Articles
Commentary
Catch Me When I Fall
A trust fall is a team-building exercise where the one doing the falling willingly trusts that those standing behind will catch them before they hit bottom. We chose the trust fall as an apt theme for our annual third-party logistics edition. Whether you voluntarily fall or are shoved by business realities—pandemic, labor shortages, remote workforces, […]
Read MoreFive Solutions to Costly Time-Critical Shipping Challenges
Delays in time-critical shipping can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars lost, missed opportunities, and even loss of life. Whether shipping critical manufacturing and airplane parts, vaccines, organs for transplant, or lab work, these important shipments must be picked up and arrive on time. However, industry statistics have shown that one in three time-critical shipments […]
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Demand Accuracy In Your Supply Chain
During the pandemic, a lot of the focus on supply chain tended to be on the supply side, and rightly so, due to the highly publicized sourcing, production, distribution, and transportation issues. As a result, organizations continue to look to increase productivity, flexibility, and agility through programs such as Lean, increased automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and others.
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How has the pandemic affected supply chain partnerships?
The pandemic magnified the need for collaborative partnerships between service providers and customers. We have seen things happening in the market you almost couldn’t make up in Hollywood, and those that have remained transparent and collaborative in navigating these challenges have succeeded. —Matt Friedman Vice President, Sales, Warehousing Mainfreight Fluctuating production and consumer demand, coupled […]
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Solving the Global Data Dilemma
For as much time and effort spent trying to perfect the systems and technologies we rely on for global logistics, it seems the industry has lost sight of how people actually get work done.
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Fixing Manufacturers’ Broken Traditional Selling Processes
Why is it so hard for manufacturers to go digital? The end answer is always the same: fear. Fear of change, fear of losing revenue, and fear of potentially jeopardizing relationships with dealers and distributors is paralyzing manufacturers.
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EV Power Play
The U.S. electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing sector is about to get a sales boost from the Biden Administration. The EV market has been rocking because of the continued growing interest in sustainability, especially now that the bleeding-edge vehicle phase is behind us. President Biden confirmed that EVs would get a stimulus in the not-yet-passed multi-trillion-dollar […]
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What fictional character or historical figure would you put in charge of global vaccine logistics and distribution?
Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, understands how to harness business and technology to get results—even if some of the measures needed are unpopular. His attention to detail and insatiable appetite for perfection would allow him to pivot and change course when faced with gaps in the distribution process that others may fear.
Read MoreNavigating Demand Spikes: Automating Your Way to Successful Peak Seasons
As many countries grapple with another wave of the pandemic, retailers are continually challenged to adjust to shifting consumer habits, anticipate spikes in demand for specific items and meet delivery expectations. For many retailers, 2020 emphasized that there may no longer be just one peak shopping season, but rather peaks and/or ‘micro peaks’ can strike […]
Read More4 Ways to Unlock the True Potential of Warehouse Automation
In January, I predicted 2020 would kick off the decade of orchestration as the next logical step toward greater operational efficiency in the supply chain. Little did we know all that 2020 would bring in accelerating the push for interoperability and communication amongst warehouse resources. Now, just months later, there can be no doubt that […]
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Robots and People: Co-Evolving
Robots and people are adjusting their symbiotic relationship in logistics. Our recent robotics coverage (Feb. 2021) generated a good amount of audience feedback, most related to the growing importance and essential need for humans in logistics. It’s true that the stresses created by the virus economy spawned an increase in investing in automation to take […]
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Getting a Grasp on Transport Spend
Shipping has been inexorably changed in light of COVID-19. Changes that have been slowly building for a decade are being infinitely compounded as consumers shift to e-commerce versus standard brick-and-mortar shopping. With demand for direct-to-consumer business increasing, delivering shipments to consumers quickly, at the cheapest cost, is now a necessity for companies.
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Technology Must Be a Theme in 2021
The supply chain sector has always been one of tradition. Unfortunately, that has often meant that it has been slow to adopt the technology evolving around it. With a fear of the unknown, the supply chain and logistics sector has stuck to the status quo for too long, slowing the ability to evolve and reach true potential.
Read MoreFulfillment and Logistics Drive Retail Customer Loyalty
While the majority of retailers experienced fulfillment disruptions this past holiday season, retailers that provided alternative ways for customers to get their gifts on time, and later, return items with ease, stood out as innovative and reliable. Moving forward, fulfillment and logistics will increasingly become the battleground for customer loyalty even as business conditions normalize. […]
Read MoreThe Rail Networks of Tomorrow Will Ride on Satellite Connectivity
Railways are critical in supporting the global movement of goods in remote areas. However, today’s railway operators face many challenges, including optimizing network capacity, carrying out vital maintenance work, and improving health and safety. In their ambition to achieve greater control over their assets, transport leaders are now deploying more advanced technologies across their networks, […]
Read MoreAgility Over Forecasting: Three Steps to a More Agile Supply Chain
For years, forecasting has been a staple of supply chain management, especially within the consumer packaged goods industry. As 2020 has taught us, however, there are events that forecasting cannot even remotely prepare for. Planners have felt the pain during COVID-19, when they’ve had to scrap forecasting models day after day due to the constant, […]
Read MoreDoes Lean Have a Limit?
Since the 1980s, the supply chain industry has enthusiastically embraced just-in-time (JIT) inventory management and lean manufacturing in the search for cost optimization. This resulted in highly streamlined processes and impressive efficiencies. But in the past year, we’ve seen there are limits to lean operations—one being we need the ability to adapt quickly when unexpected […]
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What’s the supply chain buzzword of 2021?
AGILITY Companies must be nimble in their approach to logistics and warehousing operations. Corporations that embrace agility can quickly maneuver and clear roadblocks when disruptions arise. —Grant Koch Solutions & Innovation Director BDP International Over the past 12 months, we have seen disruptions within an already challenging global logistics supply chain. Traditional seasonal patterns and […]
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Supply Chain: An Engine of Post-Pandemic Growth
Growth has been hard to find for consumer goods companies in recent years. The majority of food and beverage businesses, for instance, are seeing growth of less than 3% according to Accenture’s analysis. And across industry segments, growth has been trending downward for five years now, culminating in the unprecedented disruption of 2020.
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A Supply Chain for the Next Normal
The fluctuating economy over the past year impacted how companies across industries responded in a pinch. Now that crisis responses have passed and the pandemic settled into a new normal, many companies are looking for ways to adapt their long-term supply chain strategy for the unexpected.
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