Articles
Finance
How a Global Pandemic Led to Supply Chain Finance Adoption in Healthcare – And Why It is Here to Stay
Supply chain finance programs – long utilized in consumer sectors like retail to help suppliers get paid more quickly and allow buyers to extend payment terms – are now a working capital tool for more healthcare supply chains. The continued rapid evolution of supply chain finance solutions offers a new way forward for CFOs in many industries to take direct charge of improving supplier-buyer arrangements.
Read More
Spotlight on Freight Audit & Payment: Interest is Up in Keeping Costs Down
Optimizing transportation spend is top of mind for shippers today—and the emphasis is likely to grow as companies seek ways to maximize budgets across every department. As a result, the need for freight audit and payment services is growing.
Read More
How to Navigate Your Supply Chain During Market Swings
Market conditions play a crucial role in shaping challenges professionals face when managing their organization’s supply chains. While bear markets are known for their economic uncertainty and declining stock prices, bull markets are characterized by investor optimism and rising asset values. Both markets present unique hurdles that supply chain professionals must adeptly navigate.
Read More
Proforma Invoice: Format, Benefits, and Drawbacks
Navigating the world of invoicing can be daunting as it is full of terminology and practices. For example, you might ask, “What is proforma invoice meaning?” The proforma invoice is an essential document every business needs to understand. This informational guide outlines a proforma invoice format, its benefits, and potential drawbacks. Whether you’re a business […]
Read More
Proforma vs. Commercial Invoice: Definitions, Examples, and Differences
There are significant differences between a proforma and a commercial invoice. Both documents look alike, so it is important to know how to differentiate one from the other. What Is a Proforma Invoice? A proforma invoice may answer a letter of inquiry from a potential buyer or provide the terms of a final invoice, so […]
Read More
Transportation Strategies to Offset Inflation
Business professionals have had a tough time navigating fluctuating logistics costs over the past two years. But hold on! There are ways to keep your balance while negotiating price increases.
Read More
5 Ways Logistics Managers Can Battle Inflation in 2023
With inflation at 40-year highs and a challenging macroeconomic situation, here’s how you can find stability in your operation.
Read More
Finding Increased Revenue in Agility-Boosting Tech
A new survey from B2B software firm Cleo brings to light a lesser-known finding: executives making investments in agility-increasing technology were able to increase revenue during the pandemic in 2021.
Read More
Managing Working Capital Amid Product Shortages
Distributors can’t seem to catch a break. First they faced a liquidity squeeze when COVID-19 raged onto the scene, triggering a dislocation in the supply and demand for products. Now, as they enter the third year of the pandemic, distributors are grappling with wide-ranging shortages of goods and commodities across the supply chain that show no sign of abating.
Read More
Vertical Focus: Exercise Equipment
Planet Fitness is one fitness club company that has thrived in recent years, growing from 918 locations in 2014 to more than 2,200 in 2021. FISCAL Fitness Here’s a sampling of statistics about the fitness equipment industry, compiled by RunRepeat and other sources, that helps to illustrate its status today. The fitness equipment industry is […]
Read More
Supply Chain Finance: You Can Bank On It
Supply chain finance programs can successfully keep the cash flowing, enabling companies to cut debt and boost profitability.
Read More
Bringing Insight and Savings to a Retailer’s Freight Spend
AFS helped an agricultural supply retailer achieve freight savings through spend optimization and a more flexible carrier mix, as well as gain benefits from an automated shipping process.
Read More
Transportation Spend Management in 2022
Shippers using data intelligence can often insulate themselves from transportation management challenges and at the same time, reduce logistics costs. Here’s how:
Read More
Fortune 500 Company Takes Control of Inbound Program
Tucker Company Worldwide provided a petroleum refiner oversight and control of its shipments—reducing freight costs, increasing flexibility, and ensuring safety compliance.
Read More
S&OP: Bringing the Outside In
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is an integrated business management process through which the leadership team continually achieves focus, alignment and synchronization among all functions. This ensures that supply meets demand while the organization meets general business objectives, including profitability, productivity, competitive customer lead times, and others.
Read More
Choose a 3PL with a Culture and Vision that Match Your Own
Transportation has often been considered a commodity. Equipment, fuel, software, and wages are all very similar from a cost perspective. A 3PL’s culture can be a competitive advantage. Q: Why does culture matter? A: Today, cost is just one of many factors to consider when selecting a 3PL. A low-cost provider may produce short-term savings […]
Read More
Pulling Levers and Finding Value in Transportation
Value is not always easy to measure. It’s the same when discussing transportation costs. Lowest cost is not always the best, as poor quality can cost you much more. Corporate supply chain managers need to understand which levers to pull so they can get the best value for every transportation dollar spent.
Read More
Reducing Inbound Freight Costs and Improving Accounting
Q: How can our company account for inbound freight costs on our month-end accrual reports? We prefer to route our own freight and use our own third-party carriers for these collect orders. A: Unfortunately, you are experiencing an industry-wide issue. Pre-rating based on purchase order information can pose a real risk. Your purchase order may […]
Read More
Supply Chain 4.0 Needs Order-to-Cash 4.0
Industry 4.0 has been given a renewed sense of urgency following the pandemic. Industry 4.0 refers to the massive changes we see across every industry as a result of new technologies, such as smart sensors, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). By extension, we see a technological shake-up with supply chain 4.0 and cash management 4.0.
Read More
Solving Distributor Liquidity Shortages
The pandemic is inflicting financial hardship on the supply chain—from manufacturers down to the end consumer—with particular pain for distributors, who are the critical intermediary agents responsible for delivering goods from producers to retailers and other businesses that sell to consumers.
Read More