing quality.

Where to Go from Here

Warehouse hiring isn’t going away—but how it’s done is changing fast. In a high-stakes environment where speed, accuracy, and adaptability are everything, traditional approaches just aren’t cutting it.

The smartest supply chain leaders in 2025 are not just reacting to labor challenges—they’re proactively reengineering how work gets done in the warehouse.

If you’re rethinking your own approach, download the “2025 Industry Playbook HR & Operations Executives Can’t Afford to Ignore.” It outlines the strategic frameworks, metrics, and considerations behind the shift—and what it means for the future of your operation.
At FHI, we’ve spent more than 30 years working alongside some of the country’s largest distribution networks, helping them navigate workforce complexity with a focus on safety, performance, and adaptability. As a managed labor provider, we’ve seen firsthand how a more strategic approach to warehouse staffing can unlock greater efficiency and resilience. While every operation is unique, one thing remains constant: the need for labor solutions that evolve with the demands of modern supply chains.

To learn more about FHI,
visit us online at www.FHIWorks.com

The post Why the Smartest Supply Chain Leaders Are Replacing Traditional Warehouse Hiring in 2025 appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

Soccer Kickstarts Success

Soccer shows that teamwork, timing, and fast decisions are important. One mistake can impact the entire team, just as a single issue can halt the entire supply chain. Playing football helps me see how working together and staying flexible are important in both.

–Vitaliano Tobruk
Supply Chain Industry Practice Lead
Moody’s

In soccer, you must envision the end goal, be four passes ahead, communicate with your teammates, and leverage everyone’s strengths. We keep our eyes on the entire field like supply chain leaders who must have a complete end-to-end understanding to guide their team. You also must be ready to tackle unpredictable challenges or disruptions as one team.

–Emily Gallo
SVP and General Manager
Cardinal Health OptiFreight Logistics

Making free, customized birthday cakes for children who may otherwise not receive one. I’ve been providing them in recent years. Noticing and responding to needs inside and outside the workplace is critical for innovative growth, and it’s a lesson that has made me a better manager in logistics.

–Caroline Guild
Sustainability Manager
Kenco

Codeword puzzles and word searches—they train you to uncover hidden connections and think laterally. That same mindset is invaluable in supply chain—spotting inefficiencies, decoding complexity, and aligning the moving parts into one clear, strategic picture.

–Sharon Forder
CMO
Sana Commerce

Off-the-beaten-track hiking. The rough terrain and unexpected obstacles hone the lateral thinking skills required to find the most efficient route to the final destination—whether that is around, over, or under the obstacle.

–Deb Deakin
Director of Operations
ePost Global

Playing cards. In supply chain management—just like in a card game—you have to learn to play the hand you’re dealt. It’s important to plan for every possible scenario and be able to pivot strategically and in the moment.

–Brian Cromer
Managing Director, Global Supply Chain Practice
TBM Consulting Group

The Fresh Connection is an excellent game to sharpen your supply chain skills and it is exciting to see how well you can optimize various scenarios.

–Lisa Anderson
President
LMA Consulting Group

Having kids. Managing a diaper bag is like running a high-stakes inventory system—missing the wipes is a crisis. There’s real-time route optimization (nearest bathroom always), strict SLAs for naps, and just-in-time snack delivery to avoid meltdowns.

–Alex Joyce
Strategic Account Executive
Gather AI

Orchestrating a family getaway is supply chain bootcamp in disguise: Juggle Aunt Sue’s beach dream with kids’ roller-coaster quota, slot flights, Tetris-pack suitcases, chart backup routes for tantrums and storms, and monitor bookings like live inventory.

–Shannon Hynds
CEO
Quickcode

Settlement games like Timberborn, with resource management, help improve supply chain skills by introducing risk and disruption. They train you to plan for worst-case scenarios and test if your strategy holds.

–Nathaniel East
Operations Manager
TA Services

Being an armchair quarterback. I enjoy watching sporting events and analyzing coaches’ strategies to identify opportunities for better team performance. I bring this same analytical mindset to the supply chain world, where I take an “outside-in” approach—viewing challenges from an employee or customer perspective.

–Todd Gentry
Vice President, New Business Development
CHEP U.S.

The board game Container. You’re juggling production, pricing, and shipping all while trying to read the market and stay one step ahead. It’s surprisingly close to real supply chain thinking.

–Tony Crisafulli
VP Sales
Odyssey Logistics

Sailing. It is a constant balancing of where you want to go, while managing the weather, the wind, the lines; balancing how much and which kind of sails to use to most effectively accomplish your mission—all while external influences have very real impacts on your ability to execute.

–Joe Adamski
Senior Director
ProcureAbility

Pickleball. Lessons from pickleball apply to managing supply chain logistics: 1) Pick a good partner, 2) keep your eye on the ball, and 3) react fast. But beyond that, after playing tennis for a very long time, pickleball taught me how to adapt when the game changes.

–Doug DeLuca
Product Marketing Manager
SAP Business Network

Games like Catan challenge you to manage scarce resources and capacity constraints, sharpening skills in resource allocation and negotiation. Ticket to Ride teaches strategic route planning across regions and countries.

–Mike Berry
SVP, Services
TrueCommerce

Cooking. From sourcing fresh ingredients to planning meals and executing recipes, cooking reflects the end-to-end process: procurement, planning, production, and delivery. It’s a practical, everyday—and delicious— way to practice coordination, timing, resourcefulness, and adaptability.

–Jennifer Chew
VP, Solutions and Consulting
Bristlecone

Making coffee. Whether it’s pour-over or drip, the outcome depends on timing, temperature, and small details. One miss, and it’s off. It’s a daily reminder consistency doesn’t come from tools alone—it comes from refining the process. Supply chain is no different. Technology can enhance performance, but it won’t fix a broken foundation. Get the fundamentals right.

–Karli Sage
Sr. Director, Emerging Technology
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) take the lessons I learned from team sports further—forming parties, assessing skillsets, assigning roles, and working together (to take down the boss!). Both build leadership through fast decisions, tight teamwork, and real-time coordination.

–Vee Srithayakumar
Product Manager
Tecsys

Strategy or simulation games, such as Risk or Chess, can improve abilities in forward thinking around resource management and logistics skills while games with trade and negotiation elements can enhance decision-making under uncertainty, and problem-solving activities, like puzzles or escape rooms, help build strategic thinking, all useful skills when working in this continually evolving sector.

–Mark Roberts
UK Public Sector Director
JAGGAER

My daughter was a travel softball player for 10 years. Traveling with her and coordinating the logistics of hotels, practices, and games definitely sharpened my skills at keeping the supply chain organized and moving!

–Heather Spencer
Carrier Coordinator
iGPS Logistics

Tetris Forms The Foundation

When packaging and shipping, just as in Tetris, it is critical to optimize the use of every available inch of space. You’re penalized both for leaving space unused—you’re decreasing the amount you can ship—and increasing costs (earning fewer points) while having to work harder to fill gaps. Just be thankful success doesn’t drop more pieces on the competition.

–Josh Dunham
CEO and Co-founder, Reveel

My first thought is Tetris (I’m old-school). But I crowd-sourced the question to my younger crew and they said: Factorio for throughput calculus, chess for branching decision trees, competitive Pokemon for probabilistic inventory calls, and weekend geocaching for scrappy last-mile hustle. Ten hours in any of those schools train you harder on buffers and bottlenecks than a stack of Lean Six Sigma slides.

–Nick Rakovsky
CEO, DataDocks

Being your own contractor in building a house—just when you think all the sub-contractors are lined up to perform the tasks, some of them tell you that they have the wrong spec. materials, ran out of supplies or bad weather is stalling the project. The long tail of the contractor’s journey is very much like the supply chain journey.

–Vick Vaishnavi
CEO
ETQ

Video games enhance skills vital for supply chain management. Players constantly assess, react and adapt to changing conditions, similar to navigating disruptions and shifting demands. Multiplayer scenarios foster collaboration and teamwork, essential for optimizing supply chain performance. These activities build proficiency in adaptability, collaboration and real-time decision-making.

–Ann Marie Jonkman
Vice President, Industry Strategies
Blue Yonder

White water rafting has taught me more about supply chains than any business book. You must adapt to changing conditions, anticipate what’s ahead, and coordinate with your team without perfect information. Rafting teaches you to be prepared but flexible. Like in logistics, when you’re going down a river, planning too rigidly is dangerous.

–Matt Lhoumeau
CEO
Concord

Golf or playing sports in general. Golf is a great way to network, but sports in general build resiliency and the ability to adapt to conditions that are always changing. These skills are crucial for navigating the dynamic nature of the logistics industry.

–Jeff Goins
Director of Carrier Sales
Circle Logistics

I’m drawn to activities that require pattern recognition and systems thinking, whether chess or home renovation. Seeing how pieces fit together sharpens your sense for how to remove friction in a supply chain.

–Dennis Moon
COO
Roadie

Our Warehouse Game is a simple simulation that teaches a hard truth: you can’t do everything at once in a warehouse. You have limited labor and doors; incoming orders that don’t wait. Success depends on sequencing tasks, resolving conflicts, and choosing priorities.

–Keith Moore
CEO
AutoScheduler.AI

Snowboarding gives mental clarity to navigate obstacles. This in turn helps me with solving complex challenges. Other ways that people can sharpen their problem-solving skills is through strategy and puzzle games, both digital and physical.

–Oana Jinga
Co-founder, Chief Commercial and Product Officer
Dexory

Strategy games like Factorio or Cities: Skylines sharpen your ops mindset, balancing resources, optimizing flow, and solving chaos in real time. Even chess helps as every move decides the next. Great logistics is just great gameplay—at scale.

–Nagendra Rao
President, Sales
Trigent Software

The post What Hobbies/Activities Make You Better at Managing Supply Chains? appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

Younger consumers, accustomed to organizing their lives around iPhones and apps, will make it happen—as they extend their DoorDash and restaurant delivery habits to retail. Walmart’s planning banks on younger customers, once acculturated, becoming loyal drone/app users well into adulthood—until their hair turns gray.

And speaking of gray hair, research shows other demographic groups will also increasingly use drone delivery. Consumers aged 55 and older are expected to turn to drones for medical and essential deliveries—a growing market sector in more ways than one.

Walmart customers in the 35-54 age range—professionals and busy families—often don’t have time to get to the mall or superstore. Walmart has learned from the 150,000 drone deliveries it has already completed and is now committing to enable drone delivery for 50% of store inventory. Leaning into that long-term strategy, the plan is to increase product availability beyond 50%.

Also increasing? The number of markets where Walmart offers drone last-mile delivery. Recently announced expansions include Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Houston—bringing drone delivery to a total of five states and adding 100 more stores.

The company’s delivery partner, Wing, will assist with the rollout, using a hub-and-spoke model that expands service outward in growing concentric circles and flies up to six miles from each launch store.

As I learned during a visit to Bentonville years ago, none of this would work without Walmart’s early and total buy-in to the demand-driven inbound logistics philosophy. Other tech and logistics investments have played—and continue to play—a crucial role. But without efficiently matching inventory to real-time demand and making it almost instantly available for delivery, those drones would be stuck on the launch pad.

Today it is drones, but it has happened before. Another new delivery method—the advent of modern mail order—was pioneered by Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck, who used the new technology of the U.S. Postal Service to dominate retail for decades.

While other retailers are still strategizing how to survive and grow in today’s market, one is making an enterprise-wide commitment to demand-driven logistics and smart investments in drone delivery to grow over the long haul.

The post Walmart Bets Big on Drones appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

Or perhaps, as highlighted in the testimony at a recent U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing examining the growing threat of cargo theft, your company has experienced the misfortune of identity theft, e.g., bad actors impersonating reputable carriers to broker loads to unsuspecting carriers who deliver the cargo while criminal organizations pocket the money. You’re not alone.

As bad actors become more sophisticated and backed by substantial financial resources, shippers, third-party logistics providers, and brokers need to bolster their fraud prevention strategies with investment in advanced technology and systems to monitor and verify carrier legitimacy—both pre- and post-tender—including advanced verification processes, real-time tracking systems, and artificial intelligence to identify and flag suspicious activity.

Forward-thinking supply chain and logistics leaders are turning to technology that leverages sophisticated algorithms and advanced data integrity checks, evaluating billions of location and event data points to highlight potential fraud and detect suspicious behavior and unauthorized data sources.

These five steps will optimize your tech stack to protect your organization from the risk of freight fraud:

1. Employ two-factor authentication (2FA) across your platform. Add an extra layer of security to prevent hacks.

2. Prevent data spoofing. Monitor and validate carrier activity with geolocation data and image verification technology, particularly for vehicle information number (VIN). You can quickly validate whether the VIN belongs to the carrier, ensure the truck picking up a load is the expected vehicle, and confirm the driver is on site based on delivery photo metadata.

3. Extend fraud monitoring into telecom and email workflows. Save time and reduce risk with tech tools that verify inbound calls before you answer, auto-reject carriers that fail validation, and sort callers to enable you to cherry pick which carriers you speak to. Similar email tools can automatically identify email addresses impersonating real carriers to reduce risk of fraudulent transactions, while ensuring carriers are compliant and in-network.

4. Enhance pre-tender visibility with deep insights into a carrier’s history, assets, and reliability before tendering a load. For example, advanced technology can quickly highlight any red flags around lane history, VIN validation, insurance, ELD equipment validation, or safety records. Granular data at the carrier and driver level—e.g., how many loads a carrier/driver has tracked over the past six months to determine if it meets a set threshold—enables management by risk exception.

5. Leverage post-tender execution performance evaluation. Lane-level performance metrics, such as tracking compliance, transit time, and on-time performance, help inform future carrier vetting decisions to minimize fraud risk.

As the threat of freight fraud escalates, shippers and brokers can protect their supply chains—and expand carrier capacity without exponentially expanding risk—by adopting sophisticated data-led fraud prevention strategies to optimize carrier vetting, enhance brand reputation, and protect margins. 

The post Freight Fraud: 5 Ways to Mitigate Risk appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

Modernization is no longer optional; it’s a business imperative. Transitioning from manual processes to automated solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and deliver actionable insights that drive profitability.

One overlooked area of opportunity lies in pricing. Traditionally, pricing strategies have relied on historical data and market averages, often failing to reflect real-time market conditions or actual costs. This gap leaves significant revenue potential on the table, especially as organizations shift toward outcome-based service models.

AI-powered solutions offer a new approach to pricing, leveraging machine learning to forecast costs, predict risks, and optimize contract pricing in real time, while also ensuring service metrics are aligned with overall business priorities. By accurately predicting both planned and unplanned material and labor expenses, these tools empower businesses to maintain margins while delivering transparent, value-driven pricing to customers, and ultimately, driving organizational goals.

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction

The potential extends to tailored, outcome-based service contracts that can not only drive predictable revenue but also enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. When businesses can simulate pricing scenarios and adjust in real time to market conditions, they position themselves as agile, customer-centric leaders.

Beyond pricing, the transition to a circular economy represents a transformative opportunity for organizations to drive revenue growth while advancing sustainability. Unlike traditional linear models, a circular economy focuses on reducing waste by repairing and reusing materials.

For OEMs and service providers, this shift demands a fundamental rethinking of supply chain operations. Predictive maintenance and service lifecycle management tools are pivotal in this transition, enabling businesses to extend the life of their products and parts while reducing environmental impact.

AI-powered platforms play a critical role here, offering predictive insights into parts usage, inventory needs, and service demands. For instance, by anticipating when a critical component will fail, businesses can proactively allocate resources and reduce costly downtime.

Implementing innovative, data-driven solutions not only ensures accurate tracking of demand trends for minimizing waste and reducing carbon emissions but also enables manufacturers or distributors to gain end-to-end visibility and control over their service lifecycle. It makes it easier for companies to adopt and scale powerful new aftermarket strategies and high-margin business models, such as servitization and equipment-as-a-service, supporting them to differentiate themselves in the market and drive long-term growth.

The convergence of AI, advanced pricing strategies, and circular economy principles marks a turning point for the service economy. By embracing cutting-edge solutions, businesses can unlock significant revenue growth while positioning themselves as sustainability and innovation leaders.

The post Unlocking Revenue Growth With AI appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

In recent earnings calls, giants like Gap Inc., American Eagle Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lululemon, and others are becoming candid about what it really takes to stay afloat in this turbulent environment, and what is keeping them up at night.

As Gap’s CEO put it, the goal now is to “control the controllables” and future-proof operations as best as possible.

Tariffs Reshape Fashion’s Financials

In spring 2025, the average tariff on U.S. apparel imports reached 20.1%, the highest in decades, following President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement. While duty rates on Chinese apparel have spiked dramatically, peaking at 145% before settling at 55% in May, apparel imports from other regions haven’t been spared.

Even without China in the mix, U.S. imports from other countries averaged a 15.2% duty in April, significantly above pre-2025 levels. These costs are hitting hard:

• Gap Inc. warned that tariffs could pile on up to $300 million in incremental costs this year alone. It’s aiming to reduce China sourcing from under 10% in 2024 to under 3% by year-end and limit any single country to 25% by 2026.  
• Abercrombie & Fitch expects a $50 million tariff hit this year despite sourcing across 16 countries. 
• American Eagle Outfitters anticipates $40 million in added costs and is pushing to get China exposure below 10% by the holidays. 

These numbers are not abstract, rather they represent immediate, tangible strain. Brands are responding with supply chain overhauls, vendor negotiations, and even price hikes to survive. 

Why the Tariffs Keep Rising

The driving force behind the spikes is the U.S. administration’s aggressive trade realignment. A new round of reciprocal tariffs targets countries deemed to have unfair trade advantages. China, as the world’s largest apparel exporter, is the primary target, but others are increasingly caught in the crossfire.

Even apparel imports from CAFTA-DR nations, traditionally duty-free, saw tariff rates climb to 6.7% in April, largely due to short shipping timelines that made it difficult to front-load shipments ahead of policy changes. Ironically, tariffs meant to boost nearshoring haven’t helped Central America, whose share of U.S. imports dropped 10.3% from last year to 8.8%.

Meanwhile, countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka saw double-digit import growth. However, many of these factories are owned or controlled by Chinese conglomerates, meaning China’s influence persists even if the labels don’t say so.  

Eight Ways Apparel Brands Are Redesigning Supply Chains for Tariff Resilience

Facing trade shocks and mounting duties, top brands are making bold structural changes to future-proof operations. 

• Map the Full Supply Chain 

Mitigating tariffs requires more than shifting Tier 1 suppliers from China to Vietnam or India. The real risks and cost-saving opportunities live deeper in the supply chain. Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers often produce fabric, trims, packaging, or components that ultimately define a product’s tariff classification. Without visibility into these layers, brands can unknowingly expose themselves to penalties, misclassification, or loss of eligibility for trade programs. 

• Swap Single Sources for Strategic Diversity

Concentration equals risk. While replacing China is difficult, brands are building more balanced sourcing portfolios across Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Brands like Target are also redistributing  production from China to Central America to improve resilience and stay nimble. 

• Embed Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is now a supply chain must-have. Brands need to ask questions like: What happens if tariffs jump 10% overnight? What if a key country is sanctioned? Open costing methods that break down total landed costs, from materials to duties to freight, are essential tools for evaluating alternatives and avoiding surprises. 

• Reethink Nearshoring and Reshoring Assumptions

Bringing production closer to home is appealing, but no longer guaranteed to offer tariff relief. With tariffs now affecting Mexico, Canada, and CAFTA-DR nations, brands must scrutinize infrastructure, compliance capabilities, and cost structure in nearshore locations. Tools that track supplier certifications, cross-border logistics, and audit readiness help ensure local is both closer and smarter. 

• Balance the Art and the Science of Inventory

Inventory can either cushion the blow or sink the ship. Just-in-case stockpiling can backfire, but too little inventory leaves you vulnerable. Retailers like Williams-Sonoma and Zumiez have bulked up inventory early in 2025, anticipating shipping delays and cost surges. With the right forecasting tools, they’re striking a delicate balance between just-in-time and just-in-case, reducing both overstocks and lost sales. 

• Modernize Supply Chain Tech

Many import networks still rely on outdated tools like Microsoft Office 260, making it nearly impossible to respond in real-time. Digitally mature brands are using AI to track chain of custody, automatically categorize key documents (like invoices or bills of lading), and cross-reference supplier data against global watchlists for compliance risk. Interactive dashboards provide real-time visibility into supplier status, tariff exposure, and potential disruptions, providing teams the clarity they need to act fast. AI requires a clean and stable database. Building this foundation is critical. 

• Explore Tariff Engineering and Duty Relief Programs

Adjusting a product’s design or materials to shift its classification into a lower tariff bracket can pay off, so can leveraging duty drawback programs or Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) to recover or avoid costs. 

• Layer in Broader Cost Optimization

Passing on tariff costs to consumers may be tempting, but it’s not always viable. Instead, brands are trimming costs in product design, logistics, packaging, and more. Renegotiating contracts, consolidating SKUs, or increasing automation can protect margins without compromising product quality or customer trust. 

The New Fabric of Global Trade

The reality is that 90% of import operations still run on email, spreadsheets, and siloed documents, an approach that leaves companies flatfooted when change comes. True resilience starts with replacing outdated tools with systems that support real-time analytics, multi-tier visibility, and automation. Without that foundation, it’s impossible to layer on advanced planning or AI-based risk mitigation. 

In fashion, as in global trade, the trends may change, but the brands that adapt quickest will be the ones still in style next season.

The post Fashion in Flux: How Apparel Brands Are Battling Tariffs, Demand Dips, and Supply Chain Snarls appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

The challenge lies not only in completely empty trucks but also in partial loads. Flock Freight estimates suggest 43% of trucks had at least partially empty hauls in 2023, with an average of 29 linear feet of open space on each truck. In an increasingly ecommerce-driven world, that’s an unsustainable average.

Because empty miles are an industry-wide challenge, finding a solution will take cooperation between shippers. That means even the fiercest competitors need to rethink how they might work together as businesses look beyond their lanes to deliver goods as efficiently as possible. And with the rise of new AI-fueled shipping technologies, finding these partnerships is now easier than ever.

Generally, sharing a completely empty truck isn’t a source of friction. For example, a truck may be moving deadhead from its final delivery in Memphis back to Atlanta, making it an easy “yes” to lend the space to another shipper that needs to move goods back into Georgia. The owner simply needs to notify other shippers the space is available.

Conflicts begin once two shippers discuss sharing space on the same haul. Yes, those 29 linear feet are available, but are the deliveries a good fit to travel in the same truck—e.g., fragile goods traveling with heavier items? And if there are multiple options for which loads should share space, how do shippers work together to determine which arrangement is most efficient?

Turning to a TMP

Working with a transportation management partner (TMP) can significantly reduce these complexities by automating the space-sharing equation—no longer is a human required to pour over spreadsheets and find good matches. Using an AI-assisted analysis, a TMP can review capacity across their customer base, all shipments and all lanes, to find collaborators for both deadhead and partially full trips.

They can also help customers track shipment metrics to understand both short- and long-term achievements; for example, how much they’ve reduced emissions through collaboration.

Maximizing these relationships also requires shippers to remain flexible—and even rethink their day-to-day operations. For example, shippers who close their docks at 3 p.m. lose out on truck space that might be available post-5 or even 7 p.m. Keeping staff for just a few hours longer can get goods out the door quicker and potentially reduce the number of trucks moving partial shipments the next day. The more a driver moves during hours of service, and the more equipment is rolling, the lower the cost.

As shippers look to cut costs even in the face of greater demand, the time to get creative with transportation solutions is now. Multiple shippers are moving down the same lanes to deliver goods to the same stores and suppliers, creating redundancy that’s damaging both to the environment and the bottom line.

By opening themselves up to greater collaboration and leveraging the latest technology, shippers can begin to reduce their empty miles—and make that extra 29 feet of space a thing of the past.

The post To Reduce Empty Miles, Shippers Must Share to Save appeared first on Inbound Logistics.

This development reinforces what many health experts and manufacturers have already recognized: Respiratory illnesses no longer follow predictable patterns.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu, COVID-19, and RSV are now surging earlier, lasting longer, and emerging during months once thought to be low-risk or “off season.” For manufacturers of over-the-counter (OTC) cold and flu products, this unpredictability is forcing a fundamental shift in how, and where, supply chains are built and maintained.

On top of this, the threat of strikes, labor shortages, geopolitical instability, and transport disruptions has introduced another layer of challenges—further complicating an already volatile landscape.

While some manufacturers have begun adapting, turning to strategies like regionalized production, dual sourcing, and expanded local manufacturing, many have yet to adjust. For those companies still relying on traditional, centralized models, the latest variant should serve as a wake-up call—the industry’s future resilience depends on developing supply chains that can respond quickly and flexibly.

A Shift in Cold and Flu Seasonality

The world has changed dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, with one of the most significant shifts being in the seasonality of respiratory illnesses. Historically, cold and flu seasons were predictable, with peaks in late fall through early spring.

However, over the past few years, the timing and intensity of these illnesses have become increasingly erratic. COVID-19 has continued to circulate globally, with other respiratory viruses like RSV contributing to surges—often at times when demand for cold and flu relief products is not expected. In addition to this latest variant, summer 2023 and summer 2024 both saw a sharp spike in demand for cold and flu medicines due to an unexpected COVID-19 uptick.

The CDC estimates that in the 2023-2024 flu season alone, there were 40 million flu-related illnesses and nearly 470,000 hospitalizations in the United States. And, with continued uncertainty around COVID-19—particularly the potential for off-season spikes—manufacturers face the ongoing challenge of meeting demand when the unexpected occurs.

This volatility has highlighted the vulnerabilities in global supply chains that many manufacturers, including Reckitt, have long relied on. Currently, much of our Mucinex production is based outside the United States, but moving more of that production to the United States with a new flagship OTC manufacturing site in Wilson, North Carolina, will shorten delivery timelines, reduce reliance on global supply chains, and enable us to respond more quickly to regional fluctuations in demand. 

Responding to a New Era of Demand

Customer relationships are vital to maintaining market presence, and strengthening these relationships during volatile periods of supply and demand has become key. By moving production closer to consumers, companies can reduce the time it takes to get products from factory to shelf, anticipating a reduction in lead times and allowing for faster responses to sudden demand spikes. The ability to shift production closer to the market is crucial when a surge in illness hits unexpectedly.

Investing in local manufacturing also builds redundancy into supply arrangements to mitigate risk around single-source procurement. Stronger sourcing strategies and more flexible procurement processes are essential for managing challenges related to raw materials and securing a steady flow of materials.

This approach isn’t just about responding to current demand; it’s about building a more dynamic supply chain that can respond to both predictable and unforeseen shifts.

Agility and Resilience for the Future

Building systems and infrastructure that can withstand and quickly recover from inevitable disruptions is key to navigating the new era of supply chain complexity. For companies still relying on traditional models, this may mean exploring strategies such as regionalizing production or investing in more local manufacturing—steps that can offer greater flexibility in the face of sudden shifts in demand.

Just as OTC products help consumers bounce back from the disruption of cold and flu symptoms, OTC manufacturers must take proactive steps to strengthen their own ability to rebound. After all, when it comes to supply chains, resilience may be the most effective and powerful form of immunity.

Philip Hampden-Smith is the SVP of Supply for North America at Reckitt, the maker of products like Lysol, Mucinex, Delsym, and Airborne.

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Artificial intelligence can absolutely be trusted, especially for tasks like inventory, sorting, and forecasting. However, it will always need guardrails. “Human in the loop” oversight ensures decisions align with company goals and mitigates risks, while manual overrides help handle complex or nuanced situations.

–Guy Yehiav
President
SmartSense by Digi

Yes, we can trust AI—but not blindly. In supply chain management, common AI tasks include forecasting and planning. Like humans, AI can express varying levels of confidence in its outputs. It’s up to humans to judge whether the reported confidence level is sufficient. That threshold varies by context—95% confidence might be acceptable for route optimization, but not for prescribing medication.

–Milan Luketic
Chief Technology Officer
Birdseye Security Solutions

Yes, AI can and should be a trusted tool for managing supply chains by offering improved visibility. Gartner predicts that by 2028 AI agents will power 25% of supply chain KPI reporting. While AI provides visibility, when coupled with process intelligence (PI), companies gain even more trustworthy data-driven capabilities for better decision-making.

–Kerry Brown
Transformation Evangelist
Celonis

AI has already proven helpful in tasks such as supply planning, transportation optimization, and factory scheduling. But we haven’t even scratched the surface of how AI can be used in SCM, and we will have to explore and test many new AI use cases before we can fully trust and rely on AI as the sole solution to SCM.

–Ashton Roberts
Manager of Supply Chain and Analytics
Bragg Live Food Products

Full trust in AI is a gradual journey. AI models are only as good as the data they are trained on, and they require constant refinement and oversight. The power of AI must be combined with human expertise. This hybrid approach ensures that while AI drives efficiency and innovation, human judgment is always present to manage nuances and unforeseen challenges. Ultimately, trust in AI will grow with transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.

–Brian Weiss
CTO
Hyperscience

AI is already helping to make better decisions across inventory and supply chains, but trust comes from results. When AI helps you avoid overstocking or missing a delivery window, you trust it a little more. It’s not about blind trust. It’s about earned confidence, built with every smart decision.

–Ben Hussey
Co-CEO
Katana Cloud Inventory

A “trust but verify” approach is recommended. Treat AI as a co-pilot rather than an autopilot. Use AI to enhance human decision-making rather than replacing humans entirely. Prioritizing explainable and auditable AI models is crucial to ensure transparency and accountability. Most importantly, humans must remain in the loop, especially for strategic or ethical decisions.

–Ravi Bommakanti
Chief Technology Officer
App Orchid

It would be extremely difficult to ever fully trust AI in supply chain management, but that can also be true of any source of information or transaction. You should continue to know and understand your space and make sure you have verification methods in place.

–Felix Vicknair
Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions
Kenco

Full trust remains elusive due to inherent risks like data bias and system errors. Human oversight and continual evaluation are vital to mitigate these risks, ensuring AI complements human expertise effectively rather than replacing it entirely.

–Mat Witte
CEO
ORTEC Americas

Don’t Hand Over the Keys

AI in supply chain management isn’t about blind trust—it’s about smart integration. AI enhances human decision-making, but it requires quality data and expertise. The key isn’t trusting AI alone, but combining it with human insight for smarter, faster decisions.

–Jeff Metersky
VP, Solutions Strategy
GAINSystems

Trusting AI in supply chains isn’t about handing over the keys—it’s about building a smarter set of co-pilots or agents. Blind faith? No. Informed reliance? Yes. The winners won’t be those who fear AI, but those who train it to drive with guardrails. In supply chain, it’s not “man vs. machine”—it’s “man and machine” that together win the race.

–Darpan Seth
CEO
Nextuple

AI can be invaluable in areas like demand forecasting and inventory optimization. But it isn’t perfect and can misinterpret trends and results. It doesn’t serve as a substitute for human-decision making, but a powerful tool to assist the process.

–Art Van Der Stuyf
Director of Supply Chain Strategy
iGPS Logistics

AI is the student; workers are the teachers. While AI handles most supply chain tasks, it depends on skilled support for complex issues. It can spot patterns, reference past solutions, and suggest actions. But it also flags problems, empowering experts to step in and resolve them.

–Tanguy Caillet
Global Supply Chain Lead
Genpact

Never ever, as long as the word “artificial” applies to the intelligence. Trust is kept whenever mistakes made (which is inevitable) are owned up to and compensated for. Will an AI system do that? Never ever. AI is not a person in law or fact. Trust along the supply chain is necessary; but it is a mutual understanding maintained between humans. If I trust a machine, will it trust me?

–Dr. Darren Prokop
Professor Emeritus of Logistics
University of Alaska Anchorage

AI bases decisions off algorithms. While this can be a powerful tool and create efficiencies while eliminating human error, there are always holes in an algorithm. AI lacks human critical thinking and experience that cannot be replaced. Customers need to trust they are working with account executives who care about their shipments—something an algorithm cannot do.

–Ryan Kean
CIO
Total Quality Logistics

We may never fully trust AI to completely manage the supply chain, but that’s a good thing. Human oversight ensures we apply judgment, context, and creativity where AI can’t.

–Jennifer Chew
VP of Solutions and Consulting
Bristlecone

AI enhances efficiency, but full trust is unlikely. As an industry, we’ve relied on computational models for 80 years, yet human judgment remains essential. Not everything can be predicted, and logistics operators can’t wait for models to catch up. End-to-end solutions will always require human oversight to manage errors, adaptability, and real-time decisions.

–Amy Dean
Vice President of Operations
SC Codeworks

Heck no…not yet…maybe never. With proper oversight and strategy we should increase our reliance on this support tool to help with tasks like: quoting, routing and delivery optimization, predictive tracking, and back-office operations.

–David Branson
VP of Project Management & Training
TA Services

AI is well-suited for data aggregation, validation, and summarization, but for complex tasks like predictive analysis and automated workflows, the results will only be as dependable as the underlying data and supervision. To successfully utilize AI for automated risk mitigation and ultimately autonomous, self-optimizing supply chains, robust supplier intelligence and human oversight are critical.

–Ilya Levtov
Cofounder and CEO
Craft

“AI won’t replace humans—but humans with AI will replace humans without AI,” said Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School professor. Like past technologies, AI augments human capacity rather than replaces it, especially in supply chain management. Trust in AI begins with understanding how it works, paired with transparency from developers and users, and reinforced by governance and human oversight.

–Filipe Santos
Senior Product Manager
Descartes Systems Group

Always Proceed With Caution

We can’t fully trust human intelligence—so why should we fully trust AI? In all seriousness though, AI is only as good as the data it’s working from and the humans who are teaching and training it how to operate. Garbage in, garbage out is an old adage, but it still applies in the AI era. You need strong data sources and experienced team members to make an AI application worthwhile.

–Josh Dunham
CEO and Co-founder
Reveel

Can you fully trust the internet? There is good info on there, but there’s also a ton of misinformation. The same goes for AI—it’s a tool, not necessarily the truth. AI can supercharge supply chain management, but it can also amplify errors and bias. We need to question, audit, and push for transparency. Real leadership is harnessing AI’s power while keeping human judgment in the driver’s seat.

–Tara Milburn
President and CEO
Ethical Swag

Trust in AI for supply chain management requires the right foundation: high-quality data. The future belongs to those who combine human oversight with intelligent automation.

–Deepak Singh
Founder and Chief Innovation Officer
Adeptia

Not only can we trust AI in supply chain management, there’s a strong case that not using it may disadvantage your organization. AI can uncover data-driven insights and sourcing opportunities that humans alone might miss. Combined with human judgment and relationship context, this collaboration drives smarter, more innovative decision-making.

–Shannon Hynds
CEO
Quickcode

We can not fully trust AI in supply chain management. Fully automating processes without oversight would be a dangerous proposition. An effective way to handle this is to allow AI to handle the manual processing and analytics and then rely on oversight using qualified people to ensure that the automation is being handled in effective ways.

–Walter “Mitch” Mitchell
CEO
Tai Software

We may never fully trust AI on its own in supply chain management, and we shouldn’t. AI can accelerate decision-making and eliminate a lot of manual work, but human oversight is still critical. Judgment, context, ethics, and relationships are all things AI can’t and won’t replicate. With the right human-in-the-loop approach, AI becomes a powerful partner, not a 1:1 replacement.

–Kristjan Lillemets
Chief Product Officer
Magaya

Short answer…not yet. AI has huge potential, but also real risks if not used carefully. The winning approach pairs smart tools with strong oversight and skilled people, and as systems mature and prove reliable, they’ll gradually earn more autonomy in supply chain operations.

–Brett Webster
Director, Product Management
Dematic

Trust in AI starts with real-world results. When systems are trained on diverse data across commercial operations, the models become more reliable each day. Engineered with human-centered design, physical AI enables productivity gains across warehouse operations and helps build a supply chain that’s smarter, safer, faster and more dependable.

–Jeff Mahler
CTO and co-founder
Ambi Robotics

We can’t fully trust AI in supply chain management—but we can trust it enough to accelerate decisions, uncover patterns, and reduce inefficiencies. Human oversight remains critical, but when paired with data transparency and responsible design, AI becomes a powerful co-pilot—not a replacement—for modern supply chain strategy.

–Jason Roberts
SVP, Digital Enablement
MODE Global

We’re on our way to being able to trust it. There’s still work to be done to get the right operational context, guardrails and feedback loop per specific use case, but AI’s capacity to recognize data patterns quickly and make both consistent and accurate decisions is second-to-none.

–Alex Lazzari
Product Owner – WES
Tecsys

No, I don’t think we can fully trust artificial intelligence, but AI tools are only as good as we make them. They will evolve over time, but that comes with the aid of human interactions. AI is not made to replace humans in Logistics, but it is designed to assist in most daily activities.

–Jeff Goins
Director of Carrier Sales
Circle Logistics

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