Articles
Trends
Trends—April 2014
Shopping for Retail Trends The National Retail Federation (NRF) drew a record 30,000-plus attendees to its January 2014 BIG Apple Conference to "touch and feel" the latest hot trends and innovations in the retail industry. For some attendees, like Mark Ledbetter, global vice president for SAP Retail, the reality is even more compelling. Ledbetter, who […]
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Trends—March 2014
Is the Jones Act Worth its Salt? A briny tale about a man named Jones, complete with international intrigue, American protectionism, twisted truths, and misplaced blame unfolded recently when a 40,000-ton shipment of road salt bound for New Jersey got waylaid in Searsport, Maine. The man in question is Wesley Jones, the U.S. senator from […]
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Trends—February 2014
Canadian Pacific: All Aboard the Profit Train Canadian Pacific Railway‘s renaissance under the tutelage of CEO Hunter Harrison continues unabated. After the veteran railroader’s first full year in charge, the Calgary, Alberta-based railroad posted high-water marks in 2013—despite disruptive spring floods . Canadian Pacific reported total record revenue of $6.1 billion in 2013, with net […]
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Trends—January 2014
Getting Demand Forecasting in Hand In the demand-driven logistics domain, forecasting is king. Companies that are best able to predict sputters and spikes, then react and execute against those signals, will gain a competitive advantage. But given today’s market uncertainty—the economy, consumer purchasing power and appetite for new products, sliding holiday seasonality, and emerging omni-channel […]
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Trends—December 2013
Predictive Analytics: A Sure Thing Here’s a forecast you can count on: Cloud-based predictive analytics offerings are increasingly available to more companies of all sizes. More than 90 percent of the 350 companies polled in a new survey conducted by California-based research firm Decision Management Solutions say they expect to deploy predictive analytics functionalities within […]
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Trends—November 2013
Healthcare Execs Target Logistics Pain Points Regulatory compliance is the chief supply chain challenge facing global healthcare logistics executives, closely followed by product security and cost management, according to UPS’s annual survey of the top supply chain and business challenges and investment plans of global healthcare logistics executives in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device […]
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Trends—October 2013
Warehousing 2018: Rise of the Adaptive DC As supply chains shift their moorings and settle into new realities—the permanence of e-commerce, sustainability, risk management, total landed cost sensitivity, and demand-driven strategies—distribution centers are evolving in kind. Stock characterizations of warehousing are falling to the wayside. DCs are becoming more complex and sophisticated; so are their […]
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Trends—September 2013
Hours-of-Service: A Question of Time Trying to wrap your head around the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations that went into effect July 1, 2013, is a numbers game. Put simply: "You almost have to be a math major to understand the new Hours-of-Service rules," says Don Jerrell, associate vice president, risk […]
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Trends—August 2013
The Government is ‘Helping’ Again… Transportation and logistics companies have a hard enough time navigating the twists and turns in today’s economic landscape without facing inertia from the executive branch. But states are strapped for cash, and lawmakers are trapped by special interests. Many are acting on impulse, then ducking for cover. The Minnesota State […]
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Trends—July 2013
The 24th Annual State of Logistics Report: ‘Business Unusual’ Defines New Normal A long and winding path toward recovery has arrived at a seminal question: "Is this the new normal?" That was the topic and title of the annual State of Logistics presentation at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in June 2013. That […]
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Trends—June 2013
Is American-Made on the Mend? Rumors abound that U.S. manufacturing is making a comeback. The promise of cheaper domestic energy sources—and rising labor costs elsewhere around the world—are tipping the total landed cost balance off its Far Eastern axis. Does this portend a domestic manufacturing renaissance? A recent report by AlixPartners suggests companies are open […]
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Trends—May 2013
Garden State Gets Greener New Jersey and sustainable development are perfect together. Industrial real estate developer Prologis recently broke ground on a new, 880,000-square-foot distribution facility on the Hackensack River in Jersey City, N.J. The Prologis Pulaski Distribution Center, a 50-acre former landfill, is located four miles from the Port of Elizabeth and three miles […]
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Trends—March 2013
Winner Takes Oil As debate about the Keystone XL pipeline continues to rile industry, politicians, and environmentalists, the railroads are minding their own booming business. The volume of crude oil hauled in U.S. freight trains more than tripled in 2012, as production from shale formations surged. U.S. freight trains hauled nearly 234,000 carloads of crude […]
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Trends—February 2013
Green: The United Color of Benetton Sustainability has gained fashion appeal over the past few years. But apparel companies are growing even more sensitive to social responsibility, especially as it relates to materials procurement and use in the supply chain. Benetton Group is the latest apparel brand to join Greenpeace’s Detox Program, launched in 2011 […]
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Trends—January 2013
It’s a Smaller World After All The shrinking distance between demand and supply is triggering a trend toward inter-regional supply chains and creating a globalization tipping point, according to research by Philadelphia-based third-party logistics provider BDP International, its Centrix consulting unit, and Temple University’s Fox School of Business. Real-time communication technology has greatly increased global […]
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Trends—December 2012
Bringing Logistics Efficiency To the Front Line In The Art of War, Sun Tsu teaches that "every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought." It is a reminder of the planning and logistics necessary to move and replenish supplies and armaments during successful military operations. The completion of a three-year study conducted […]
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Trends—November 2012
CSCMP: Notes, Quotes, and Totes The 2012 Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) conference in Atlanta was awash with new ideas and strategies, discussions of recurring economic and regulatory challenges, and examples of supply chain best practices. Logisticians and supply chain practitioners on both sides of the supply/demand coin mingled within the expansive Georgia […]
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Trends—October 2012
Greyhound Races to Expand Package Delivery Greyhound Lines has long provided time-critical parcel delivery service, though its relevance over the past few decades has been largely overshadowed by the growth of expediters such as FedEx and UPS. Now, to better synchronize its PackageExpress business, the iconic intercity passenger bus company has tapped One Network’s demand-driven […]
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Trends—September 2012
Rail Innovation Keeps Ag Moving, Despite Drought The drought that plagued much of the Midwest in summer 2012 has had a marked impact on agriculture supply and, consequently, food prices, placing an inordinate amount of pressure on supply chains to squeeze out as much extra cost as possible. While much of the news has been […]
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